OMG the cost of a few scratches.

[joe white]

Originally Posted by Neil K Walk

here’s the thing about mechanics: they inflate the price because they know insurance will pay it - and jack up the old woman’s premiums in the process.

First off, mechanics don't do collision work. They may replace parts of a car that are often considered parts of auto body work like inside and outside door handles, side mirrors, headlamp and tail lamp assemblies but they generally limit their work to mechanical diagnostics and parts replacing. Mechanical labor rates are also higher than auto body collision and refinish rates by $10 to $20 per hour.

The notion that "mechanics" (as NeilK innocently labels collision shops) bump their labor rates higher when an insurance claim is involved is just not true. All collision repairs that are paid by insurance companies are reviewed and often rewritten by that insurance company's claims adjusters with their own estimating software.

It is not uncommon for an insurance company's estimate to even be higher than the collision shop estimate based on the software that they use to write the estimate and the adjuster's labor hours on
"judgement call" items like labor times to repair dents or frame time in order to straighten the unibody structure, engine cradle or actual frame. These judgement call labor times are often the only negotiated labor hours or "dollars" on collision repair since everything else like actual panel replacement hours, R&I hours, refinish and paint overlap hours are pre-written and long established into the software data bases of collision estimate writing software. This is not to say that an auto collision estimator can't manually change the numbers in their estimating software to raise the labor hours, paint labor hours, mechanical labor hours, frame labor hours, parts prices, paint and material prices, hazardous waste removal prices and even clean and detail prices but the estimate is going to be reviewed by the company before payment and the shop would be asked to explain the reason for the elevated prices on their estimate that do not reflect the local prevailing rate for collision shops in the area.

AND, to further explain why collision shops don't elevate the prices on insurance jobs, nearly every productive auto collision shop today has an official written agreement with one, two or many major auto insurance companies to write their estimates and repair the vehicles in direct correlation to the way the insurance company dictates it to be. In other words, they have agreed to only charge what the insurance company will pay or face removal from that insurance company's "preferred shop" program.

NeilK is right in that many years ago, both collision shops and mechanics would often charge more to repair vehicles and some of those were actually doing so in a dishonest and greedy fashion but the main reason for the elevated prices for insurance payments back then (at least 30 years ago or more ) was to create room to negotiate a fair price for their repair work because it was widely known that the insurance company was not going to pay what the auto collision shop wanted for the repair. The insurance adjuster was paid to trim the collision shop price to the lowest amount possible. Those days are gone now with the computer generated estimates and the creation of collision shop to insurance company contract agreements.

There, now you know way more than you ever wanted to know about collision repair and auto insurance claim pay practices. Believe me, I wish I didn't know anything about it. LOL

[rllink]

I think everyone wants to keep their good stuff pristine and unblemished. For me it becomes exhausting sometimes. I have a brand new guitar that I'm trying to keep unscratched. I'm becoming obsessive about it. I'm sure it will wear off. I hope that it does, as I can not keep it up much longer.

A few years back my friend bought a beautiful limited edition Jeep Cherokee. So he didn't want to drive it for fear of getting it scratched or dinged, so he bought and old Jeep Wrangler. But then he decided to fix that old Wrangler up and get it all painted and new from the frame up, so he bought an old pickup truck from the DOT auction. That was a few years ago. He's still driving the old pickup around I noticed the other day. That's taking it to a high level, but it is the only way I guess.

Anyway, another story. I bought my wife a brand new turbo charged Pontiac Solstice for our anniversary several years ago. I think it was the last year that they made them. Two weeks after I bought it for her I was being a little careless and clipped the back fender with the lawn mower getting it out of the garage. Just a small dent way low that you had to get down on your hands and knees to see it. I couldn't take it. $1500 out of my pocket. I couldn't even bring myself to put in an insurance claim it was such an insignificant amount of damage.

[TBman]

Originally Posted by HodgdonExtreme

Personally, I'd leave the scratches and pocket the $1400.

I'd also be sure to claim that $1400 as income and pay my fair share in taxes!

Its not income, its a reimbursement for a non-deductible expense (in a non business context).

But if you feel as though you don't pay enough taxes, knock your socks off. I'll let you pay mine too

[joe white]

+1. What TBman said.

[rokdog49]

Originally Posted by Neil K Walk

By the way I just googled prices on Kia Sorrento bumper covers: $264. It’s probably not OEM but here’s the thing about mechanics: they inflate the price because they know insurance will pay it - and jack up the old woman’s premiums in the process.

The procedure to remove it takes about 10 minutes. The “labor” you speak of is actually all the coats that need to be sprayed then sanded and eventually buffed.

Yeah $264 plus a mark up , plus prep to include sanding, painting, re-sanding, application of clear coat, removal of old part and assembly of new. Like I said close to a grand. Labor rates are $85/hour.
The body shop in question is a State Farm (whom we are both insured with) “preferred vendor“ and gets tons of collision business from them. I doubt they would be stupid enough to bite the hand that feeds them by “ jacking up” their price or using non OEM parts.
This is 2020 dude. Insurance Companies are very sophisticated. They know what this stuff costs. It’s all accessible on these things called computers.

[Neil K Walk]

Originally Posted by rokdog49

Yeah $264 plus a mark up , plus prep to include sanding, painting, re-sanding, application of clear coat, removal of old part and assembly of new. Like I said close to a grand. Labor rates are $85/hour.
The body shop in question is a State Farm (whom we are both insured with) “preferred vendor“ and gets tons of collision business from them. I doubt they would be stupid enough to bite the hand that feeds them by “ jacking up” their price or using non OEM parts.
This is 2020 dude. Insurance Companies are very sophisticated. They know what this stuff costs. It’s all accessible on these things called computers.

That’s what I meant. I’m sorry if I pumped in body shop with auto mechanic. I never expected to ruffle feathers. I won’t apologize though. I came about my opinions after many unpleasant and excessively costly encounters in this type of situation.

[rokdog49]

Originally Posted by Neil K Walk

That’s what I meant. I’m sorry if I pumped in body shop with auto mechanic. I never expected to ruffle feathers. I won’t apologize though. I came about my opinions after many unpleasant and excessively costly encounters in this type of situation.

It’s fine, I didn’t mean to be snide. You obviously had some bad experiences.

[Pura Vida]

That sounds about right. A few years ago, some guy opened his parked car door into my parked car door, hitting both the door and side mirror. Total damage: $1300.

Of course, it was not without drama. First, his passenger got in my face, claiming that the door was already damaged, with increasing hostility that I called the police to assist with the exchange of info, photos, etc., so his buddy would back off. When I called his insurance company later that afternoon, he already called them and denied the incident, so I was lucky that the police were on site to document the incident. It took me nearly a year for the insurance company to go after his, but eventually, I got my $1300 back.

Last fall, I got rear ended by a high school kid, after dropping my daughter off at school (different car than above). Thankfully, the damage was limited to my rear bumper, but it was still $3000 to replace, repair, and paint. Body work is expensive.

[imwjl]

First, good luck to @rock for getting it fixed.

Body shops use the same main software platforms for their estimating and it is tied to insurers.

With one of us parking in high school lots and the other often in grocery stores we get more dings and scratches than average. It seems like we've given up on pristine after the car hits age 5 but fix bad stuff.

Just asking for a repair you'll pay for with cash can get you a discount but that seems like not so when the shops are busy. A hail storm in your area can get them backup with work for quite a while. The last time that happened I lived with the hail damage for a while and then had a ding to bumper and scratch on door fixed. Unfortunately someone nailed same door the day I picked it up. That was it for the then 5 year old car.

[rmp]

I'd fix it too. Really,, it prolly still has the new car smell..

I have a (funny now, not then) story about fixing cars..

back in the 80s we lived in second floor flat, lots of multi-fam homes.

I had a fairly new at the time Ford Escort wagon. It was maybe 2 years old as was your SUV.

the neighbor was a contactor, one day while securing a sheet of plywood to the top of his van, it slipped and came crashing down on my drivers side front quarter plan,, put a nice dent in it..

The guy came up, knocked on my door, and told me what happened, all apologies, and he was going to pay to fix it. about a month after the fix happened, a guy jumped a stop sign one of the the side roads, and took the front end of the car right off. Guess where the impact was...
LOL!

[M Sarad]

I replaced the bumper and front grill on my 2008 Tacoma after a crash that didn’t scratch my opponent. Was about $1,800.

[Silly Moustache]

Originally Posted by foxo

My dad had a Ford Scorpio for a bit, the leather interior was lovely. It did look a little like a catfish from the front though.

Yes indeedy - colloquially known as he "uglyface" but years ahead of its time in technology.

I had four, i think. Ridiculously overpowered 2.6 litre V-6 but a pleasure to drive - a sofa on wheels!
Most have been destroyed as it became a favourite of Banger racers.

[joe white]

Originally Posted by rmp

a sheet of plywood slipped and came crashing down on my drivers side fender, put a nice dent in it..

The guy came up, knocked on my door, and told me what happened, all apologies, and he was going to pay to fix it. about a month after the fix happened, a guy jumped a stop sign one of the the side roads, and took the front end of the car right off. Guess where the impact was...
LOL!

This reminds me of so many stories that are very similar during my 30 years in collision work. One good one I have is a guy bought a new '92 GMC Jimmy four door.

You remember those built on the S10 platform? Well, most of these had a large spare tire that hung off the right quarter panel and latched to the tailgate. It was pretty common to run that tire into something and damage the rear gate. This particular guy not only damaged the rear gate but it took out the rear window as well. I remember that it was the first new vehicle that he ever bought and he was pretty sick about it and he wanted to keep his insurance record clean so he paid for the repair out-of-pocket.

Using all OEM Parts back then it was pretty expensive even for 1992 and I think it was even two tone which made the paint repairs a little more expensive. Anyway, he arrives at our shop and looks the vehicle over out front and loves the repair. He pays in the front office and heads out to leave. I happened to be in the wash stall that had a window looking out at the side lot where customers would pick up their cars. In the middle of that lot was a large sign with two very large white steel posts that held the sign up. I know you're already thinking what happened. He back that thing up right into the pole and did the same exact damage that we had just repaired. Smashed the glass and everything.

The manager of our shop was standing beside me at this point, mouth open, shaking his head in disbelief. The guy didn't even get out, he just stared straight ahead slowly shaking his head. He did this for about 10 seconds and then drove away. We never saw him again. We also had several people pick up cars that had just been repaired and get hit as they were pulling out of our lot onto a busy street.
I could actually write a pretty amusing book about all the experiences in that shop over the span of working there as a tech, managing the place for three years and eventually owning the shop for the final 5 years before bailing out in 07 while I still had a shirt on my back. It's a very tough business.

[rmp]

Wow,,, jeeze.. That poor guy.. I do remember those GMC Jimmy's too.

[Tahitijack]

If someone damages my car it's not my job to shop around for the cheapest place to get it repaired. I'm going to the dealership and parts will be factory. Fit and finish will be perfect as well as paint and body.