Sounds like you are on top of it. Is the insurance company paying the body shop directly? If they are paying you and expecting you to pay the body shop BE SURE to examine the check totally. Insuracne companies love to write somewhere on the check something to the effect of: "Signing of this check constitutes a full and final settlement of any and all claims." I highly doubt they will try anything like that though since you have a bodily injury claim, but you can never be too careful.
Thanks for updating and let us know how it turns out or if you need any help.

 

I had someone try to pull that with me.... I think most companies are getting away from doing that because they realize just how much it pisses people off.....

 

Yeah, I know some companies' check template automatically has that wording in it. Or at least it used to be that way. But I have not seen it as much recently so I think they are straying away from it. Probably has something to do with all the people mad certain insurance companies after the way they handled Hurricane Katrina claims.

 

I'm pretty sure they are paying the body shop directly if they didn't already leave a check the first time they were out there. I will definitely look for that before I sign any checks though.

 

I just got off the phone with the body shop. There was a supplement for another $1000 to replace the trailing arm, suspension crossmember, and stabilizer bar. Plus another 3 hours of labor for the frame/unibody. I have no clue what this means but it doesn't sound very good. Any insight into these parts and the effect this will have would be great. Thanks!

 

Quite possiblythey're going to put it on a straightening machine and give it a few tugs here and there, or maybe they're going to repair some holes or dents, but this isonly a guess.

Just call the body shop again (or, better still, go there)and ask themto explain to youexactly what they intend to do theframe/unibody. If it were me going through this, I'd tell them to make believe that I'm a 5-yr-old when they explain it to me.

 

Quite possiblythey're going to put it on a straightening machine and give it a few tugs here and there, or maybe they're going to repair some holes or dents, but this isonly a guess.

Just call the body shop again (or, better still, go there)and ask themto explain to youexactly what they intend to do theframe/unibody. If it were me going through this, I'd tell them to make believe that I'm a 5-yr-old when they explain it to me.
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Absolutely. Tony hit the nail on the head there. Even if you know what they are talking about with the parts..make them explain it to you in laimen's terms as well. Make sure you get a copy of ALL the repairs so you can show it to the Honda dealer when you are finding out how much you should get for your Dimunition of Value claim.

 

I went by there over the weekend and had them explain it all to me. They are waiting for some parts to come in so I plan to go by there again this week. They think it might even be ready sometime next week. Do I have to wait to settle my diminished value claim before I can trade it in or can I go ahead and trade it in and get some documentation about what they would have given me had it not been repaired? I'm not real excited about driving it again, especially on the freeway.

 

I think the diminished value needs to be part of the overall check.

 

They are paying the body shop directly for the repairs. They told me they can't even consider a diminished value claim until the repairs are complete.

I'm no actuary but I'm pretty sure the diminished value is some sort of formula using a percentage of the dollar amount of the repairs and the NADA value before the accident so they probably could come up with something now.