Somebody backed into my wonderful '90 Loyale. Runs great, always has, but the body shop told me the estimate is higher than the car's value. Since I live at a ski resort, I know I can, or could have sold the car for much more than book value. Not that much damage, but the hood, lights, and the corner of one fender is tweaked, and I don't have to tell you what body work costs these days. (BTW, it was a Toyota truck, and it never even touched my bumper.)
Anyway, what's the best way to deal with an insurance company on a car that's going to cost more than the value? The body shop said they would work with me to keep the price down if I do want to fix it, but I'd kinda like to know what I'm up against before I call the other guy's insurance company. Unfortunately, there's just enough damage so I can't simply replace the headlights.
I had a similar situation about 3 years ago on a Mazda. You can often work a good deal with the insurance company to where they total it out for its book value, say $1300 (just an example), then allow you to buy it back for salvage value - say $150. They write you a check for the difference and call it even. It can be a win-win - saves them paying all kinds of man-hours and fees of brokering a banged up low- or zero-value car, and you end up with your car back.
Work with the body shop with the difference to get it roadable and cosmetically OK. You can come closer to no out-of-pocket if you can do some things yourself - such as get a fender, hood, light assemblies, etc. from a u-pull-it and swap them out - even better if no dents and the same color paint as yours. Then have the body shop do the minimum beyond that to get it to an acceptable state.
If you aren't the type to do some of your own work like that (sweat equity, so to speak), there's probably no way you can end up with no out-of-pocket, but at least you can keep the car that is a known entity and right for you with minimum expense.
Others can maybe provide more details on how to play the game with the insurance company.
Also - careful about getting it totaled out. In some states it will be titled that way forever which may be a problem if you ever go to sell it (maybe you aren't allowed to sell it if salvage titled in some states? - not sure). In my case, the insurance co. didn't do anything with a salvage title even though they maybe were supposed to. I sold it to a guy who wanted the turbo engine that was in excellent shape for his Mazda pickup truck - I told him everything - everyone was happy. I think he probably put the pickup's non-turbo engine in the car and sold it and ended up with a unique pickup truck. But I digress...
Probably the body shop can advise you on lots of aspects of this - they do this kind of thing all the time - just don't let them talk you into something that can get you into legal trouble (not that they necessarily would). Stand your ground with the insurance company. If they know you're savvy, they most likely will offer a fair deal. Otherwise, they may try to low ball you.
Bill Putney (to reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with "x")
My experience has not been good. I could only argue out an extra $200 for my totaled '98 Forester. For major damage, insurance companies pay out about 70% of the book value for repairs but pronounce as "totaled" if more their reasoning is that once repair is authorized, other damage may be found. On old Mazda stolen and stripped 5 years ago, insurance company hardly budged. We had just put on new tires - tough! You might visit local dealers and get a price on buying the exact replacement as basis for your fight. Frank
Me too. A broadside collision totaled my '67 Datsun roadster valued at $1200. I had just re-built the engine and transmission replaced radio, brakes, and radiator and was ready for a paint job so it would be good for another 80k miles.
My insurance, State Farm, paid the me the 'total' value, I added $300 to it and got my car body redone like new, including the new paint job. It was win-win.
98 OB wagon 40K miles totaled and insurance paid just 5k less than new 98 OB Limited to replace it, not a bad deal in my opinion. 84 subie wagon 120k miles, paid $900 used, insurance paid 2k and I bought it back for $200 then resold it for $500 as was. Again not a bad deal. Both cases damage not my fault so insurance was willing to deal.
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