Accident > Insurance > Salvage Colorado

[musthave]

97 Toyota Land cruiser, 300K, Salvage title but restored in 2022. Sentimental value.

Accident in Colorado, ripped off right fender flare slight scratches on ARB. Mostly totaled their car when they hit us because every part of their car hit the ARB sideways down the length. I’d like to have their insurance pay reasonably for getting a replacement flare, clips, etc. and repaint of flare. Realistically I’d do it for $500 but a shop probably $1500? We brought it to a shop today and they said they can give an estimate but that the insurance company would want to total it.

Obviously, I don’t want it totaled, would just like it fixed, or give me the cash to fix myself.

What are my options and / or best approach at this?

 

[doc_random]

97 Toyota Land cruiser, 300K, Salvage title but restored in 2022. Sentimental value.

Accident in Colorado, ripped off right fender flare slight scratches on ARB. Mostly totaled their car when they hit us because every part of their car hit the ARB sideways down the length. I’d like to have their insurance pay reasonably for getting a replacement flare, clips, etc. and repaint of flare. Realistically I’d do it for $500 but a shop probably $1500? We brought it to a shop today and they said they can give an estimate but that the insurance company would want to total it.

Obviously, I don’t want it totaled, would just like it fixed, or give me the cash to fix myself.

What are my options and / or best approach at this?

If it already has a salvage title, it was probably "totaled" before and restored. When mine was totaled I held out for a payout that would buy an equivalent vehicle. This took a couple months as they kept low balling me with poor comps (comparison vehicles). I listed out the attributes and showed them my comps from the Mud classifieds. This eventually worked out. If you have another daily driver you may be able to wait them out.
At that point the insurance company owns your Cruiser, but I bought mine back. They are just going to sell it for scrap. Hopefully you can coordinate it so the difference between the insurance payout and the salvage buy-back is more than enough to fix it up.
You then need to get it inspected after repair to get tags again. Arizona was pretty straight forward. I've heard other states are more challenging.
YMMV. Good luck.

 

[Kernal]

Seems like you can demand it be fixed correctly as the other vehicle hit your's, at least up to the value of your vehicle, and most 80 Series are worth a lot more than $1500, BAT is full of examples as are the Mud Classifieds.

 

[jjohnny]

Get the underwriter some more comparable vehicles, they tend to undervalue these quite a bit. All the mods, actually do up the value. This isn't some civic that a 17 year old cut his springs to lower, and some dumb coffee can exhaust on and he thinks its worth more because of that. These are popular vehicles, that are not going down in value. There should be plenty of comparable vehicles for sale, do some homework, spend some time researching multiple comparable vehicles, and send them to the underwriter. They will get it, but it might take some time convincing, but the data will convince them. Don't give up, keep pushing them.

 

[poonamibaxter]

I am about to go through close to the same thing with my 80 also in Colorado (Denver area). Mine is stock with 160k miles, was in perfect shape until the wreck which the other driver is at fault for. My body shop estimate is at $10k so we think they will try to total it on me and then the haggling will start. I would like to keep the vehicle and just get it fixed, even with the rebuilt title. I only carry liability on it as it is.

I am assembling a spreadsheet with comparable vehicles in anticipation of low balling. If OP wants to DM me we could compare notes and what not to help each other out. My 80 pretty much needs a whole new front end and radiator. I am waiting on State Farm to start moving.

A little different but similar.

 

[BTLSHP]

I am about to go through close to the same thing with my 80 also in Colorado (Denver area). Mine is stock with 160k miles, was in perfect shape until the wreck which the other driver is at fault for. My body shop estimate is at $10k so we think they will try to total it on me and then the haggling will start. I would like to keep the vehicle and just get it fixed, even with the rebuilt title. I only carry liability on it as it is.

I am assembling a spreadsheet with comparable vehicles in anticipation of low balling. If OP wants to DM me we could compare notes and what not to help each other out. My 80 pretty much needs a whole new front end and radiator. I am waiting on State Farm to start moving.

A little different but similar.

FWIW, several years ago (10?) we had a pretty good experience with State Farm when the care was in VA. These laws change State by State but as I recall we were given an off of x if we handed them the keys and x - if we took a check and risked a salvage title. The repairs cost the amount of the check we got and VA has some inspection process that ended up granting us a clean title.