Johnny Sauter Wins!

SafeAuto Insurance Company, a leading state-minimum Insurance provider based in Columbus, Ohio, is the proud sponsor of NASCAR Camping World Truck Series driver Johnny Sauter and the No.13 SafeAuto Truck. In the final race of the season, Sauter executed a near-flawless performance at Homestead-Miami Speedway, taking home the checkered flag and winning his second race of the 2011 campaign.
“What a phenomenal year,” remarked Sauter. “I’ve always wanted to have two wins in the NASCAR series in the same year, so this is a huge accomplishment.” Earlier in the year, Sauter won one of the most exciting races of the season by defeating Kyle Busch at Martinsville. Sauter finished the 2011 season second in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series points standing and was a threat for the championship all year long. The Necedah, Wisconsin native finished in the top ten an astonishing 16 times!

The No.13 Truck has been vying for the championship all year long and SafeAuto has been thrilled to be a sponsor. The famous SafeAuto logo received amazing exposure throughout the country at famous racetracks such as Daytona, Bristol, and Talladega. SafeAuto also leveraged the sponsorship by conducting nationwide competitions on Facebook for “VIP” trips to races and routinely posting behind-the-scenes videos. “SafeAuto has been a huge supporter!” said Sauter. “They were extremely hands-on with this sponsorship and that was cool to see.”

“ SafeAuto was proud to have its name on the No. 13 truck this season. Johnny Sauter and the ThorSport race team were excellent partners during the 2011 Camping World Truck Series.” exclaimed SafeAuto President Jon Diamond. “We couldn’t have envisioned a better way to end the 2011 season then by winning this final race at Homestead.”

It's happened to almost every car owner. You're driving down the road minding your own business when you get involved in a collision. Or somebody isn't paying attention in a parking lot and you wind up trading paint with another car. Or you come out to your vehicle to discover that some moron has dented or scratched your fender and then ran off.

Almost everyone seems to experience the same immediate response.

"GaaaAAAHHHHH!"

Eventually, they contact their auto insurance company and file a claim. After all, that's what car insurance is for, right? To pay for those unexpected repairs (after you meet your deductible, of course).

But how do insurance companies figure out how much to pay for? What's their estimating process like?

"Tell me the price of a front quarterpanel on an '05 Mustang!"

Each auto insurance firm arrives at their estimates a bit differently, but the basic process is pretty much the same. Insurers document what needs to be fixed or replaced, come up with a figure for how much it will cost, and work with a repair shop to complete those repairs.

Many companies employ appraisers who will visually inspect your vehicle for damage and formulate a report describing what they found. In some cases, photos taken by the vehicle owner can be substituted for an appraiser's report.

Most insurers use what is known as a Mitchell Manual as a reference for tabulating parts and labor costs for a given repair job. This piece of software (which used to be packaged as a huge catalog in the pre-computer days - hence the name) lists the approximate price for every part, feature, or accessory on every type of vehicle, along with the labor costs associated with its installation. The computer program uses this data to calculate the total cost of a repair, then subtracts the policy deductible to arrive at a monetary amount to be provided to the car owner.

Some auto insurers ask that the vehicle owner get one (or two or three) repair estimates from local repair shops. These estimates are then factored in to the final coverage amount given to the policyholder. Different insurers place different levels of emphasis on these customer-provided estimates.

Auto insurance companies have relationships with numerous repair shops around the country, and they work with these shops to negotiate repair prices for their policyholders' vehicles. However, you can always ask that the work be completed at a repair shop of your choice. In these cases, insurance firms either consult with the chosen shop directly or simply give you a fixed dollar amount to be used for your vehicle repairs.

Your insurance agent can probably tell you more about the nuts and bolts of your company's repair estimation process. But you can feel secure in knowing that your auto insurance provider will do whatever it can to keep you happy. They know that the auto insurance market is competitive - and that dissatisfied customers have plenty of choices if they want to switch insurers.

And now, the mandatory shameless plug.

Image credits: growingguides.com, villagetattler.com, online.safeauto.com.

Boom! There goes another Kia

It's hard to explain the American fascination with viewing the destruction of brand new things. Some people feel regret at the sight of the loss of something shiny and full of promise. Others relish the visceral experience of watching beauty meet its demise.

People in both camps would have been drawn to an unusual sight taking place in an out-of-the-way corner of the country - just outside Cornersville, Tennessee to be exact. That's where earlier this month, hundreds of brand new Kia vehicles were fed into a huge metal crusher and flattened beyond recognition.

Why did this happen?

To find the answer, we have to go back to October 10 when a train derailed in this area in the wee hours of the morning. Thankfully, no one was injured - but 16 train cars carrying brand new Kia vehicles left the tracks and wound up scattered over a wide area. A total of 230 Kias were in those derailed cars, and all but 13 of the South Korean-made vehicles sustained some level of damage.

Here's the rub: because train companies (understandably) insure their cargo heavily, all of the vehicles were claimed as losses and the policyholders were reimbursed accordingly. (Think of it as having a really good auto insurance policy!) Therefore, since all of these cars have been effectively "paid for," they could not be salvaged and resold to consumers. Instead, they all had to be destroyed - even the undamaged 13 vehicles (as well as many others who reportedly suffered only minor exterior dents).

So that's exactly what happened. First, the vehicles were photographed and their VIN numbers burned away. Then the cars' tires were slashed, the batteries taken out, and the fluids drained from their compartments. Finally, stacks of three cars were wrapped in netting and compressed into a rectangular-shaped hunk of metal that was slightly bigger than one regular car. Each unit was loaded onto a flatbed truck to be hauled off to nearby Pulaski, where they will be processed into a form that can be melted into metal to make new vehicles. (Interestingly, the derailed train cars themselves will also be cut up into pieces for recycling purposes - although that process will take longer.)

Observers might find it wasteful and pointless to destroy the 13 Kias which could have been sold new or the other partially damaged vehicles that some people might have been willing to purchase at a discount. However, the decision to crush the cars was made in an abundance of caution to prevent a bad situation from becoming worse. After all, what would happen if any of these Kias from the train was sold to a customer and later involved in an accident due to a defect that was not visible during a casual post-derailment inspection?

That's why hundreds of spanking new Kias were destroyed in a Tennessee field. The silver lining to all this is that it gave people a chance to see something that doesn't happen every day.

Image Courtesy: marshalltribune.com