A woman in a rental SUV backed into my MINI yesterday morning. She had chosen the wrong lane, and put it into reverse to switch lanes, and didn't even see me. Whammo.

It was basically a fender bender, but my hood, both grills, lower bumper and radiator will probably all need to be replaced. She hit me straight on my MINI hood emblem. The car still runs fine, thankfully, so I didn't need to cancel the rest of my vacation. (I was in Grand Junction CO, on my long way home from Minis in the Mountains; far from home).

Should I go to a normal body repair shop, or do people generally have better luck with a MINI body specialist?

 

If you can wait to when you get home, sounds like you can, find the best body and paint shop in town. Normally they are about the same price as the worst and insurance should cover the repair.
You do not need to take your car to a MINI dealer for repairs.
Most dealerships contract out the work so there is no advantage to taking your car to the dealer.
Good luck.

 

I agree look for a shop that has a good reputation for doing quality work.

 

Sorry to hear about the injuries to your Mini. I agree with others to find the best body shop for repairs. The SUV owner's insurance is paying for this, right?

 

I usually recommend that you call the local MBZ, Jaguar, Porsche and Lexus dealers and ask where they get their work done, that's the shop you want to take your car to.........

If you take it to the right place, you won't be able to tell it was ever worked on. And don't let the other car owners insurance company try to bully you in to taking it to their recommended place, you have the right to take it anywhere you want. Find the right shop, then let them justify their pricing to the inurance company - that's what they're paid to do.

 

Mostly good advice. But you can't dictate to the insurance company what they pay. If the shop is not in their preferred shop program, the insurance company will do the estimate and pay you directly. Geez, you can't expect insurance companies to pay shops whatever they want without any quality control in place, can you ? If you say yes, then you're basically saying you don't care how high your premiums go.

But yes, you and only you can decide which shop to use. We (insurance companies) can not steer you to a shop. That's a ticket to fines and loss of license. We can only explain our preferred shop program and let you make the decision.

Good luck, Ladidah... let us know how you come out of this.

 

Captain Insurance to the rescue!

 

I hope he doesn't strip out of his street clothes to reveal tights!

 

haha... Jeremy... maybe 10 years ago but time has taken it's toll on me now.

 

We want to see the tights.
We want to see the tights.

Well, maybe not.

 

No maybe about it. Trust me, you don't.

48 years old.

About 5'10" and 180 lbs... and too many of those pounds are just north of the beltline.

 

We're just six days into Mini ownership and we got slammed into by a Pontiac Grand Prix while vacationing in Montana!!! We were stopped, she was traveling about 45mph and didn't see us, hit us square on from behind.

Beside typical whiplash stuff, we're fine. I cannot believe how our car made it through with so little damage (hers is totalled, easily). We have bumper, hatch,exhaust, some interior, and both front seats damaged - but nothing else!!!! We drove it home (300 miles) and it tracked perfectly straight.

This was not how I intended to post my very first on NAM!!!

 

That sucks big time, only 6 days into ownership

 

You should have seen him at the Dragon...

 

I'm a little confused by this, so it would be great to hear you explain it. In Canada (not sure if it's the same in the states), because the accident was NOT the fault of MINI owner, it should not and does not affect their insurance policy or premiums. The other driver's insurance should pay for the damage and their premium would go up because the claim is on their insurance. Therefore, 1. the MINI can go to any body shop, get all OEM parts and get the best job done, and the other insurance company must pay for it. It was NOT this driver's fault and they want their car as close to how it was before the accident. It's slightly different in my province for at fault accidents, it can go to any shop (in their preferred network or not) but you are not guaranteed OEM parts (depending on age of vehicle.)

So, that leads me to the question of: why you were saying that it affects THEIR premium?

Also, to the Ladidah, make you sure specify OEM parts are used, not aftermarket. For example, you don't want aftermarket fenders, hoods, lights, grills, etc. — they don't quite fit the same.

Hope all goes well and good thing no one is hurt. But I do hate when my personal belongings are ruined by other people and the thought of my car having to get fixed is not cool because I know it will never be the same as it was :(

 

Agh! That's horrible! Is your MINI a brand new one? If so, do you have the insurance option of where if you get your brand new car into an accident within so many days/miles, they will simply replace the car?

 

shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh... our secret. Or it was.

 

You misunderstood.

If insurance companies were to allow shops to dictate what the insurance company pays them for repairs, as the previous poster stated they should, then repairs would cost more. If repairs cost more, the insurance company would have to raise everyones rates to compensate.

Regarding OEM parts, most States here in the U.S. (the Insurance Industry is regulated at the State level here) understand that it's not economically feasible to use only OEM parts to do repairs and that too would drive up the cost of repairs and everybody would end up paying in the long run.

 

Right, there we go. Makes sense. Now, because the fault was the other driver, can Ladidah request OEM parts?

 

So sad. And you were on your way home from minis in the mountains...

 

No.

Just because the other driver is at fault and the other guy's insurance is paying, the rules don't change on the estimate/repair. Again, it would cause EVERYone's insurance rates to go up.

By the way, some people are way too stuck on OEM parts. Many parts in your MINI when it comes out of the factory are not made by MINI. And sometimes aftermarket parts are better than OEM.

 

Not sure I agree. I have seen some non-OEM which was crap but for the most part I have seen other non-OEM parts used without a problem. Depends on the part and the install.
I have also seen used parts in a repair that was perfect.
The real key is the body shop. Make sure they do good work, they don't have to just do high end cars to do good work. Get references and ask to see a car that was repaired a year ago if you really want to know their work. Or better find an insurance adjuster through friends and ask the adjuster who they would use. The pro's know.

 

I'm basing a lot of what I am writing on experience through what happened to me personally or my friends. When I refer to OEM parts, I mean things like the hood, headlight, fenders etc. because those parts are better than aftermarket. The design of an aftermarket headlight compared to the original projector/xenon parts and quality won't be matched. The shape of the fender when it comes to fitment won't be the same. The aftermarket is cheaper—there is a reason for it. If and when I need to get my MINI replaced, I'm only using OEM parts. I had my previous car in an accident and they replaced the fender with an aftermarket one, it did NOT fit the same.

Also, to Thulchatt—Insurance adjusters are literally in bed with bodyshops. I have a long, long story with this. Basically, the adjuster recommended a shop, I went there, they fixed my car. I had numerous issues, the adjuster came to look at my car again so they could fix it again, told me it was bad work, but then told the body shop and my insurance it was just an old car. I won that battle in the end with a settlement, but what a hassle. Will never do that again and the do the research on my own.

 

I became very scared of aftermarket parts after a friend's Civic SI was rear-ended. The other guy's insurance company didn't want to cover replacing his bumper because they believed it was an aftermarket bumper. After arguing that it was a factory part, the insurance lady did more research and discovered it was a factory part.

I always wondered what would have happened if that wasn't an OEM part, would he have been expected to go bumperless? How does that work out?

 

Aftermarket as in identical to OEM or aftermarket as in upgraded (like a JCW bumper on a MINI) ?

It it was an upgraded bumper and she had a receipt, they should have paid her for the replacement aftermarket bumper.

If it was the same bumper as OEM just made by someone else, they could replace it with the same or an OEM bumper.

Sounds like they were making it harder than it should be.