Navigating insurance claim

kentvonseverin

kentvonseverin

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I was rear ended while stopped at a red light. The driver was insured (Progressive), I am insured by Hagerty). As most of the parts that were damaged are NLA, I am unclear on the most effective way to move forward.

Any advice on how to best navigate this would be appreciated.

Damage:

Rear bumper (folded in center)
Aluminium closing panel behind license plate
license plate lights
BW auto transmission
Minor body damage being bumper
 
I would think one of your initial steps would be to find someone who can identify for you what it is going to take to properly repair your car. You may have to pay them out of your pocket, but I wouldn't want your average insurance adjuster estimating what it takes to fix a coupe.
 
Ohmess said:
I would think one of your initial steps would be to find someone who can identify for you what it is going to take to properly repair your car. You may have to pay them out of your pocket, but I wouldn't want your average insurance adjuster estimating what it takes to fix a coupe.
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Sorry to hear this. I agree with Ohmess, perhaps Coupeking or Carl Nelson could help with proper estimates.
 
Sorry to hear about your car. Hopefully you and anyone else in the car are okay!

It is always best to work with your insurance carrier, in this case Hagerty. You have an existing relationship with them and they should handle the claim from start to finish with you, and they should work with Progressive to subrogate or collect from them the cost of the repairs.

Choose shop that you trust to perform the repairs and given your location you have at least a couple of good ones that are relatively local.

The shop can then work with you and also with Hagerty to arrange for estimates and payments. The repair estimate will likely remain "open" until the car has been disassembled since many times there is hidden damage that is not immediately seen. You have good insurance with Hagerty, make it work for you!
 
I’d call Hagerty to see what they say. I suspect this is a common occurrence with all the classics they insure.
Definitely get estimates from LaJolla Imdependant (Carl) or Coupe King.
Good Luck!
Keep us posted.
 
Ohmess said:
I would think one of your initial steps would be to find someone who can identify for you what it is going to take to properly repair your car. You may have to pay them out of your pocket, but I wouldn't want your average insurance adjuster estimating what it takes to fix a coupe.
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Right.

Thanks Chris...
 
JMinPDX said:
I’d call Hagerty to see what they say. I suspect this is a common occurrence with all the classics they insure.
Definitely get estimates from LaJolla Imdependant (Carl) or Coupe King.
Good Luck!
Keep us posted.
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I had not thought about Coupe King. I will call them tomorrow. LJI is an option though about 100 miles from me.


Thank you!
 
boonies said:
Sorry to hear about your car. Hopefully you and anyone else in the car are okay!

It is always best to work with your insurance carrier, in this case Hagerty. You have an existing relationship with them and they should handle the claim from start to finish with you, and they should work with Progressive to subrogate or collect from them the cost of the repairs.

Choose shop that you trust to perform the repairs and given your location you have at least a couple of good ones that are relatively local.

The shop can then work with you and also with Hagerty to arrange for estimates and payments. The repair estimate will likely remain "open" until the car has been disassembled since many times there is hidden damage that is not immediately seen. You have good insurance with Hagerty, make it work for you!
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I called Hagerty the day following the accident. They were non committal when I asked about assisting me with the procurement of NLA and hard to get parts.

I think that you are right, let them handle the claim from start to finish.

Thank you Lance...
 
Kent-

Hagerty doesn’t supply or sell parts - they pay bills to shops that handle insurance claims.

I have one Hagerty job in body works now, we supplied the parts on a Hagerty job that just left the body shop and my shop did a Hagerty electrical job for a forum member last fall. We have a good relationship with Tom at Hagerty.
You need to work with a Hagerty experienced pro like Brian at Perfect Reflections.
Take it in and have him handle it.
 
Reading about your accident sent shivers down my back. I mean, just sitting at a stop light! We all enjoy taking our Coupes out and sit at red lights every day. So scary to imagine. And just like that, your car is off the road and you have all this stress and worry. Excellent advice above. A friend here, had his Classic rear ended and the Hagerty rep was excellent in recommending what parts should be replaced and so on. My one piece of advice, think hard before using all this disassembly as a reason to make a lot of changes, just because car is apart. In my opinion, it will be back together more quickly if it just is a "repair and put it back the way it was", when you rolled up to that stop light. Good luck and keep us posted! :cool:
 
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Hagerty can't be expected to help you find parts, but there are plenty of other people who can, per SFDon's reply. A couple of years ago I hit a deer in my Saab SPG (an '85 Canadian car with NLA Euro lights and grille) and I had no problem getting it fixed through my normal State Farm policy (I asked the local Saab shop for a body shop recommendation and used them, and fortunately they were in-network for State Farm) but I had to find the parts myself.
 
Kent - It would be helpful if you could keep us informed on your experience in working with Hagerty. I'm insured with them, and I'm sure lots of our fellow coupsters are too.
 
bluecoupe30! said:
Reading about your accident sent shivers down my back. I mean, just sitting at a stop light! We all enjoy taking our Coupes out and sit at red lights every day. So scary to imagine. And just like that, your car is off the road and you have all this stress and worry. Excellent advice above. A friend here, had his Classic rear ended and the Hagerty rep was excellent in recommending what parts should be replaced and so on. My one piece of advice, think hard before using all this disassembly as a reason to make a lot of changes, just because car is apart. In my opinion, it will be back together more quickly if it just is a "repair and put it back the way it was", when you rolled up to that stop light. Good luck and keep us posted! :cool:
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This is why I want to add a third brake light along the top of my rear window. I may make it flash intermittently too. I'll put LEDs in the taillights too. Fifty year old lights aren't as bright, or high as current vehicles.

And there are too many distracted drivers. I was sitting at a stoplight on Maui in my white '93 Volvo 940 wagon when the guy behind got distracted a bit and smacked me pretty good. Fortunately, our bumpers matched up and my bumper was a large chunk of formed aluminum alloy that was up to the task. I got just a tiny scuff so we moved on. I hate to think of the damage that would have resulted in my E9, probably much like what happened to kentvonseverin.
 
Back in 1984 I was driving a 1973 2002 with the 'improved' but still small bumpers. The bumpers on my car had a small gap to the body. The larger diving board bumpers came out the year after....

I was stopped at a light. The fella behind me was stopped behind me ok, but he dropped something and reached down to get it. In so doing, his foot slipped off his brake and his car rolled into mine (he was in a 1982 or so Camaro - with the plastic bumper cover kind of set up).

No damage to the sheetmetal on my car - but the center portion of my bumper was deformed just to the point of (almost) contact with the trunk panel. If my car was a 72 or earlier car, there would have been sheet metal damage. Just goes to tell you that these bumpers are not much - structurally speaking. I have a friend who has a '74 2002 and appreciates the bumpers he has. His car is in Seattle and like the extra bit of protection from 'stupid stuff' that can happen. Even just being tapped by someone parking can ruin your day...
 
My coupe also rear-ended resulting in minor damage to the bumper rubber strip and overrider. No damage to the body because of the 2 1/2" MPH extended bumper brackets. The teenager who pushed the car behind me into my coupe only had her license for two weeks and was watching the baseball game next to the road instead of the car in front of her. A high brake light would not have helped in this case.

A week later Allstate sent us a check for a few hundred dollars for the damage. We made an appointment for the adjuster to visit us to review the damage. We printed the parts pages from W&N and other sources for a bumper overrider, rubber strip, etc. and passed them to the Allstate adjuster. He was thrilled to find a source for the parts that BMW had listed as NLA and admitted that he just guessed at the parts prices using new BMW prices. We tore up the Allstate check and gave it to the adjuster. The second check from Allstate had reasonable prices for the parts, and the labor on the estimate was generous.

I agree with the others that you will need to get your own repair estimate from someone who can find a source for the parts, determine realistic prices for parts, and determine a reasonable cost for the labor.
 
lip277 said:
Back in 1984 I was driving a 1973 2002 with the 'improved' but still small bumpers. The bumpers on my car had a small gap to the body. The larger diving board bumpers came out the year after....

I was stopped at a light. The fella behind me was stopped behind me ok, but he dropped something and reached down to get it. In so doing, his foot slipped off his brake and his car rolled into mine (he was in a 1982 or so Camaro - with the plastic bumper cover kind of set up).

No damage to the sheetmetal on my car - but the center portion of my bumper was deformed just to the point of (almost) contact with the trunk panel. If my car was a 72 or earlier car, there would have been sheet metal damage. Just goes to tell you that these bumpers are not much - structurally speaking. I have a friend who has a '74 2002 and appreciates the bumpers he has. His car is in Seattle and like the extra bit of protection from 'stupid stuff' that can happen. Even just being tapped by someone parking can ruin your day...
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My CS is a 1973, with the earlier bumpers mounted out farther for DOT compliance I assume. She hit me very hard though reasonably square. I still can't figure out how she came from a dead stop and achieved that much inertia in a short distance. Prius.
 
kentvonseverin said:
Damage:

Rear bumper (folded in center)
Aluminium closing panel behind license plate
license plate lights
BW auto transmission
Minor body damage being bumper
Click to expand...
Just out of curiosity, how did the transmission get damaged? You say that there was minor body damage behind the bumper so how did the transmission get involved? Were you in Park and the car was pushed against the transmission’s will maybe?
 
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