Title. Was in an accident (nobody was injured we all safe) that screwed up 3 cars. I was at 0 fault (a car hit another car that hit me into the curb). Just dealing with insurance this week and it's a nightmare. It's all theoretically going to be solved at no cost to me because that's what insurance is for, but dealing with estimates and towing and rental and this and that and the other is just taking it's toll on me. I feel I'm over my head with it.
Does anyone have any advice here? It's going to require a lot of body work to fix and the car is basically brand new (yeah I know I'm PMC bourgeois over here) so I'm really concerned about not getting it back in junk shape. Has anyone gone through this? What do I need to look out for? What should I be asking?
Anyone have any general accident / insurance stories? Feel free to share those too if you want, even if it's not helpful to me. Would be nice to hear about how others managed this stuff.
When I was in an accident, an insurance guy gave me a dollar amount on how much the insurance company would cover, which might not have been enough to get everything covered, but my dad knows a guy. So I went back to my hometown (car was still drivable, everything was cosmetic) and had the guy fix it for just about exactly what the company would cover. I don't know how to find a guy if your dad doesn't already know a guy. My dad knows a guy for just about everything, so that's my go-to. Sorry, that's not very helpful. But I can tell you that I've heard it isn't a good idea to go to the big chain shops since they charge an arm and a leg. Do you have a dad-type neighbor who goes to church? He probably knows a guy.
Hah, you know my dad does know a guy, but I live very far from my dad or his guy, and my dad and are I on....terms. He's a right libertarian and I'm a queer polyam communist so, we don't really see eye to eye on most stuff. The insurance didn't say they have a dollar value they'll cover, they just said they'll cover everything since it's on the other guy's plan (I was at 0 fault, wasn't possible to avoid or even see coming). So I guess as long as they actually cover everything I shouldn't care if it's cheap or not, right?
Ah yes, that'll have an affect on your relationship with your dad, for sure. My car was old and my insurance was cheap, so that may have had something to do with the company just cutting me a check and telling me good luck. Sounds like you're in a better situation, so hopefully that'll work out for you. Like you said, no reason to go cheap if they're covering everything!