I had to jump through similar hoops with my e46 with my (otherwise great) insurance company. Wrote appraisal from about ten feet away in the rain that was utterly worthless. Car was likely a total loss even from there but was only 50% of the market value. Second it was on the lift, the rest of the damage (that I had detailed and emailed pictures when I had it up at my house) was obvious and it totaled out.
This was a 10 week process.
Good luck.
I understand your motivation. If it's a $10k repair, then what's the point of putting the time in to cut off the quarter to only confirm that later. It makes sense.
Unfortunately, that's not how the game is played. Supplements are the name of the game. I've never had a claim that didn't require a supplement later. What I'm not sure of is how it works when the initial estimate is low enough to fix and the supplemental is high enough to total. You still are justified a full reimbursement amount minus deductible, the shop is justified the time it took to get to the hidden crap. I assume the insurance company now has to give you the $10k and the shop the $1k and they then get to tow away a CRV minus a quarter panel, and are out a grand more than if they had just totaled it up front, but I'm not sure.
In reply to DILYSI Dave:
You're on the right track. If an appraiser looks at a car and thinks it's a borderline total loss, it's very common to pay the shop for a few hours of labor to just rip off the surface panels and expose hidden damage underneath. Then you can get a pretty good handle on the actual damage and decide if the car is repairable. I'd much rather pay the shop a few hundred bucks to get a final determination quickly. It's better customer service and it's better for both the shop, customer and insurance. There is always a chance for additional supplements such as part price increases or a few extra materials, but they're generally small.
Sometimes there are circumstances where both the appraiser and the shop felt it was repairable, even after a teardown, and the final repair bill winds up costing more than the value of the car. It's fairly rare, but it happens. Those situations are handled on a case by case basis, but often the repairs are completed and paid for just like any other repair.
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