Car insurance- "totaled" vehicle- update post #28

[Klayfish]

My experience was full value as if you bought one on a lot plus taxes. I think you are better off totaling it then trying to fix it. Do not agree to anything till you are statisfied. throw in a couple thousand for injuries. If it is clearly the other guys fault they will be anxious to settle and will give you a good deal. If they give you a hard time, use the magic word. chiropractor

Did I say make a false injury claim? Here is the deal, clean at fault accidents are pretty rare, and the party does need adequate insurance, which is often an issue. The insurance company knows you can take them to the cleaners, so accept nothing less that what you think is fair. You should not accept low blue book value in any conditions.

Well...yeah, the first post is pretty clear in saying to make a false injury claim. "Throw in a couple thousand for injuries...if they give you a hard time, use the magic word. Chiropractor." How else should we interpret what you said? I'd love to hear it.


"Clean at fault accidents" are not rare whatsoever.

Can you clarify what you mean by "take them to the cleaners"? Are you talking about trying to strong arm them to pay you more money than you're actually owed to be made whole? Not quite sure what you mean there.

 

[sk!mom]

Yes, it has happened to us 3 times. They will give you the value of the car taking into account things like new tires. If the car is still drivable, meaning the damage was cosmetic but the car was so old that even a few thousand in cosmetic repairs and a paint job exceed the value, you can take the settlement and keep the car. We did that once.

 

[leebee]

OP here. I filed the accident claim with our insurance company, but haven't heard back from them yet. It's a pretty clean "at fault" situation; while DD was making a left turn with her blinker on, the other guy tried to pass her on the left. It's a street with one lane in each direction, and a double yellow line. It just doesn't seem fair that although she didn't do anything wrong, she will be at a loss as I'm sure they'll total her car. There's no way we can replace DD's old car with another old car for what they'll pay us, I'm sure. I also reported injuries, as DD had a headache that afternoon, saw the nurse practitioner, and was told she has a slight concussion and whiplash. We won't be "going after" anyone on this, but I wanted to get it on record as having happened. We'll figure it out...

 

[Aimeedyan]

OP, that's been the most frustrating part of both of my accidents that resulted in a totaled car. Neither my fault, yet I did end up losing money, time off work, etc + I lost my car, which was valuable to me. It's not fair.

In both of my cases, I contacted my insurance company and let them deal with the other companies for reimbursement. They were a really great advocate for me and since I had good coverage, my rental car and medical was covered + I got a really good payout each time on my car. In one case, it actually was enough to turn around and buy the same car again. My company typically doesn't lowball settlements so I didn't have to fight for more money in either case.

In accident #1, I was hit by an uninsured motorist and I was not able to recoup my deductible. In the other accident, the companies fought over who was at fault for over a year and in the end, I was still out my deductible. Totally stinks.

I'm sorry this happened to your daughter

 

[Darcy03231]

OP here. I filed the accident claim with our insurance company, but haven't heard back from them yet. It's a pretty clean "at fault" situation; while DD was making a left turn with her blinker on, the other guy tried to pass her on the left. It's a street with one lane in each direction, and a double yellow line. It just doesn't seem fair that although she didn't do anything wrong, she will be at a loss as I'm sure they'll total her car. There's no way we can replace DD's old car with another old car for what they'll pay us, I'm sure. I also reported injuries, as DD had a headache that afternoon, saw the nurse practitioner, and was told she has a slight concussion and whiplash. We won't be "going after" anyone on this, but I wanted to get it on record as having happened. We'll figure it out...

It looks like you may have two claims. One for property damage and one for personal injury. When signing off on the property damage, make sure the insurance company doesn't add the personal injury in. I would leave that one open as sometimes it can take a while for any injuries to become apparent, especially with a whiplash/concussion injury. You should turn the doctor's bills for the visit with the Nurse Practitioner in to the insurance company too. Most policies have a medical payment part and you can reimbursed from that. Most states have a three year statute of limitations on personal injury, i.e. you have three years to file a suit, if necessary. If DD ends up being ok and you're not looking for compensation, I wouldn't sign off on anything - just let the statute of limitations run out. If, however, she develops problems down the road you might need to file a suit to preserve her claim if it's getting close to the three year date and the insurance company is balking at paying the bills.

 

[longboard55]

Well...yeah, the first post is pretty clear in saying to make a false injury claim. "Throw in a couple thousand for injuries...if they give you a hard time, use the magic word. Chiropractor." How else should we interpret what you said? I'd love to hear it.


"Clean at fault accidents" are not rare whatsoever.

Can you clarify what you mean by "take them to the cleaners"? Are you talking about trying to strong arm them to pay you more money than you're actually owed to be made whole? Not quite sure what you mean there.

What I am saying is you need to be aggressive in these situations. The first thing is to make it clear to everyone it was not your fault, no "not sures" or "maybes". Young drives tend to waiver, coach your kids on what to do and be firm on it. Then you need to make the other insurance know you are not playing games. You are dealing with professionals whose job is to pay you less. I would not agree to anything until you are satisfied.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

What I am saying is you need to be aggressive in these situations. The first thing is to make it clear to everyone it was not your fault, no "not sures" or "maybes". Young drives tend to waiver, coach your kids on what to do and be firm on it. Then you need to make the other insurance know you are not playing games. You are dealing with professionals whose job is to pay you less. I would not agree to anything until you are satisfied.

I just have to ask it sure sounds like you've had a bad or multiple bad experiences with insurance companies. Yes I would be confident about what occurred as long as I was telling the truth, yes I want to be satisfied but lord the truth is many car owners think their car is worth more than it is. An insurance company's sole purpose isn't to play games with you or to pay you less money. There are many factors that come into play: availability of parts, labor costs, value of the car according to the policy contract, etc.

 

[leebee]

OP back with an update. We have Progressive, owner of the car that hit DD has Geico, for insurance. DD ended up dealing with "Matt from Geico" for all this. He took her statement and said that the driver of the other car had a different story and they were finding that DD was jointly at fault. About a week later he called her again and asked if she could get them a copy of the police report. The driver of the other car wasn't returning their calls, and Matt said that if DD sent a police report they'd use that in determining fault. DD FAXed the report on Friday and on Tuesday they had her bring in her car for an inspection. They gave her a loaner and within 2 hours sent an estimate... almost $1900 and they agreed to cover it all, said they found the driver of their insured's vehicle entirely at fault! YAY!! DD's car is a 2005 PT Cruiser with 125K miles, and a few dings and dents, although pretty much mechanically sound. DD will get her car back tomorrow, in one piece!

 

[ColoradoDisneyFreaks]

Sounds like Geico stepped up and did the right thing by your DD, that's awesome!

 

[here757]

Did you ask what they were wearing?!

 

[hereyago]

I am so GLAD that the car wasn't totaled.

 

[mellvswdw1]

Did you ask what they were wearing?!

Probably not khakis, cause it's "Jake from State Farm" that wears kaikis. LOL!

 

[leebee]

Did you ask what they were wearing?!

No... because he didn't call in the middle of the night, LOL!

 

[xlxo]

Was there a lot of hair?

 

[bcla]

OP back with an update. We have Progressive, owner of the car that hit DD has Geico, for insurance. DD ended up dealing with "Matt from Geico" for all this. He took her statement and said that the driver of the other car had a different story and they were finding that DD was jointly at fault. About a week later he called her again and asked if she could get them a copy of the police report. The driver of the other car wasn't returning their calls, and Matt said that if DD sent a police report they'd use that in determining fault. DD FAXed the report on Friday and on Tuesday they had her bring in her car for an inspection. They gave her a loaner and within 2 hours sent an estimate... almost $1900 and they agreed to cover it all, said they found the driver of their insured's vehicle entirely at fault! YAY!! DD's car is a 2005 PT Cruiser with 125K miles, and a few dings and dents, although pretty much mechanically sound. DD will get her car back tomorrow, in one piece!

Glad it worked out for you.

My wife was involved in a collision, and personally I think it was partially her fault for a bit of inattention, but the other driver was coming from a stop sign and I think should have seen my wife coming and waited. However, the collision report written by the officer stated she was at fault for failing to yield to a car that was already in the intersection, even though the other driver was coming off of a stop sign. We got a letter from our insurer that they did their own assessment of the facts from the collision report and the statement of my wife, and concluded that the other driver was at fault for failure to yield coming off of a stop sign.

The collision report of course carries a lot of weight with insurers, but they will read it and sometimes come to their own conclusions.

 

[Tuffcookie]

DBF had his RAV 4 for about 6 mos. when he was rear-ended by a guy going about 30-35 mph. DBF was at a dead stop in traffic and happened to glance in his rear view mirror, luckily, and braced for impact! No one was hurt but it ended up costing arount $16,000 to fix his vehicle...half the cost of what he paid for it. Since it was so new he took it to the Toyota Dealership where he bought it. He had to take it back numerous times because some of the things that were repaired didn't function properly. Add to this frustration the fact that DBF likes to trade his car in about every 3 years. He is going to get shafted the next time because the accident will show up on the car fax report So, even though his car was supposedly restored to it's original state, it's value will be reduced and there's not a thing he will be able to do about it.

TC

 

[Cogswel_Cogs]

It sucks if you have a good reliable older car. Most of the time I was hit made out well, but cars were not ideal but only 4-6 years old. Right now second car is wonderful running 2003 Infinti, hoping no one hits it.

 

[John VN]

DBF had his RAV 4 for about 6 mos. when he was rear-ended by a guy going about 30-35 mph. DBF was at a dead stop in traffic and happened to glance in his rear view mirror, luckily, and braced for impact! No one was hurt but it ended up costing arount $16,000 to fix his vehicle...half the cost of what he paid for it. Since it was so new he took it to the Toyota Dealership where he bought it. He had to take it back numerous times because some of the things that were repaired didn't function properly. Add to this frustration the fact that DBF likes to trade his car in about every 3 years. He is going to get shafted the next time because the accident will show up on the car fax report So, even though his car was supposedly restored to it's original state, it's value will be reduced and there's not a thing he will be able to do about it.

TC

OH, so familiar.....

2007, DW and I were stopped for red light in left of 2 lane 55mph road. I look in mirror and see car approaching but it's pretty far back. NOT A PROBLEM because plenty of time to slow and STOP. WRONG! Only seconds after taking eyes off of mirror.....BAM! Driver never lifted from gas pedal or applied brakes. Car went into our trunk compartment and together we moved 200' through intersection before stopping. Thankfully we were first in line and cross traffic just cleared. DW still has effects from brain bleed and eye trauma. Very lucky because I just filled gas tank and had a pair of full 5 gallon gas cans in trunk. Gas was all over the street.

 

[mamacatnv]

Insurance is suppose to give you enough to replace her car. You do not have to accept their first offer. Have your daughter find the exact car she has now for sale. If insurance does not offer her enough to buy it, let them know.

We went thru three "totals", one due to another person, one due to theft and the last due to son's inattention. All were older, used cars.

The first one was the one with the other insurance. They offered us a pittance and so I challenged them to give me the address of where I could go look at said "comparable"........ they upped their offer significantly.
The car that son totaled was the one that puzzled me, the value of the car was about $5500, the damages to repair were $3500 - our insurance company refused to repair - they would only total. We argued but they would not budge, their threshold had been exceeded. We could have bought the car back at salvage and had it repaired BUT the cost to buy it back plus the repairs then made it a bad deal. Ultimately we settled and moved on but its always a hassle.

The car that was stolen was the easiest to settle up with our insurance carrier. They were generous and we came out of that deal with the funds to buy DS a like vehicle.

 

[Simba's Mom]

If someone hits your car and is clearly at fault, can their insurance company declare your car totaled if the damages exceed the value of the car? I can see how if I am at fault in an accident, my insurance company can decide to not repair my car, but can the at-fault person's insurance declare the innocent, other person's car to be totaled? DD was hit by a guy who was trying to pass her on the left while she was turning left. The cops issued the guy two separate violations, there's no question as to fault, but there's enough front end damage to DD's 2005 PTCruiser to make me think that his insurance will declare it totaled. How are we supposed to afford a new (which means old, used, but new to us) car on what the insurance will give her? This really seems unfair, if this is the way it works. Anyone have any experience here and care to chime in?

My mother had a similar instance where the other driver was clearly at fault, the guy's insurance company said her car was totalled and they were giving her the value. However, she insisted that she couldn't buy another car (the value of her car was only less than $2000, old car) and since she's alone, knows that car, etc., etc. they let her keep it and paid the value for the repairs. Yes, it was still drivable-all they needed to do was replace the door, but it doesn't take much to "total" a car that's worth that little. But anyways, I learned from her that it IS possible to refuse an insurance offer to total a car.