Arguing that a vehicle should be totaled /w insurance company?
 

Hey guys,

Photos of the wreckage here: http://imgur.com/a/MFRII

Question for you..

So my car was in a real bad accident and the original damage estimate was tabbed at $9.5K. Pics: http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=59631

2 months later.. The car is still not fixed and they told me today that more damage was uncovered.. To the tune of $3K.

So the total damage is up to $12.5K and lets say the car is worth $17K. It's a 2013 AT with 15K miles

According to PA law, the car should be totalled if the damage exceeds 75% of the value. At this stage, what would you do? Is there any way to file for the car to be declared a total loss?

Just looking for some guidance here guys, as I have no idea what to do. I've been without the car for about 2 months at this point.

17k seems low, when I'm seeing used M/T models going for 20 with similar miles. Still, 75% of 17k is $12,750, so if your estimate is correct it's still too low for them to total it out unfortunately. Splitting hairs at that point, though.

Have you called your insurance company and spoken with them about the additional costs and everything and found out what's going on? Do you know how much they actually value the car? Those might be important when finding out what the issue is.

KBB says at the best condition, your car is worth about 19k-20k with Pittsburg zipcode

Alright.. so I need to pray that they find another $3K worth of damage.. lol.

^^

What they said.

Shoulda took a saws all and cut all the brackets :). I know trade in value for my 13 is still at 19k.

The good news, you SHOULD get a check for diminished value(since your car now has a major accident on the carfax)

Diminished value is not recognized in PA. Tried that after mine was hit by someone. Gotta love the commonwealth.

Ah, my bad. I know we get here in Georgia if the other person has insurance.

Yeah, it is only recognized until you go to sell or trade-in the car....

Yup... just wait.

If they found that damage after they already started they are gonna fix it, and pa does not use a percentage to determine total loss. Once the vehicle goes over a pre determined threshold amount they will get a salvage value, and that is cost of repair and salvage value need to add up to more than the actual cash value.

Good call.. Ur right. Talked to Geico guy and he said it's 80%.

So 80% of $19K is the magic number.. Or ~$15,200

Roughly ~$2-3K to go before this baby is a wrap

honestly you should have taken it to the geico approved shop they would have done a teardown and totaled it much faster. the problem is parts are dirt cheap for the cars so they can replace everything for nothing.

I may have missed something but why do you want it totaled?
If the frame is fine and its just body work, why not get it fixed?

With that much dollar amount of damage, the chane of having odd problems down the road is pretty great. That and having a significantly diminished value...

Not so fast. If they have already put thousands into the repair, you may need more than an additional $3K to get a total.

unfotrunately the way insurance companies work it will not be totaled at all if they already started repairs. the initial estimate must be around 75% depending on what state your in. (they all have different percentages). Once the repairs have begun if they find more damage it will not be added to the total percentage. they've already put money into it so they will continue with funding for repairs. It's cheaper for them to finish the job than it is to fork out the value of the car on top of the repairs they already paid for.

But at least with the repair work, if it's done at one of the insurance company's approved facilities (which they usually list off to you when initially making the claim, as they will recommend taking the car there over some other shop of your choice outside of their network), then most companies will warranty the work for the life of the car.

But yeah... unless the additional repairs add up to stupid amounts that pretty much reaches the car's ACV (actual cash value), that ~80% threshold doesn't mean much once the repairs have already started. Ironically, something like that happened with my girlfriend's Corolla in 2012, where a drunk driver smashed into her parked car. Given my background in insurance (and just knowing about cars and what stuff costs and what will likely need to be replaced), in my head, I knew the amount it would cost and that it would be on the favorable side of the threshold. But no, the authorized repair facility said it would be a few thousand less, but I didn't feel like arguing. Sure enough, they needed to make more repairs than they thought (which took longer and used up a few more days of rental car reimbursement) and it ended up being more than what would have declared it totaled in the first place. But we got it fixed, and it actually drives perfectly fine.

However, if it's borderline, some repair facilities might do what they can to get the insurance companies to sign off on it, because they get money off of actually repairing the car, not if they declare it totaled since there won't be any work done. Not saying they're all shady, but it could be an influencing factor in some borderline cases.

The last time I took my car to a geico approved shop (for a very, very small fender bender), they botched the repair and I had to go back 2 times for them to get it right. So I wasn't about to go that route..

I'm sure they can recommend a different shop in your area that is still an approved facility

Geico was perfectly with me taking mine back to the autonation toyota body shop to fix after being rear ended.

As far as parts being cheap, the back bumper, paint, reverse light, trunk floor panel, and to repair the metal bumper equaled 1600 dollars.

Couldn't help myself.. had to upload some photos of the wreckage. This is what $12K of damage looks like

http://imgur.com/a/MFRII

However, if it's borderline, some repair facilities might do what they can to get the insurance companies to sign off on it, because they get money off of actually repairing the car, not if they declare it totaled since there won't be any work done. Not saying they're all shady, but it could be an influencing factor in some borderline cases.


^ ... and hope they will place new parts NOT used. That final word would come from your insurance company total or Not. I know the feeling going through this mess but let the shop and ins company deal with the issue. Try not to over think or You'll go nuts Goodluck.

They usually use new parts, especially if another party is at fault anyway. But some companies offer an OEM endorsement, which guarantees that they will use brand new OEM parts (as opposed to used parts or aftermarket parts), if available, or at least give you a payout with that value, if you prefer to take the money rather than to have it repaired through one of their authorized shops.

aftermarket parts dont exist for the frs yet, keystone empire or ksi dont make anything last i checked