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Very sorry to report the car I've been working on for over a year has been totalled in an accident. Daughter OK, car done, I'm OK with however it falls out after this as long as my kid is OK.
I had posted on a few different things that were giving me grief and appreciate the help of the group. I bought the car as a project with a known bad head gasket. Did all that, and replaced things like the oil cooler lines with Detroit Tuned, replaced the vacuum lines, all of the gaskets along the way, plugs/coils, throttle body, timing chain kit, plus had the head rebuilt with a skim, cleaning, new guides, valves lapped. Got it back together and it still ran on 3; tore it apart and found a piston with a blown out skirt. Replaced that and the rings on all the others and put it back together and it ran beautifully. T!ts. With the mechanical stuff out of the way and I did paint correction and wax. We had just put the replacement stripes on and my daughter put all of 500 miles on it before getting struck by someone running a red. police report has him at fault, with witnesses. that's the background.
He's unlicensed, but there's a little shimmer of hope that he has insurance. it's one of those "we'll insure anybody" places, though he didn't have it with him at the time of the accident. So my question is, assuming there is an active policy, do we get compensation for what is effectively a rebuilt engine and more? Or will it be non-negotiable average of current 2008 MCS with 120k, take it or leave it? I hope to end up with the corpse after all is said and done as I'd like to either pull the engine or at least the head and seek out a new project or at least sell it for what I know to be good shape. it's currently in my possession.
Anyway, pics below. Sorry about the size. Any input for how to negotiate with the insurance company would be appreciated. Thanks again for the support and assistance along the way. I assume I'll be back on with another project--already looking. Finished and clean but before the polish and wax. Barely even had a chance to get pics! After. Car actually stayed running for several minutes until someone turned it off. Still has coolant and oil.
The general rule is that you get the the repair costs or book value of the car, whichever is less. Recent repairs, etc. are not figured into it and it's very rare that go-fast upgrades are figured into the price. I don't know California law so there may be some local tweeks to the rule, but probably not.
If it were me, I'd get as much as I can from insurance for book value and buy it back cheap then part it out either for sale or for use in the next project. Hopefully you got it cheap enough to not lose too much.
Unfortunately, the nature of this insurance business is plan thievery. based on the damage, i think they will total the car. the real questions is, do you still want the car? can the repairs be DIY? if so, negotiate keeping the car, NOT buy back.
my story: when i had and accident with my 95 acura legend LS 6sp manual, the adjuster pretty much told me my car was worthless!!! the damage was more than 80% of the car value hence totalled. So, i told him to give me something like 79% of the car value and i would keep it. the repairs were 50% of what he gave me when i asked him about "buying the car back" he told me that i need to get a salvage title and then pay them to buy the car which was the average of what it would sell in the insurance auction.
Unfortunately, the nature of this insurance business is plan thievery. based on the damage, i think they will total the car. the real questions is, do you still want the car? can the repairs be DIY? if so, negotiate keeping the car, NOT buy back.
my story: when i had and accident with my 95 acura legend LS 6sp manual, the adjuster pretty much told me my car was worthless!!! the damage was more than 80% of the car value hence totalled. So, i told him to give me something like 79% of the car value and i would keep it. the repairs were 50% of what he gave me when i asked him about "buying the car back" he told me that i need to get a salvage title and then pay them to buy the car which was the average of what it would sell in the insurance auction.
The car is totaled, it's parts value only. It will definitely not roll again and I'm more of a mechanical guy and definitely not a body guy. If I can get it for auction value at around $500, I guess I'd consider that. I figure the drivetrain alone is worth at least 2-3 grand. I may just pull the head off and just let them take it too.
I guess my question is: if I had just paid $6000 for a rebuilt engine, would I get any of that value back? I did everything to stock specs, no "go-fast" mods whatsoever. I didn't pay $6k for a rebuilt engine and won't say that I did, but I'm trying to determine if there's a difference in totalling a car in great condition with recent work vs. a beater.
The car is totaled, it's parts value only. It will definitely not roll again and I'm more of a mechanical guy and definitely not a body guy. If I can get it for auction value at around $500, I guess I'd consider that. I figure the drivetrain alone is worth at least 2-3 grand. I may just pull the head off and just let them take it too.
I guess my question is: if I had just paid $6000 for a rebuilt engine, would I get any of that value back? I did everything to stock specs, no "go-fast" mods whatsoever. I didn't pay $6k for a rebuilt engine and won't say that I did, but I'm trying to determine if there's a difference in totalling a car in great condition with recent work vs. a beater.
I would provide the receipt to the insurance company, and see what they can do. With documentation, you have a case.
From my experience, the lesser of blue book or repair costs is what they will give you which is the unfortunate side effect of the expense of repairs.
I work for an agent and not in the claims department so I'm not for sure on this, but I've come across instances where a less-capable company didn't want to pay a certain amount out and the customer threatened to just file a claim with us to have us take care of it. The customer didn't have to call us back so I'm assuming the other company just paid out the extra bit. I don't know who your insurance is through, but if they're one of the bigger companies they'll probably fight for you better than you can fight for yourself.
Keep in mind, if you do file a claim with your insurance company, that will be a claim on your record; as often as possible, don't file a claim. Even not-at-fault, that claim is taken into consideration for years after you've made it and can effect your premium AND renewability.
My experience is from Indiana and California's insurance laws are usually pretty different from ours, but the standards are similar. I'd also suggest going to the r/insurance subreddit and posting there; they are usually pretty helpful.
Thanks for you input. Our insurance company is already involved, so if we get dinged as a result, it's too late to do anything about it. They're pretty clear that they're not representing us in the sense that we have comprehensive and are covered, though. They're just making calls to the other company on our behalf so that it looks like we are. For instance, the other company insisted they have a recorded deposition with my 16 year old daughter, which we balked at. Our person said they can't do that and said they have to accept them (our ins. company) doing the deposition and providing it. Turns out the other company ended up agreeing to do it via email. Hopefully nothing gets adjusted on our policy as a result but it's almost worth it anyway. Free plug for Liberty Mutual BTW, they've come through for us on other stuff as well.
Contracted appraiser came by today and declared it totalled. Was receptive to the receipts and copied them all and said he'd submit for a higher value as a result of all of the recent work. But he said the other insurance company is terrible and will almost certainly lowball us (remember he's a contractor not an employee). So we'll need to negotiate. I may try to get the best price I can, then settle for it if they throw in the car to sweeten the deal.
Did your Daughter say something about whiplash? Maybe you can get their insurance to kick in a rental car or compensate you for pain, anguish, and the aggravation of losing a perfectly good car and having to search for a replacement. Insurance companies are a PITA in general. I could be driving a Lambo with all the money I've paid for insurance over the last 50+ years.
Did your Daughter say something about whiplash? Maybe you can get their insurance to kick in a rental car or compensate you for pain, anguish, and the aggravation of losing a perfectly good car and having to search for a replacement. Insurance companies are a PITA in general. I could be driving a Lambo with all the money I've paid for insurance over the last 50+ years.
She absolutely has whiplash. Not in the fakey sense where you wear the foam collar for insurance fraud, but she developed soreness and has a hard time lifting one of her arms above a certain level or carrying anything. We took her to the ER the night of the accident because she banged her knee into the dash, but the rest of it developed later. We haven't taken her into a doctor for this though, and it's lessening a little now a week+ later. I think we're screwed if we don't document this kind of thing but we didn't want to rack up bills with the prospect there was no insurance. I'm not trying to scam anyone, I just want to get the car replaced. getting her a little something for the trouble would be nice, but I think that's harder nowadays.
If you have receipts or any type of proof of the work that was done, submit it. You won't get it back penny for penny because they consider that the car needed the work in order to be roadworthy, which it did... All it will do is put you at the top end of the mechanical condition scale as well as on the top end of the comp vehicles, and if the work was within 120 days you should get some monetary compensation, although sweat and scraped knuckle equity does not count...
Meanwhile you should look for comps that are advantageous to your case and be prepared to submit those as counters to whatever you are offered.
03-04-2019, 12:28 PM
when i asked him about "buying the car back" he told me that i need to get a salvage title and then pay them to buy the car which was the average of what it would sell in the insurance auction.
