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Car totaled, insurance help
Cauld
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So, last week my car got hail damaged. I have comprehensive coverage with a $1000 deductable, so I filed a claim. My insurance company (progressive) said my car is totaled as they estimate the damage to cost around $5800 to fix, while my car (a '98 Corolla) is only worth $4575. The gave me two options, outlined below:
if I go with option A, I get to keep the car but only get $2522.39
If I go with option B, they take my care but I get a check for $2522.39. I understand not paying for replacement tabs if I keep the car, but why should I have to pay the salvage value of the car if I keep it? I understand this is a profitable business practice to them. But consider the following. Imagnie the damage to my car was $4400 worth. I would, in theory, be able to get $4400 worth of repairs to my car (assuming I paid the deductable).... why does it matter whether I repair my car, keep the car, or salvage the car. I pay insurance so that they compensate me for the value of the car in case that value is decreased do to accident/weather/etc. I feel I should get the full value of my car, minus the deductable.
I looked at my contract and there was no mention of the salvage value being factored in. I plan on calling them, but thought I'd ask here first and see if someone else is better at finding this fine print I may have missed.
I live in MN.
option Value tabs sls tax subtotal deduct. salvage Check A 4575 0 297.39 4872.39 1000 1350 2522.39 B 4575 63.25 297.39 4935.63 1000 0 3935.63
if I go with option A, I get to keep the car but only get $2522.39
If I go with option B, they take my care but I get a check for $2522.39. I understand not paying for replacement tabs if I keep the car, but why should I have to pay the salvage value of the car if I keep it? I understand this is a profitable business practice to them. But consider the following. Imagnie the damage to my car was $4400 worth. I would, in theory, be able to get $4400 worth of repairs to my car (assuming I paid the deductable).... why does it matter whether I repair my car, keep the car, or salvage the car. I pay insurance so that they compensate me for the value of the car in case that value is decreased do to accident/weather/etc. I feel I should get the full value of my car, minus the deductable.
I looked at my contract and there was no mention of the salvage value being factored in. I plan on calling them, but thought I'd ask here first and see if someone else is better at finding this fine print I may have missed.
I live in MN.
Cauld on
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Option B get you $3900 and no car.
That's why there's a difference.
BTW...what kind of damage are we talking about?
The insurance company will see giving you the market value of the car (less deductible) as fulfilling their end of the contract. Usually they don't even give you option A.
In this case they're just offering you the option to keep your car if you like, by paying the salvage value out of the insurance payment.
This is standard operating procedure for a totaled car.
Should you not be getting $4800 if the repairs are $5800 and your deductible is $1000? Regardless of the "worth" of the car? Sounds to me like they're using the blue book value of your car in order to not pay for your coverage. However, it's hard to tell without your specific policy.
If your deductible is $1000 and the repairs cost $5800, cost of the car be damned, they should be paying you via your policy. That's a serious fuck ton of money for repair from hail damage on an older car like that. What are we talking about; a smashed windshield and some dents?
Edit:
The wording around "totaled" seems somewhat dubious for insurance companies.
All I want is market value of the car (less deductible). The market value of my car before the damage was $4575, my deductible is $1000... so shouldn't I be getting a check for around $3575 whether or not I keep the car?
My contract makes no mention of salvage value, nor totalling. All it says in regard to comprehensive coverage (besides defining what is and isn't covered) is:
only dents, no glass was broken
Well, yes, but it's probably in your policy they can take a car for salvage if they determine it to be "totaled". To me it sounds like they're going to take the car, repair it, and sell it and are over quoting the repairs to make it seem totaled. Get an appraisal from an independent body shop, not a dealership, for repairs and you may get better results while still keeping your car.
$5800 for dent damage? Get real. Seriously, you could buy the same car at a junkyard or even a dealership and just be like "oh here ya go, all fixed". I smell all sorts of foul. Get it checked at a reputable shop.
Progressive is not interested in fixing up totalled cars. They really are just going to auction it off. Maybe if you're insured by some nobody insurance company that kind of shenanigans occur, but given the sheer number of claims the big guys have to deal with they aren't going to dick around too much resolving a claim on a 5-6K car.
Also, the most you're insured for (in a payout situation) is the market value of the car. You have to pay the deductible (in this case they are diminishing the payout by the deductible amount). They will not payout more than the value of the car.
Edit: Hail damage can get really expensive in a bad storm. I could do enough damage with a ballpeen hammer to a 5K car so that the effort/money to get the car repaired (door panels, hood, roof, trunkdeck, and quarter panels) and repainted would exceed the value of the car.
Should the deductible not be valid, then, in this case? Since the deductible is only really for "I'm paying for part of this damage, still a claim, you pay the rest" and if it's a total loss, and is to be scrapped or auctioned then shouldn't it be "well since I'm not actively going to be paying for the repairs, and you're effectively scrapping my car, I should be given full market value of my vehicle," I hate insurance policies. I mean isn't that what a the deductible is there for, because you have to foot some of the repair bill? Not as a way for them to cut the bottom line a little bit for scraping a car.
Edit: Cauld, if I were you I'd get the salvaged car back, and wait til hail season is over (summer, but before autumn) and find a local PDR guy (assuming the hail did no paint damage). For hail/dings/dents a body shop will often cotract out to PDR and mark up 100%. Insurance companies are usually wise to this and their adjusters cut out a lot of the markup, but you may be able to deal directly with a PDR guy. You want to be outside of hail season because during those times is when the PDR guys are the busiest and they can command a premium.
You either sell your car and put all the money towards a new vehicle or you don't fix the hail damage and have $2,500. Or you can use that to fix the hail damage.
And I've never seen hail damage go beyond 3k. Usually collision shops can dry ice the dents out for pretty nominal fee. Would you be able to show us a picture of the damage?
I was planning on keeping the car and keeping the cash. That's clearly the best choice.
I'm not sure about getting pictures of the damage, all I have is a camera phone right now. They're small dents.... there's just a lot of them on the roof, the hood, the trunk, the other part around the trunk and both of the rear side panels. It was walnut-golfball sized hail though.
The insurance guy was of the mindset of replacing the body parts instead of fixing them, as he mentioned the roof is an expensive piece to replace. I can't imagine him beeing too knowledgable about hail damage though, being from Miami.