Full Size Jeep Network

Good morning, gents! So my 89 was just involved in an accident two nights ago and I need some assistance on how some of you have negotiated repairs with the insurance company. First off, I was not at-fault and the other party has claimed liability for the accident.... so that is nice. Also, the other driver and I have the same insurance co, Geico. The damage was to the front drivers corner... the grille surround got a bit mangled, as did the fender and wood paneling. The wheel hub shattered and the bumper did get torqued. Now, finding replacement parts is fun (thrill of the hunt fun); however, my greatest fear is how this will all look when done. ... which leads me to my big worry...

I liked the way the car looked prior to the accident. Paint and 29 yr old "wood" had aged appropriately. A repair to one panel/fender only will kinda ruin this for me. Is the insurance company on the hook to make the car uniformly correct? A new car wouldn't have this issue, but one of these rigs - with original paneling - would. Have any of you ever had to deal with this?

Thanks,
Mike

Having dealt with Geico before, they will likely total your wag rather than fix it. Simple dollars to donuts it's their cheapest option. Expect them to offer you KBB value for "fair condition" (less your deductable) or half of that to fix it yourself (also less your deductable).

If the book says it's worth $5000, that's $4000 to total it, or $1500 to fix it yourself, for example.

having been in similar situation with both drivers having same insurance and not the at-fault driver, it can be a real pain to continually remind the insurance company of your status.. I had the insurance company apply rental car, etc. to MY coverage until I made a repeated point of reminding them that my coverage had nothing at all to do with the accident.
They will also, regardless of telling you that they handle both clients completely separately, will obviously do their best to save themselves money.

REDONE is pretty accurate. They wanted to total my YJ without even coming out to look at it. Unless you had your vehicle professionally appraised, or in my case, provided over $21K in receipts from upgrades/restoration within the last 5 years, you will get book or less. My damage was more severe than what yours appears.

If you are wanting uniformly correct, you will probably need to select to fix it yourself.

If it were me, Take the money, then be patient. look around for a fender that has woodgrain that is in very similar condition. Good body and paint shops will be able to match the bronze color to the vehicle. Get the wood trim strip from fleabay if the replacement fender doesn't have good trim on it.

Have the body shop only repaint the painted section up to the woodgrain and use the wood trim to cover the seam between the two.

Good luck

I had the same issue in January, fender bender while I was parked.

The other person insurance was hard to deal with, especially because I have miminmum coverage. So I had to do all the leg work. I used the estimated repairs from the insurance approved body shop for the fender, bumper and wood panel of $2500 for the 85 Gwag. The value was estimated by the insurance at $1500 , but after a few calls, the insurance said to contact their adjuster. Between those calIs I decided to do a study of what a comparable vehicles sold for, I used ebay which is a legit according to my insurance which gave me some pointers. Now the value jumped to a median value of $8000 ($4 to 20K range). When the adjuster called, I gave him the range on ebay for completed sales for the year of those running vehicles, I was honest saying that the jeep was not in perfect shape and ask him his evaluation after he had seen pictures from the body shop... He said $5k. I thanked him saying $4k was enough, the adjuster thanked me for my honesty, and I added that I know that the insurance is not in the business of giving away money.

Then the offer was skewed because the insurance -the desk person- realized that I was not insured with them so I could not use their appraiser value... after a lot of discussions, I settled for the cash value of $1250 to avoid the salvage title, and to be honest my vehicle is not in perfect shape unlike yours, your paint is perfect, or much better than mine.

In the end, I unbend the fender, shaved the bumper so it would not rub on the lower fender extension, bought a new side marker and the exact paint and clear coat, the total cost of material was a lot less than the shop estimate and probably 20hrs of my time. I touched the missing wood paneling with acrylic paint...

Bumper can be found on ebay, as for the fender I think you can find new ones, and the wood panelling with the matching color is still available

So would you all suggest that I use maybe a mix of eBay and local craigslist postings to establish my value. I know they will try to low-ball this thing so yes, I will need to get the max out of them without settling on a totaled vehicle situation - she's just too nice for that fate.

I bought it for 4400 exactly one year ago and have since sunk about 5-6k into an engine rebuild, new headliner, and a bunch of misc stuff. I'm gonna go to the mat for this old girl!

You're going to have to. They will make you a low-ball offer to get you to go away. If you don't take it, they will make you work for it. They will hide behind feigned incompetence (loose your stuff, tell you conflicting processes, etc. There's no way that they can be this bad at the only thing they do) to make giving you the money you deserve as painful for you as possible. It's not just Geico, all of them do this. The sooner you give up, the less they have to pay you. At some point you'll ask yourself if it's really worth the hassle, and they know this.

I have been in this situation with my old cherokee. I had to fight the insurance company over it. They wanted to total the Cherokee. But, I won out. They gave me the money they thought the repairs would cost. I did have to sign a waver saying I would not come after them for any injuries.

But don't let them push you around.

Between NADA's low and average retail, $8250 & $14750, respectively, comparable (year, miles, condition) ebay listings (excluding Classic Gentleman $40k-mobiles), and craigslist postings of stock looking GWs from the Charlotte and Atlanta markets, I have enough to support a $10k valuation. Screenshots are on a handy word document that is ready to be emailed whenever called on . I will probably scan my larger receipts that support the money I've invested over the past year on Monday. And I know that the purchase price plus the receipts will tally up to $10k easily.

This isn't my main ride so I have all the time in the world to wear them down.

You guys need to look at Hagerty or one of the other many collector car insurances.

I dealt with Geico and after sending them a pile of receipts and about 5 comparables they upped the total loss estimate by about $3,000 (which is fair considering the amount of $$ I put into it).

Not sure how it is in your state though - I know that some states won't let you have the truck back after it's been totaled out and they send it to auction. If you do get it back after being totaled out, make sure you can get it back on the road and it isn't given a salvage title since it's been declared a total loss.

In my case the truck was actually totaled, but was a able to buy it back for the $240 they would have expected to get for it at auction. Which was nice because it could harvest it for the motor / stereo / other parts that are in better condition than my new ride.

Sorry to hear about the fender bender.

mhubbard wrote:So would you all suggest that I use maybe a mix of eBay and local craigslist postings to establish my value. I know they will try to low-ball this thing so yes, I will need to get the max out of them without settling on a totaled vehicle situation - she's just too nice for that fate.

I bought it for 4400 exactly one year ago and have since sunk about 5-6k into an engine rebuild, new headliner, and a bunch of misc stuff. I'm gonna go to the mat for this old girl!

Pick the best examples, if nothing comparable on CL, stick to ebay because you can prove the price of the completed auctions.

And YES tally all your bills, that is documented value.

Good luck.

Triple down on Hagerty suggestion. You pick your vehicle value (i.e. the amount you believe you need if totaled) and the rates are fair and very competitive to the Geico, Allstates etc.


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From the two pix shown, it sure looks like a nice FSJ. Have you had it appraised? If so, you can use that to support your claim to have it repaired. People are going crazy for this rigs now, so $10K is not unreasonable if the rest of the truck is as nice as the (pre-accident) front end.

Whatever you do, don't take the money and run. They will always low ball you on that offer.

DO NOT use their recommendations for shops.
Find the best ones in your area and get some estimates.
Typically shops that do full resto’s, custom builds, or Mercedes/BMW work.
Here in CA you can have the work done @ shop of choice.
Find out what the time limit is you have to settle/agree. If they are being unfair, call daily, and let them know you’ll drag it out to end if needed. Time is $ they lose.

babywag wrote:DO NOT use their recommendations for shops.
Find the best ones in your area and get some estimates.
Typically shops that do full resto’s, custom builds, or Mercedes/BMW work.
Here in CA you can have the work done @ shop of choice.
Find out what the time limit is you have to settle/agree. If they are being unfair, call daily, and let them know you’ll drag it out to end if needed. Time is $ they lose.

Yes, I'm definitely going to choose the shop. Taking it to a local shop so their estimator can put eyes on it tomorrow... but will get another estimate or two after that. I'm not signing anything until we get value nailed down.

just curious what car hit you and how bad was his dmg. did you snap a pic ? i wanna see what kind of hurt your Jeep did lol.

Insurance. What a scam.

yea kinda seems pointless having insurance if they wont even fix your vehicle

So just to bring some closure to this.... the insurance company (in my case Geico) has done a great job. It pays to have recent and relevant big-ticket receipts to help support the price of this car (i.e. engine rebuild, exhaust replacement, etc). Also, NADA price guide supports pretty solid value of these Jeeps. I was able to download images and copies of all of these things and had no problem avoiding the "totaled" line.