I need a quote for cost on active suspension repair for insurance.

[Onestoptekshop]

I was in an accident with my '94 q45a the guy hit me on the drivers side. Now my front and rear struts are leaking they were just serviced on nov 2016 accident happened in dec 2016. It's been sitting since waiting on his insurance to accept liability they have. After the accident I started it a couple days later and the actsus light was on. Once car got warm and started car again actsus light went off. I have had a local mechanic look it over but he has no idea on cost or how to locate parts for it. I only have 88k miles on it and had a value of $6200 from our local classic car appraiser. Car view it here
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2LM0J ... sp=sharing Insurance needs a qoute on the repair of the damage to my suspention. We don't have a local auto shop that has any experience or the proper diagnosis tools to give me an accurate quote so hoping to here from texasoil or any other active experts on this repair thanks.

[Q451990]

Assuming the parts are available, an Infiniti dealer should be able to help you. I'm not saying you'd have the work done there, but for insurance payout purposes, that's the way I'd go.

[Onestoptekshop]

Our local "infiniti dealer" won't even do the oil changes their. If it's not obdII they won't do anything on it.

[AZhitman]

Who's the dealer?

Also, if it was hit in the side, you're likely looking at a totalled car. No one makes the OEM components any longer, and no insurance adjuster is going to pay for non-OEM parts (especially from "some guy on a forum," even if he's the expert.)

The car would need to be converted to non-active suspension, and again, that's going to exceed the stated value.

[Onestoptekshop]

This car Is locked in with a stated value of 13,900 under an agreed value policy that I carry on it. Other guys insurance is why i needed new appraisal. I understand it will be total loss either way. Right now they are saying it's not because the estimate only showing the body damage which is $4300. I don't want to start working on it without them committing to paying for full repair or paying me the $13.900 value and let me pay the rest to have it fixed properly. Dealer is park place infiniti. I am stuck in a pickle with them wanting to do body work then have a mechanic look into the strut issue.

[Q451990]

I'm with you... I wouldn't authorize anything until you have the full quote in hand. His insurance would be dumb to authorize repairs before knowing what they're getting in to, but that's probably not unusual. I'd work from the angle of having a shop estimate removal and replacement of the active pump/power steering pump with a standard new OEM pump, all new OEM parts for springs and shocks, etc. Whatever it takes to get you to the "totaled" threshold. Then you'll have cash and a totaled car and you can do whatever you need to do from there.

[Onestoptekshop]

That's why I'm here. In Vegas our auto shop situation is very sad they won't even put the footwork to make an estimate like that I went to the shop i trust and paid them $215 to work up an estimate all all he put was parts not available and 16 hours labor. The one nissan/infiniti specialist won't even give me an estimate for the work because it's too labor intensive and not worth his time to write up an estimate I even offered to pay his shop rate (145.00/hr) at 2.5 hours of time to work up the estimate. Then my local dealership is also refusing to work on it. If anyone can put me into contact with a reputable auto shop in las vegas who will write it up i'll take it over to them. Please don't refer me to Paladin I know them and they were shop i took it to for the original quote.

[EdBwoy]

Wow, there's a rock here and a hard place there, and you're somewhere in between.
Would this angle work with that insurance company?

First, should the burden of finding a reputable shop be on you? I agree that if the quotes look fishy, you could choose to take it to your own place, but this seems to be taxing enough as is.

2nd, I don't know if any of the people you have attempted to get quotes from can do this. Long shot, but either you get their refusal in writing (or the insurance company attempts to contact them and gets rejected) but you have tried to find parts in good faith.
Shouldn't this be an automatic totalling? I mean whether the parts can't be found because they are made of unobtanium; or are too expensive because they're made of unobtanium, either way they aren't going to fix it, correct? And this all happened because their guy hit it.
You've done some footwork for them and told them what it's been appraised at.

Aftet all that, Part 2 is for them trying to sell it. Say it's been rendered less valuable than a base model Q so you're willing to purchase it hassle free for 300 bucks.

[AZhitman]

^ This, all day.

I can refer you to a shop that will price out converting to standard suspension, but he's in AZ. He's an ex-dealer MasterTech, who runs an independent, and has extensive experience with the Active Q.

[Onestoptekshop]

please ill pm you my info

[Q451990]

made of unobtanium

Ha! Yeah, I'm going to have to put that one in my vocabulary.

Ditto on not doing any more of the insurance company's leg work. The most you should need is confirmation that the damage exists to the parts, and that it would have reasonably been caused by the accident.

I guess the question becomes, does the other driver's insurance totaling your car immediately trigger a payout by your agreed value insurance to get you to the $13K? If not, you may still be in the driver's seat on getting quotes for them, depending on how that policy is written. I suspect they have a better way of dealing with this situation than a standard car insurance company.

[Onestoptekshop]

The claim will go through mine to get full value his insurance only wanted to pay out less than the $6200, with that value it would be a total either way. My insurance is the one needing the quote. They will then go after his to be reimbursed for the 13900. It's the value of 13,900 my insurance is not wanting to total it because they say the estimate is not for more than half the value of car. Quote for body damage is 4300. So that's why i need to get the quote if it was other guys insurance than your right. To go fight with my insurance on this I need ammunition to combat them.

[BadQ45t]

I wouldn't even work anymore cycles on this, you have a declared value, smart, I have $7,500 on my 97' Q. I would just tell you insurance company, here are the keys, YOU FIGURE THIS OUT or just pay me. You should hold your own carrier liable 100% and let them go after the subjugation of the other insurance company.

One thing you might also do is call everythinginfiniti which is Scotsdale Infiniti's parts department. If anybody can source those parts it would be them....but if this was me I'd just tell my insurance company fix it or pay me.

[Onestoptekshop]

Thanks my man I appreciate it. I'm doing just that today I dropped keys and car to my lawyer and having him handle it from here out.

[Q451990]

All of this has made me think I might want to consider some kind of agreed value policy on my Q. Probably the wrong time to ask, but do you think these policies are worth it? What kind of premium cost compared to regular insurance have you experienced, and what sort of restrictions did the policy put on you? Things like maximum miles driven per year, stuff like that... ?

[Onestoptekshop]

Less than 5k miles the policy cost me just 1400 for the year would have been 800 without agreed value. I think it is if you have an active car that is functioning it's a very rare car now. If I had a regular q45 with less than 60k I would also recomend it. It's going to be awhile before the value gets great for the regular q. Also had to be garage kept and verified (miles/condition) by them every 6 months. I would get it again I paid $3200 for the q and getting 13.9k back is a profit of 6k after maintenance cost, gas, purchase price, insurance, etc.

[BadQ45t]

Okay boys, be ready to be VERY jealous. I insure both both 1984 300ZX and my 97" Q45 as "Hobby Cars" while i have full insurance on my XTerra as my main driver. So the trick for this is you need another car as full time driver (or you say that) and then you can get coverage for $800 a YEAR for both cars at $7,500.
Now if this is still your full time driver, then you ask the agent to re-work your policy so you declare the value, which I bet you will not be on the hook for much more than you pay now.

[Onestoptekshop]

Okay boys, be ready to be VERY jealous. I insure both both 1984 300ZX and my 97" Q45 as "Hobby Cars" while i have full insurance on my XTerra as my main driver. So the trick for this is you need another car as full time driver (or you say that) and then you can get coverage for $800 a YEAR for both cars at $7,500.
Now if this is still your full time driver, then you ask the agent to re-work your policy so you declare the value, which I bet you will not be on the hook for much more than you pay now.

I was thinking of going that route but It would have a max agreed value of 10k. That would have been like 1k to go that route. Nevada has one of highest insurance costs.

[PetersQs]

Never heard of agreed value insurance. Must check this out.

[Onestoptekshop]

Never heard of agreed value insurance. Must check this out.

It's done by haggerty and a few others.

[BadQ45t]

No, it is done by Farmers too, Haggerty is a good way to go, if I didn't have such a cheap option with them.