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Venting > Totaled Car, Value, and Insurance Frustration

galaxy

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So probably not much can be added, but need to vent on a recent incident. About a month ago, I lost my DD in an accident. Rear ended while sitting still in traffic on the freeway. Lady behind me decided not to stop. I will post pics from home later, but my DD is (was) a 2002 Lexus IS300. The car is immaculate. And I mean immaculate by anyone's standards, much less for the mileage. And the mileage is where it gets interesting. 300,000 miles (297,xxx at the crash), one owner (that's me). Bought the car brand new. i really need to come back and post pics just so you can see how nice it really was.

insurance payoff...$2,400. Is that fair? this is where my venting starts...

There is no way on gods green earth this car can be replaced apples to apples for $2,400. In fact, you can't replace this car for $5,400. I literally learned the meaning of the term priceless from this mishap. I've been doing homework and shopping and homeork and shopping, and literally...and I do mean literally...there is not a 2002 IS available for sale at ANY mileage in the condition of my car. Hell, i couldn't even find one good enough (at any mileage) to serve as a platform to start on and try to return it to my car. But then why on earth would you want to take a car and put that much money into it anyways? So it pretty much just sucks for you!

And the icing on the cake is there's no recourse. Can't refuse the money from the settlement. The cars worthless. Sue the lady in civil court for the difference, but good luck proving the car is worth anything more than market or book value. Literally just helplessly shit out of luck.

Now stuck shopping for a car that I didn't want to buy because, due to someone else's negligence, my property was taken away from me. And sure as heck not gonna find a nice, intermediate luxury car on that level for under $10K.

Thanks for listening...now back to your regularly scheduled program already in progress.
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gixxersixxerman

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2400$ for a 02 IS300 with 300k? I’d take it and run. Just because it’s priceless to you doesn’t mean it’s worth it. No way I’d offer more then 1500 if you were selling (obviously you’re not) no one is going to want a 18 year old car with 300k on it... I’ve been in your situation though it sucks
 

Interceptor

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Most people claim injury to make up for lose.
 

Robracer

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Go to NADA used car values. put in your year and model and then mileage, you will see what it's worth, there will be different categories the last one will be extra clean but a ex clean is a car with very little mileage, like yours with only 30k miles on it, 300k kills the the value
 
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galaxy

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Go to NADA used car values. put in your year and model and then mileage, you will see what it's worth, there will be different categories the last one will be extra clean but a ex clean is a car with ever little mileage, like yours with 30k miles. good luck
Did that. And like Thomas said early on, technically I made out OK...on paper. And you misread something....car is not 30K, it’s 300K.


Most people claim injury to make up for lose.
Yea, maybe so. But that’s not me. Not trying to act like some holy roller or anything, but I gotta sleep at night.
 

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Hack

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That sucks to have a reliable car that you enjoy driving get totalled like that. Insurance companies are in it to make money and they figure they can get away with that offer. It could be worse though.

I had a 1983 Mustang GT that I was daily driving. This was around 2005, so it was an old car, but it was a rust free car from California. I converted it to EFI, had an engine swap to a mildly built 302 with a '93 Cobra top end. Tremec 3550 transmission. Maximum Motorsports caster camber plates and rear suspension. 3.73 rear gears. All the work done by me, including engine assembly and a transmission rebuild. Everything in the drivetrain was freshened up on that car. Oh, and I also had done a cheap paint job on it. It looked ok and was a solid vehicle.

It was parked on the side of the road, got rear ended and totalled. I had only finished putting it together a few months before it was hit.

I didn't get anywhere near what the thing was worth based on any reasonable measure. I had to buy it back, take all the parts off it, find another shell and reinstall everything. That experience pretty much killed my enjoyment of driving an older vehicle and putting lots of my time into fixing/improving it.
 

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Did that. And like Thomas said early on, technically I made out OK...on paper. And you misread something....car is not 30K, it’s 300K.




Yea, maybe so. But that’s not me. Not trying to act like some holy roller or anything, but I gotta sleep at night.
Just for future reference, If you have an older car that you feel is worth more than book value you can get your insurance company to come out and appraise it. Then if something happens your covered, at least for the appraised value.
 
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galaxy

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That sucks to have a reliable car that you enjoy driving get totalled like that. Insurance companies are in it to make money and they figure they can get away with that offer. It could be worse though.

I had a 1983 Mustang GT that I was daily driving. This was around 2005, so it was an old car, but it was a rust free car from California. I converted it to EFI, had an engine swap to a mildly built 302 with a '93 Cobra top end. Tremec 3550 transmission. Maximum Motorsports caster camber plates and rear suspension. 3.73 rear gears. All the work done by me, including engine assembly and a transmission rebuild. Everything in the drivetrain was freshened up on that car. Oh, and I also had done a cheap paint job on it. It looked ok and was a solid vehicle.

It was parked on the side of the road, got rear ended and totalled. I had only finished putting it together a few months before it was hit.

I didn't get anywhere near what the thing was worth based on any reasonable measure. I had to buy it back, take all the parts off it, find another shell and reinstall everything. That experience pretty much killed my enjoyment of driving an older vehicle and putting lots of my time into fixing/improving it.
Yea dude, I feel ya. I have a 2002 F150 4WD that I bought brand new. It is not only immaculate, it's totally fixed up. Lift kit, upgraded everything for towing, immaculate paint, etc, etc, etc. Now after this crash, I'm completely scared to drive it knowing if something happens to it, it'll be a repeat story as I know it's also irreplaceable.
 

Hack

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Yea dude, I feel ya. I have a 2002 F150 4WD that I bought brand new. It is not only immaculate, it's totally fixed up. Lift kit, upgraded everything for towing, immaculate paint, etc, etc, etc. Now after this crash, I'm completely scared to drive it knowing if something happens to it, it'll be a repeat story as I know it's also irreplaceable.
It really sucks because from what I've found the insurance you can get with agreed value - like what you would do for a collectible car - isn't available to cover a daily driver. They want you to drive the car to work no more than 5 times a year. I refuse to buy insurance like that and commit fraud by driving the car more often. And standard insurance will not give you the true value for a car that's more than a few years old or if it's modified.
 
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galaxy

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More venting. Starting to feel the second order effects from this crash. Been driving my truck again as a DD as a result of losing the other car. And at 13mpg, (compared to 28) I can feel it. But now as I shop for a replacement car, yea sure, I’ll be back in a car that’s gets 28 mpg soon, but I’ll also have a $250 car payment. So now I’m out more a month that I am now driving the truck. At no fault of my own. Uuuggggg. It’s just frustrating. Yes, yes, I know I don’t have to buy that’s nice of a car. It’s a choice. But it’s the fact I was forced into this decision in the first place. Guess that’s life.
 

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Hack

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More venting. Starting to feel the second order effects from this crash. Been driving my truck again as a DD as a result of losing the other car. And at 13mpg, (compared to 28) I can feel it. But now as I shop for a replacement car, yea sure, I’ll be back in a car that’s gets 28 mpg soon, but I’ll also have a $250 car payment. So now I’m out more a month that I am now driving the truck. At no fault of my own. Uuuggggg. It’s just frustrating. Yes, yes, I know I don’t have to buy that’s nice of a car. It’s a choice. But it’s the fact I was forced into this decision in the first place. Guess that’s life.
That sucks. And car shopping can be a PITA too.
 

vernonator

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More venting. Starting to feel the second order effects from this crash. Been driving my truck again as a DD as a result of losing the other car. And at 13mpg, (compared to 28) I can feel it. But now as I shop for a replacement car, yea sure, I’ll be back in a car that’s gets 28 mpg soon, but I’ll also have a $250 car payment. So now I’m out more a month that I am now driving the truck. At no fault of my own. Uuuggggg. It’s just frustrating. Yes, yes, I know I don’t have to buy that’s nice of a car. It’s a choice. But it’s the fact I was forced into this decision in the first place. Guess that’s life.
Have you talked with your ins agent about a supplemental policy for your "priceless" vehicles? You can get ins on ANYTHING if you are willing to pay the premium. Insurance is only ever going to give you market value unless you have an Agreed Value clause/policy.
 
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galaxy

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That sucks. And car shopping can be a PITA too.
uuugggg...used car shopping might just be the worst thing I've ever done. It's beyond annoying.

Have you talked with your ins agent about a supplemental policy for your "priceless" vehicles? You can get ins on ANYTHING if you are willing to pay the premium. Insurance is only ever going to give you market value unless you have an Agreed Value clause/policy.
This accident has made me think of doing that, at least on the truck. If this had been the same scenario in my truck, I have even pursued legal action against the other party, but they you gotta weigh the cost of that expense to what you might stand to gain. We'll see.
 

EFI

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Just for future reference, If you have an older car that you feel is worth more than book value you can get your insurance company to come out and appraise it. Then if something happens your covered, at least for the appraised value.
That's not really how this works.

1) an insurance company is not going to appraise it more than book value just because the owner really really likes their car. Book value is book value, regardless of the owner's sentiments to it. I absolutely love my POS foxbody, and to me it's worth a helluva lot more than the $1500 book value it has...but ain't no insurance company is going to value it at $5000 just because I love it. The only time this may be the case is with a classic car insurance where you have a declared value policy and you insure it for X amount of dollars. But even then, the insurance company won't just insure it for any value you want especially if the only reason is because you like the car.

2) just because your own company appraises the car for X amount of dollars, doesn't mean that the other party's insurance company feels the same and they are under NO obligation to pay out the bloated appraisal just because the owner really likes it. Their only legal recourse is to give the owner fair market value or book value, nothing more even if someone else magically appraised it for more.
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