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The thing that has always pissed me off about settlement checks for a totaled vehicle is it is almost impossible to find a comparable car with the money they give you if yours was well maintained and below average mileage.
I have a '99 Sable with the DOHC V-6 with 106K. That's about 9K a year. I almost never see the DOHC badges on Sables or Taurii. Much less a car with my low mileage, fully loaded, and great maintenance. I KNOW I will get screwed if it gets totaled.
At least YOU are OK.
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Does anyone know if the OP has the right to collect his settlement and get the car back for resale, salvage or to fix on his own?
It seems like you should get the money to fix it (up to the Blue Book value) and then the car back so you have the right to do whatever you want with it. Imagine if someone had a reliable 88 Toyota Camry and another party negligently put a door ding in it. He'd be entitled to get it fixed up to the blue blue value, say $500, but he shouldn't be forced to "total" the car.
Someone please enlighten me as to how this works.
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Wailer wrote:
Does anyone know if the OP has the right to collect his settlement and get the car back for resale, salvage or to fix on his own?
It seems like you should get the money to fix it (up to the Blue Book value) and then the car back so you have the right to do whatever you want with it. Imagine if someone had a reliable 88 Toyota Camry and another party negligently put a door ding in it. He'd be entitled to get it fixed up to the blue blue value, say $500, but he shouldn't be forced to "total" the car.
Someone please enlighten me as to how this works.
Just a door ding? Don't contact your Insurance Co., then.
However if it's more major damage like fender replacement, body work, etc. then the cost to you might be too high to go it alone, but the cost to your insurance co. might also be too high in their estimation. Since you've now turned over the responsibility of fixing the car to their accountants, it's their call to total it or not.
If total, you accept your $ and they get the car, you don't get both.
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SDGuy wrote:
[quote=Lew Zealand]
...Totalling is all about insurance calculations, not necessarily the roadworthiness of the damaged vehicle.
:agree:
Woe to you if you have a well-maintained, but older vehicle...
And low mileage as Racer X mentioned? Yep, that's me. We do have another newer car which gets the freeway miles but doesn't that useless statistic state that most accidents occur less than 2 miles from your house? eh???
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It's 25 miles IIRC.
Oh, My 71 GSX has 97K miles on it. 2500 miles a year average.
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Wailer wrote:
Does anyone know if the OP has the right to collect his settlement and get the car back for resale, salvage or to fix on his own?
It seems like you should get the money to fix it (up to the Blue Book value) and then the car back so you have the right to do whatever you want with it. Imagine if someone had a reliable 88 Toyota Camry and another party negligently put a door ding in it. He'd be entitled to get it fixed up to the blue blue value, say $500, but he shouldn't be forced to "total" the car.
Someone please enlighten me as to how this works.
He should have the option to buy it back.
I sold a pickup to a young man letting him pay me over the course of 36 months.
Well, he called Monday and said he had hydroplaned and the truck was totaled but the insurance company would let him buy it back. I went by to look at it and all he did was scrape the side and break the antenna and tail light. But, the truck is a '99 Dodge Ram 2500 Diesel with all the bells in perfect shape with 130,000 miles, so the cost to repair is almost as much as the bluebook.
The insurance Co. is sending me a check (which is less than he owes) and He will get to keep the truck but still pay me the balance.
By the way, the truck will not have a salvage title since it was damaged to the tune of 80% of the bluebook.
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"my bum is as hard as a rock"
Definitely more information than we needed......::o
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NewtonMP2100 wrote:
"my bum is as hard as a rock"
Proof? Links?
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I spoke with the adjuster this evening. Evidently, when they pulled the bumper off, they found more damage that was not evident initially. Also, some parts that they thought could be repaired needed to be replaced. Plus, there was damage on the front end that was not evident initially either.
Amazingly, the first price she gave me was just over $5000. Having low mileage for a 10 year old car helped increase the value by about $800. She is also going to call a couple local Volvo dealers to get their prices for the car, which should help get some more money. I'll know more on Monday or Tuesday. I simply have to turn over the title and they cut me a check.
I think we may end up leasing a new car for a few years (something I've never done before). That way, we can replace it with something we want and still swing the payments for the van.
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Lew Zealand wrote:
Just a door ding? Don't contact your Insurance Co., then.
If a party is negligent and commits a civil tort, the harmed party is entitled to compensatory damages, ie getting the door ding fixed or being compensated for the damage by the other party or their insurance. I would never get my insurance company involved where possible.
I just used this as a hypothetical. It makes sense that they should allow you to buy your car back after they give you a check for the blue book (BB) value. Obviously it should be for less than the BB value since the car is theoretically in worse condition.
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