Hello aziners got in a fender bender today and need some advice I have a appointment with Geico adjuster on Monday and need to know if they actually will use genuine Acura parts when they repair the car. This is my first accident that's my fault in 15 years of driving. Any input or advice would be appreciated. As far as damage looks like fender, bumper and passenger headlight.

 

@paperboy42190

What say you?

 

You'd be lucky if they don't use a "remanufactured"/used front cover.
When the wife hit a deer many years ago, State Farm insisted that they check for
a used cover, however, the one the shop received was not in the condition they liked,
no others available, so by luck, they had to buy a new OEM cover.

 

It depends on how policy is written. I was told by my insurance company there is a rider/addendum to ensure they use OE parts on your car otherwise they use aftermarket or used. Insurance companies have broad discretion in deciding whether OEM, generic or recycled parts are used in a particular car repair. Whatever restores the car to its "pre-loss condition" is usually the operative term.Their justification is by using new parts in your car they have improved your car to a state that it was in before the accident. Fortuneately, as Turbo, the parts i needed were not available used or aftermarket and had to get from dealer new. If you demand new OEM parts, you can pay the difference in price between an OEM and a generic or recycled part if you want just make sure your shop does in fact instal the new part.

Call Geico and ask. Used parts arent bad especially for the ones your looking to have to replace. That bumper looks repairable but the cost to repair may exceed the cost of new or used one. Open the dialog with your adjuster ask your options.

 

ask?

 

I do not know what Geico's policy is, but in my past experience various insurance companies do different things. Years ago I had Allstate and they only used OE parts, but they may use "used" parts. My wife has USAA and her previous car was repaired with aftermarket parts...until we complained about fitment, and then they put OE parts back on.

Allstate
- used parts
- I found a flaw in the bumper cover, so they took it back off and repaired it
- I found a scratch in the sunroof assembly, so they cut me a check for $400 to cover the price difference
- I basically reviewed the entire invoice and checked each part to make sure I couldn't tell it was used. Any issues I found, I brought to their attention and they took care of it.
- Also to note...Allstate provided lifetime warranty on repairs...which came in handy when 2 years later the sunroof stopped working...they picked up the repair bill

USAA
- aftermarket parts
- the body shop flat out told us the fitment was off due to aftermarket bumper core/support, so they just needed us to confirm/complain
- USAA immediately approved OE parts (used) and got the car back to perfect

On a car that is more than 3 years old, I don't know how anyone could ever assume/expect brand new parts. Now that all of these cars are 7+ years old, there should not be any expectation of new parts. Used parts when properly finished should look just as good as the car did pre-accident.

 

I completely agree I'm not expecting new parts I'm expecting Original Acura part used or remanufactured doesn't matter to me I just want what was originally on the car.

 

demand OEM and youll likely get it.

 

I will let's see what they say

 

I currently work for geico as an adjuster. We get this kind of question a lot. Ultimately what is decided is what is available for cheapest in our database. However, any aftermarket or used oem parts we have to provide a guarantee that it will fit well and be equivalent to OEM new. So sometimes when the aftermarket parts come in fitting poorly, we can decide to go OEM afterwards. It's not the adjuster trying to be cheap or anything, but it's just the company guidelines.

What you don't want to do though is just go in demanding you won't accept anything less than new OEM, because a supervisor can just pull out the insurance contract and tell you that your policy allows them to use their own parts guidelines.(This method never works)

Although, last I checked, I don't think there were aftermarket type S bumpers around, only aftermarket base bumpers. So they'll probably put a used OEM one

 

Yes I know I can't go in demanding that would be rude I'm going to politely request for OEM but used is ok with me, I just can't do aftermarket especially on the headlight. Can I request LKQ parts since they are used OEM parts?

PS I also noticed that they only make base aftermarket bumpers and not Type S so there's one guaranteed OEM part but fender and headlight they have aftermarket.

 

As for the fender you're right there are many aftermarket ones available, it depends on what shows on our database in that location. Definitely bring your concern up with the adjuster though, there are different ways around our parts guidelines

 

Difficult to see in picture, but I'd be surprised that they would replace the fender rather than doing a repair.

 

ok I was able to get an earlier appointment and met up with the adjuster he was very understanding with my concern and I lucked out because they didn't have any used headlights or bumpers so he ordered me a OEM bumper and headlight. As far as the fender he went ahead and order a used fender from lkq so I'm getting all parts original 👍!!! I will post pic after repair!!! Thanks for all the input fellas!!!

plus the body shop doing the work will install my aspec kit that's been sitting in my basement for the past two months👍👍

 

Thats great!

I hope I can have your luck, this happened to me last night Someone backed into me in a parking not, no note or anything, people are bastards!!

 

Oh man im sorry to see that. That is way too much damage to just drive off. Entirely unresponsible, because if they had insurance ilike every legal driver is supposed to have, it would have covered the cost minus their deductible of course.

So there's no reason not to have your car covered too. If they are going to pay to fix their own car out of pocket thats a dickhead move, because their car should have at least $500 in damage too. Unless they drive a truck or a really shitty camry they dont care about or what is probably the case they are an illegal driver without insurance or a goddamned illegal immegrant or something. What an asshole.

It pisses me off to see that. I had some dickhead hit my bimmer earlier this year. The damage was really small and almost not even noticable, so they prob looked at it and said fuck him cuz he has a bmw he can fix it. Well this little paint chip and spread cost me $5fucking00 dollars. My deductible is $500 so I jjust paid to fix it rather than start a claim. I can sorta see why they fucked me, but in your situation that is far too much. People these days cant live up to their own mistakes. Everyone is so fucking full of themselves and entitled to being first and best.

"Oh youre trying to merge" NO ME FIRST. "Oh youre trying to make a left before the red arrow" NO IM TURNING RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW, EVEN THO I COULD TURN RIGHT ON RED AFTER THE CHANGE BUT NO YOU CANT GO IN FRONT of ME. "Oh you want to merge onto a three way highway" NO ME FIRST, I DRIVE FIRST, I AM MORE IMPORTANT THAN YOU AND EVEN THO I COULD MOVE INTO ONE OF THE OTHER TWO LANES I DONT HAVE TO. "Oh I scratched your bumper and smashed your headlight" NO YOU PAY FOR IT BECAUSE YOU HAVE A NICER CAR THAN ME SO I DONT DESERVE TO BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR MY OWN ACTIONS. "Oh youre a new driver and are having a hard time with the clutch "TOO BAD IM GOING TO RIDE YOUR ASS AND HONK AT YOU WHEN YOU CANT GET UP THE HILL WITHIN 2.16 SECONDS.

 

Yea I was super pissed last night and still pissed today. You summed it up, people are selfish and dont care. I understand mistakes happen, and I would have still been pissed if they left a note but I would have understood, instead I am out money I dont have and a damaged car I love. It was a wake up call though, I have been putting a lot of time, effort and money into the car lately and it made me realize its just a material thing. Oh well, it will get fixed and I'll go back to trying to keep it as nice as I can. This week my new LED fogs and OSRAM Nightbreakers come in, maybe that will make me happy again.

 

Like I said ask, adjusters get a bad rap by a lot of folks. Work with them and respect them and they will work with you.

Theyre hanging a new fender for that little damage? It cant be repaired?

I presume your DS headlight is clear so with new headlight there wont be a mismatch if not I'd ask them to freshen up the DS headlight.

 

Agreed that the fender COULD be repaired. But since you are already going through insurance I can understand getting a new one. However, you said they are buying a used one. You should probably be really anal about it and check out that used fender before they put it on. Im not saying it will likely have a flaw, but it is possible.

Some of the panels on my TL were repaired from the previous owner. You could tell that the panel gap was ever so slightly off but I had no idea how much they had been repaired until I took them off. The bumper had a huge crack at one point which has been obviously plastic wleded and has two pretty good sized reinforcement plates on it. You cant tell from the outside and I dont mind, because for me it just makes it matter even less when I roll up on the curb stop

 

east coast guy, can't you put it through your INS as a hit and run??

 

yes, and I am, but I am still out my $500 deductible.

 

Just remember that any changed parts, new/used will have no VIN or a different VIN.

 

So I'm dropping my car off tomorrow at the shop and I was trying to find a picture of the fog light grill trimmed out to fit with the aspec kit. I saw a few threads with the grill installed with the aspec kit showing the honey comb behind the kit which looks a lot better. But I can't find a thread showing how to trim it. Anyone see or know where to find a picture or where to trim the grill?

 

Well I didnt get as lucky as you, got my car appraised and they want to use aftermarket fender. I got the "not going to use new parts on your car and we only have to get it to pre-accident condition" I very gently said pre-accident condition was with Acura parts, and I got silence. Not sure if the headlight will need to be replaced but I am sure if it does they will use aftermarket there too. Ugghhh, so ticked at this whole thing!

 

I had an aftermarket fender put on my accord after a new driver cut me off and ran into me on the highway at about 80mph. Lol I dont know how I got off with just a fender from that honestly. But I had the nighthawk blakc paint which was a special paint for that model and I thought it wouldnt come out right, but in the end it looked perfect. Id say a lot will depend on how good of a job the shop does.

 

dont worry about the aftermarket parts.
you will not notice anything and it will be as good as new.

i crashed my car twice.
BOTH times the car came out great!!
couldnt even tell its been in an accident and I cant even tell the difference between aftermarket parts.

 

Yea that's the conclusion I came to, plus the body shop I am going to has a great reputation so I am not worried. But what about the headlight, if it winds up being broken should I just be ok with an aftermarket one. Everyone on the forum here say they are crap.

 

according to your pics eastcoast, I think the headlight is in good shape, the only thing I had bad experience with depo headlight are the beam pattern.

 

I'm curious as to how this works out when you're not at fault and it's the other person's insurance that is covering damages. You don't have anything signed that allows them to use their own parts guidelines; just your own policy.

 

What you cant see in the pics is that the side of the headlight was pushed in pretty good, so the outside looks fine but what I dont know yet is if the tabs or housing got cracked. Hoping since all of it got pushed in that nothing is cracked. Then no worry of aftermarket headlight.

 

when It comes to headlights I would demand OEM and not take no for an answer. Like troung said beam pattern and output can be affected

 

I am going to push hard for it, but I dont know what leverage I have to get what I want.

 

The only thing I can think is if they are saying "returned to previous condition" you can use that statement against them. For the panels you cant do anything cuz they look the same but for the headlight if they put one in and it doesnt function the same you can bitch about it. Doesnt matter if its OEM or aftermarket, if its not right, its not right. On the other hand if they put in an aftermarket and its reasonably doing the same thing theres not much you can say about that. You have the right attitude though, push for the OEM light, I would. But if they want to try aftermarket first and think its going to be the same I guess let them try it, but be a stickler about comparing to previous working condition.

 

Here's my car in the booth getting ready for paint. The OEM fender they found was the same color which is great because it will blend with the rest and they are installing my aspec kit and color matching my white aspec side skirts and respecting the rear bumper. The body shop is Eurowerks in Gaithersburg Maryland.

 

^ Seems very unusual that they would find another fender the same color with damage in the same area.
Sure that they didn't repair the OEM fender? Check VIN on fender.

 

They were able to paint right away so far everything is looking great can't wait to get it back lol. My man Tony hooking it up!!!

 

I thought the same thing but I went in person before they painted and inspected the fender different vin number and they still had the original.

 

Looking good, mines in the body shop as we speak should hear back sometime this week. Jealous that you have a CBP type-s with A-spec!

 

I would have requested they remove the rear bumper cover unless they are doing you a solid and not charging you this way.

Congrats on this moving forward so quickly...looks good. Another a spec in the DMV

 

They are not charging me to repaint the rear bumper or the side skirts and they are installing the Kit well at no extra charge.