Subaru BRZ Insurance Question

[Drive]

Hey Guys, creating this thread for a friend.

He recently crashed his BRZ (7000 miles) and the repair job was determined to cost $17k, do you guys think it would be possible to write it off as totaled from his insurance company?

He is hoping that the insurance company will write it off as totaled instead of going forward with repairing the car for obvious reasons (the possibility of running into additional problems later down the line, bad resale value/history, etc...)

Your thoughts are appreciated.

[idanvan]

If they don't total it, he needs to a new insurance company. No way they will repair the car I don't think.

[Drive]

He is with State Farm insurance, does anyone have any experience with them?

I read online somewhere that the general rule of thumb is if the damage to the car is worth more than 50% of the car itself then it should be totaled. In his case it is definitely over 50%.

[chas3wba0]

There is no general rule of thumb. Every ins. company does it differently. $17k is probably totaled though

[N1rve]

It SHOULD be totaled ... but it's no guarantee. Each insurance companies have their own policy for determining a totaled loss.

For my insurance company, they told me that the Scion FRS is an easy total loss

[TM]

My insurance totaled my 14,000 mi BRZ and $15k worth of damage, so I think so.

General rule of thumb is if the cost to repair is greater than the car's actual cost value minus the cost to salvage it.

[FRSure]

Should be totaled... I saw some thread awhile ago that some people had 18k of damage and still not totaled... ymmv

[DeeezNuuuts83]

Originally Posted by Drive

He is with State Farm insurance, does anyone have any experience with them?

I read online somewhere that the general rule of thumb is if the damage to the car is worth more than 50% of the car itself then it should be totaled. In his case it is definitely over 50%.

There's no "rule," but 50% isn't near enough damage to total a car. However, you'll start seeing a lot more totaled cars when the damage is around 80% or more. A BRZ with $17k in damage could really go either way, though of course anyone in that position would hope for the car to be totaled. And it's those scenarios why it's good to get the New Vehicle Replacement coverage ahead of time, if the company offers it.

[Drive]

Thanks for the feedback. He heard back from the insurance company today and it is totaled as many of you already predicted it would be.

Drive safe out there guys.

[extrashaky]

I'm glad it worked out, but there is a lot of mistaken information in this thread. In the United States, whether your car is a total loss depends on what state you're in, and the insurance companies for the most part have to adhere to the state insurance regulation where the claim is made.

For example, there's another thread going on where the owner of the damaged car is in Tennessee. Tennessee is a 75% state, meaning that if the cost to repair is greater than 75% of the value of the car, the insurance company has to treat it as a total loss. It doesn't matter which insurance company is handling the claim; they all have to abide by the state's rule.

Iowa is the only state with a 50% loss threshold, and Oklahoma is at 60%. Most states are in the 70% to 80% range or jump right up to the "Total Loss Formula" (TLF), which is

Cost of Repair + Salvage Value > Actual Cash Value

OP lists his location as California, which is a TLF state. Assuming the wrecked car is also in CA, it would be subject to the TLF threshold. Somebody on here recently bought a BRZ with a salvage title for $8K. So if we assume the salvage value is $8K and the repairs were estimated at $17K, TLF would be $25K, which would almost certainly exceed the cash value of the car even with only 7000 miles on it. So it makes sense that they totaled the car.

Here's an article that explains it in more detail and lists the loss thresholds for all 50 states:

http://www.claimsjournal.com/news/na.../05/240841.htm

Knowing these rules for your state before you have an accident takes a lot of the stress out of it.

[DeeezNuuuts83]

Originally Posted by extrashaky

It doesn't matter which insurance company is handling the claim; they all have to abide by the state's rule.

But the big variable is that every company has slightly different methods to calculating both their ACVs and their repair cost estimates. So as the numbers can fluctuate depending on the accuracy of the adjuster's estimates, the determination of whether or not the car gets totaled can shift as well, all while the company adheres to whatever the rules are.


We've seen plenty of examples (though maybe not yet in this particular forum) of totaled claims where someone gets an absurdly high payout for their car, while someone else with a very similar example may not have received as generous of a check. Also, anyone who has taken their car to multiple places for body shop repair estimates has seen varying numbers.


And some numbers may be skewed in a certain direction. For example, if your insurance company instructs you to take your car to an authorized repair facility for the repair estimate (as opposed to making you wait for them to dispatch an adjuster to you), the facility may purposely try to keep the estimate in a range that will get the company to authorize repairs instead of total the vehicle (unless it's absolutely that bad), since the shop will benefit more from that than just a quick visual inspection and automatically stamping something as totaled when it could be borderline. And even if more damage is found later and further repairs are needed while the car is still in their possession, the insurance company will send them the rest of the money anyway since they won't want to have paid for a certain amount of repairs and then put a stop to it anyway, even if at that point the total payout may be past the threshold for a totaled vehicle.