Auto Insurance Claims: Auto claims settlement, Auto claims settlement, claim settlement

Question
Hello Anne,

I was a victim of a minor rear end collision.
I have a 2008 Ford Focus that was in-service less than 1 year (bought brand new in 9/2008) at the time of the accident and had 11,000 miles on it.
Person who hit me had State Farm.  I called State Farm and they gave me a name of one of their "Preferred" dealers.  They told me to go there and tell them State Farm sent me and they would figure an estimate for repair.  I suspected that they would do a cheaper repair and not necessarily a a proper one so when I went to the "preferred" dealer I told them to write up an estimate for me to have the vehicle repaired at my expense.  The estimate was for $1,200 to replace the bumper with a new one, paint, materials and labor.  When I called State Farm they said they would have their own adjuster come out.  Adjuster came out and they called back said the the bumper could be "repaired" and said they will be sending me a check for $500 and change.  Prior to the accident my vehicle did not have a "repaired" bumper.  It had a new one from the factory.  I verified the prices their "preferred" dealer gave me where in line with MSRP for parts, materials and labor.  Am I required to agree have the bumper "repaired"?  And if not how do I get results? Write the insurance commissioner? Or sue them in small claims and if so do I sue the person who hit me or their insurer State Farm?  YOur insight is greatly appreciated.

Answer
Hello Jeff,

Your instincts regarding the repair estimate are 100% correct! They are cheaper repairs with used parts. If they are not used, they might use new parts, but they are not factory parts but Chinese or Taiwanese (most of the time). You get lower quality than what you had.

The issue with insurance is that they are required by law to pay you what is "reasonable and necessary," please see: http://www.auto-insurance-claim-advice.com/Reasonable-and-Necessary.html

The problem is that "reasonable and necessary" is not very well defined by law, so insurance companies take adventage.

You can hold your line and request a new bumper. In the alternative, you can request it to be fixed with Ford - dealer parts.

If this does not work, you best argument to push the insurance company will be a diminished value claim. This is a hard claim to make (they hate it, and will give you the run around), but you could be entitled to this. Read more about that here:

http://www.auto-insurance-claim-advice.com/diminished-value-claim.html

I hope this helps

Good Luck
Anne
http://www.quirogalawoffice.com/