Are the insurance company’s have a motivation to write a car off?
Do they use 80% threshold in deciding if its a total loss or repair?
What is the value of the car once totaled?
Same generation 20 yr old car is listed on eBay from $6k to $17k - variation is auto/manual, early/late on year of manuf. and number of doors. Insurance is offering $10k for total loss. But their verbal repair coast was only $7k - they did say 80% is their threshold in deciding repair vs …
I heard people retained the salvage car - I do not know how much is. Others have negotiated and got the repair cost and prevented from being salvaged.
One of the rear wheel is bent. Unsure if its just the camber adjustment or more.
The loss threshold varies by state. Here in OK it’s 60% and in TX I think it’s 70%. Many arguments have occurred over numbers like this. I suspect they are trying to get off for 10k because they may well figure it’s going to far exceed that 7k.
If the wheel is out of whack then I suspect something in the suspension is bent and Mustangman is correct; it always cost more to fix than originally figured.
I’ve kept a couple of total cars and neither cost me anything as I played hardball. Threats of backaches, whiplash, and headaches and even a benign talk with an attorney have a way of altering insurance hardball offers. One was an annihilated total; no doubt about it. The other ended up with a Salvage Title but that did not bother me as it was a keeper to 300k miles.
We have a friend, a single woman, who had a Honda Civic from.the 1970s and a 1996 Ford Taurus wagon. The Honda got hit and the insurance company called it a total loss. This friend bought the Honda back from the insurance company and found a body technician to fix it up. The front end was damaged. There was rust around the rear quarter panels which wasn’t repaired. I surmised that the insurance company of the party that hit the Honda thought that the Honda had too much rust to be repaired. I rode in the Honda once and I would never ride in it again. It had the motorized seat belts and the passenger side seat belt was inoperable, so my friend just cut it off. The old Honda was traded on a new Honda in 2013.
The Taurus wagon was sideswiped in a driveway. The damage was just cosmetic–the doors opened and closed perfectly and the glass wasn’t broken. Yet, the insurance company of the party that damaged the car called it a total loss. Again, my friend bought the Taurus wagon back from the insurance company and had the doors repainted by a moonlighting body man.
When my friend told me the shop where she traded wouldn’t put the Taurus wagon on the lift because the undercarriage was badly rusted, I then realized why the insurance company totaled the Taurus wagon. Our friend already had the 2013 Honda and claimed she just used the Taurus wagon to haul things around town. I finally convinced her the car shouldn’t be on the road and she junked the Taurus wagon.
Earlier this year my daughters car was in a hail storm. The car was a 2015 Mazda 3, in otherwise great shape. After the hailstorm, the car looked like a golf ball. Much to my surprise, insurance wanted to total the car, for hail damage.
Initially I was going to fight to keep the car. But there are some real gray areas about insuring a salvage title car, especially with a teenage driver.
Ultimately we decided to let insurance total the car and take the payout. Fortunately due to the crazy used car market right now, we were able to take the payout and pay cash for another car.
Think real hard about not only the cost to repair the car, but also about insuring it. It’s not an easy situation. Good luck.
Once totaled scrap or parts vehicle price which is not much . Now if you mean repaired with a salvage title would you want to buy one and have possible insurance problems ?
It likely was totaled because the estimate was for conventional repairs. Panel beat and fill or cut and replace.
I had a company car… a black sedan… that was in a hailstorm. Paintless dent repair fixed it perfectly for less than $2000. Conventional repair would charge more for just the paint. The fleet coordinator jumped for joy at that price and asked for the PDR tech’s name and number!
Totaling a vehicle is really up to the insurance companies and you have little input. But you can negotiate a price with them. And you can always buy the vehicle back and get it fixed.
I had my car less than a year and it got hailed on. Over 20 dents on hood, roof and trunk. We did paint less for an amazing job. I never saw the bill but it was less than $2000. Asking about insurance practices is like asking what the temperature is at 3:00. Depends where you are and when. No point writing anything down.
Your contract w/the insurance company (a bit like a ponzi scheme) probably says their only requirement is to reimburse you for the present value of the car (in good condition), then they own the damaged car and do whatever the like w/it; however most insurance agents want to keep you as a customer, and if you ask, will offer up a deal where you retain ownership. You may have to pay something, & sign various disclaimers so they aren’t left holding the bag if the car is later driven, gets involved in an accident, and a claim is made the cause is the prior accident.
If the agent refuses to cooperate, common sense says switch your business to a different agent.
Well they are regulated by state insurance statutes. Which will vary state to state. They need to either pay the fair market value or go find a like vehicle as replacement. That’s why they just pay out instead.
A walk around appraisal is a rough estimate, the repair cost is expected to increase after the body shop disassembles the vehicle. To scrap at 70 or 80% is a common policy, they don’t want to spend $11,000 (plus rental car) to repair a $10,000 vehicle.
The estimate on my minor front end work with bumper cover, light, etc. started out at $2000. Before they got done, the bill to the other guys insurance was $3000. And they only blended one fender.
No , are you getting this stuff off the web . They want to spend as little as they can . This is not your vehicle is it ? If that is correct just tell who ever you are trying to help to talk to their agent or at least to the insurance carrier . All that you are doing now is just getting more confusing info.
In many states that’s the law. The owner of the policy can buy it back at the insurance companies highest bid (which they must disclose). Usually a few hundred dollars. I’ve seen vehicles with very minor body damage that the insurance company totaled. But the air bags deployed that brought the repair cost up significantly ($2000 per bag).
Good info. I presume by “highest bid” you mean from among the “offer to purchase” bids the insurance company receives from the various local auto-dismantlers and the like. There must be a uniform way each of the dismantlers is able to view and assess the wrecked car. I wonder if private parties (who are interested in finding a wrecked car to restore) are allowed to participate in this same bidding process?
I never had a problem. I bought it back, repaired it, and the agent just took a look to make sure there was no damage. The full coverage plus towing was still in force. Of course if you don’t fix it, previous damage will not be covered.