Sadly, got in a real bad accident yesterday!
03-21-2010, 12:32 PM
#21
4th Gear Member
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: North Idaho
Posts: 1,440
03-21-2010, 12:53 PM
#22
2nd Gear Member
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Arkansas
Posts: 378
I'm not sure how it is in other states, but, in Arkansas, any time you're involved in the kind of wreck where you're pushed forward into another vehicle, you're liable for that vehicle's damage because you were "too close to the car in front of you." However, surely that rule isn't concrete; If there was enough momentum to travel through 4 cars, it wouldn't matter how far back you were.
Just another thing to take into consideration. Hurts to see those pictures, man. It looks totaled to me.
Eric
Just another thing to take into consideration. Hurts to see those pictures, man. It looks totaled to me.
Eric
03-21-2010, 01:02 PM
#23
2nd Gear Member
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Atlanta
Posts: 343
Well, I don't have receipts for most things because a lot of them were bought off craigslist and the forums. Should I go and take off parts that are salvageable before the insurance adjuster gets there or leave them on and try to get money for them? Any tricks or hints that can help in my case in talking to the guy?
For damage to two cheap wheels, a tire, a mirror, and some scratches, it was $2600.
03-21-2010, 03:30 PM
#25
6th Gear Member
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: USA
Posts: 11,962
Oh, dude. I have to say my jaw dropped when I saw your stang. You and I joined this forums about the same time and I have seen your improvements throughout the years.. As far as the insurance, I have to say that it depends. I have USAA for insurance, before I started all my mods I called them and they informed me I would be covered. If your stang gets totalled, I hope you get all the $$ possible, then turn around and get order a 2011 stang...
Last edited by TPony; 03-21-2010 at 03:33 PM.
03-21-2010, 03:31 PM
#26
4th Gear Member
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Florida
Posts: 1,190
sucks man, unfortunately you really just have two options as far as the insurance company is concerned.
first is they fix it (if it's fixable) and maybe you'll get your aftermarket parts replaced since they're putting it back together and have to buy parts anyway. if the aftermarket parts are the same or less then the factory parts it shouldn't be a hard fight.
second is they total it and they'll just try and pay you book value of the car only. the way the insurance companies look at aftermarket parts is that it doesn't add value to the car unless you're adding a part that's not there stock or more expensive than the stock part you took off. so if you took off a stock rear bumper that's $700 new from the dealer and replaced it with a $700 aftermarket bumper you didn't add value, you just traded parts of the same value. now if you add wheels are $2,000 and stocks through the dealer are $1,500 they should credit you the $500 difference, basically you raised the value $500 even though in the real world stockers aren't worth much. it all sucks, I've gone through this a couple times already after having a couple of cars stolen. my radio, for example, was a $700 aftermarket DVD/Navi unit that replaced a crap stock cd only unit. but that pos thing was $700 from the dealer! the same cost as my aftermarket radio, so it didn't add value.
now if you have a supercharger kit that's $5,000 since it wasn't there stock you would gain that whole $5,000 since you added parts that weren't there stock. now if you had a 03-04 cobra or newer GT500 and it already had a blower and you replaced it with an upgraded blower you'd get screwed since the blower from the dealer would be almost as much as the upgraded blower. you would just get that little difference in price between the two.
as far as them totaling it they want to total it when the value of the car at auction plus the cost of the repairs equals the book value. so say the book value is $17,000 and it costs $10,000 to fix, if it's worth $7,000 at the auction for parts they'll total it. if it's $17,000 book, $10,000 to fix, and only $3,000 at auction, then they would probably fix it. they'll do whatever is less out of pocket for them. my S2000 was stolen and stripped and the parts plus the little body damaged added up to $17,000 and they totaled it and paid $19,500. if the car was stock I would have come out pretty good but it wasn't, I lost all the money I had in mods.
in your case it's a little better than with my case of the car getting stolen. you should be able to get your insurance to sue the other company for all the extra stuff you had and it's not your fault so you don't have to worry about the deductible. personally I think you'd be better off getting your car paid off plus the parts and starting over with another car instead of fixing your car, that's what I would fight for.
be the squeaky wheel man, I'd get in touch with my agent right away and start pushing for what outcome you want. get that dude's number and start calling often, make sure he's putting the pressure on the other company. good luck!
first is they fix it (if it's fixable) and maybe you'll get your aftermarket parts replaced since they're putting it back together and have to buy parts anyway. if the aftermarket parts are the same or less then the factory parts it shouldn't be a hard fight.
second is they total it and they'll just try and pay you book value of the car only. the way the insurance companies look at aftermarket parts is that it doesn't add value to the car unless you're adding a part that's not there stock or more expensive than the stock part you took off. so if you took off a stock rear bumper that's $700 new from the dealer and replaced it with a $700 aftermarket bumper you didn't add value, you just traded parts of the same value. now if you add wheels are $2,000 and stocks through the dealer are $1,500 they should credit you the $500 difference, basically you raised the value $500 even though in the real world stockers aren't worth much. it all sucks, I've gone through this a couple times already after having a couple of cars stolen. my radio, for example, was a $700 aftermarket DVD/Navi unit that replaced a crap stock cd only unit. but that pos thing was $700 from the dealer! the same cost as my aftermarket radio, so it didn't add value.
now if you have a supercharger kit that's $5,000 since it wasn't there stock you would gain that whole $5,000 since you added parts that weren't there stock. now if you had a 03-04 cobra or newer GT500 and it already had a blower and you replaced it with an upgraded blower you'd get screwed since the blower from the dealer would be almost as much as the upgraded blower. you would just get that little difference in price between the two.
as far as them totaling it they want to total it when the value of the car at auction plus the cost of the repairs equals the book value. so say the book value is $17,000 and it costs $10,000 to fix, if it's worth $7,000 at the auction for parts they'll total it. if it's $17,000 book, $10,000 to fix, and only $3,000 at auction, then they would probably fix it. they'll do whatever is less out of pocket for them. my S2000 was stolen and stripped and the parts plus the little body damaged added up to $17,000 and they totaled it and paid $19,500. if the car was stock I would have come out pretty good but it wasn't, I lost all the money I had in mods.
in your case it's a little better than with my case of the car getting stolen. you should be able to get your insurance to sue the other company for all the extra stuff you had and it's not your fault so you don't have to worry about the deductible. personally I think you'd be better off getting your car paid off plus the parts and starting over with another car instead of fixing your car, that's what I would fight for.
be the squeaky wheel man, I'd get in touch with my agent right away and start pushing for what outcome you want. get that dude's number and start calling often, make sure he's putting the pressure on the other company. good luck!
Last edited by candymanjl; 03-21-2010 at 03:35 PM.
03-21-2010, 03:41 PM
#27
4th Gear Member
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: California
Posts: 1,495
ok first let me start out by saying i work for an insurance company. since you dont have the mods listed, then you need to take them off bc the other insurance company is only responsible for getting you back to normal...factory specs! i would take off every mod i had, also it looks like it could be totaled, but then again according to the adjuster they might want to get it fixed so have pascal fly in and fix it for you, i hear he is the man!
glad to hear youre okay and sorry for the loss. if you have any questions on what the adjusters tells you just pm me and i will try to make sure you dont get screwed, bc it does happen!
glad to hear youre okay and sorry for the loss. if you have any questions on what the adjusters tells you just pm me and i will try to make sure you dont get screwed, bc it does happen!
its sad to see this happen
