I got hit! Out of town accident - what now?

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Here's the latest update, and would appreciate thoughts and suggestions on alternatives.

First point, being an insurance newb, I found it interesting that California law only requires folks to have $5,000 minimum damage coverage. So smash into a vehicle, do $20K of damage, but at fault insurance only pays $5K limit...interesting...what's the point? As far as going after the other guy for more money thru lawyers, etc...not sure the other guy has money to pay nor does he have the assets or job to generate money, and I don't really feel like dealing with an ongoing legal battle.

Summary - his insurance did a quick estimate of $5K. Knowing that I would be at or over his insurance limit - I pulled my insurance in, their estimate was $16.5K...which was followed by the fact that they want to Total the truck saying it is worth approx $20K.

I explained to my insurance all my recent major maintenance expenses and expensive add-ons, which they said they can work with me on to perhaps increase value above $20K. Before adding that to the value, they would cut me a check for $20K....or they would cut me a check for $10K and I can keep the vehicle. Thoughts/suggestions – which route would you go and why? I am thinking to just show my insurance max value of my vehicle thru reciepts, etc and find copy of high priced adds for like trucks and mazimize what I can get.

p.s. I am waiting to get the detailed breakout of the $16K estimate
 
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Wow, that would be a tough call for me.

My reflections:
1. Take the money ($10K) and you've got a truck you know and its condition, for better or for worse. Will $10K suffice for YOU to repair (considering frame damage and other potentially hidden stuff)?

2. Let them total your beloved rig and pay you $20K + an unknown "Add-on" amount due to your mods. Not bad either, could give you a newer truck and with a smaller amount of money (+own labor) you can modify it to what you want. If I was the insurance guy, I might question whether your mods were actually fully covered under your policy - unless you sort of had reported them to the insurance company (which of course likely leading to a slightly higher premium).

3. Take the $10K, take the truck and part it out. Can you buy a new/other truck for that money?

If you get a good breakdown of the $16K estimate, and deem you can fix some of that on your own, I'd likely go with that, but this is a tough one...

/// Per-Ola
 
I was in an accident December 06 and I am still messing with insurance issues. Very similar situation, My truck was totaled, I was hurt, other underinsured driver at fault.

I negotiated and negotiated to get the value of my truck up, but it was pretty much a waste of time. There is no worse feeling than knowing that the insurance company is probably going to make more money parting out your vehicle, than they paid out.

But parting out yourself really isn't easy unless your in that business, and then it is a slow trickle of money, when what you need is a new vehicle.

So I say take the highest negotioted $$ amount you can get and get a new vehicle instead of paying for a rental car. Also, everyone in your vehicle is also due some pain and suffering compensation, so make sure to get that. Your own insurance co will have a chart.

Insurance to me is one of the worst necessary evils on planet. If you have $$$ then you have to have good insurance incase you get sued, so you have to pay a lot. If you have little or no $$, then you can live without insurance, or under insured at best because who is going to sue some one with little or no $$. Arghhhhh!
 
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Negotiate the highest value for the vehicle you can take the check and go buy another one. You don't want to/ need to waste the time and money trying to fix the vehicle, it will never be the same and you will waste a lot of time in the process.
 
Taking the $20K means:

No lawyers
No hassles
No messing with out-of-state repairs
No worrying about shipping it back home
No waiting 293845 days while they fix it
No taking it back 4 times until it's right

Get my drift?

And sorry for your loss. This stuff sucks!
 
Glad to hear you and your family are OK, and the other guy too.

Gotta love armor.

Good luck with the fix though.

:cheers:
 
ShottsUZJ100 said:
Taking the $20K means:

No lawyers
No hassles
No messing with out-of-state repairs
No worrying about shipping it back home
No waiting 293845 days while they fix it
No taking it back 4 times until it's right

Get my drift?

And sorry for your loss. This stuff sucks!
Click to expand...


You may disagree with Shotts on a lot of things, but this hits the nail on the head.
 
thanks for all the good suggestions. Yeah, at this point I am just thankful that nobody was hurt. I'm leaning toward just taking the Total and getting as much $ as possible. After going through all my recent records today to calculate max value, it's a bit sad ....I knew where this truck was on all maintenance...and just had a bunch of stuff done :(

Hopefully in a couple weeks I will be looking for a 2000+ LC...thinking I will go LC this time instead of Lexus :)
 
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Avoid the Lawyers and the fees if you can. They have to use NADA book Value for your vehicle. Make sure the do. They should use replacement value for any extra parts that you have receipts for. I would Hurry though, NADA is dropping as the New Model hits dealer floors in 30 days or less.

You will most certainly find another LC, many trade in's about to come on the market due to new model. Take the Money, but I would fly back out there, strip it down and take every thing. Even the sterring wheel and then let them scrap it. You can get it all shipped back to you by frieght cheap. then Post on here where it went, i know alot of guys who are willing to part it out. Steering wheel, wheels, Actually tell me where It is, and i will see how much there will sell it to me for. I want the electric memory seat box and buttons. We will use it as a MUD Experiment, send parts all over the country.

How many other people want parts?
 
Sorry, but I can not see $16K of damage unless there is frame damage. Also they are putting the salvage value at $10k (the spread between your $20k or $10k options). That means they think they can get $10k for it at auction. They can probably get more.

You can pull the aftermarket parts and put stock ones on. If that is possible. Not sure how to do it when out of town. The front bumper is toast, but the rack is good.
 
first of all, thank God that no one was hurt!

secondly, given the distance etc. i'd negotiate to the utmost and then take the check and put it towards a new car. ask if you can (or do you know someone in the LA area?) to clean out the car (roof rack, perhaps the ABR bumper etc)?

imagine the time you can spend/waste on this issue, double-checking the work that is being done, what it does for your resale value, and so forth.

cheers,

patrick
 
After producing receipts for all the recent major preventative maintenance and upgrades, the insurance has offered $23,500 - up from their original $19,500. I told them I would give them a decision Monday.
I called Lexus of Cerritos, where the truck is sitting now, and asked about access to get my personal items and to remove my upgrades, and they said I could get my personal items but they could not allow me into the yard to swap tires, remove roof rack, etc...I would have to pay them to remove. Huh? I guess that is their sneaky way of making money since they don't get to do any repairs now. The only thing worth getting is the rack and maybe swapping my tires...all in all, not sure it even justifies a trip over and back. I will press Lexus for access and see what happens...
 
get that roofrack back and put on the stock one unless insurance is giving you top $$ for it in the first place, then just buy a fresh one.
 
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