An adjuster's view of Carrie Underwood's "Before He Cheats"

You've heard the song, no?

For the unspecified "pretty little souped-up four wheel drive," I've used a 2003 Dodge Dakota as the proxy. It's a mid-sized pickup truck, smaller than full-size trucks, but not a Chevy S-10, either. I think it's safe to assume from the other cultural cues in the song that we're dealing with an American truck. Also, a Dakota in that year had the key options mentioned in the song: two headlights (as opposed to a quad setup) and leather seats

I dug my key into the side: shallow key damage can be buffed out, but since the narrator dug in, we'll assume a repaint of at least one panel. The worst, cheapest paint shop out there is going to charge about $150 for that job, and a more likely estimate is $300, which also covers us if the narrator hit two panels.

carved my name into his leather seats: it's tough to get an exact price without seeing the damage, but assuming that the "carving" was sufficient to be beyond the abilities of a leather cut kit to fix, this is a conservative estimate for replacing two leather seat panels, including labour: $500

I took a Louisville Slugger to both headlights: 2 @ $85.07 ea: $170.14

slashed a hole in all four tires: tricky, because sidewall damage is usually irrepairable, but tread-side damage often is. But the typical casual tire-slasher is going to hit the sidewall, so well cost it as four tires. The Goodyear Wranglers I picked are on/off-road tires, and neither the most nor the least expensive in their class: 4 @ $150 ea: $600.

Our first-cut estimate is $1570.14. Interestingly, in Oklahoma, that would be misdemeanor destruction of property, as felony destruction starts at $2500.

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