Insurance and collision work.

[SiRDOHC]

Progressive specified used bumper covers on my Tuscon when it was rear ended. The body shop said the OEM used stuff is better than alot of the aftermarket anyways and they painted it to match.

I write estimates and this is always my preference. An A graded factory paint used oem bumper/ bolt on panel beats an aftermarket part everytime. Shops don’t like used parts because you have to negotiate with the vendor when they come in with more than one unit of damage, and you have to add more lines to the estimate to clean up or de-trim them. A good bodyman hates aftermarket parts because it makes getting the job perfect impossible. Bad body men like that they can use the aftermarket part as a scapegoat as to why nothing lines up at the end.

Shops make 50% reselling profit for the aftermarket part compared to about 20-30% on used /new and if they are not quality focused they will sell the lie that aftermarket fits just as well. They don’t. They will also rust out way faster than an oem panel in the long run.

Depending on the make of vehicle you can try to find a quality focused shop that will participate in price matching OEM parts, the smarter business will do this and take the hit on parts profit to increase customer satisfaction, reduce workload (returns) for their parts personnel and to give their techs the best possible product to work with.

 

[Doc8404]

This isn’t as ad and I don’t know this guy personally but I follow him on FakeBook.

Has some great wins.

https://collisionsafetyconsultants.us/

 

[RhondaHonda]

Auto insurance is really a horrible industry. Where else are you allowed to discriminate based upon gender, race, education, credit, where you live, etc? And then pull stupid stunts like insuring a number of cars for a two driver household, and giving a minimal discount when only two of the three cars could ever possibly be on the road. But the public is stuck because it’s mandated by law in most places, and you don’t want to not have it in the case that something bad does indeed happen. What a mess.

The reason they do this is because it is very common to have a bunch of unlisted drivers (teens, unlicensed, poor records, etc) using the other vehicles. This sends the risk through the roof vs just underwriting the 2 drivers listed as household members. If someone is known to be a household member, they can be excluded which means there’s no coverage at all, but when they don’t disclose household members it’s much harder to deny coverage. Often, the excluded driver would get in a single car accident and then they’d say it was stolen or something g to try and get the damage covered.

I worked for a non-standard insurance company and had plenty of experience with this stuff. I’ll agree, it’s an industry with plenty of faults and slimy tactics but many of them are the result of shady policy holders and tort law.

 

[JHZR2]

The reason they do this is because it is very common to have a bunch of unlisted drivers (teens, unlicensed, poor records, etc) using the other vehicles. This sends the risk through the roof vs just underwriting the 2 drivers listed as household members. If someone is known to be a household member, they can be excluded which means there’s no coverage at all, but when they don’t disclose household members it’s much harder to deny coverage. Often, the excluded driver would get in a single car accident and then they’d say it was stolen or something g to try and get the damage covered.

I worked for a non-standard insurance company and had plenty of experience with this stuff. I’ll agree, it’s an industry with plenty of faults and slimy tactics but many of them are the result of shady policy holders and tort law.

Which again is why liability should be on the driver, not the vehicle. An inanimate object has no liability.

I don’t have those situations, so I’m being priced based upon poor assumptions of others’ bad behavior.

Insurance has a million riders already, and folks could decide if they have borrowed car coverage, towing/hauling, etc.

Driving is a privilege, not a right supposedly. So insurance to have a license would be the right thing.