OnWednesday night, as I was enjoying a steak dinner, by pristine XJL 5.0 was awaiting me in the parking lot. Because it was a full lot, I had parked in the only open spot I saw- next to a large pickup (3/4 ton) that was pretty beat up. I thought twice about it and even moved my car over a bit to make sure this truck had lots or room to not hit me on the way out. But these are trivialities of daily life, and I was oblivious as I enjoyed my company and meal.

When I walked out of the restaurant, this is the sight that awaited me:



I has a sad.



Aside from the laughter of my friend (he can be kind of callous), I was in shock. I called the police, spoke with the restaurant. The jerk didn't stick around, it was a hit-and-run.

The bottom line is that the (probably drunk) jerk in the truck literally RAN OVER the front of my car on his way out, riding up my fender, through my headlamp, and pulling the front bumper clean off the car, while severing all the sensors there. Mechanically, the car seems OK. I had it towed to a body shop.

Over the last few days, I started to heal. I realized it would only be a matter of time before the car was good as new.

I just got off the phone with the insurance adjuster. They informed me they will total the car. This car had ZERO accidents, and I basically cleaned it with a baby diaper since it was new. I put a lot of work on it in the last year. The car only had 51K miles, and I planned on having it forever.

I need a drink.

 

That is unfortunate. Guess the restaurant did not have any lot cameras? Or maybe a nearby camera where you can get the plate number?

I would be looking for that truck. Seems it's "uniqueness" would not be hard to find if its local.

Shame your insurance won't work with you to keep it on the road.

If it is all just bolt on stuff that is damaged, perhaps try to buy it back for a salvage? If you planned to keep it anyway who cares what the title says on it.

 

Thanks.

My plan right now is to buy it back and use the $$ to repair it. My wife isn't too happy, especially since I got an F-type R earlier this year and she thinks I have too many cars and hobbies.

 

Just remember that the insurance company works for you, and you don't have to accept their offer. If you want to keep the title clean (not salvage/repaired), you can work with your adjuster to get the maximum allowable payout without totaling it and fix it yourself. If you are okay with it being totaled and buying it back, make sure they are giving you a fair value for it and if you think their offer is low, make them prove their comps are actually comparable.

 

Who would do that...

I am so sorry that this happened to you...

It is hard enough to keep our Jags on the road without something like this happening

 

Wow! That really sucks. Its a shame, kills me every time a late model Jaguar sedan, XJ or XF crosses the virtual block on BaT for less $ than a same year/mileage Honda Accord. But on the other side, wasn't that long ago I used to have classic cars repainted for just a few thou, and now its tens of thous. When the car is worth practically nothing and the body work and paint to fix it costs a fortune, it doesn't take much damage at all to be considered a "total loss".

It looks minor as far as being mostly cosmetic. Here in Texas, if you could patch it up with duct tape and bailing wire and keep driving it (like the beater truck that hit you), you should be able to get the insurance to just write you a check for 74.99% of the value of the car, calling it simply loss of value and let you hang on to the title. I did that once with a Toyota Supra that I had lost control, sliding into a barrier, putting a crease along one side of the car, but it still drove just fine (and legal with colored tape over a marker light.) I added a few thou to the 75% ins payout, had the whole car repainted so it looked like brand new and a couple years later sold it to an enthusiast on the east coast who has been enjoying doing performance modifications. He sold a very low-mileage mint one just like it to buy mine instead because with its history, he wasn't going to feel guilty about modifying it. Point is, I didn't let it go to a salvage yard. Its still out there being enjoyed. I hope your XJ can be fixed and keep making you or someone happy for years to come too. Good luck.

 

I can see where an insurance company would want to write it off as totaled because of the unreasonably low market value of a used XJ and the unreasonably high cost of body shop work.
But it doesn't look too bad if you look at it practically.
The front bumper cover can be replaced, and the fender can be replaced or even repaired believe it or not. And the headlight can be replaced with a salvaged used one or new aftermarket replacement.
My wife's XJ was hit on the same fender about a year ago. I bought a replacement fender for it expecting that it couldn't be bent back into shape because it's aluminum.
As it ended up, the body shop repaired the bent fender and I still have the used one that I bought - I need to get around to selling that fender one of these days.
But we went ahead & had the front bumper cover repainted "while they were in there".
The biggest thing is the hit & run part, did you get a good look to give a good description of the truck?

This is a case where one of those dash cams with an impact sensor feature are priceless, but almost all of us (me included) don't think of that until after we could have used it.
I really hope the police/sheriff's office can find them.

Coincidentally, I bought the used fender I have from Texas...

 

Lots of low mileage XJ’s out there. Just buy another one and save yourself the headache of repairing this one. That’s why you have insurance.

 

Just get as much money out of the insurance company and fix the car.

https://www.vehiclerevolution.com/pr...nd-tail-lights

 

Front bumper cover, front wiring harness, new headlight and some minor paintwork and you're back in business for $1-2K with parts from a local junkyard if you self install. The car will obviously be salvage titled if you buy it back, which will kill whatever residual value is left. I would make my decision based on how much insurance is willing to pay out. The benefit of keeping the car is that YOU know how well you have maintained it.

 

Same thing happened to me! Parking lot hit and run totaled my beloved XJ8L. I miss that car every day.

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...-xj8-l-277757/

 

This! I was thinking back to when I purchased my (much more plentiful) XF back in 2017. It took four months of shopping, half a dozen inspections and at least 1,000 miles of travel to find one that I wanted to buy. I remember going 300 miles to inspect one that I was so excited about the color and the check engine light comes on during the test drive. Sales manager of course offered to fix it, but I told him that was most likely the reason it was traded in with barely any miles and at a minimum it was a bad omen. I always found something wrong with the ones offered for sale or there was some risk of not finding what was wrong. You already have the one you want and while they are dirt cheap and you theoretically could take the pay out and buy another, it would seem to me easiest to just go ahead and have the one you've already got repaired - just drop it off at a competent shop and pick it up in two or three weeks, no shopping, no travel, no negotiations, no ppis, etc.

 

This is an example of why I have to give a bit of consideration to each insurance renewal with each of our vehicles.
As far as liability, that's pretty much a given. But as far as collision & comprehensive, we have to consider that the value of a particular vehicle to ourselves may be far from what the market value is - often the case with us & our XJs.
In these cases the amount we pay for comprehensive & collision can be saved or even put in the proverbial "fund" to "self-insure" for the periodic windshield replacement and possible hit-and-run or uninsured motorist accident that an insurance company considers worth more than the market value breakpoint, but as the owner we consider worth repairing instead of giving up the car. Even if the vehicle is truly totaled beyond repair, what we would or could pay to repair it, the amount an insurance company would pay may not be much to contribute to what we would spend on what we would want for our next vehicle.
In these cases, the cost of comprehensive and collision may not be worth it, but we usually don't know because we don't know what it would pay back until we actually put in a claim.
I think that to be fair, insurance companies should be required to describe to the customer what the maximum repair amount/total loss amount is that they would pay for the vehicle on the renewal policy so that we can better weigh the value of the premium. They should tell us what their value of the insured vehicle is on each renewal, and the maximum amount that they would pay in the case of the vehicle being totaled. They already define the maximum coverage for the liability coverage.
And maybe they could give the Customer the option to choose a higher value of coverage for comprehensive/collision. For example if the market value of your vehicle is $8k, you could pay additional to increase the coverage value to say $15k or $20k, to cover the personal value to the Customer. I don't see why that wouldn't be fair business.
Maybe that is already an option or available with some or all insurance companies...

 

It's called "agreed value" coverage.

 

Yep, that's what I have on the E-Type and have had on other collectible cars. It's an incredible deal because it's much cheaper than regular insurance and it is often $0 deductible and they pay out claims much easier.

These collector car policies still base the value on something close to the market value. They won't let you insure it for way over fair market value. Plus you have to prove you keep the vehicle garaged and everyone in the household has a daily driver that isn't the collector car. So it probably wouldn't work for many on here, even if they would let you get a collector car policy for a last gen XJ.

 

Good to know both of those infos, I need to call State Farm & ask if they do this option and if it's available for daily drivers or only collector vehicles.

OP - any update on if "the authorities" have been able to find the truck that hit you?
I'm still hoping they did/do, and their insurance (or them out-of-pocket) gets it repaired.
Myself, I probably wouldn't file a claim to my insurance for it.
When my wife's was hit, I initially expected to get it repaired myself, but the truck that hit it had Geico, and they were okay to work with.
Which is why I still have a good used front left fender I bought that I ended up not using.

 

I can tell you right now that no USA car insurance will do Agreed Value for any kind of daily driver. For those "collector cars" that are barely driven, if you ever drive it to work they will not pay out on the claim. I had to do a "Stated Value" policy when I had an old Porsche for a daily driver but that's really just a requirement of appraisal where they revert to Actual Cash Value in the event of a claim. Not even sure what the purpose of Stated Value is when they determine the Actual Cash Value in any event.

 

Police in the US don't care to investigate these types of crimes and I doubt you'll hear anything else from them unless YOU furnish them video evidence showing a plate and face of the driver. They're also not required to protect nor serve (Warren v. District of Columbia, 1981).

 

Oh man, this sends chills up my spine. I'm so sorry.

 

Writing your state insurance commissioner and making a claim of your insurance company acting in bad faith will often get some action.