@thejeepcherokee

I'm new to the Cherokee world, having purchased my first Jeep in fall of 2022. Found it for what I would consider to be a fair price, and in good condition minus needing a few small repairs (paint obviously not perfect, some imperfections on interior). It hadn't been abused too bad, and the previous owner installed a 4.5" lift and swapped to 33" M/Ts. Other goodies included LED headlights, LED light bar, transfer case drop, & Bushwacker fender flares. We bought it for a vehicle to get around in deep snow (living in the mountains of California while preparing for grad school) and it was GREAT. Loved the Jeep in every way, until...

Last week on my way to work, road conditions were the worst I've ever seen for black ice. Even rolling at 20 mph, cars had lost control and there were multiple accidents in the same spot at the same time. Another driver and I slowly bumped into each other, and all parties were safe. Limped the Jeep to the side of the highway on 3 wheels, the driver front tire was totally flat (although I couldn't see a visible gash or cut) and the driver front rim bent from the collision. No airbags deployed, no glass broken. My preliminary inspection at the site of the crash was that it was repairable, with a nasty dent in the driver front fender and damage to the front bumper/turn signal, maybe broken tie rod. No leaking fluids, hood latches normally, nothing visibly bent on frame. I'm no mechanic or body fabricator, but I know my way around a vehicle fairly well and can wrench on most things. Shop estimate seems to include same list of things to be fixed.

Towtruck delivered the Jeep to a local repair shop here in the mountains, and they've been deliberating repairs with insurance ever since. The shop wrote up an estimate, which sounds on the high side to me... Insurance adjuster mentioned he believes it may be considered total loss given repair cost vs value of vehicle. Living in a higher-risk weather area, we had a super low repair deductible of $50 and collision/comp.

Thoughts?? Never wrecked any of my vehicles before and new to the process of getting these things settled. I'm told that shops here on the mountain are way worse for pricing than down in the city--is it worth finding another body shop that would do some of the repair work for less? Buying back from insurance? XJ forum, all advice is welcome and appreciated!

Pictures of damage and repair estimate attached for consideration.

robsjeep

Lots of "economy " parts in that quote. Economy bumper may mean a thinner steel than stock, an economy tire? You got new tires, make it a matched tire.
A good deal of axle and steering stuff got harmed. Maybe it is time for a new axle ratio to match your big tires if not done yet? And how about heavy duty tierods and such to compliment your big tires? winch bumper?
Maybe work it out to have the body and paint done, then you spring for bumper, steering and axle upgrades, and for sure get a matching tire. That might work for you and insurance company.

@thejeepcherokee

Appreciate the response. New to the offroad world and even newer to this insurance mess. Hoping the adjuster is reasonable, but all I read online are horror stories.

Steering upgrades have been on the to-do list for a while. No death wobble prior to crash or anything like that, but I've seen several users recommending that as a highly worth it mod.

Bumper w/ winch is a little further down the road, on a budget that fits more in the "want" category for me. Have also heard axel upgrades may be in order, especially with bigger wheels, although stock axels haven't given me any trouble to this point. Any advice on specific axel upgrade equipment?

UKXJ

Bad luck - but it doesn't look a lot worse than mine after I connected with something very solid in a hedge. All I did was pull the end of the bumper out, a couple of 1/2-hearted goes at flattening the creases in the fender & replaced one of the brackets so I could pop the flare back on. Not very pretty but it'll do for what I use it for & the rest can wait 'til the bits turn up at the right price - i.e. cheap.

Going through your, very detailed, estimate I do wonder why they're proposing to replace a lot of the parts & almost surprised there's not an item for heat, light & coffee. Of course they've seen the vehicle & I've only seen a few piccies but even so . . .

arpunk

Axel? They're charging you for figure-skating jumps?!
Are you able to find out what the insurance company's total loss number is? If you know that number, you can perhaps work with the shop to only fix what is necessary to get it back on the road and keep the number down so you're not spending too much out of pocket.
They are charging you for 4 headlamp adjustment screws. Each headlamp has two screws and you only have one damaged headlamp. They're charging you .4hrs labor to aim your headlights. You can get the screws online for $3 each instead of $8 but you'll save money by aiming the headlights yourself.
$300 for the grille. Your grille looks fine in front of the radiator so that seems like a cosmetic fix.
.2 hours labor to remove and put your bumper deflector back on. Take it off yourself and put it back on after you get your car back - although this may not be possible if the car can't be driven and it's already at the shop. You can't work on your car in a shop.
3.4 hours labor to paint the front panel - skip it
$120 in badges and .5 hours labor - skip it

Just trying to illustrate that there may be some areas where you can get that number to come down to a level that insurance will cover. I hope this works out for you. Insurance is such a nightmare. You get it hoping to never use it and then when you need it you have to fight tooth and nail. If the shop won't come down on price I would try a different shop.

Outlaw Star

Shops are in it to make money, not to help someone out or cut them a break. IF you are a fairly inclined person (I don't know you personally, so don't take it as an insult) then you can replace almost all of that sheet metal and parts by yourself in a day. Plus you get the satisfaction of learning to do it yourself. 👍🏻

Glasply

The Body Shop estimate does not look that bad from the standpoint of where you are located (isolated smaller community = Higher Prices), he is in business to make a profit. That said I strongly suspect your insurance will total it, with 186k miles it's market value (based on Seattle prices) somewhere around $8000 maybe a bit more. If it were mine I would push for a "total" and buy it back from Insurance company (likely they will sell it back to you for $600-$1000) you would end up with a check for $7k-$8k and the Jeep, then source a used front bumper, header panel, fender, grill, headlight bucket install them all yourself (like previous poster recommended) in a weekend. Take it to your local tire shop/mechanic for the front end rebuild which should be $500-$700 using decent quality parts. If you search local online sources (offerup/facebook/craigslist) you might be able to find same color parts as yours.

arpunk

@Glasply KBB value is only about $3k for that vehicle, unfortunately. I’m not sure exactly which metric insurance companies use to determine value of a vehicle but I would tend to think it’s whatever saves them the most money, unfortunately.

I’m looking into Safeco classic car insurance. Allows me to drive 10k miles/year with a $9,500 replacement value for about $1,400/yr. That includes $100k/$300k bodily injury, $50k property damage, roadside assistance, $75/day loss of use, etc.

The situation sucks. California is an at-fault state and OP said in a Reddit post that they deemed him at fault *BUT* there were five or so other accidents on the road and they hadn’t been plowed/salted yet. If it were me and I couldn’t get insurance to play ball, I would retain an attorney. The fact that so many other accidents happened might (big emphasis on “might”) mean that he can shift the blame off of himself and turn it into a no-fault situation due to weather conditions.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned in life, it’s that you’ve gotta fight for what is right. These companies aren’t in business to pay out and they hope you’ll roll over and take what they give you. The movie Dark Waters about DuPont is an excellent example of this.

I truly hope it works out for this guy.

@thejeepcherokee

You nailed it. This shop even sent the insurance some of the minor inconveniences that had nothing to do with the collision... replacing decals that weren't there to begin with to the tune of a few hundred dollars plus labor? A second opinion with a shop a little further out, and it sounds like this shop may just want to collect on the insurance vehicle holding/storage money from a totaling and move on.

@thejeepcherokee

Updates coming as I have them. For the time being, it's trying to work with different shops a little farther out and the adjuster to meet somewhere in the middle with realistic numbers that work.

@thejeepcherokee

I'm by no means a certified mechanic or a body tech... but Youtube and these Jeep forums can get you surprisingly far. Pricing out all the parts myself online means saving quite a bit in parts alone, the labor is a different story altogether.

It gets tricky dealing with insurance and getting them to play ball though... so far, the adjuster has been nothing but headaches and radio silence.

@thejeepcherokee

I'm a pretty reasonable guy when it comes to understanding that everyone needs to make their bread. Seeing $8/screw for "headlight adjustment" when the headlights were unaffected took a little out of my sails though...

In talking with other Jeep owners who've dealt with similar situations in the past up here, it sounds like it's a lot of legwork trying to get the insurance to meet you somewhere between KBB and market value on these (much higher, especially in CA). I'm not the type to chase a check or look for something that's undeserved, but I'm also not the type to get walked over while laying down.

Heck, I don't even care if color isn't matched for now! If it gets the wife and baby down the road safely, that's the main concern. With the unibody frame in good condition, the rest of the repairs seem manageable.

@thejeepcherokee

It's a tough deal! These mountains don't use much by way of corrosive salt on the roads (great for avoiding caustic rust) but that makes for crappy road conditions. I've also heard that low staffing and high turnover of employees means the county has a hard time staying up on the roads.

I'm new to California (as of fall 2022) but I've found a few methods of filing grievances for unmaintained roads and damages caused by them. Sounds like it would be a long, uphill battle but may be worth it in the end. No one likes a blame shifter, but that curve has historically been (and continues to be) a disaster for even cautious drivers.

Sounds like Safeco may be a better route than some of the big companies.

We plan to be a squeaky wheel for as long as it takes to get this settled fairly.

lawsoncl

See if the insurance company will cut you a check for the shop estimate and fix it yourself. They might end up just totaling it out too, and sell the Jeep back to you.

UKXJ

[QUOTE=Glasply;3690009]The Body Shop estimate does not look that bad from the standpoint of where you are located (isolated smaller community = Higher Prices), he is in business to make a profit. [QUOTE]

That estimate is so bad, it's bordering on dishonest: a casual glance reveals suspect items (detailed by others) a more careful examination reveals it for what it is - a con!

Why? Even if the steering repairs are a bit more than a tie rod, it's all a simple nut'n'bolt job that shouldn't take more than another weekend. As far as I can see, paint aside, the most expensive part of the whole job is the wheel & tyre + allignment.