Got into a minor accident with my truck and insurance says it’s a total loss. (1 Viewer)

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FYI be prepared for your check to be something like $500-700 less than that value because you have to effectively buy the truck back from the insurance company for the scrap cost. At least this is how it works in CA. so basically you agree to take the cash value of the vehicle, they pay you and now they own the vehicle. Then you buy it back for the flat scrap cost. But in my experience they just deduct that cost from the payout and cut you a check for the net dollar amount.

The salvage cost ($3,000) is already deducted from the settlement they offered me. They originally told me the salvage cost to buy it back would be $4500, but would “reduce it as a courtesy because the truck was so well maintained.”

Additionally, in all the going back and forth with the total loss adjuster, we both completely forgot about the tax, which they “wanted me to pay.” It has been a few weeks now and I think they really want to close the case. Anyway, I got them to send me the offer letter, in writing, and I was holding on to it while I thought about it.

A few hours later I received a NEW offer letter which subtracted the taxes, reducing the settlement amount.:mad: No explanation, just “here is the offer we discussed”.

So I promptly responded to their first offer which excludes the taxes and told them I was accepting this one (more money for me!)

They agreed, and said they will process the settlement payment.
 
HAHA. Never mind, I should have read the whole thread. Didn't realize it was a settlement where you get to keep ownership. My bad.
🤦‍♂️

No problem. It’s a long thread. :) Also just had a look at your thread from your accident and holy crap, that looked much worse than my accident.

One more quick update. I spoke with the body shop again today and he was able to go over the damage in detail. His estimate for repair is $3,000 or less.

He’s already sourced a few scrap yard parts as well, one of which is saving me $720 (for a new knuckle from Toyota... $920, or $200 from a scrap yard), as well as a bumper. Nope, I won’t be installing an aftermarket bumper, at least for now.

He is positive he can repair the fender. No need to replace it.

I should have my truck back next Friday.
 
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just do it man; can't take money to the grave and Ben's products are superb except the wait can be killer. The longer you wait to pull the trigger, the longer you wait till it arrives at your door!
 
Note to yourself: always claim a potential injury to get law enforcement to show up, even if it is only your pride that is injured.

Got to remember this to get Police Report and negotiation advantage.

I have a pristine 2002 LX470 with only 55K miles ... so if something like this happens to me I guess I'll have a big fight getting a fair settlement.
 
just do it man; can't take money to the grave and Ben's products are superb except the wait can be killer. The longer you wait to pull the trigger, the longer you wait till it arrives at your door!

I am going to go with the OEM bumper for now since the body shop already found one.

I will probably set some of the settlement money aside just for a new set of front and rear dissent off-road aluminum bumpers.


Got to remember this to get Police Report and negotiation advantage.

I have a pristine 2002 LX470 with only 55K miles ... so if something like this happens to me I guess I'll have a big fight getting a fair settlement.

It was a pain, but I think being patient and waiting as long as possible to get them to increase their offer definitely helped.
 
Nope. I did call the local police department and spoke to an on duty police officer (dispatcher). The conversation went something like this:

Officer: "xx PD, this call is being recorded"

Me: "Hello, I was in an accident this morning with another vehicle"

Officer: "Was anyone injured?"

Me: "No, no injuries"

Officer: "Did you and the other party exchange information?"

Me: "Yes"

Officer: "OK, since there were no injuries, and you have exchanged information, there is no need to file a report."

Me: "OK... well, thanks"

Officer: "Bye now"

In my state, there is no legal requirement for police agencies to complete a report unless there is an injury. Our local agencies will come out if vehicles are not movable. Especially during COVID, a lot of agencies are cutting back on what they used to do to limit exposure.

Also, they typically only report what each driver says happened. The police do not assign fault. Collisions are 99% of the time a civil issue, so that is left up to the insurance agencies to haggle.
 
I have a 2000 LX470 in very good shape with 222,000 miles on it. I had hail damage, minor but it hit almost every body panel. Insurance totaled, I agreed, took the $7000, bought 4 Dobinson IMS shocks, ordered a rear bumper from Mike at BIOR, had the stereo replaced with an Apple play compatible receiver with a back up camera. Still have $2500 left. Thinking front ARB bumper and a roof rack :)
 
I have a 2000 LX470 in very good shape with 222,000 miles on it. I had hail damage, minor but it hit almost every body panel. Insurance totaled, I agreed, took the $7000, bought 4 Dobinson IMS shocks, ordered a rear bumper from Mike at BIOR, had the stereo replaced with an Apple play compatible receiver with a back up camera. Still have $2500 left. Thinking front ARB bumper and a roof rack :)
yeah but... how's the body? lol
 
I'm not sure if you've settled yet, but the lady friend's Tacoma went through a similar valuation process last year. It was in fact totaled, but the insurance company offered us $3757 and wouldn't budge. Comps were in the $10-12k range all day long.

She said just sent me the cheapest Tacoma you can find in lieu of a check! That put them on notice a bit and they upped their offer to ~$5k

We wound up having to hire an independent appraiser to value the car ($350) and the insurance company averaged their estimate with the independent estimate and we wound up with a check for $7975.

Not enough to replace the Tacoma, but more than enough to put her in the 1974 Mercedes 450sl she'd been eyeing...and buy a 2005 LX470.
 
...
Not enough to replace the Tacoma, but more than enough to put her in the 1974 Mercedes 450sl she'd been eyeing...and buy a 2005 LX470.

Cool. I've got two R107 Mercedes.
This is *the best* forum or that 1974 450SL:

 
Thank you sir. Yeah my mechanic and I have a pretty good rapport so that wouldn’t be an issue.

He’s already agreed to install custom bumpers if that’s the way I wanted to go.

So, what bumpers does everyone recommend? I’m want the lightest weight possible as I am not planning to upgrade the suspension and don’t want to deal with too much extra weight.

Alternatively, anyone recently upgraded their bumpers and have some forest green front and rear they are trying to get rid of? :cool:
Although I have an ARB, they recently told us at STLCA they would no longer support any events smaller than 500 trucks. (We counted 20 ARB front bumpers parked by the pavilion one night.) So if they will not support us, I say find another supplier for a front bumper...
 
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Hey folks,

Sorry I didn’t come back to update this sooner. Just a quick update: I got the insurance company to up their check to $12k, minus $1k deductible.

The total cost of the repair, including paint for the new bumper, and replacing any parts that could potentially be bad: $2900, out the door.

The drivers side front didn’t even need to be replaced. The shop sourced replacement parts from junk yards / salvage lots, out of state.

The truck runs and feels exactly like it did before the accident.

My O2 sensor just threw a code again a few days ago, but they had been giving me problems before the accident. I’m going to have a mechanic check the O2 sensors on Monday.

I’m planning to drive the truck down to Florida, from MA, some time in May or June.
 
Hey folks,

Sorry I didn’t come back to update this sooner. Just a quick update: I got the insurance company to up their check to $12k, minus $1k deductible.

The total cost of the repair, including paint for the new bumper, and replacing any parts that could potentially be bad: $2900, out the door.

The drivers side front didn’t even need to be replaced. The shop sourced replacement parts from junk yards / salvage lots, out of state.

The truck runs and feels exactly like it did before the accident.

My O2 sensor just threw a code again a few days ago, but they had been giving me problems before the accident. I’m going to have a mechanic check the O2 sensors on Monday.

I’m planning to drive the truck down to Florida, from MA, some time in May or June.

O2 sensors are stupid easy to replace yourself. Rockauto has Denso ones for ~$46/ea. Denso are the same toyota uses, just not rebranded/ marked up.

Curious how you got them to up the offer. And congrats.
 
A young girl turned into my son's 2004 Land Cruiser and hit his left front corner.
Damage was $2,300.
My Insurance was Nationwide and hers with Gieco.
They quickly claimed both parties at fault but we protested and insisted that it was the other parties fault.
I insisted that Nationwide should not pay and we should not be dinged the $500 deductible.
Took a couple months but an arbitrator concluded my son was not at fault and we received
the full $2,300.

ZZZ_2021_03-13_002.jpg
 
Curious how you got them to up the offer. And congrats.

Basically, I did what others suggested I do in this thread:

1. Don’t accept their first offer
2. Drag it out as long as you can. The longer it takes, the more urgent it will be for them to settle it (they will offer you more to get it over with).
3. Provide a list of all the upgrades and repairs, and their costs you have done to your vehicle
4. Provide comparable (similar year and mileage) “for sale” listings
5. Be patient, and courteous in all your interactions

Thanks for the advice everyone! It really helped.

For those who want more details:

I dragged it out as long as possible. I really wasn’t in a rush to get the truck fixed as we have another car, but we aren’t driving much at all currently. My truck was completely drivable still, so I didn’t let the insurance company take it from the original mechanic. The insurance company wanted to tow it to their lot and charge me a fee! I just went there and drove it home. So it sat in my driveway, while I had their original offer in hand. I just left things hanging with the insurance company. They want to get these things done as soon as possible, so time is on your side. I let a few weeks pass and then called them back, saying I didn’t accept their offer and was sending an itemized list of all the upgrades I had done.

I put together a list of upgrades I had done to the truck, nothing fancy, just a bulleted list in an email, using the MSRP cost of the upgrades and some links to the web pages. I also included 4-5 listings of 2003 LCs with more miles than mine, which were listed between 15k -$24k. They got back to me pretty quickly at this point with a higher offer. By now I had already had an estimate done with the body shop, and they had started sourcing parts, so I had a good idea of what the repair cost would be.

The repair shop never had any interaction directly with the insurance company, and vice-versa. I just told them I wanted the truck repairs regardless, and to start finding the parts while I worked things out with the insurance company.
 
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A young girl turned into my son's 2004 Land Cruiser and hit his left front corner.
Damage was $2,300.
My Insurance was Nationwide and hers with Gieco.
They quickly claimed both parties at fault but we protested and insisted that it was the other parties fault.
I insisted that Nationwide should not pay and we should not be dinged the $500 deductible.
Took a couple months but an arbitrator concluded my son was not at fault and we received
the full $2,300.

View attachment 2612832

Why is it always the driver’s side front?!

Glad you were able to get it all settled without your son being at fault.
 
Just an update on my truck post repair from the accident. It’s been running great, no issues at all. The only minor thing is that the steering wheel isn’t perfectly centered anymore, but really it’s not a big deal.

Still amazed at the crap I had to go through with the insurance company, and they would not budge from declaring it a total loss. I did switch to a different insurance company, and am paying less now, for more coverage (including a rental) than I had before.

Yesterday I blew a brake line, while pulling up to the inspection bay at my regular mechanic. What are the odds? Better there than on the highway with my family in the truck, right? I decided to leave the truck there, and have him replace the blown line, as well as give the entire brake system and lines a look over and replace whatever didn’t look safe.
 
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You’re in Mass… feel free to tweak the insurer through complaints to both the division of insurance and the attorney general’s consumer office. Consumer complaints add up.
 

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