Car Accident, insurance comp. and body shop problems.

[darkgargoyle]

What is the name of your state? Kansas

August of last year, I was hit by an old lady who wasn't paying attention to the road and turned straight into me. The front bumper of her car hit the front driver side corner of my car, ruining my fender, bumper, hood and headlight, leaving her with a few dents and scratched paint.

Anyhow, I had full coverage with Progressive and she had insurance through Farmers. I chose to make her insurance comany pay since she was the one at fault for not looking at the road, which she readily admitted to me and the police.

So I took my car in to the body shop and got an estimate for her insurance company. Well, those estimates are written in mostly abbreviations, and I don't know enough about cars to decifer it, so the guy told me what would need done: a new headlight, a new fender, a new bumper and impact cushion, and a new hood.

I took my car back in to leave for about 4 or 5 days and the ladies insurance company paid for a rental car for me until my car was done. When I went to pick up my car, a friend and I noticed that the headlight had some factory glue in it, so we checked the rest of the car. A small area of paint on the fender was messed up, the hood was never replaced (it was merely buffed out, not even painted), the paint was bubbled on the bumper and the paint on the driver side door was scratched.

Upon complaining to the body shop owner, I was told that I would have to take it up with the insurance company since they are the ones who paid for it. A lady was sent out to the body shop to meet me and so I could show her all that was wrong. She agreed and made the body shop repaint the bumper, fender and door and readjust and paint the hood (the headlight was replaced without question before).

They did so. I was carless for a few days, but that was ok I guess. But when I went back to get my car again, I noticed they still hadn't done a very good job. The fender looked great, so did the bumper, but there were holes in the paint of the hood and it still was not aligned properly, there are bubbles in the clear coat on the driver's side door, scratches on the passenger side fender, the roof was starting to turn white, and the weather stripping is ragged. One mudflap was also missing, and the other not connected properly, so the headlight wires were always hanging out close to the tire, and anytime I turned the car, that tire grinded on the mudflap, which finally broke it.

I complained again to the insurance agent, but was told that "the knicks in the hood are rock chips that would only get worse with every layer of paint added, there was nothing wrong with the hood alignment, it was impossible that the door have bubbles in the clear coat because she stood there and watched them redo my car and they didnt paint back that far on the door, they only painted the very front, where they scratched it before." She wouldn't even hear me out on the rest of it.

My car is like that to this day. But I believe I should get my car back exactly as it was before the accident, should I not? I realize that these things are mostly little, and that some of the flaws aren't noticable to those who don't know they are there. But it is wrong to say something is fixed when it's not. I just want my car to look like it used to.

My dad suggested taking the car to a real dealership and having them check out everything and tell me what was human flaw and what simply happens to all cars. I am wondering if there's some way to take the body shop and insurance company to court to at least get the car fixed properly elsewhere.