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offer to pay the part price difference, if there is one... for sure best time to do it. I'd be tempted to have them add the tranny cooler while it's easily accessible by proving the oem parts.
UPDATE: The truck got fixed - without the 2020 grille. The body shop folks blamed the parts guys for saying it wouldn't fit. It spent a grand total of 3 weeks in the shop, got it back at the end of February, so a whole month without being able to drive it. They did an excellent job. I couldn't tell it was repaired and neither could a former body shop owner.
NEXT UP - DIMINISHED VALUE CLAIM. I knew all along that we would want to file a DV claim. The only question was how. I did a lot of looking and talking to various DV companies, they all came across as....ummmm, less than competent. Quite by accident I came across a thread on Mud by a guy who filed a DV claim on his 80 Series. He was very impressed with the company he used - Auto Appraisal Group, Inc., Charlottesville, VA, so I gave them a shout. It took about 10 days to schedule the actual appraisal due to the Covid mess. Ten days after that, I had the written appraisal in my hot little hands - Total Cost $275.00. Their conclusion: $7,050 in diminished value. (This for a 2019 with 11,400 miles and 9 months since purchase) They also suggested getting a "buy now" offer from CarMax, so I did that too. I made color copies of both (scanned to pdf and then color printed), added a nicely worded letter saying "You owe me." and sent it off. Thirty-two days later (this past Thursday) we received a check from the insurance company (theirs) for the full amount - no questions asked.
LESSONS LEARNED: 1. Dash cams (F&R) can make a HUGE difference. In our case, it meant that State Farm admitted liability for their insured - which made the whole process much easier. 2. Hire a good appraisal firm for your DV claim. AAG has worked both for and against State Farm (I inquired just in case there was a conflict of interest) and I truly believe that it made a difference. 3. There's a lot to be said for using the dealership body shop. We got the same lifetime warranty (not too sure I believe it, but whatever) but with the added benefit of being able to say it was fixed by the dealer. That may or may not matter come trade-in time. 4. Diminished Value is real. Do not ignore this if you are in an accident that is not your fault! Otherwise, you're leaving money on the table.
02-06-20, 06:22 AM
