Auto Insurance Claims: Quality Repairs, Recourse or Scam, acura tl, acura tl type s

Question
I was in an accident three weeks ago. I'm not completely sure what happened as I hit my head and have partial amnesia. I do know I hit a pole in a parking lot head on. I have a 2003 Acura TL type s. I was told it was $8600 worth of damage. I was then told some transmission repairs were going to be made in addition to the original repairs. I've received weekly updates about my car until this week. Nothing. I'm suspicious about whether the car should have been totaled and whether it will truly be repaired properly. Do I have any recourse or is there some way I can have the car evaluated by another to confirm quality repairs have been made?

Thanks in advance!

Answer
Hi Abby,

Generally, a vehicle is only totaled if the cost of repairs exceeds 75% of the value of the vehicle and then only if all of the costs are known before the repairs begin. Once the repairs begin it will usually be repaired regardless of the cost unless very extreme.

Once the repairs are complete, you can take your vehicle to another body shop and pay them to inspect the repairs to the body as well as any structural repairs that were done. If they find any problems you should ask them to write a re-repair estimate for those items. Then you would go back to the original shop and request that they take care of those items free of charge. The shop should provide you with a warantee so this should not be a problem. If there is some problem that you would have to to the shop that wrote the re-repair estimate to have the work done and then sue the first shop for reimbursement.

If the insurance company directed you to the shop that is doing the repairs you can get them involved in the process. If you chose the shop yourself then you are on your own and should follow the steps above.

I hope this helps
Richard Hixenbaugh