Wonder How The Lizard Keeps Customers

We had a customer come through with a claim on her nearly new Chevy Spark. The accident was not her fault and she was stopped and hit by another vehicle. While the officer was writing up the accident report another car came through and side swiped her car. Her Insurer made her drive an unsafe car to a body shop that was part of their "network" and she came back to us with a deficient estimate. Their estimate included a used door and an after crap rear bumper cover. Her car only had 23,000 miles on it and it was a 2013 model year.

We disassembled the car put it on our bench and used up his 3 hour pull time and discovered a damaged rear body panel. and some other issues not on his estimate. We waited 3 days for a re inspection and he could not make a decision as to the short items. He finally contacted us 4 days later and decided to total loss the vehicle.

To make a long story short, they were charging the customer 2 deductibles and they short payed her $500.00 on the bill for the total loss. The customer already has an attorney so I am sure they will have to do the right thing in the end.

It just amazes me that Insurers try the tactics they do to not pay a legitimate claim. If you are insured with the Lizard you may want to consider how they handle their claims when it comes to renewal time. I have to admit they have great commercials but they never really say how they handle their claims in the commercials :).

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Another Shoddy Repair From a Local Chain Shop

 I really hate to preach about being careful who you choose to do your repairs but I just inspected two vehicles and both were short changed on their repairs. The first vehicle was a 2013 Nissan Pathfinder. The gaps around some of the panels were poor, the trim inside the hatch was loose, there were clips broken and missing and the worst part of all was the shop charged the customer $450.00 for a trailer hitch and never replaced it! This is fraud perpetrated on the Insurance company and the customer! The work was done at a large Ford Dealer that recently had been sued by another consumer for the same type of things. The suit resulted in a 6 digit pay out by the shop for fraud! This shop charged for things they did not do! This is criminal, immoral and down right illegal!

Our Body shop never ever charges for something we do not do. I have a lot of battles with Insurance companies over there use of substandard parts and shortchanging my customers but I have never resorted to theft to make up for a short payment. I have done auto body repair for 35 years and I have seen a lot of bad body repair men and a few crooked shops. I never stayed at a bad shop for very long! My past experience is what persuaded me to open my open shop. 15 years after opening people know who they can come to and trust us with their vehicles for collision repairs. Take a look on our web site All Precision Collision Repair we have done thousands of correct and safe repairs. I will even inspect other shops repairs to make sure they did what they charged for in a workmanship like manor. Most paperwork you get from the shop is so confusing an average person can not understand the estimate or the final bill. That is what we are here for!

We have assisted customers in either getting the repairs done right or getting unsafe vehicles taken off of the road! I hate to say how many but I will say that 99% of the cars we inspect have had defects or other problems with repairs that know one else would be able to find. We call it a post repair inspection. If you have had problems with your car after repairs, it doesn't drive correct or look right or you just want peace of mind that it is safe to drive. Go to my DV website Collision Repair Help have a look around and contact us, even if you are not in North Carolina I am affiliated with enough good shops I can find someone to help you!

My last inspection involved a 2011 Kia Soul. I found unrepaired damage, bad gaps and a list of aftermarket parts that the customer was unaware of. The shop that took in his vehicle is a chain shop in the Charlotte area of North Carolina. They worked on the Kia 3 different times and still left $800.00 worth of unrepaired damage. The answer was a spray can of cheap undercoat that still was wet 3 weeks after they sprayed it on  It was like putting a thick coat of Roofing tar over the bad places to hide them! I am assisting this customer get his vehicle repaired properly and recovering his loss in value. This accident was not his fault so in North Carolina he can collect for the other loss in value which is called inherent diminished value. I will be writing a story about the two types of diminished value as soon as I can.

Please come by and check out this blog or subscribe to my feed and I will keep you updated as to how these two claims progress.

Bob Winfrey

New Crash Test Yields Unusual Results from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety

The results are in and now we can study the results for a new frontal crash test that focuses more on real world accidents. It is statistically proven that most head on front end crashes are not straight on. Tests have been made with offsets of 40% and most car makers have gotten a lot better at them. New stats show that our natural instinct is to try to avoid the head on crash and turn the wheel away from the vehicle that is headed towards you. Thus we now have a new standard at a 20% frontal impact. This more closely matches what happens when we react to a crash.

Unfortunately this has caught some manufacturers by surprise. It seems that the 20% overlap aligns cars were the bumpers are almost ineffective. The headlight to headlight impact relies heavily on the fender and front wheel to slow down the impact.

Watch the video on you tube and there are plenty of others on the sidebar to show you the results.
You tube IIHS crash tests. I was surprised who did the best but lets see how well your favorite brand does.

Bob Winfrey
All Precision Collision Repair