Reader question:

Do I get to decide which kind of parts are used to repair my car? Do I get to complain about the appraisal?

Emory

Good question.

The answer depends on the source of your information. Let’s take your first question first. If it is your car insurance claims company that tells you what kind of part is going to be used to fix your car, then after they tell you that there isn’t much that you can do about it. You may want to raise a fuss, but nine times out of ten all you need to do is take a look at your own car insurance policy and that will shut you up fast. You’ll see right there in the small print that you signed on the dotted line to let your car insurance company use aftermarket, OEM, whatever kind of parts that they determined were best to fix your car. This is why you need to study your car insurance policy before you sign.

Now, if the estimate that you get is given to you by the actual body shop, then you probably have some leeway. Body shops are more likely to want to use the original manufacturer parts, or OEM, mostly because these kinds of parts cost more and they’re out to make a buck like the rest of us. If you get the estimate from them, you probably have an option, and they will prefer it if you choose OEM. If your auto insurance company disagrees, you can either raise a fit with them and see if they let you or you can just pay the difference between the OEM part and the aftermarket part.

As for your second question, can you decide about the appraisal if your car should be fixed or if the part should be replaced? Most of the time, no. For one thing, your car insurance company has a single obligation to you. That is to get your car back to the way it was when you crashed it. If that can be done with only fixing the same part, then that is that. Again, you can complain and see if that will change things, but normally they won’t take it.

Now, if your car insurance company is truly mishandling your claim in this arena and you haven’t gotten any help in complaining through their departments, then you should take it to a higher level and complain with your state department of insurance.

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.