Gmoney,

Sorry to hear about your 'adventures with the rear end of an SUV', hope your ok. I was rear ended in my old car by someone with USAA and I believe they also sent out an adjuster to GMU when I was in school. He surveyed the damage and gave an assessment. If in your opinion its low, you can get an estimate yourself from a body shop and let USAA know to see if they will increase their amount. If you got an estimate from a body shop theyd have you probably replace the whole front bumper. USAA may opt for a cheaper 'repair' option, But if you do wanna go aftermarket bumper, just take a sledge hammer to it before the adjuster comes out.

 

I already said this in my prev. post, but you should tell the body shop you want a new bumper. They can find out the price for the part, or you can tell them.

Here's how it works: you go to 1 or 2 body shops to get quotes, and you tell them to quote a new bumper + paint, along w/ the other damage. They produce an estimate (let's say $2100) and if the insurance approves it, they cut the shop a check for $2100 and you get your car repaired. Now if you go to a slightly shady shop, you could throw in some 'extras' and get them to order some other stuff, but they will not probably do this for you because they could get in trouble if the insurance found out. Her insurance will pay for a rental car while your car is in the shop. Make sure to fight for a nice one, but I'm not sure if the G qualifies (they have a list). The local Hertz may have G35 sedans!!

 

Well the adjustor just came by. He quoted me at $1200 for replacing the bumper, grill, styrofoam, and painting. I think that is actually a little low, I am going to get an estimate from the shop. I hope they bump that up a little bit. We shall see. Now, I need to know what bumper I should go aftermarket with? haha, I'm thinking IMPUL if I can find one in the U.S. for a decent price

 

Generally, their quote is what they can get one of their shops to fix it for. If you are not happy with their quote, or you go to your own shop and get a higher quote, you can try to fight with them, but sometimes they are not too giving. What I had to do (with a different car) is have my insurance fix my car the way I wanted it fixed and then let my insurance try to get the money back from their insurance (i.e., let the insurance companies fight it out). I really don't know if my insurance company got their money back, but I didn't care because I got the car fixed the way I wanted it fixed. There was no raise in my insurance premiums either, since it wasn't my fault. That's the way it works in SoCal anyways.