Went for take away last week parked jag in middle of parking lot came out from Chinese to find someone had backed into the front of my pride and joy. Police could not do anything as it was on private land ( parking lot ) even though I had the perp,s name and phone number , it was the person in front of me in the store I got his name and number from them he had phoned in his order. The insurance company totaled the car as a 2003 xj8 is to expensive to repair even though the damage looked minor. My car was within the Kelly blue book range but the insurance company uses a lower value than what we can see.

 

You should familiarise yourself with TX insurance law before sigining off.

In most states you are entitled to replacement value of the same model in similar
condition within your market area.

 

Yes, in fact they should be able to give you a listing of cars that sold recently. You could also send them examples of costs for sale. KBB tends to be high. Try Edmunds TMV. Keep negotiating until you get a price that you're happy with.

Please note you could also take the guy to small claims court.

 

Do not know about insurance law in Texas, but in the UK, you can ask the insurance company for payment in lieu of repair for cases like this.


You do a deal with the insurance company, and with the money you do your own repair.
the up side of this is that the car is not recorded as an uneconomical repair.


What ever the outcome, I am sorry for your loss.

 

I feel your pain and recently dodged a similar bullet. It was dark and rainy here a couple of weeks ago and I was unable to avoid a large, deep pothole (California is famous for them). It took out both tires on the right side, bent one rim, and bent a tie rod. Had the repairs been more than $2000, the adjuster said they would have totaled my otherwise extremely clean, beautiful XJR. Repairs came to $1950 and change.

Clearly I would not have let them total it, I would have appealed to the city that it happened in, then taken legal action if they were not forthcoming.

Obviously our cars are worth more to us than they are to any insurance company, and it reminded me be insured for an "agreed to" value.

Good luck with your problem. I think I'd take the guy that hit you to small claims court.

 

The advice to know the law before you begin negotiating is solid. Everyone seems to have advice, but when negotiating with the insuranc ecompany, especially the other guy's, the ONLY thing that matters is what the law says IN YOUR STATE. For instance, some states allow for diminished value, many do not.

 

Insurance companies will often total out an older luxury car at a lower percentage of value vs a more common car ... any unseen damage is going to cost them more money.

Just easier to end the claim ..... the best protection is an agreed policy if available.


As others have said ... every state is a bit different ... in many they use a combination of generally accepted valuation sources.

In many states you can't attach blame for pot holes and other road hazards -- the state is not liable. You can try and recover from a contractor if the road is under construction

 

At the end of the day, the insurer should pay you the amount of money needed to buy a replacement car in similar condition at local market conditions.

 

You can in Texas too. I've done it so at least my insurance policy allowed it. I wrecked a Toyota Supra about 12 years ago. It was only cosmetic damage (the car still ran and drove fine but repair costs were more than the car was worth), they gave me 75% of the book value and let me keep the car and fix it myself. Indeed, I had to pay some out of my own pocket but went ahead and spent several thousand more out of pocket to have to whole car repainted, wheels refinished and a bunch of weathered old trim replaced. To me, the car was worth it.

But I'll offer a little advice about insurance claims for low-value cars in general. 99 out of 100 people who drive old cars do so because that's all they can afford. Most people live from paycheck to paycheck and need to accept the insurance company's first low-ball offer just so they can get another car right away, ANY old car, and not miss work or school. Insurance companies know this and count on it. Very few people drive old cars because of purely sentimental reasons. If you have something else to drive, or can just go ahead and buy another car out of your savings and refuse to settle early on, eventually they'll cave in and give you a decent settlement just to get you off their books.

 

In this scenario the car would be marked as either a Cat c or D write off and would have to be described as such to any new insurer as some do not insure cat C or D vehicles. It also significantly affects the future value (knocks about a 3rd off of it)

 

At the end of the day the insurance company will pay according to the policy that most owners don't read. Determining "condition" and "market" is were it gets owners into trouble.

Most want something "after the fact" that they did not pay for.

"agreed value": I think it is worth "X" -- you "agree" .... I pay you based on that number. Car totaled -- you pay me "X" ... I am happy.

If you don't have it .. don't expect that it will all work out.

 

well the insurance company paid out for the value of the car, it still is annoying that they have a different scale as to the value of the car that we cannot see . I was $150 dollars over the 75% for them to fix the car I even offered to pay that no way. So now I am the proud owner of a 2003 xjr.

 

Nice, but also bittersweet.

Just as info for others, different states are different...but in CA at least you can request detailed information about what comparable cars they used to determine the value, and they have to provide it. Usually it is CCC because they value with the lowest numbers, but for older cars that are not on the road as much they do not have as deep of a used dealer network (which is where they get the low-ball values from). Often the comparable cars are inaccurate years, etc. They will for sure put the lowest trim XJ8 on there, or even an entirely different chassis and model with 250k+ miles on it, and then apply BS value adjustments (yes, this has happened to me specifically).

If you are in no rush, you can search for a bunch of more accurate comparable cars, and then you can talk to them and politely explain why the cars they picked aren't appropriate (they pick cars from far away too...), and then show them your specific comparable cars. They may come back with more and better cars, or not, but if you should able to get the cost it would be to replace the same car in similar condition.

As someone else mentioned, if you can wait them out, they will agree to something more appropriate. It took me three months on my totaled Mercedes, but the final offer was ~65% higher than what they offered initially.

 

What's CCC?

 

CCC is a company ... they do auto valuations ... especially for the mass market insurance companies.

Some states are very "mater of fact" in the way a car is valued for insurance (total loss) ... "X" (model) + "Y" (condition) = value


CCC tracks it all and is accurate ... have to always ask for the report and make sure they got the condition correct.

Most people with older average cars make out well -- the companies are often generous with the condition .... often the car gets bumped up.

Older, perfect luxury cars are harder to value and often suffer in total loss valuation.

 

Interesting.

I found this article on CCC valuations :

Auto Appraisers Jobs, Auto Appraisal Jobs, Auto Appraiser Careers

 

I suppose the answer is to take lots of photos of your car,( bodywork, interior, under the bonnet/hood, etc...) so that you have a good record of what sort of condition it is in.









Having said that, it is probably near on impossible to photograph the difference between an nice wax job and a proper detail job with zero swirl marks.

 

Good article. Reminds me of another piece of advice I forgot. Always have your wrecked vehicle towed back to your home or somewhere that it remains in your control. I know of many cases where they've threatened people will be responsible for mounting daily storage fees if they don't settle the claim.

 

Everyone has a stick in this game ... obviously the auto appraisers want you to think that the valuations are low and the consumer is getting screwed .. they speak to the legal community to get them more involved in the loss valuation. One problem -- No money in to for the attorney .. and who will pay for the appraisal? And most 4 year old cars don't need new engines or transmissions.

As I indicated above .. find out how your insurance company figures out the number .... or ask the agent before you purchase. I bet many agents will not know -- because very few insureds ever ask.

The only way to solve this problem is to resolve this upfront -- with an agreed policy provision ... and with very specialized cars the will require an appraisal ... and the insured pays.