Totaled or not?!?!

[jazztennor]

Originally Posted by J_kennington

My claim on the frs(was rear ended) was with geico as well. And they pulled the "our approved shops are blah blah blah". My response was, "I don't think you understand, the car is only 3 months old...it will go back to Toyota to be fixed". Then it was "well our adjuster cannot travel to the dealer, but he can quote you at our approved location and we will cover work done at the dealer".

Moral of the story, insurance company's get a kick back from their "approved shops".

i work for the insurance company as an adjuster and the shop doesn't get anything from the company except the work. We actually fight the shop or labor hours and paint time bec they want more money and we know they can complete it faster or for less so they are not getting anything extra from us. As for the dealerships a lot of the dealerships won't let insurance company come in to write estimates that why you have to take it to one of our shops first so we can write your estimate. And then you can take it where ever you want to get it fixed.


As for the 80% that's not an insurance law its a state law.. If your car reaches 80 percent of the value then it is a total loss in the states eye and there is nothing the insurance company can do about it but just pay for the car. And your estimate being 12k to fix and 80% is 12,800 then yes it would be a total bec even though they have torn down the vehicle they have fully torn it down and 9 time out of 10 when they fully tear down a car there is another 1k-2k of dam extra. So right now the est. is at 12k but really it is more like 13-14k and that makes the car at 80% and the states say no the car is not going to be fixed and its a total loss.

P.S if you tell your adjuster you would like the car to be a total they will not fight you. They will do everything they can to make the car a total. It is easier to just total the car and pay for the car then fight the body shop for parts and paint and the head ach of the repairs and then the body shop having to pay the mech to work on your car for like 2-3 weeks when he could be working on smaller hits for like a day each and make more money. So they will not hide dam to not make it a total if you let them know you want it to be a total loss.

[acg2010]

Originally Posted by jazztennor

i work for the insurance company as an adjuster

Thanks for the post! Interesting. I think many of us are questioning that 12,700 is the 80% of the car value, not that if it hits the 80% that it's a total loss. Maybe you can give some insight onto Geicos value assessment, but as someone else said, if a barely used 10 Series was 16k I'd get two.

[AVodka14]

Get it fixed as best as possible. Never take results you are not happy with. Therefore send back as many times until you are happy. If it does not meet your standards and you can not deal with it. Sale it privately or trade in for something else. Someone will want it if you don't. I drove my tC for about 7 years that had been involved in 2 accidents. I had no choice but to keep it because I was in college. I will never drive a car that has been wrecked again. It rusted so quick where the work had been done. Very disappointing.

[jazztennor]

Originally Posted by acg2010

Thanks for the post! Interesting. I think many of us are questioning that 12,700 is the 80% of the car value, not that if it hits the 80% that it's a total loss. Maybe you can give some insight onto Geicos value assessment, but as someone else said, if a barely used 10 Series was 16k I'd get two.

we don't come up with the values we use another company that most insurance company's use. And they find an average based on the miles/carpets/seats/headliner/body/paint/glass/engine/tires of the vehicle the condition of all of those then they use real time selling prices for used vehicles in your area and they get an average and that how we come up with the base value.

the 16k is a lil low for the value what are they offering your lean holder as the pay off amount??

[extrashaky]

Originally Posted by jazztennor

iAs for the 80% that's not an insurance law its a state law.. If your car reaches 80 percent of the value then it is a total loss in the states eye and there is nothing the insurance company can do about it but just pay for the car.

Just for clarification for folks who don't work in the insurance industry, the percentage threshold varies by state. There's a good explanation here:

http://www.carinsurance.com/Articles...hresholds.aspx

[thill]

If the insurance company is only valuing the car at $16k and change she most likely does not want them to total the car. Assuming she paid $25-28k range for the car when she bought it new... Factoring in tax, tag, license, dealer fees she could be really underwater here unless she has GAP insurance or put down a pile of cash at the time of purchase (which she still would lose a huge chunk of). She could easily be $8-12k upside down and be making payments every month on a car she won't own..

[paulca]

Originally Posted by thill

Most people are not and are not going to hire an attorney and sue the insurance company over an accident that they caused if the insurance company determines your car is not totalled.

It amuses me that my insurance includes "Legal costs" cover and I don't see any reason why you couldn't claim to sue the insurance company and have them pay out for the case agaist themselves! (There must be a clause for that surely) LOL

[paulca]

Originally Posted by thill

If the insurance company is only valuing the car at $16k and change she most likely does not want them to total the car. Assuming she paid $25-28k range for the car when she bought it new... Factoring in tax, tag, license, dealer fees she could be really underwater here unless she has GAP insurance or put down a pile of cash at the time of purchase (which she still would lose a huge chunk of). She could easily be $8-12k upside down and be making payments every month on a car she won't own..

This is a very good point. If the OP has no "Replacement Value Cover" or "GAP Insurance" then if the insurer total the car they will only give the OP the $16k they value the car at and the OP will find it hard to purchase even a second hand FRS for that.

[thill]

Originally Posted by paulca

This is a very good point. If the OP has no "Replacement Value Cover" or "GAP Insurance" then if the insurer total the car they will only give the OP the $16k they value the car at and the OP will find it hard to purchase even a second hand FRS for that.

Yes, to keep her payment amount at or near the same, she would most likely be looking at a $12K used car.

She would be better off getting the FR-S rebuilt, then either keep it, or sell it herself. Even after the accident, it should be worth a lot more than $16K if it is rebuilt properly and still has a warranty

[FRS_FIEND]

Originally Posted by jwedeles

You guys have me worried they aren't going to replace all of my 10 series extras as they should... I told the guy at the body shop and he kind of just brushed it off and was like yeah yeah it will be as good as new, exactly how it was when you bought it. I'm going to give him a call and make sure he knows. This body shop guarantees their work for life and there aren't many other options as the shop has to be "Allstate" approved to work on the car and get an estimate.
Forgot to address the key fob issue: it was not part of the accident therefore it will not go on the cost of the claim. Someone besides myself WILL be paying for it because they are very expensive and it was lost at some point while the car was in their hands. Not sure how it will be handled but rest assured I'll throw a bf and get a new one free of cost, as I should because they misplaced it.

did anyone else read this as boyfriend like i did? lol

Glad everyone was safe.

i hate customer service!! its irritating i could see his a-hole face right now.

how fast were you going? the car looks like it held up pretty damn good depending on the speed you were going of course.

[Harvey]

Any chance they can replace the plugs while it's all open up? Just joking..


It's only parts, if they put it all back right there's no reason it should feel bad. if you notice anything wrong after getting it back (noise, vibrations, unstable breaking, hard shifting, ...), tell them until they get it fine! I mean no two cars ever feel the same, so a new one wouldn't feel the same either. There's no reason they can't get it back fine

[extrashaky]

Originally Posted by thill

If the insurance company is only valuing the car at $16k and change she most likely does not want them to total the car.

The insurance company may not actually be valuing the car at $16K. The 80% figure is just the state threshold. The insurance company can total the car at less than 80% if the cost of repair plus the salvage value is greater than the market value of the car (the "total loss formula").

So what is the salvage value of the car? To be honest, I have no idea. If they're using the total loss formula to determine whether it's totaled, a $12K repair bill and a $16K value would mean the salvage value is only $4K, which seems rather low to me. Seems like I recall someone here buying a salvage titled vehicle at auction for $8K.

On my last claim, it was like pulling teeth to get the adjusters to explain any of their reasoning on any of this. They were intentionally trying to keep it vague, thinking I would get confused and give up. Having a conversation with an attorney cleared up a lot of their bullshit.

[billwot]

Originally Posted by extrashaky

The insurance company may not actually be valuing the car at $16K. The 80% figure is just the state threshold. The insurance company can total the car at less than 80% if the cost of repair plus the salvage value is greater than the market value of the car (the "total loss formula").

So what is the salvage value of the car? To be honest, I have no idea. If they're using the total loss formula to determine whether it's totaled, a $12K repair bill and a $16K value would mean the salvage value is only $4K, which seems rather low to me. Seems like I recall someone here buying a salvage titled vehicle at auction for $8K.

On my last claim, it was like pulling teeth to get the adjusters to explain any of their reasoning on any of this. They were intentionally trying to keep it vague, thinking I would get confused and give up. Having a conversation with an attorney cleared up a lot of their bullshit.

I would think the engine and tranny alone would have to be $4K or more.

[Turbo95eg6]

Thread hitting 4 pages because of OP's profile pic lol.