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You may recall that Karen’s car was hit in a parking lot on Friday night by a slightly inebriated guy driving a huge Ford F-350 truck.  This morning, I brought the car to the local Chrysler shop for an estimate, and they referred me to an adjacent auto body shop.  The estimate was $1,049!  I had to laugh out loud again at the suggestion that it might be $100 worth of damage. 

As it turns out, the guy who hit me works in commercial sales for an area Ford dealership and he was driving a company truck with dealer plates.  When I contacted USAA, they stated that it would be the company’s insurance, not his personal insurance that would be liable for the damages. 

When I called him with the estimate, he thought it sounded high and wanted me to bring the car to an auto body shop that their dealership does a lot of business with.  I was a bit skeptical that he may be trying to arrange for “a shoddy fix on the cheap”, but I brought in the car for their estimate nonetheless.  Their estimate came in at $1699 to fix the dent, and they are a USAA certified repair facility with a lifetime warranty on the repair work.  

I provided the new estimate to the Ford dealership and am awaiting their disposition on how they want to settle the matter.  I made sure that manager understood what had happened (I left out the slightly inebriated part), and that they are liable to get the car fixed.  When I mentioned company insurance, he told me that they carry a $2000 deductible and that the dealership would likely just cut a check to the auto body shop.

I am just curious if they are now going to revert to the original estimate I got and have me get the car fixed there…… 

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