Mike1234

Progressive is my auto insurance in U.S. My 2017 Macan GTS only has 70k miles, bought new in 2016. Days ago, I drove through deep water, the deepest might be around headlight; my bad that I did not realize the water can be so deep on a road right after it started to rain. When the car was in the water, ACC/PAS unavailable warning was on for few seconds and never showed up again. After I arrived home after 10 mins drive, I got the 'Power stearing fail, More effor needed, Driving permitted' warning on my dashboard, and Start/Stop operation deactivated warning message also. The car hit some small tree branches in the water too and it stuck into the car, though no cosmetic damage other than the little black cover next to the headlight is missing. The steering wheel is locked, so I called the insurance and towed to a good mechanical shop; the shop only accept payment from me and I need to get payment from the insurance. The intial quote is $5800 to replace the steering gear, and the insurance company requests the shop to open the area around steering gear to show them the indications that water had been there, or the insurance won't pay for it. The shop said they can do that, which is $700 more labor cost and one more week of wait. The shop has to fix the steering gear first, in order to drive the car safely to the full inspection area to do the inspection to find any other damages. Does everything so far sound right? Will the car still be safe to drive even after getting fixed? Or would it be totaled? Would it be better for the shop to do full inspection without fixing the steering gear fist, if I can tow it to the inspection area, in case we actually later found the car needs to be totaled. I don't want to reimburse insurance company the repair cost if they later figured that the car should be totaled. Really appreicate any help or advice.

Tim Cooper

Personally i'd have towed it home and put it in an air conditioned garage to dry out for a week while submitting a claim notification, keep it on a battery maintainer and pray.
If you look where the air intakes are you're incredibly lucky not to have taken in enough to lock the engine.

If you've told the insurance company the full story they're being extremely generous to entertain a claim.

CavallinoRed

Agree. I'd bring it home and give it a bit of drying time in a heated garage. But if a garage is not available, I would bring it home regardless and put it on a battery tender.

Not saying this might magically solve your issues, but assuming you have good insurance, get the closest Porshe dealer or authorized shop in your insurance network, and take it there.

You should be using a certified shop that can deal directly with your insurance. Putting yourself on the hook for the repair and hoping that your insurance will cover it will lead to you crying. Find a shop that can directly bill your insurance !!

Mike1234

There is no shop in their network can take this job. I have Progressive as my insurance. The Porsche official dealer said they are willing to negotiate with insurance and take direct payment from them; their regular labor cost without working with insurance is $235 though and they quoted a little more time for things. Though the shop I took the car to, is much more popular among Porsche owners with much lower labor rate at $158/hr and much better skills. The dealer said they can match for the labor cost. Now my insurance wants to deduct 1.5 hours from the quoted 4 hours for steering gear replacement and deduct 1.5 hours from the quoted 3 hours for headlight washer spray repair.

Wilder

I had the electronic steering rack fail driving through heavy rainfall. Cost me $1500 to replace with a rebuild part. It's more common than people realize with all brands of cars. At $5,800 + $700, you need two more estimates from shops that specialize in rebuilding electronic steering racks.

Mike1234

This is replacement because I drove through flooded road, just the part is $3000. Both the dealer and the shop quoted for $5800 including the diagnosis and replacement. My city does not have many other shops being able to work on Macan and my car is not drivable, hydrolock on the power steering, so many places don't wnana give me quote without seeing the car. I am in Columbus OH

Wilder

I hear you. Same problem as me. I had to tow my car 200mi to a specialty shop due to no steering. I replaced with a rebuild because the rack is not a complex part. If insurance is paying for it, get it done by the dealer and have the dealer provide the insurance co the necessary paperwork.

Mike1234

Thank you. Now the insurance wants to deduct 1.3 hours, when the shop (I took it to the best shop because dealer is much more expensive) quoted for 4 hours to replace the steering gear, so insurance only wants to pay for 2.7 hours for the replacement; and the insurance wants to also deduct 1.5 hours from the 3 hours shop quoted for headlight washer sprayer repair. The insurance said unless I can find the guide to show them, the guide both the shop and dealer said they follow and quote for that many hours, and neither of the shop and dealer wanna send me that guide or even screenshots of the two jobs. What can I do here? Anyway to find that guide?

WillinEvergreen

Why can't you take it to the dealer and let the dealer act as your advocate with the insurance company? I'm guessing that the dealer has lots of experience with this type of thing.

DHL

All insurance companies want to haggle with the body or repair shop for any repair. In many cases the Insurance companies have dedicated body shops whose labor rates and billable times are pre-arranged to make the insurance company happy and minimize negotiation. But in your case because the repair shop is a Porsche dealer, all they will provide is an estimate and will not justify their rates or costs to any insurance company. You may have to have the dealership fix the car at whatever that costs, and see how much of that bill the Insurance company pays after that, be prepared to cover the difference yourself.

DHL

It depends on the dealership. If they have an attached bodywork shop to repair accident damage then you are probably right, as they will have to deal with Insurance companies for most accident repairs. But some dealerships do not like dealing with Insurance companies at all and feel that shop work rates and billable times are not negotiable beyond an estimate provided prior to work on a job.

Marv

I would tell Progressive to work this out with Porsche and get the car fixed. You should not be in the middle of this at all.

It wouldn't hurt to have an attorney's phone number handy, but this should sort itself out on its own.

WillinEvergreen

I see. Thank you.

Tim Cooper

I'd think the fundamental problem is that the OP went through water far deeper than allowed in the manual. I'm sorry to say thus not in the middle but at the sharp, pointy, unpleasant end.

I've BTDT myself and been extremely lucky, we do have the concept of contributory negligence.

Mike1234

I did not use dealer, it is a shop which is cheaper. And we tried to use insurance in-network shops but none of them is willing to do the job. The labor rate as this placee is already lowest we can find among all the shops who can do the job.