One thought is to ask the dealer if he can put you in a comparable car for the $14,200.00 his insurance company is offering.

If he says yes - then your in business. If he says no then use his valuation on a replacement car to negotiate with his insurance company. Get the dealer working for you rather than simply waiting to sell you a car.

 

+1 for the obvious and effective answer (wish I thought of that).

 

KBB states a retail value for a mcs equipped like yours @ $15,179. I don't see any reason why their insurance company would be quoting you a "private owner" sell price. If I were in your situation, I'd sure be staying close to the dealership that wrecked your car and insist that they find you a direct replacement for your car at a price equal to, or below the insurance settlement as suggested above.

 

I agree with the previous. The insurance should be paying the retail cost of what you would need to spend to buy a comparable car, not the wholesale value or the private party value if you were to sell the car yourself.

My guess is that if they made an initial offer of $14,200, they are probably authorized to go $1K higher immediately and if you would be satisfied with a cash payment of $16K, then I would make this offer to them. They might take it. If you can get out of this negotiation quickly at a price you're satisfied with, do it. Put this in the rearview mirror.

And I would prefer to be paid in cash rather than waiting indefinitely for them to find a comparable car. With cash, you'd have maximum flexibility to go do what you want - get another Mini like yours, get a new one, get a GTI, whatever. The silver lining in this is that with cash you are free to make a purchase of the car you'd buy to meet your needs and wants of today, not have to hunt around to find a version of the car you bought five years ago. And assuming you can negotiate effectively, you should be able to get full retail value out of your car, not trade-in or private party value which is all you'd get if you were trading in.

The only way I'd tend to go with the dealer getting you another car is if they happen to have something on the lot you really like - maybe not the same, but something that you would buy if you were in the market today. They might be very motivated to move you into a later model or nicer car if they thought the insurance settlement would cover what they paid for a trade. For example, if they have a 2009 manual transmission car with a color you like and good options, be willing to put a small amount of money into it and make them an offer. Be flexible. This gives them options to satisfy you and for you to negotiate your way to a good deal.

Limiting your choices to nearly identical cars is a good way to cut your choices, overpay, and lessen your flexibility to bargain into a better car. When I think about a dealer trying to find something comparable to my 2004, I know the odds are 10:1 that whatever car they find is not going to be as nice and as reliable as my well-cared for 2004.

- Mark

 

I had two total loss claims this year ao I have been through the drill. I didnuse Auto Trader prices in my negotiations the first time to challenge the offer. But remember it's value is limited because the prices are asking, not selling, prices.

I agree with Jaldeborgh's suggestion. Also, if I was negotiating with the dealer I might bridge the gap by getting him to throw in an extended warranty on any car i would purchase from him. There is value to your reducing your risk and future costs.

 

The holidays have slowed things down a lot, but I have just settled the amount from the insurance company. A lot of back and forth, with me sending them PDFs of comparable vehicles I could find, etc.

The total settlement is $16,500 which includes compensation for sales tax, registration, and transfer fees.

The next step will be to finish the paperwork with the insurance company (paperwork, yay!), and to visit my poor Mini to pull out my personal stuff and to drop off the rear seat.

Amusingly, they have that rear seat valued at $4000.....apparently they are made with gold springs or something....

Next step will be working with the dealership on a deal for another Mini...

--Terminal

 

Seems like a reasonable settlement given the comments in this thread. Are you pleased with the number? If so it looks like everything is working out. Best of luck in finding a replacement that you can get excited about.

 

Just curious...was your wrecked MINI paid for? Or did you still owe $$ on it?? I'm wondering what would happen in a situation like this if, for whatever reason, you still owed money on your wrecked MINI and were unable to get financing for a new one. Would you be SOL at that point??

Hope you find a nice(r) replacement. If you can find something comparable without all the engine troubles, then it might be a net gain at the end of the day.

 

Congrats on the settlement!

Couldn't help myself, but this looks really good:
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...fsilver&cat=12

Have fun looking and hope you find what you want.

 

If you owed money on it then you either pray you have GAP insurance, make it into an argumentative point when trying to get a steal from the dealership that crashed your car or, add it as negative equity on the new Mini(last one shouldn't be an issue as long as your new Mini is appraised higher than your loan). Most banks have a max of 105% loan-to-value ratio. The JCW I just picked up had a Black book value from the bank of 29k and I got it for ~21. I added some negative equity that I had on my trade in and took the rest as cash(woohoo cash flow!). The financing was for 0% so what the hey, free money!(well kind of) :P

 

I am very happy for you ... and mostly happy that YOU are (thats what it should be)

I must say ... I would have held out for a bit more or (a lot more) or been very sure to negotiate that IF you purchase another car from that very dealer that there would be a GREAT deal and an extended warrantee or warrantee discount .

 

Sounds like a very fair settlement. Now, it's up to the dealership to see if they'll go beyond 'fair'. I'm pretty sure they're going to be happy to have this behind them.

 

Sounds like a good outcome. Don't second guess; you'll just make yourself crazy.

 

Spoken for wisdom!

 

I'm curious as to what you would have held out for and why. It seems like the OP is on his way to a fair outcome. The original feedback from the dealer was less than $10K of damage which magically became a "Total" and then the original offer from the insurance company of $14.2K was moved to $16.5K. All of this suggests that the dealer was making an effort to make things right. Remember this was the result of an accident by a technician so the dealer wasn't trying to do anything other than service the OP's car. Accidents happen and it seems like the OP should come out of this mess just about whole so why try and put it to anyone as everyone has been reasonable and the results to date seem balanced. I'm sure no one feels good about the accident but stuff happens. The important thing is are people responding honorably and to this point and based on the comments in the thread; I would conclude, yes. Based on what I have read, I would not hesitate to use this dealer.

 

I would have loved to have held out for more, but the amount received seems to be about the best I could have done. So, I'm going to assume that it's the best and move on to the next phase, which is finding another vehicle.

Now, some people asked if I still owed money on it. The answer is yes, but I owe much less than the settlement. However, that means that to get another vehicle I have to look at getting another loan which may be trickier than I'd like (like many others the economic downturn definitely hurt me as well).

Looking at pricing for used Mini's, it is almost a given that getting a new one is my best path forward - especially in the SoCal market place they hold their value quite well.

I will be talking more with the dealership this weekend and trying to setup a plan forward where they make me a satisfactory offer on another Mini.

Thanks again for all your input!


--Terminal

 

Terminal, I strongly suspect that your level-headed approach to this situation helped a great deal in reaching this resolution. My compliments.

Kind regards,

Charlie

 

Agreed jumping up and down and threatening everyone typically does not yield positive results. I hope you find the RIGHT car.

 

I'd say that's not a foregone conclusion. Even the marketplace has a pretty good looking JCW, probably more, that's just the one that comes to mind right now. Also, if you're willing to travel 3-4 hours, look around Craig's List.

My experience in September was looking in San Diego / Los Angeles. All R56s in this area were highly priced, even from private parties. I looked on the outskirts of LA with Craig's List in Santa Clarita and I found an unbelievable deal, guy said he had been trying to sell for 4 months. The deal made it well worth the 3 hour drive, and to this day I'm really pleased with the deal.

The deals are out there, private parties aren't always great with advertising them, so if you've got time to look, you might find just what you're looking for.

Also, I'm glad to see all's well that ends well. Please follow up with a picture of the new addition once you've picked it out.

 

OP, it may behoove you to try and get the deal done while the financing offers are still as low as 0.9%. Even if you don't have stellar credit, you should be able to get something not much higher than that, and it sounds like you have a fair amount for a down payment which also helps.

 

Just to clarify this applies to publicly traded companies only and is an accounting term...on the balance sheet. Goodwill is the difference between the valuation of tangible assets (land, building, equipment etc) and the valuation of a company. The difference between the tangible assets and full valuation is intangible and booked as good will.

Not being a wise a$$ just trying to correct the Internet one post at a time.

And to TERMINAL thank you for being: calm, patient, reasonable with the dealer..most businesses even "BIG RICH DEALERS" aren't out there to screw people, they are out to make a living, provide services to people and employ others. If they do well, their communities thrive..if they don't...bad press, one small accident etc..no one benefits.

Good luck on the hunt...maybe time for a JCW..I've seen 2009s in the 19k range...depending on how far you can stretch yourself.

 

Sorry. My 25 year old, 15-pound business law book does not include the words "publicly traded companies only" in its definition. If you want to believe Wikipedia's definition, it says that goodwill in a private company has "no predetermined value", but since publicly traded companies are subjected to constant maket valuation goodwill is "always apparent".

terminal,

Glad you are nearing a resolution. Just make sure you are completely satisfied. I don't think you should be required to assume additional debt to get another vehicle. And the dealer shouldn't profit from their employee's carelessness or negligence (sorry folks, accidents don't "just happen"). Don't let them talk you into financing a $26K car off your $16K settlement unless you really want to upgrade.

 

I used a combination if Wikipedia and the two awful awful accounting classes I had to take for my MBA..but no worries.

Funny but the only time goodwill had any relevance in my life was when I was watching American chopper and sr. tried to say jr.s 20% share was worthless based upon the balance sheet valuation... Anyhow.

 

Er this cant be true. As someone who has purchased medical practices before(and is always looking out for more to purchase and thus go through their books and selling prices rather often), a monetary value placed on goodwill does not apply to only publicly traded companies (last I checked Ive not had an IPO)

 

I have NO accounting experience so this could be bogus… but a concrete example helps me think through the concept so here is one from my experience: my dentist just retired this year and sold his practice to a young dentist. "Goodwill" is a way of valuing that in buying the practice, the new owner acquires many current clients, and though some will leave, many will stay — which beats the high cost and time of acquiring all new clients.

So "goodwill" is a measurement of the things that aren't assets -- like customers who bring you repeat business.

Have I got it more or less right?