Insurance Companies Suck

A couple of weeks ago, I noticed a big scratch in the paint on the hatchback of Kris's car.  At least I thought it was a scratch.  And next to the taillight, there was a spot where the paint had cracked and I could see the metal underneath rusting.  This is the same spot that has been repaired at least twice before.  When I took it in, I thought all they would do was sand it down and repaint it.  The guy who did the estimate, however, said, nope, something had hit the car and it was not a scratch but a crack in the paint.  They would have to strip it down, repair the filler from the last time, and replace the nameplates...  a total of $690 worth of repair work.  So what I thought would be about a $200-$300 repair turned into almost $700.

Because of this, I called the insurance company.  The last time this happened the adjuster looked at it and said yeah, something hit the car, but it wouldn't be classified as a collision, but rather be covered under our comprehensive coverage.I just assumed that this time around we would have the same thing happen.  Kris explained the situation to the insurance company, and they said they would work it out with the body shop.

I called to get her car in while I am at home recovering and we only need one car.  I made sure to ask about the classification of the damage since it would have a pretty big bearing on how much I would be paying out of pocket to get it fixed.  He assured me they would handle it; they would be calling the insurance company and sending photos of the area that was damaged.

They called Thursday and left a message to tell me it was ready to pick up.  Since they didn't say anything about the price, I decided to call the shop just to make sure I knew how much I was responsible for and they dropped the collision number on me, not the comprehensive.  Even though the other times it had been damaged the insurance company had classified it as comprehensive.  The only difference was that we switched insurance companies in October due to what I perceived as poor service from the other one in the claim I had with the Lancer last year.  We also didn't get a chance to talk to the insurance adjuster this time.  I am sure if we would have had a chance to talk to him (or her) we would have been able to make our case to classify it as a comprehensive claim.  I guess that is how insurance companies keep their costs down.

So we ended up paying the whole thing out of pocket since the difference between out deductible for collision and the repair cost was less than $200.  So I can officially say that all insurance companies suck!

More Car Trouble

We got Kris's car back from the body shop on Thursday. We'll have to see how long it lasts this time. But I had it scheduled to get the rear tires replaced on Saturday. They were worn from when we had to have the alignment done on it back in December (or was it November?). Anyway, there had been a squeaking noise coming from the rear of the car when we were just driving along, so I asked them to just do a quick inspection of the rear brakes as they were changing the tires.

So I get a call Saturday morning right after I get home from work to tell me that there is a little problem with the rear brakes. Apparently, one of the sets of pads was stuck in the caliper so that it wasn't releasing fully when you took your foot off the brake. This is wear the squeak was coming from. It had also caused premature wear of the rotors. So they could have refaced the rotor so it was drivable, or they could put all new ones on. The difference? About $100. So I just went with the new ones. Then I also had them flush the brake fluid because when they checked it it apparently showed that it was contaminated. I don't know if that is something they just tell you to justify flushing and replacing, or if it was legit. But I had them do it anyway. Apparently the recommended maintenance schedule says it is supposed to be done every two years anyway. I know that I haven't had it done since we bought it, so at the very least it was plausible.

It always seems like it is something. I take it in for one thing and end up fixing three or four.

Body Shop

We took the Santa Fe in to the body shop tonight to get some work done. About a month ago I was helping Kris load up groceries and when I went to open the hatch, I noticed a blue streak in the paint next to the handle. I could see a crack in the paint where the streak was and closer examination there was a small dent next to the crack. The funny thing is that this is the exact same spot where we had a dent about a year and a half ago. I don't know where it is coming from, but I can't believe this is a coincidence. At any rate, It'll be in the shop for the next two days being fixed.

What a Shock!

Saturday afternoon doing all of our running around I had to go fill up Kris's car since we were getting close to empty. WOW! I hadn't really been paying attention to the price of gas so it was a little shocking pulling in and seeing it was $3.99 a gallon. I think that is the most I have EVER paid for gas, including a couple of years ago when the price was so high. So filling up her tank ended up costing $66.50. Thanks for that Barry. It's hard for the economy to recover when my extra money is now going to go for paying to fill up my cars with fuel.

Car Accident

I got into a little bit of a scrape with my car today. I was on my way home with the girls and one of Sarah's friends. I was stuck at a 2-way stop waiting for traffic to clear enough for me to cross Appleton Ave. and there was a car on my right blocking my view from that direction. There was a van turning right coming from my left, but the problem was that the van was big enough to obscure an SUV that was just behind and to the left of the van. So as I was looking left, I didn't see it, I looked right and had an opening in the traffic, so I pulled out fast, and as I did I looked back to the left and there was this SUV. I slammed on the breaks and waited. I thought for sure I was going to get just smashed. Luckily I stopped just short enough to prevent a collision. Unfortunately, the car the was going west on Appleton swerved and as it did, the front tire pushed out (so to speak) just enough to catch the front of my bumper, hooking my license plate holder, ripping it off and tearing a chunk out of the bumper cover. The good thing though is that no one was hurt, either in my car, or in the other car.

I called a cop to file a report, never actually having to do it before (which isn't too bad considering I have been driving for 25 years). I got the other driver's information, though since there was no damage to her car at all, I told her I would just take care of it. the cop yelled at me for not making her stay. Sorry. He determined that the accident was my fault, but that based on the damage to my car and the fact that the other car wasn't damaged at all, I wouldn't be getting a citation. LUCKY ME!

So now I need to go get an estimate on the repair and get it scheduled to get fixed.

Our First Day

The first day of school for Kris and I was quite different. Since I took off as I always do to see the girls off to school, I thought I would take the opportunity to have my front tires replaced on my car. They had become quite bald and there was "shake" on the steering wheel, so I assumed they had gone out of balance. As we were walking into school to drop Alison off I got a call from the auto place. It was a little more than the tires being out of balance. Aside from the tires needing to be replaced, both tie rods were loose and one needed to be replaced. Next, the brakes were all worn and I needed a whole front and rear brake job. The rear shocks were beginning to leak and the struts while not needing to be done at that exact moment, would need to be done in the near future. So what started out as what was originally planned as about a $170 job turned into a $2200 overhaul. I had been thinking it was about time to look for a new car, but now after spending this much, I am going get my money's worth.

Kris's mother also had surgery scheduled on Wednesday. She was having an carotid artery unblocked. It was apparently 99% blocked on her right side. So Kris had to be up at 3:30 to get her mom to the hospital. She came home in time to help get Alison ready for school. Once we dropped her off, we went to the hospital to wait to talk to the surgeon after the procedure was complete. Once we talked to him and found out everything went well, we ran back home to get Sarah ready for school. After that it was back to the hospital to find out what room Kris's mom was moved into. We went there to see her for a bit. Oh yeah, we also had a list of people to call and let know how the procedure went, so Kris spent closer to 30-45 minutes reporting to everyone on the outcome of the procedure.

Then we had to run back home to be there when Sarah got home and find out how her first day went. Then about a half an hour later we had to go back to Shady Lane to pick up Alison from her first day. Looks like it was a good thing I took off.

Trip to the Body Shop

Thursday I had to take Kris's car to the body shop to get some work done. A couple of months ago while washing the car I noticed a spot on the hatchback where the paint was cracked, right next to the passenger side tail light. We had some work done there a couple of years ago and I thought that when they fixed it they must not have rust-proofed the base metal properly. Well I was wrong.

When the guy from the body shop looked, he noticed a dent, a very small subtle dent. That is what caused the paint to crack and the metal to rust. So I had the guy work me up and estimate... $700! Just to knock out a small dent that is virtually unnoticeable. I wasn't going to involve the insurance company, but that was when I was expecting the cost to be about $75 to touch up the paint. Well, it is what it is I guess.

The good thing about it is that they got it taken care of in a day. Dropped off the night before and picked up when I got home from work. That was good. I swear though, with the trouble we have had with this car I feel jinxed!