Doesn't surprise me that Allstate was unable to find the source of the fire. It's often hard to tell, even if the fire is put out before it consumes the entire car, like yours did.

Re: the reimbursement of your personal belongings in the car... they should have provided you with an explanation of how they came up with that number. Did they dismiss some belongings as not covered by the policy language ? Did they dismiss some because you couldn't produce receipts or proof they were in the car ? Did they depreciate items ? Should have given you an explanation, even if you don't consider it to be a reasonable one.

Glad you're getting back into another MINI and this episode didn't make you shy away from them.

 

Great to hear you got your new MINI!

BTW, insurance companies are like organized crime in my opinion.

 

^ Knows nothing about auto insurance.

 

 

Sorry CR&PW&JB, your right, should have explained my problem with Allstate better:

My problem wasn't with the fact that they said they couldn't find the cause of the fire, as you pointed out, I'm sure many such accidents are beyond the investigation teams ability to definitively say what the cause was. And I'm sure that those guys are pretty damn good at their jobs, they must investigate the remains of hundreds of accidents a year at least.

Without getting into detail, lets just say that not everyone I spoke to at that company seemed interested in even giving me any explanation as to what could have happened to the car, They just thought I should be happy that they were totaling the car and paying the claim, and not asking too many questions. Now that attitude shocked me, My little nieces and nephews drive in that car with me as I'm sure thousands of other children do in MINI's every day all over the world. The fact that some of the people I talked to cared more about the financial aspect of this then possibly discovering a dangerous situation in a car that people and their families drive in every day really left me with a bad taste in my mouth. Thats my problem with Allstate as far as the investigation goes.

As to the items lost in the car, they didn't even ask for any additional information, I had to call them several weeks after I submitted the list of items and was told they would only pay $200.00 for everything since it was not a break-in. I didn't even care about my stuff, it was not that much (except my 84' Olympus XA camera, I loved that thing) but i really feel bad about my friends stuff, she lost some irreplaceable photos and memories along with most of her daily possessions, a real crappy deal for her.

In the end I have to say my faith in the MINI hasn't been shaken a bit. Thats not based on one shred of scientific evidence, I just love the cars and will always drive them...

 

Check your policy, under your Comprehensive Coverage. See if it says anything in there about a $200 maximum for personal items in the car that are not considered installed equipment. From the way your explaining how they handled the claim, there must be a policy provision as I described. I'm a little surprised they have the amount set SO low, but not surprised there would be such a provision.

Happy that they were totaling the car ?? Like they had a choice ?!?! Yeah, I'd like to see the repair estimate on that car !! Sounds like your claim reps were not so good. Come over to State Farm.... we'd do better by you, I assure you.

 

...

An understatement...

 

Ouch! nice camera that defined point and shoot! You can still find them used. Check out keh.com or B&H or Adorama. I still use my circa 80's oly stuff.

 

Was there any determination in what area of the car the fire started?

 

ROBIN: The insurance company never gave me any info on the car after they took possession of it. The only additional information I ever got about what happened was from a young guy who stopped to help pull my friend out of the car, he was driving behind her. Heres the strange but true part, I didn't meet him at the scene, we bumped into him while walking on 86Th street in Bay Ridge going to the AT&T store so I could replace my friends iPhone for her. We were walking right alongside him for a few minutes then he turned and recognized her and told us the story, apparently he could see flames coming from under the car on the drivers side this must have been after the car filled with smoke as she landed by the guardrail shortly after.

Small world huh?

heyduard: That is the third XA I've been through. I collect cameras and the XA has been my favorite pocket shooter for over ten years, I just can seem to hold on to them. Lost my first one on a trip to Mexico in 94' when my friends brother was screwing around on a very deserted patch of road in the pitch back night and crashed us into the side of the mountain, when I woke up and kicked opened my door I found a 20 ft drop staring me in the face! the car bounced and slid across the road backwards (which had no guardrail, this was a very rural part of Mexico) and out fell my bag with my XA in it, lucky I had my seatbelt still fastened. The second one got stolen out of my 04" MINI when some *** clown busted the drivers side window, opened the glove and grabbed the first thing he felt. Kicker is I had a brand new Garmin NUVI 660 in the parcel tray under the steering column and a top of the line iPod still in its crappy black carrying case that must have made it hard to see in the glove of the car, and this guy, in his haste passes over almost $1000.00 of electronics and takes my damn $25.00 camera! The third, well you know...

The poor little dogs from "A Fish Called Wanda" come to mind

 

It's not the job of the insurer to investigate accidents for the good of the world. What they investigations care about is whether they should pay the claim - since they quickly decided to total the car and pay the full value, they have no further interest in investigating the cause. The same would be true of any insurance company - they investigate with respect to the need to pay claims, not with trying to conduct an investigation why cars have fires.

BMW/Mini perhaps should be very interested - it's their product that presumably had a defect that resulted in a catastrophic fire. In fact, I'd be surprised if Allstate didn't contact them and sell the wreck to them.

You're placing blame in the wrong place insofar as doing an investigation. Mini is the one who should be investigating this.

- Mark

 

Well, you got that partly right.

Yes, we want to determine if we owe the claim and then we go about paying what we owe.

But what we (State Farm) does on every claim involving fire, we have our Complex Claim Team handle it to try to determine the cause of the fire. Why ? You'd be amazed how many people set their own cars on fire to collect from us.

In this case, I'm sure Allstate quickly realized it was not a case of arson and just went about paying the claim. So yes, you are partly correct in that once they rule out arson, they're not all that concerned about the exact mechanical cause of the fire, with one other caveat... if they feel their might be a manufacturing or engineering defect that is documented (i.e. Ford has a problem with it's SUVs catching on fire), they will go after said company to get their money back.

 

Just saw this video. Anyone can translate?

 

can I just say WOW! Are you getting a free replacement?

 

lacning, great video.
Let that be a lesson, no BBQing in the back seat.

 

yellow was not mellow...... but thank goodnes he got out i often wonder if my fat @ss will fit thru the window.....my crossfire was a challange

 

Last phrase was "insane!", but couldn't understand a word before that.