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Smart Shopper Replacement Cost by Insurance Company for Totaled Vehicle
196 messages, Last post on Nov 17, 2009 at 7:17 PM
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Last week i was sitting at a red light and was rear ended by a drunkdriver at 50mph. (actually he hit the car behind me). Neither the drunk driver nor the driver behind me had car insurance. Today i was called by the claims guy saying that the car was to be totaled. It was a 2001 VW Passat GLS with 49K miles and i live in phoenix AZ. My prognosis doesn't look good... what kind of market value could i expect? ~Ben
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Replying to: benc1 (Jun 16, 2005 3:23 pm) |
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Replying to: joecia (Aug 10, 2004 7:56 am) |
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Hello all, I hope I am doing this forum correctly now. I originally put my question as a reply. Anway, my son got in a car accident this morning, he and passenger are fine, but it looks like the car may be totaled (esp. after I read they could decide to total it if it costs 51% more than the cash value). I'd like to be prepared when the adjuster comes by next week so we fully know and understand our options. The car is a 2005 LS Sports Coupe Chevy Cavalier, it's 4 months old and has only 1,500 miles. I'm so confused as to what I should expect...I've read some articles which say the insurance company is supposed to find you a comparable car, but I cant' believe that's going to happen. Would it be silly for us to expect the insurance company to write us out a check for the full amount we paid? Because it's so new, I doubt I can find any similar cars to compare, other than brand new ones. I will talk to the car dealer Monday morning and pick his brain, but PLEASE, in the meantime, would someone direct me to some sites where I can learn a bit more, or explain in simple layman's terms what to expect. Even tho our insurance covers a rental car, we don't plan on using that option just yet--it's too easy a solution and would make life too easy--I think my 19 year old needs to understand what consequences his bad decision resulted in. I greatly appreciate your time in helping us sort this whole mess out when it comes to totaling a car. Where should I start? Thank you.
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Replying to: joannes (Jul 16, 2005 3:50 pm) To put it another way, given the choice between your car with 1,500 miles on it and a brand new un-driven identical car with 5 miles on it, which one would a person buy if the price were the same for both? Right, the new one. Now then, the goal of this negotiation is to decide HOW MUCH LESS you would have to offer your car for, with its 1,500 miles, in order to get that buyer to NOT buy the new car, but to buy yours. As you can see, to tempt the buyer, you'd have to give them a "break" off the new car price. How much? Well that is arguable. Probably somewhere between what a new car sells for and what a rental car from Hertz sells for after 10,000 miles. Somewhere in there. Keep in mind too that if your car is totalled, the insurance company ALSO has to under law give you back your sales tax and license fees, so that's probably another 8%. So when they make their offer, make sure they haven't already blended in the tax and license, because that makes their offer sound more generous than it is. Hope this helps.
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Replying to: Mr_Shiftright (Jul 17, 2005 8:29 am) |
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2001 MDX Acura was in an accident. My fault. Estimate without a teardown is 14500. Expect the cost to go up a few grand after the tear down at the body shop. Only the front end was damages. The engine, tranny and everything from behind the front wheels is fine. I would prefer the car to be called as totalled and take the money to buy a new (used) MDX. Does anyone know how does Geico decide if the car was totalled? the used 2001 MDX are around 22000. thanks samir
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I have a 2002 dodge ram 1500 truck. I pulled out in front of someone and they hit the front passenger corner, it knocked me to the left and up into an electrical pole. there was major front end damage. the front passenger tire was basically broke off. when the truck was placed on jack stands and the brake line was removed, you could lay the tire on its side while still attached to the truck. and minor damage down both sides, broke windshield etc... the ADP fair market value came back as 15500.00. the repair estimates came to 7700.00 before the truck was tore down. this did not call for totalling the truck out. the cost of repair eventually came to around 8500.00. i now have my truck back and its a peice of crap. it is three years old, and has only 19000 miles on it, and now it rides and sounds like a 3 year old truck with 70000 miles on it. it has creeks and rattles, and just doesnt ride the same. what options do i have? do i have a good chance at winning if i take triple AAA to court? i think they should have totalled the truck. is it possible for me to get them to still do it as totalled? sale the truck, give me the difference to make the 15500.00 (fair market value), i pay the truck off and still walk away with my 4000.00 equity for a down payment on a new one? Any advie would be appreciated.... thanks!
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Replying to: samirs (Jul 25, 2005 10:37 pm) |
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Replying to: conway1 (Jul 29, 2005 7:37 am) About your only option if your insurance company paid for everything is to consult with an attorney and sue the insurance company for acting in bad faith, which would be a violation of their contract. IMO. I'm not an attorney, just throwing out ideas for you.
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