Me and my wife were awoken today to the sound of screeching tires, led to two crunches and our house being rocked. My wife's MINI was hit squarely in the rear driver wheel, which was pushed into my ranger, that slammed into our house. I was more worried about my wife getting ready to dig two shallow graves then my truck. When I opened the door to the house, the female in the car was in the driver seat. I go back inside to put more cloths on, and when I returned, she was in the passenger seat, they attempted to pull a switcheroo, and were not sure why. Either she didn't have a license since she looked real young, or because of insurance problems, but the cops saw right through it and they finally confessed who was driving. Our house's siding is broken, but no structural damage was done thankfully, and because I backed my truck in the driveway instead of pulling in, the truck is drivable, but the bed is smashed in pretty good on the one side.

I'm so upset because my wife loved that car sometimes more then me lol, and I didn't even get to finish up the custom fog light bracket I made, nor the Cooper S graphics on the side, and my big project, the big brake upgrade I've been researching using Mitsubishi 3000GT 4 piston calipers, and the R56/R59 JCW 12.5 in. Rotors.

We will pursue this till we either get one that is exactly like hers, or a brand new MINI Cooper (though a new one can't replace this one in our hearts, this was THEE perfect scenerio finding it, and never let us down) But If the insurance company will resell it to me, I might just strip it, find a donor car, replace what structure needs to be, and make it a race car, or a suprise for my wife by rebuilding it for her with no intent to resell it.

I'll post up some photos later when I get a chance, but you can clearly see she mistaken the gas for the brake, and the car just under steered into our cars.

 

Wow.. that´s sucks....


Mostly because the girl wanted to cheat... Anyways, She will learn the hard way.

As for the cars, all material things can be replaced... thank`s God you were not around when this happened....

 

Awwwww.... I hope you can work a deal and give the Mini a second-chance at life...

 

Sorry to hear about the car and truck. Glad that everyone is okay.

 

Really sorry about what befell your MINI!
What are the odds that the 'driver' was engaged in the latest plague to inflict itself upon society, texting while driving? A simple solution to this problem would be to restrict the ability of texting addicts with one of these -

(thumb screws)

 

So the claim adjuster came out today. Considered it a total loss by a couple hundred dollars oddly enough, and said the buy back would be $8300....no, not a typo, $8300..... I could buy a working MINI Cooper S with more miles with that, but the big difference IT WOULD RUN!!! So I know I'm getting screwed somewhere.

So I jacked the car up a little bit ago just to see how bad it is...and it's not. no frame damage!!! damn these cars are tough. What happened is the upper control arm bent in a Z-like shape, giving it that camber, so besides needing a new control arm, sway bar and link, it's all cosmetic, and I'm not giving up on this car. So I have a few calls to make tomorrow, and through the week I have a couple of places to take it and get a second opinion because after talking with a few people in the business it seems the big insurance companies would rather give you a check then go a few extra steps to see just how bad it is.

 

Oh and I got the police report back. The driver is 17 years old, and only had her drivers permit for less then 4 months..... Which only solidifies my statement that America has the worst drivers, because we have the worst driving schools, driving tests, and public schools are pathetic in teaching it.

 

Sorry to hear this incident and hopefully you can revive her without too much $$$$ involve. You got me curious on the 3000gt brake conversion.

 

I'll keep you up to date on that setup. Been developing it for about 4 months now, and you can't beat the price. Those calipers are made by Sumitomo, who also made the Nissan GT-R R32 Calipers, in fact these calipers are the exact same design, just the mounting tabs are made to fit which ever car.

The calipers are built to stop 3800lbs AWD cars, so they wouldn't flinch at a 2800lbs Coupe, and pads can be easily had at any parts store. 1st gen and 2nd gen VR4 calipers are the same pads/pistons/size, just mounting tabs are longer for the 12.5in. rotors (94-99)

VR4 1st gen Rotor size - 296mm
VR4 2nd gen rotor size - 314mm
R53 JCW rotor size - 293mm
Turner motorsports R56 JCW - 316mm

 

The buy-back amount was determined by calculating how much the handling insurance company could get for your MINI if you allow them to keep it and what return they would get for it by selling it as is. Fair, right?

What you have to decide... is it worth it for you to keep it, take the adjusted settlement money, and have it repaired. You can use their estimate of damages to help you decide.

You have to also consider the reduction in value your MINI would have should you try to sell it in the future.

Very sorry to read this happened to you and I hope it all works out fine for you in the end!

 

Really sorry to hear about your loss. Agree with the statement above. If you intend to NEVER sell the car than the depreciated value of the MINI due to it having a salvage title will not matter. If you can do most of the work yourself, then this could represent a good project car. Note you will have to go through a process of getting the car inspected and you may have some troubles getting insurance.

See if you can negotiate with the insurance company.. Get it down to $7000. If $8400 is the buy back hell i want my car totalled out!!!

Do you mind me asking how much they are offering as a settlement? Mileage and year?

Please post pictures of the damage.

 

Mileage - 87,718 2005 MCS Black on Black. They want to cut the check to me for 10,500/ I'll have to grab the wife's camera and take some shots lol. I'll put them up this afternoon.

 

yikes, i've had 3 close calls living in a college town similar to what you just experienced with your wife's mini.

 

I would grab a whole lot of ads off of autotrader and also kbb and Edmonds and fell them there is no way in hell you can replace that car for 10,500 get them to give you a check for 13k then buy the car back

 

An 05 with 87,000 miles ? Seems like a pretty accurate value assessment to me.

And remember, when you look at adds on the various sites, those are ASKING prices. The values we, and I'm sure most other insurers use, come from NADA Commercial and it uses the selling prices collected from auto dealerships. And it's more favorable to the owner of the vehicle than many of the other pricing tools you'll find out there.

Also, the value of the vehicle isn't necessarily what you can REPLACE the vehicle for (if you could find the exact twin of your vehicle out there). It's the actual value of your vehicle.

 

Yup. that car had almost everything but the glass top roof, that my wife wanted in a MINI, color and all, so to find one with similar mileage, paint, and with or without the roof in that price range isn't going to be easy. Plus I just replaced the damn valve body. All that work for nothing

 

Negotiate negotiate negotiate -- i would not accept 10,500. You would not have sold it to a seller for that price -- the insurance company should not get a friend discount.

I only say the thing about clipping ads etc.. because it worked for my friend. You have been paying them insurance premiums for how long now? $1,000 a year and now its time to collect. Insurance premiums are based upon the expected value and statistics and math. So..see what you can do.

Its called an insurance settlement -- because you have to SETTLE on a price.

 

You sound like a typical uneducated (re: insurance) consumer.

Paying premiums for "X" number of years does not entitle him to any higher value on his vehicle than a customer who just purchased their policy yesterday. You pay premiums to insure you as a risk, not to build up an account that you can later withdraw from.

And if you negotiate a total loss settlement offer, you had better have some good information to base your side of the debate on, otherwise, you are wasting your breath.

Ps. Not sure you've been reading the board long enough to know what I do for a living. Let me know if you're wondering.

 

I would imagine you are an insurance Adjuster given your knowledge base.

I am not educated in this area as I have only limited exposure to insurance proceedings which actually to your point all were quite favorable...I actually had an adjuster come back to me after I "accepted" the settlement and add on an extra $500 to the settlement based upon reviewing the photos of the vehicle more closely (might have been the agent that called and not the adjuster).

I would think that assessments while likely very formulaic (using data and software to ensure uniformity) still have some sort of human factor to them, and have a component of subjectivity...but maybe you can weigh in on that.

That being said by trade I am in marketing and deal a lot with sales, marketing, and spend much of my days negotiating with people. By nature I NEVER accept first offers.

I don't see the harm in the OP asking for a secondary assessment on the pre incident value of his car.

From a banking standpoint I am not saying that he should be able to bank the value he paid in insurance premiums. The premiums are set on day 1 given the vehicle, risk factors, age, driver record etc. if he crashed on day one he would get the same value as day 364 of a year.

My commentary was mainly around the ever increasing cost of insurance and his "karma equity" if you will. It's a philosophical discussion as to whether someone who has paid insurance for 10 years and never made a claim should be "owed it"

So...based upon your knowledge base if your advice to him is that this is fair and there is no movement on the price then you are likely a better advisor than I.

This is the beauty of internet forums..bad information everywhere. I am glad to have contributed to Internet "knowledge" today :-)

If you don't get it from my tone and manner I meant no harm or offense and take none from you either.

 

That's right... 10 years with State Farm, the last 6 as a claims adjuster, handling all sorts of claims including complex claims, fatalities, serious bodily injury, you name it. And part of what I do is settle Total Losses.

You can certainly attempt to negotiate a Total Loss settlement but like I said, you better have some good supporting documentation to do so. I'd say 98% of total losses settle at the number we initially come up with.

And I didn't intend to demean you in any way. Most people have the same philosophy that you do... they pay premiums for X number of years with no claims so the insurance company now "owes" them for preferential treatment. While we appreciate our long-time and multi-line customers very much and they do get preferential treatment in regards to rate increases, cancellations for being a bad risk, etc... there is no special deal they get when it comes to payment of claims. And there never will be.

 

Here's some pics and a update. We called Geico and found out that they will only settle 10K max for both vehicles, AND the rental car is taking money out of that 10K, that's what the guy had on his plan, so whether you own a K car, or a Bugatti Veyron that was totaled, they will only pay out 10K!!!! How is this legal? (so right now if you take out what the Ranger is owed, which is about 2 grand, and you take out so far what the rental car has cost us, The check I would get for the MINI would cost less then the buy back....) So we called State Farm, and they are going to take it from here. I have to pay the $500 deductable, but at this time I don't give a rats ***. I have another adjuster coming out from State Farm to give a more "fair" adjustment, and will persue to have the vehicle fixed if it is found not to have frame damage, and they will go after Geico for everything...so sometimes it pays to pay a little more for insurance, instead of going with some green lizards words on tv.

 

 

$10, 000 Property Damage Liability limit ?? Holy hell, what State do you live in ? I want to avoid driving there at all costs !!

Edit: And that vehicle surely doesn't look like a Total Loss to me. Can't imagine there will be so much hidden damage to total it out, either. Glad you're insured with us (State Farm)... thanks for that ! I'm sure you'll be well taken care of !

 

I live in the arm pit, New Jersey. Believe me, about 10 years ago, you had to know someone to get insurance around here, no major insurance companies wanted to touch us with a 10ft. pole, now you see why they come here, they legally found out how to screw people, and most sit back and take it win win for them.

 

When I was an Underwriting Manager in 2002-2006, State Farm was one of those companies not writing business in New Jersey. The legislative environment there was not conducive to making a profit. We were paying out much more in damages than the state regulators would allow us to collect in premium. Glad we're now back to writing polices in Jersey ! Somebody must have pulled their heads from their butts. But to allow policies to be written with a $10,000 PD limit ??? They didn't pull their heads out far enough !