Hurricane Charlie dropped a big tree across the hood
of my car. Smashed the hood down on the engine and bent the
fuel rail. Fuel leaks from #2 injecter. So I did not try to start. Hit so hard it made imprint of motor in hood and
broke back window without touching it.

My concern is with the insurance company. They suggest I
have it towed to thier preferred body shop.

Can someone tell me the horror stories and tell me what to
watch for when dealing with ins co and body shop.

Doug:
Sorry to hear about your 97 CV. If it popped the back window too, you may have some hidden damage as well.

If you are with a major insurance company, I'm sure they are using a reputable body shop. When I got quotes from various ones referred to by a friend, my insurance company also confirmed they were good shops.

Basically anyone with a company name will try to do their best job, their livelihood depends on it.

With how bad that sounds, do you even think that it is repairable, or will it justed be totaled.

Make sure they replace all the injector O-rings on the bashed rail(s)

I dunno, I had my car repaired by a "reputable" shop in my area that does work for the city and many of the surrounding body shops. They screwed so many things up I had to make 2 return trips. I think they guy they had on it was a drunk or a newbie. Never go back to them again and I spread the word far and wide.

When my brother had his car towed by them to the same shop after my debacle I told him to have it done elsewhere. When they found out he was having it done elsewhere they charged him/his insurence company $150 to flatbed it 2 miles!!! The IC only re-embursed him $75. Yet another story I tell about them. I even have a sign in my dad's shop telling people to ask about our experiences with the shop. My mistake was picking it up late at night in a snow storm, so i couldn't inspect it like I should have. They never did make all the problems right as I didn't have the time to leave the car with themforever. I just made my complaints known with the owner and BBB and spread tons of bad press about them.

My wife had an accident after mine and we took hers to another supposed "reputable shop". The actual repair job was ok but the hood alignment was poor, and if the car would have been orange you would have swore it was made by Tropicana as it had so much orange peel, that and they never centered the steering wheel after the alignment(HUGE pet peve of mine). My wife picked up the car and never looked it over and we just didn't have the time to pursue the problems.

Check out ANY shop you go to, see some of their work, take pics of the car for yourself B4 it goes in AND pics of it when you pick it up. Go over the car with the shop b4 you accept delivery of the car to make sure there was nothing forgot or messed up by them.

Dont learn the hard way like we did.

Bryan

Check my website for more pics

home.bellsouth.net/personalpages/pwp-isleofpines

Body shops are a crap shoot and depends entirely on how diligent the guys working on it are to make things as they where. So take it in, visit it often. Tell them up front you want things as they where, all fasteners back in place, all broken items repaired/replaced.

Alex.

My experience.

December 2000, my '93 is already 7+ years old. On a 6-lane highway, in the slow lane, going about 50 mph when all the sudden we all come to a complete stop...except for the lady behind me. She hit me doing about 20-35 mph and pushed me into the Honda CR-V in front of me which I'd successfully avoided by about three feet moments ago. As you can see, I didn't go up in a blaze of glory...

Total damages came to almost $5,000, about the worth of the car at that time. My insurance company, Acuity out of Sheboygan WI, TOTALLY paid for the body shop of my choice. Settled in about 5 business days. Shop time took longer of course.

These cars are pretty durable and the insurance companies know it.

Best wishes to you.

Insurance scams, I was hit by a 16 year old female. It totaled the car. The insurance didn't give me NADA whole sale or retail. What they did was find what a simular car sold for over 150 miles away. And it was not sold from a dealers lot it was a private sale. So I thank the insurance companies for nothing.

Bring it to a body shop of your choice and make certain you know the value of the car that you will accept should they decide to total it. I had an '85 CV and was run off the road into a tree - this was in 1986 - so the car was still worth a lot but the insurance tried to low ball me. I told them that they did not have my permission to move the vehicle from my body shop and if they did I would report it stolen and I told them to call me back when they could meet my price for the value of the car (I had two figures from Ford dealers for what a comparable car would be selling for on their lots). The insurance company called me back in two hours, I told them to fax me something in writing then I would fax them back my permission to move the car. You are the boss, remember that.

Sorry to hear about your Vic. I fortunately never have to worry about that killer storm business out here in Calif. The only storms we get are firestorms. Never get a drop of rain here from March-October except on rare occasions when a tropical storm manages to sneak in the backside of the state. Get a few drops for about 30 min. then dry till November. I'll trade you some of our sun for alot of your rain anytime.