"Ooh!!! SHINY!"

Lol

That's something new I learned today... I figured that an aduster would NOT want the shop to tear it apart without the insurance company's decision. Interesting.

What would you say would be the factor in determining if the adjuster would want the damage torn off and look for additional damaged areas?

 

Simply an informed judgement call. If the vehicle is a relatively new car with enough damage that may be put into jeopardy of being totaled, they might authorize a teardown for inspection.

Lets say its a new BMW M3 with a hard front hit. Going into it it is very possible that you will have a $25K repair bill and doing simply a visual estimate wont get to where the most extensive damage would be. Therefore they might authorize a teardown prior to the adjuster arriving at the scene. In that case, they may also authorize the vehicle to be placed on a frame rack for initial measuring. An extensive hit might involve dropping the suspension and engine assemblies as well. Certified BMW shops also use a specific jig assembly to repair their cars as well, so it takes time to set something like that up.

Either way, the shop will be paid for their labor and setup on the rack.

The adjuster in my case would have probbaly been better served to eat the couple hours of labor for teardown if i had a rental car. The decision he made has already delayed the repair process several days. If i had a rental car at the moment, those would be days that the insurance would be paying. They do not like to pay for rental cars. Dear god they hate it. Hoever, I dont have rental coverage on my insurance (i usually have at least 2 running cars... this is the first time in 5 years i have had 2 cars out of commission at the same time) so im sure they dont care if there is a delay here or there.

Either way.... I want my truck back.

 

I know what you mean about the rental car expense being a concern for the ins companies. I had my '00 Chrysler Cirrus out of commission for over two weeks due to an accident from a (drunk) driver that ran a red light. The insurance company kept calling the shop almost EVERY day. lol


So judging by your explaination, my initial thought process would be for possibly the "cheaper" cars perhaps? Everything you said makes perfect sense... just depends on the adjuster and their gut feeling based on past experiences. Cool.