Sorry to hear this, glad your alive, Atlanta! dont come to Baton Rouge, they all drive like idiots, I dont take my XJ out in the city, always out of the way of morons....

 

As I previously mentioned, my wife and I went through this unfortunate ordeal, ourselves, 4 years ago, and it created a lot of angst, as well as made me think, recently, especially when considering something that happened in the area where I live. About 3 miles from where I live, a home was struck by lightening, and a fire began. Nobody was home at the time, so fortunately, there were no injuries. The home, of course, was severely damaged, in the resultant fire. I'm quite sure that the property owners were properly insured, as the heavily damaged structure was torn down, and a new house is currently under construction.

This event re-kindled my thoughts about what happened, when our XJ was hit, and subsequently totaled. The insurance company handed us a check, for about 50% of what we paid for the car, and said, "Here, go buy another one". But how do we "buy another one", when the wrecked one had very low mileage, was specially ordered, therefore was the EXACT color combination we wanted, with the EXACT options we wanted, etc, etc. Yeah, we received SOME compensation, but I feel that we weren't "made whole".

Where am I going with this? Look at the home owner that I referred to. They're getting a brand new house, with brand new furnishings, and most, if not all, of their possessions will be replaced. I realize that they probably lost some things that had sentimental value to them, but all in all, they'll be "made whole" again, yet this never happens when a car is lost. It doesn't seem right......

 

Sorry to hear this. Good cars no longer produced become hard to find in good-reasonable condition. Glad you and your wife came out okay, physically!

 

That's because you bought a standard automobile insurance policy that reimbursed you for the "Actual Cash Value" of your XJ immediately before the accident occurred. That amount was based on the Insurance Adjuster's opinion - and opinions vary. You didn't have to accept their determination, and could have hired an expert to dispute it.

Instead of buying the standard Actual Cash Value coverage, you could have bought Replacement Cost or Stated Value/Agreed Value Coverage. That would avoid the subjective determination of how much you'd receive if your car was a total loss.

Read this:
https://www.investopedia.com/article...value-cars.asp

And this:
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...rience-166352/

 

Stu, I understand what you're saying, but I must have looked, in the past, for the incorrect policies, because when I look for "agreed value" policies, the only ones I've ever come across have limited mileage conditions attached to the coverage.

 

Insurance policies vary by state. Because you didn't include your state in your Public Profile, I am unable to search for automobile insurance companies that offer stated value coverage in your state.

Check with your current insurance company first, as they might offer an endorsement for stated value coverage. Also try Google: "stated value" car insurance in (state). A local, independent insurance agent should be able to help.

Stated value policies for vehicles driven daily is unpopular because it is expensive.

 

Several years ago, my XK8 received a rear end tap. The bumper cover was a bit of a mess, but the rest seemed fine. The repair company determined that the rear bumper beam had also taken damage, and the whole car needed to be jigged for straightness. The impact was less than 10mph, no air bags etc...Needless to say that the car was fine, no real damage. Now it got interesting!

The repair company returned the car, and I could not fault the work. Then they told me that CarFax would list the accident in the "Moderate/Major" catagory. Then the, at fault insurance company, called and asked me to sign off and close the claim.

HELL NO! Through no fault of my own, the car now had a CarFax tag against it and was worth less than it was prior to the accident. After a lot of haggles GEICO gave me $4600. I kept that car for another 10 years, guess I got my money back!

wombat

 

i have had Chubb insurance for many years and all of my cars are “agreed value” Chubb assigns the value and on the cars I bought new it was the sticker price even though I paid less and on used cars the stated value was also higher than what I paid. There are no mileage limitations. Every year the value goes down some but always remains higher than the “street price” As far as I know this is the only type they write. I have been with them over 20 years and find their price competitive for what they offer.

 

XJSSS - So sorry this happened man (glad you're both ok) and even more sorry to see you head over to the Audi forums. You're definitely an asset to this forum and hope you'll eventually find your way back.

 

Psst!! I'm still lurking

 

Great, we need your knowledge and wisdom.