F-Body Europe

Has any of you guys had to make an insurance claim here in Germany? I have USAA, and am getting ready to make a claim. Just wondering how they are over here. Kinda had a little accident today, and the drivers side rear by the light took the blunt of the punishment. Creased in the metal really good. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Rat

I have USAA. Usually they want a MP report. Go ahead and call them and they will guide you through the process. An adjustor will come out and asess the damage then you can get it repaired. Or you can do it out of pocket.

You can call USAA toll free at 00800-531-81110. That will get you to their office in Frankfurt. They will tell you what to do. That number, if you call after their normal hours, will take you to the office in the states. We had to do a claim on my wife's truck and it was real easy.

Thanks guys!!! I am really feeling sick over this! I love my SS, and I put a really nasty dent in to her, I am so worried that it won't get fixed right. Hopefully any of you out there that have a passion for your car in the way I do will understand! A dent in a 35th is just not acceptable to me,or any nice f-bod, and it is really getting to me! Thanks for your time!

Larry A.K.A. Rat

Don't worry. I have had two incidents already, and after each time, it came out looking like new again. I wouldn't worry if I were you. I know it sucks, but don't beat yourself up over it!

Hi buddy,
recently I had almost the same incident, but in the garage they punched
out the rear quarter panel and it looks as new.
Before you do the claim, ask a garage how much it will cost.
The insurance will increase your fee afterwards, so it might be clever
to bear the cost on your own, if its only the dent in the rear panel.

Gunnar

The first dent always hurts the worst.
I had a Porsche run into the back of me in my SS when I was waiting to get on the track. . She put her license plate and bumper all in to the back of my bumper and tail pipe. Sad to say it looked worse than it was . 400Euros and I was repaired. I kinda thought it was funny myself but she didn't quite have the humor that I did. SHe quit racing for the rest of the day , I guess it really shook her up.

Does anyone have a german insurance company? How do they work. I was told I could take my car to a body shop and the body shop would ask for my deductiable and handle it from there. I've only got 9 months left in the army and my deductiable is only 200 euro compared to paying 1800 euro just to get my hood mounted and the hood and nose painted.

Well, I made the dreaded call. They were very nice and gave the names and numbers of 2 preferred body shops here is the Stuttgart area. So here in the next couple days I will have to take her in to see what they say. I thought about paying out of pocket, but I dont think I could afford it. If it had been a clean hit maybe, but it is right beside the drivers side rear tailight. That small straight spot next to the tailight is caved in, I don't see how anyone could pop it out. I will take a picture tomorrow, so you guys can see what I am talking about. Oh by the way, can someone tell me where to get a set of eurospec tailights since I cracked one of them. NOT AZTECCAS or whatever tha hell they are called just a set of export taillights. I have seen a set when I was in the states, I believe the turn signal, and backup lights are reversed. RAT like!

Well, this is the regular tail light on a euro camaro ...



IIRC, they are the same on the US Camaro - I think the Japan-version is different ...

Well than they must be the Japanese ones then.

I think we had a question about this some time ago ...

As promised, here it is.

So??? Where is the dent??
I can see some scratches on the bumper.
For this you want to bother your insurance?
Mine would charge 300EUR (Selbstbeteiligung - personal excess) for any claim and increase the annual rate by 20% afterwards (depends on how long you have driven without accidents). Somebody wanted to know how German insurance works.

Insurance companies are not the Salvation Army. They make profit anyway. The more claims they have to compensate, the higher the annual rates. This is why my colleague pays the same amount for his 90hp VW Golf 3, as I do for my Z28. A lot of young kids crash the affordable Golf 3 and push the insurance rates to unbelievable hights.

Cheeers!
Gunnar

Ok, try reading the posts above!!!!! The metal directly to left of the tail light is crushed in. You are more than welcome to come down here and figure out how to pull it out. Above the light is caved in as well. The picture is just to show where tha damage occurred. Also the few poeple that have actually seen it that did body work said I had might as well claim it on my insurance due to it being in such a hard place to repair. SO ITS THE SALVATION ARMYS PROBLEM NOW!!! minus my deductable.

People yhat can use body hammers are to find. It is basically a lost art because of cheaply mass produced body parts.
Need to find a good Italian or turkish metal pounder. These gys are metal meisters when comes to damage like this.

Oh Larry, you are probably right: The problem is accessing the dent from the inside. I had big luck, as my dent could be punched out through the
loud speaker hole and the spare wheel space.
For my body repair man almost nothing is impossible, but I live about
500km from Stuttgart.

Gunnar
"Every sharp bend gives a new dent... "

I wish I could find a good metal pounder When I was in bosnia a couple years ago. I bought a metal work picture, of the city of Sarajevo, prior to the war. It was really amazing the craftmanship involved in it! Now if I could just find the guy that did the picture

On another note, I apologize Gunnar if I came across a little strongly, it's just a sore subject at the moment. Maybe in the summer, we can hook up and have a beer!

Hi Larry,
no need to apologize! I just love to be a bit provocative.
My other weakness is to care too much about someone else' business.
So I have explained your situation to my body repair shop (Mr Berger).
He said its plain mad to exchange the whole panel.
He is even offering you to come to Lippstadt (460km from Stuttgart )) and punch this out over a Saturday.
I checked: There is access from the inside. And even without access he would be soldering a hook on the outside to pull out the dent.

Unfortunately you seem to rush the issue. But for the next dent (Knock on wood it may never come!!) take more time to find a good body repair shop! There must be at least one good repair shop in the south too, as somebody else (John?) has got good experience with that: Check my post "Need new fender after accident"!

Cheers!
Gunnar

Well, I had made the call to the insurance company so they would have the info on file. I was worried if I waited two months and then call that they would be a little suspicious as to why I had not called sooner. This is my first insurance claim, I have always fixed things myself in the past. I am going to take it to the repair shop, hopefully next week, weather permitting. If it is not a lot of money, I will just pay out of pocket. Another issue I noticed the other day while cleaning, it appears the panel got pushed in enough so that even when looking at the rear hatch, you can see it does not line up with the quarter panel. I will let you guys know what they say when I take it in. I don't plan on having any work initiated until after I get the estimate.

Rat