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Car insurance question

R

rrlund

Well-known Member
I'm so ticked off right now I can't even think straight. We just bought a nice low mile car a week ago today and some stupid #$% on her phone ran a stop sign right in front of the wife and she smashed it.
I called State Farm claims. It happened about 500 feet from the house and I towed it in to the yard. They want to come and get it to see if they'll repair it or total it.

Question,if they total it and another shop says it's repairable,I can buy it back and have it repaired with a salvage title,correct? If they give me fair market value and it's less than that to repair it,I can keep the difference,correct?
I'm gonna have to rent a car to go to Tennessee Friday and State Farm said I don't have coverage for it. They said I'd have to go on to her insurance company and try to recoup my money from them. Just wondered if I could net enough if they total it to at least pay for the rental if her insurance company acts like a typical insurance company and gives me the shaft too.

I'm telling you right now,if they do,she WILL be sued in small claims court for the cost of the rental.
 
rrlund, the answers to most of your questions is YES, you can keep the car and get 'market value'...minus your deductible.
I cannot comment on the rental issue.
 
If you ever have plans to trade in a car, you will find out just how difficult it is to trade in a car with a salvage title, or even a car that has been an an accident.

I wouldn't want to have a car repaired after it was in an accident.
 
I just paid $8250 cash for it a week ago today. The insurance company had better be digging deep if they think they're gonna total it. It's a one owner,local older couple who we know personally,never driven in the winter. They always went to Florida with their pickup and trailer and left the car in the garage all winter. There's no way in the world I'm giving it up without a fight,salvage title or no salvage title. I won't be able to replace it with one that nice.
 
I always thought if you got market value less the deductible, then the car was the insurance company's. You would have to buy it back. Then you could get it fixed.
 
This changes by state so I have no idea what applies to you.

But in Louisiana a estimate is done on the car.
If the estimate to fix the car is 75% or more of the car value the car is totaled by state law.
If the car is totaled they will give you NADA book value for the car plus sales tax on the amount.
Of course the money first goes to satisfy any leans on the car.

Now the car belongs to the insurance company.
They "can" sell it back to you for what they feel it will bring at auction.
If the engine and transmission are still good sit down because the price may shock you.
Your one up on them is you are saving them auction; storage; towing fees.
The car will be issued a salvage title and needs to be inspected by the state police once repaired to make sure it is road worthy. It does not have to be cosmetically fixed just road worthy.

If they decide to fix the car because you are under the 75% value; but find something later that drives the total price up over the 75% they still have to total the fixed car. I had this happen to me with a 8 day old car. They spent over 10k fixing the car and we got it back. A month later the trans went out and it was proven the transmission failure was caused by the accident. This drove the price of repair up over the 75% mark. They then bought the car from me. While the accident was not our fault I let state farm (my insurance) fix the car under collision. Sure glad I did cause I could see it being a mess dealing with a third party and things like this happening. After a few months state farm got my deductible back from the other insurance and sent me a check.
 
I'm calling the State Police in the morning to get her info and then calling her insurance company to find out. She'd better HOPE they'll pay. The cop was talking "failure to yield,distracted driving and wreckless endangerment".

Going to the local body shop too. I'll have Larry come out and give me an estimate before State Farm has it towed next week. I'll have him fix it anyway whether it's totaled or not.
 
I can understand why you are upset, be thankful your wife was not hurt. After a couple of days when you have more facts, then start making decisions when you are not upset.
 
My insurance lady (40yrs) says if you have full coverage on yours, you can't use the "mini tort" rider to go after the at fault driver for your deductable (if you have one) and/or other acrued expences and said you wouldn't win in small claims either. Everything else you stated about buy back etc is correct. Had a buddy who had two vehicles flooded in last months flood here in Mt. Pleasant and they paid him way more than his vehicles were worth to sell outright. he was a happy camper.
 
Been there with a grand daughter and a new car that I bought her and she was emotionally attached to. I would avoid a salvage title, not a good deal.
 
Also forgot to tell you. You can either look it up on the Sec State website or Bureau of automotive regulation web site or call sec st. The salvage law only applies to vehicles 6 model years old or newer. Older than that and it is strictly voluntary but it explicitly states that they prefer not to have to deal with salvage title applications either from ins co,s or individuals. So if your ins co. says they have to by law, print off the website wording and prove to them they are flat ars lying! They do it on older vehicles because they get a kick back from the auto manufacturers. You won't be able to prove it but it's true. The "LAW" has always been ( in MI) 6 model years or newer for slvg titles.
 
Randy I hope your luck with car insurance and accidents is better than mine. I will NEVER have a vehicle towed to my farm ever again!!!!

I had a car totaled and had it towed to the farm. Wreck was on Good Friday. Car had 30K in miles but was only 2 1/2 years old. Bought it new but drove it to work daily so put 15K a year on it for miles. NATION WIDE/JUNK/CRAPPY insurance. They started out offering me 50% of what we gave for the car. About $2500 under book value because they were deducting hard for the miles. They where in no hurry since they were not on the hook for storage. Told them since they would not pay a fair price in my mind to find me a replacement. The car was a 5 speed. They kept coming up with automatics and they were mutts to drive. Back and forth until LABOR Day. I got them to pay me dealer whole sale which was still "cheap" compared to what they should have paid for it. I found out later from some adjusters for other companies that many of them will play games if they can save money and are not paying storage.

So get it towed to your body shop ASAP with them having to cover storage plus repairs or total it.

Truthfully I have had several cars that had enough damage to total them. IF it is a HIGH impact wreck I would walk away. There can be too much hidden damage that may not show up until way after the insurance company has signed off. IF it is just sheet metal damage you usually will not have trouble down the road.

Just glad the wife was not hurt.
 
In MO I bought mine back from State Farm,Of course they wanted to pay wholesale and I took retail. Their deal at the time was they were garenteed a price by the year for salvage. I totaled a 1986 Toyota and the buy back was the same as a 1986 Cadillac. Just wait till the money is set and then tell them you want your car back. They cut me a check, - the cost of my buy back. I had one wreck that the other guys insurance said it was his wife's truck not his, and they were not paying the claim(his fault)I called SF and told them I was dropping it off at the body shop and what the other company said. I got a check for my $500.00 deductible two months later from SF,they had collected.
 
So Geo, if you have an accident with your vehicle and the insurance company pays for the repair, WHAT are you going to do? Trade the car? It will show up as having been repaired/salvaged. youll take a beating. Sell the car private treaty, car will still show its been repaired/salvaged. I've bought several salvaged titled vehicles, generally a very good buy. But that's just my experience. gobble
 
In Canada,you cannot get a vehicle with a salvage title insured or get a safety certificate for it, so they go to the scrap yard if repairs are over half the value of the car. Good luck, glad no one was hurt. Ben
 
Our daughter hit a deer once with a '99 Olds 88 I owned and totaled it. My insurance company made a decent settlement (after I'd yelled at the adjuster, and told him I'd been an adjuster myself one time and probably knew as many or more tricks of the trade than he did), and sold me the car back for $500. The body damage wasn't prohibitive, but both air bags blew and the cost of them dictated the car being totaled. I bought an identical Olds to replace it.

Interesting story on that car. I'd bought it as a rebuilder with a clean title. It had been smacked in the rear, so I took it to a specialty shop and had it put on a frame rack, everything squared up, and a new deck lid, rear bumper, and tail lights fitted. I finished the paint work.

I'd driven it about 10,000 miles when our daughter hit the deer and totaled it again. I found, on EBay, a complete identical air bag system for $300. I gambled that much and when the air bags checked out I did the body work. I switched back and forth between the two cars for maybe a year, then one Monday morning I started out the week by getting into the middle of a six car pileup on a bridge on the Interstate. That got the right front fender and suspension. I fixed it again.

The upshot was, by then that poor car had been totaled three times and still had a clean title. I sold it to a fellow, and told him the entire story on the car. He was just looking for a work car for his wife, so he wasn't too concerned. I still see it around once in a while.

I kinda have warm memories of that car.
 
Your insurance agent should be able to answer all of your questions accurately. The laws vary greatly from state to state. State farm is one of the better insurance companies when it comes to having a claim
 
(quoted from post at 17:50:10 08/16/17) I'm so ticked off right now I can't even think straight. We just bought a nice low mile car a week ago today and some stupid #$% on her phone ran a stop sign right in front of the wife and she smashed it.
I called State Farm claims. It happened about 500 feet from the house and I towed it in to the yard. They want to come and get it to see if they'll repair it or total it.

Question,if they total it and another shop says it's repairable,I can buy it back and have it repaired with a salvage title,correct? If they give me fair market value and it's less than that to repair it,I can keep the difference,correct?
I'm gonna have to rent a car to go to Tennessee Friday and State Farm said I don't have coverage for it. They said I'd have to go on to her insurance company and try to recoup my money from them. Just wondered if I could net enough if they total it to at least pay for the rental if her insurance company acts like a typical insurance company and gives me the shaft too.

I'm telling you right now,if they do,she WILL be sued in small claims court for the cost of the rental.
Click to expand...

take the money and run...a salvage title is not worth the trouble. Very few people want to buy a car with a salvage title in case you decide to sell. If you must, remember the car will be worth half of blue book value. When my wife totaled her car a few years ago, the insurance company paid what a comparable replacement model would cost. Fortunately it was the last year that Pontiac was made, so we wound up with $2000 more than we paid for it new 3 years earlier.
 
Just look for several other cars with the same or similar options and amenities on it. Get the price from the place selling it. Get a few prices dump any real low ones and keep the high ones this will move your average up some. Take the lowest and the highest out and that will be the average of what they will pay. Did this on 2 different vehicles that got totaled. One a pickup the other a semi tractor. You will have to match the price of the junkyard buying it to keep it to fix. I fixed the semi and still have a green title to it.
That took a new cab and sleeper I put 15,000 into fixing it ad drove it for about 4 more years with no major issues.
Since MI is one of those fine no-fault states all you can get is 500.00 from them. Get settled with your insurance company. They will go back to the other persons company.
 
I bought a salvage pickup. No one could get the alignment right. No dealer wanted it on a trade in. When I traded in my van, I had to sign a paper stating my vehicle had never been an accident.

Car fax has put a stop to hiding cars that have been in an accident.

I'll never buy a salvage vehicle again nor will I ever want to repair a totaled vehicle.

My boy's 1 year old Toyota van was hit in the front. He wasn't happy with it after it was repaired. Good news, the dealer that repaired it was the only dealer to give him full value on it. Other dealers didn't want it.

If I were to wreck my car or truck I wouldn't have it repaired. My Car is 12 years old and truck is 10 years old. I would buy a new one. Someone else can drive wrecks.
 
Car fax has no way of knowing about all the cars that are wrecked and not reported. For instance if a dealership with a body shop gets a new car or used car and puts a boo boo on it is repaired in house right away before anyone knows.
 
Daughter-in-law totaled a Blazer about a year back. we trailered it home. Rent-an-adjuster came out and checked it out - totaled,but we knew that as there was significant damage mechanically and frame. Insurance company provided a complete package including "blue book" prices, as well as listing of a couple for similar cars for sale in the region. They pretty well justified their payment price. Few days later a flat bed arrived and car went byebye. Check in the mail about a week later.
 
Since you just bought it, you have probably established the velue pretty well. Be sure to have bill of sale ready for adjuster.
 
Here in Michigan, my experience with a totaled car was good. It was a 2001 fully loaded Grand Prix GTP. The car was 14 yrs old w/ over 150,000 mi on it. Daughter got rear-ended. Insurance Company totaled it, I bought it back for $850, got a check for over $ 8000. I was happy. Spent $1200 to get a new decklid, taillights, drove it for over a year, no salvage title, sold it last year for $1300.
 
I don't have an answer for you,,but sure am glad you or your wife didn't get hurt.Your luck has to change soon,,the mailman doesn't like you,,you crashed your car,,beef prices have been low,,the equipment breaks down,,,you could write an old country western song?///(LOL)
 
Are you dealing with your local agent or corporate? A few years back a texting kid hit our Daughter head on and the car was later totaled by the insurance. She was traveling 30 miles one way to go to work at the time, the kid had liberty mutual, they did not want to pay a rental for her, State Farm stepped in and rented her a car and told her they would get their turnip blood from Liberty, they must have worked it out because she never heard a word about the rental cost. If the police gave the other driver a ticket and his or her insurance refuses to pay your rental then I would definitely ask State Farm to intervene.
 
I could never understand having to buy your car back from insurance company. you own the car. the insurance company pays you because someone has damaged your property. in my mind, you should still own your car after the settlement.
 
Not sure where you live, I'm in Alberta, but I know of a fellow (a certified mechanic) who has bought at least two "newer" pick up trucks that were written off from accident damage and auctioned as salvage. Not sure if my terminology is accurate but you get the picture. He spent a few bucks for sure getting them back on the road (most of the work done himself or his brother-in-law who was a body man) but they both got registered and insured and he's still driving one of them I think.
 
doesn't michigan have that goofy "no fault" insurance? i'll bet that's why you cannot collect for deductable.
 
Car fax doesn't show repairs to cars that are self insured like a car rental place.

However if you have an accident and turn it in to your insurance company, car fax will have it.

Have you tried to trade in a salvage vehicle? Even trying to sell it privately is difficult. I don't want anything to do with a salvage vehicle.
 
I have a 1999 Dodge 3500 with the cummins in it. A year ago last October i was coming home from camping and had about a half a cord of wood in the back. I would have had more but it has the tool box in the front of the bed. Coming down the road a lady comes up to the stop sign and slows down but doesn't stop and pulls right out in front of me. I am 2 miles from home on a Sunday afternoon so I just had my brother come tow me home( I figured the wood needed to come out before it could be repaired anyway). Her insurance adjuster came out and looked at it and figured a 7600.00 repair. This pickup only had 97000 miles at the time. He estimated the value of the pickup at 12,750.00 and said ok we will fix it and not total it. He also asked if I needed a rental and I said no(HUGE mistake).
I had a local body shop come get it and take to repair. I called middle of Nov. checking to see how long to be done and they are still gathering parts for it. I called the ladies insurance and said I still needed to get another cord of wood for winter heat. She said she would pay for a rental so I could go get my fire wood. I told her nobody was going to want to rent me a pickup to go get firewood in. So she said she could just pay me for x number of days rental and I could buy a cord of wood. When all was said and done when I got the pickup back( 3 days before Christmas) the total bill to her insurance was 12,200.00 plus my firewood. The adjuster had missed so many things on his estimate but every time the body shop found something new they called him and he said to just fix it.
I know that is not the normal but I was sure pleased.

Steven
 
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