4 Year-old Repair Failing. Any Recourse?

[plandsman]

I have a 2007 VW Passat that was in an accident in 2012. The vehicle was insured by Farmers and repaired at a Volkswagen dealer's own body shop but with non-OEM parts. Apparently the shop was not in the Farmers "Circle of Dependency" so repairs are not guaranteed.

4 years later, there are at least 5 parts failing on the corner of the vehicle that was repaired with non-OEM parts. The paint is coming off, two headlight housings are completely loose and two other parts are cracked. My current insurance company, Progressive, says this is not a covered collision or comprehensive loss since there was a collision that occurred before I had coverage with them.

Further hurting me, I now live 1,500 miles from the body shop that did the lousy repair.

Any suggestions on recourse? I've learned my lesson not to bother with the OEM parts fight but to always use an insurance company's preferred shop so repairs are guaranteed.

Will my premiums go up for making a claim that Progressive knew within 5 minutes they wouldn't pay anything on?

 

[xrac]

The worst body work I ever had done on a vehicle was at a Volkswagen Body Shop. Paint peeled within two years.

 

[togatown]

I have a 2007 VW Passat that was in an accident in 2012. The vehicle was insured by Farmers and repaired at a Volkswagen dealer's own body shop but with non-OEM parts. Apparently the shop was not in the Farmers "Circle of Dependency" so repairs are not guaranteed.

4 years later, there are at least 5 parts failing on the corner of the vehicle that was repaired with non-OEM parts. The paint is coming off, two headlight housings are completely loose and two other parts are cracked. My current insurance company, Progressive, says this is not a covered collision or comprehensive loss since there was a collision that occurred before I had coverage with them.

Further hurting me, I now live 1,500 miles from the body shop that did the lousy repair.

Any suggestions on recourse? I've learned my lesson not to bother with the OEM parts fight but to always use an insurance company's preferred shop so repairs are guaranteed.

Will my premiums go up for making a claim that Progressive knew within 5 minutes they wouldn't pay anything on?

Unfortunately, in this case, you only have the body shop's warranty to work with.
Generally, one of the selling points of using an insurer's preferred shop, is that they stand behind shop's repairs for as long as you own the car.

 

[INSUREGEEK]

Even with the shop's warranty, at least in shops around here, that "lifetime" warranty only covers OUR actual work. Parts are subject to the manufacturer warranty which is generally a year on new parts, with Aftermarket or OEM. It's less on used/recycled/reconditioned parts. Paint is guaranteed for 7 years.

My advice is to take to a shop near you for an estimate and expert opinion. Could be the crappy A/M parts that were used, or could be a faulty installation or improper paint prep process. At least then you'll have some insight and might be able to make negotiate some help from the shop that did the repair. My shop has worked with people in a similar situation.

On another note - it is complete BS that a dealer body shop would use non-OEM parts. The actual COST difference is sometimes surprisingly small. It's the dealer markup on OEM's that make them so expensive. I can get my VW dealers to price-match non-OEM's all day long. And if I were a VW shop....no way would I put anything less on a customer's car if there were any way at all to avoid it. I suppose some shops just don't care.

In the rare case that I can't get a price match, I give the customer the option of paying the difference.

Good Luck.

 

[INSUREGEEK]

Yes I agree you should go to the repair shop recommended by the insurance company.

I disagree. Here's why:

The insurance company recommends shops they have signed contracts with. Those contracts promise referral business from the insurance co in exchange for various discounts and concessions.

But any shop worth their salt offers the EXACT same guarantee/warranty that the insurance company "guarantees" from their preferred list - to each and every customer coming in the door.

The dirty little secret is that the whole "guarantee" thing has limitations no matter what....as I tried to outline above. Bad work = shop problem. Bad part = Manufacturer/Seller problem, which they are not going to resolve past their specified date. Get the insurance involved in a bad repair issue and they'll throw it back on the shop every time, contracted or not. So what difference does it really make?

OP needs a professional opinion on what could have gone wrong, and enlist the services of a collision repair facility that knows how to navigate this process.