greg that's good stuff to hear. i've been with State Farm for some time. Have 4 cars, a boat and three houses insured with them (two are inexpensive rentals owned with others but i'm the guy that does the grunt work and picks the insurance) and will hopefully get the good service I feel i've earned.

so far so good. they tried to pitch me on a 'special service member' shop (or some such moniker) but i told the girl there is no way i'm letting some random shop do this work. they are towing the car 158 miles to the shop i want to use and honestly i'm pretty thrilled with that. i'd have been waiting till mid April to take it there myself. they even insisted they were going to reimburse me for the $8 towing i paid (over AAA coverage).

was kicking myself for not getting hagerty or similar but if SF takes care of me here with little hassle they will have a very loyal customer.

The shop recco=she's required to do that as part of her job. The field adjusters are a mixed lot, but they'll have so little experience with your car that they'll punt to the experts. You might end up out of pocket a grand or so, or maybe to the good a grand or so, but the car is the thing, and I suspect it'll work out fine. If it were a hyundai or lexus or whatever, they'd take a harder line, but they have little frame of ref for your car, so you'll have more area to play.

And yes, they're aware of your relationship w/ them. They won't do break their internal rules b/c of it, but you'll get the benefit of the doubt in close calls.