Facts on Saving Your Deductible:

From time to time we are faced with a request from a vehicle owner to "Save Their Deductible", when the vehicle is covered by insurance. Here are points to consider before you enter into a repair with a collision repair facility that says they can "Save or bury you deductible".

     1. Conspiring to "bury the deductible" is committing fraud upon an insurance company and is illegal.

     2. Insurance company appraisers know the costs of repairs, as well as collision repair facilities and cannot be fooled by inflated estimates.

     3. If a shop agrees to "bury your deductible", it has to take short cuts during the repair process resulting in a second rate repair. This will depreciate the value of your vehicle.

     4. A collision repair facility willing to cheat an insurance company will be equally willing to cheat the vehicle owner. A collison repair facility never really absorbs the deductible. The value is taken right out of the repair job. It's the vehicle owner that still takes the loss.

     5. If the collision repair facility decides to cut corners during the repair and it results in a second class repair, the vehicle owner has no one to complain to if they conspired to "bury the deductible".

The wisest thing to do that will protect you and your investment is to have a first class, professional repair done at a first class professional collision repair facility. Then be glad ALL you have to pay is the deductible.

Reprinted courtesy of AASP-MO AUTOMOTIVATION July 2004

Huey’s Honda is a St. Louis Honda Dealer.