Need advice on dealing with insurance

[Sheldon]

Somebody backed into my wonderful '90 Loyale. Runs great, always has, but
the body shop told me the estimate is higher than the car's value. Since I
live at a ski resort, I know I can, or could have sold the car for much more
than book value. Not that much damage, but the hood, lights, and the corner
of one fender is tweaked, and I don't have to tell you what body work costs
these days. (BTW, it was a Toyota truck, and it never even touched my
bumper.)

Anyway, what's the best way to deal with an insurance company on a car
that's going to cost more than the value? The body shop said they would
work with me to keep the price down if I do want to fix it, but I'd kinda
like to know what I'm up against before I call the other guy's insurance
company. Unfortunately, there's just enough damage so I can't simply
replace the headlights.

Anybody with experience on this?

Thanks.

Sheldon
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Bill Putney]

Somebody backed into my wonderful '90 Loyale. Runs great, always has, but
the body shop told me the estimate is higher than the car's value. Since I
live at a ski resort, I know I can, or could have sold the car for much more
than book value. Not that much damage, but the hood, lights, and the corner
of one fender is tweaked, and I don't have to tell you what body work costs
these days. (BTW, it was a Toyota truck, and it never even touched my
bumper.)

Anyway, what's the best way to deal with an insurance company on a car
that's going to cost more than the value? The body shop said they would
work with me to keep the price down if I do want to fix it, but I'd kinda
like to know what I'm up against before I call the other guy's insurance
company. Unfortunately, there's just enough damage so I can't simply
replace the headlights.

Anybody with experience on this?

Thanks.

Sheldon
(e-mail address removed)

I had a similar situation about 3 years ago on a Mazda. You can often
work a good deal with the insurance company to where they total it out
for its book value, say $1300 (just an example), then allow you to buy
it back for salvage value - say $150. They write you a check for the
difference and call it even. It can be a win-win - saves them paying
all kinds of man-hours and fees of brokering a banged up low- or
zero-value car, and you end up with your car back.

Work with the body shop with the difference to get it roadable and
cosmetically OK. You can come closer to no out-of-pocket if you can do
some things yourself - such as get a fender, hood, light assemblies,
etc. from a u-pull-it and swap them out - even better if no dents and
the same color paint as yours. Then have the body shop do the minimum
beyond that to get it to an acceptable state.

If you aren't the type to do some of your own work like that (sweat
equity, so to speak), there's probably no way you can end up with no
out-of-pocket, but at least you can keep the car that is a known entity
and right for you with minimum expense.

Others can maybe provide more details on how to play the game with the
insurance company.

Also - careful about getting it totaled out. In some states it will be
titled that way forever which may be a problem if you ever go to sell it
(maybe you aren't allowed to sell it if salvage titled in some states? -
not sure). In my case, the insurance co. didn't do anything with a
salvage title even though they maybe were supposed to. I sold it to a
guy who wanted the turbo engine that was in excellent shape for his
Mazda pickup truck - I told him everything - everyone was happy. I
think he probably put the pickup's non-turbo engine in the car and sold
it and ended up with a unique pickup truck. But I digress...

Probably the body shop can advise you on lots of aspects of this - they
do this kind of thing all the time - just don't let them talk you into
something that can get you into legal trouble (not that they necessarily
would). Stand your ground with the insurance company. If they know
you're savvy, they most likely will offer a fair deal. Otherwise, they
may try to low ball you.

Bill Putney
(to reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with "x")

 

[Frank Logullo]

My experience has not been good. I could only argue out an extra $200 for
my totaled '98 Forester.
For major damage, insurance companies pay out about 70% of the book value
for repairs but pronounce as "totaled" if more
their reasoning is that once repair is authorized, other damage may be
found.
On old Mazda stolen and stripped 5 years ago, insurance company hardly
budged. We had just put on new tires - tough!
You might visit local dealers and get a price on buying the exact
replacement as basis for your fight.
Frank

 

[BoB]

I had a similar situation about 3 years ago on a Mazda. You can often
work a good deal with the insurance company to where they total it out
for its book value, say $1300 (just an example), then allow you to buy
it back for salvage value - say $150. They write you a check for the
difference and call it even. It can be a win-win - saves them paying
all kinds of man-hours and fees of brokering a banged up low- or
zero-value car, and you end up with your car back.

Big Snip

Me too. A broadside collision totaled my '67 Datsun roadster
valued at $1200. I had just re-built the engine and transmission
replaced radio, brakes, and radiator and was ready for a paint
job so it would be good for another 80k miles.

My insurance, State Farm, paid the me the 'total' value, I added
$300 to it and got my car body redone like new, including the new
paint job. It was win-win.

Bill Putney

BoB

 

[Greg]

98 OB wagon 40K miles totaled and insurance paid just 5k less than new 98 OB
Limited to replace it, not a bad deal in my opinion. 84 subie wagon 120k
miles, paid $900 used, insurance paid 2k and I bought it back for $200 then
resold it for $500 as was. Again not a bad deal. Both cases damage not my
fault so insurance was willing to deal.