A New Mexico man and his son have shared their story of a lesson in seeking out proper repair repairs and returning vehicles back to pre-collision state.

It all began when Manoj Bhardwaj’s son, Thaaj, hit a decorative boulder with his 2016 MINI Cooper S in their neighborhood while trying to navigate around another car. There was damage to his front wheel so they filed a claim with their insurance company, State Farm. However, they found out later it wasn’t properly repaired at a repair shop recommended by State Farm.

State Farm recommended a repair facility to the customer and they heeded the recommendation. Bhardwaj later discovered it wasn’t properly repaired at the insurance-recommended facility.

“When my son was driving home from school he said he had to turn the steering wheel 90 degrees to kind of get it going straight,” Bhardwaj said. “When he made it home, he wanted to check to see what was going on so he pulled it out of the garage into the cul de sac and that’s when the front wheels completely went in opposite directions. Luckily, it didn’t happen any other time. That would have been very scary.”

From their own research, the Bhardwajs realized the MINI’s steering rack was supposed to be replaced according to technical documentation from the manufacturer. The steering rack wasn’t replaced by the repair facility that performed the initial repairs. This prompted the vehicle owner to seek counsel from another shop, which was a BMW-certified repair facility, where the need for a steering rack replacement was confirmed, Bhardwaj said.

The BMW Certified Repair Center was contracted to perform the re-repair on the MINI but declined to install a used steering rack as State Farm requested because that could’ve meant an unsafe repair. They felt it necessary to use an OEM steering rack according to specific repair instructions from the automaker.

The second shop the Bhardwajs took the MINI to declined to install a used steering rack as State Farm requested because that could’ve meant an unsafe repair; they felt it necessary to use an OEM steering rack according to repair instructions from the automaker.

Thaaj Bhardwaj added, “Hearing that State Farm’s trying to instruct certified people on how to fix a car was really strange to me because it’s not like some corporate office worker knows how to repair a car like the people that work at [repair facilities] do. When I got this car back [from the initial shop], I noticed it was driving really strange and I went back a couple of times because they didn’t put in certain screws… they just fixed it on the spot.

“All they said was, ‘Oh, you’re probably hyper-aware. We couldn’t have done anything wrong.’ They didn’t even tell us about this whole steering rack thing. This was right before we learned about the steering rack issue from our research. The fact that they think they can just not tell us and get away with it gave me the idea that it’s some big company just trying to bully around little consumers.”

State Farm wasn’t willing to cover the full repair with OEM parts; only about 60% of the total cost, Bhardwaj said.

Bhardwaj’s total bill was $10,500 and the $4,000 difference was for an OEM part versus aftermarket.

In October 2023, State Farm ended its yearslong suspension on the use of “non-OEM crash parts,” i.e. aftermarket parts.

“State Farm will sunset the current suspension of all non-OEM crash parts, when available and appropriate, for both policyholder and claimant estimates,” the carrier wrote in an Oct. 16 memo to its Select Service® repair centers.

The steering rack on the Bhardwajs’ MINI failed about six months later in March 2024.

“We’d done a lot of research and learned how important the steering rack is,” he said. “We decided to file a small claim [in court] for the difference between what they had approved and the total cost, which was about $4,000 or so… The repair facility had repaired the vehicle and they were asking for the full amount and State Farm wasn’t going to pay any of it until we had settled our case, which meant that we were out of a vehicle for many more months.

Recently, nearly a year after the first repair, the Bhardwajs settled with State Farm for $12,000.

“I was pretty shocked that these steering racks should be repaired per manufacturer guidance and somehow an insurance company can override that. I’m guessing they’re betting on the fact that it would be hard to prove it was this [particular part] that failed and maybe that’s why they’re willing to take that risk. I just don’t understand why anyone would take the risk for that amount.”

Bhardwaj added doing so also didn’t make sense to him because repair procedures from the automaker provided all the reasons why the steering rack should be replaced with an OEM part. He said their repair experience with State Farm caused him to have ongoing concerns about cars on the road that have been improperly repaired and could cause a collision.

“Considering how my son’s vehicle failed and the fact that he actually drove on the interstate quite a bit — it’s scary to me,” he said. “It’s just not worth the dollar amount.”

Before State Farm changed its policy on the use of aftermarket parts, a California shop experienced a similar repair issue to the Bhardwajs.

Despite alignment data, OEM instructions and a “notchy and heavy” vehicle feel, State Farm in 2020 refused to cover a new steering gear assembly on a late-model BMW.

“I had to have the customer sign a specific waiver from BMW North America acknowledging he is taking an unsafe vehicle,” Pacific BMW body shop manager Andrew Batenhorst wrote in an email at the time.

The customer refused to pay out-of-pocket for the steering gear, prompting the shop to demand the motorist’s signature on BMW’s waiver.

The BMW waiver also calls for the insurance company’s signature, but “they refused,” Batenhorst said of State Farm.

The 2020 article written by RDN prompted the Bhardwajs to reach out and share their story.

Images

All photos of Bhardwaj’s MINI were provided to Repairer Driven News by Thaaj Bhardwaj.

More information

State Farm allegedly pushes for total loss settlement, ignores shop and customer