They want to total my Subaru

Toshi · Jul 8, 2006

having your car totaled instead of repaired is usually the better deal. the repair estimate only has to be a certain percentage, 85% for example, of the value for the car to be declared totaled. buying it back from salvage is at another, different, lower value since the car will not have a clean title at that point (or be fixed).

splat · Jul 8, 2006

Fight it!

Threaten to take them to court! Find similar cars of similar value and show them how much they are worth.

if he was DUI , unlicenesed , etc they don't have a leg to stand on. plus they always try to low ball you on there first offer any way. they less they haveto pay you is more profit for them.

Wumpus · Jul 8, 2006

If he hit you, you don't have to take it to "their" bodyshop. Around these parts you usually take it to three shops of your choosing to get an estimate if they don't want to except your first place of choice.

drt_jumper · Jul 8, 2006

I went through a similar situation a few years ago with my truck..insurance company's always give the lowest offer possible first, take your car to 3 local body shops that do insurance work, and get estimates, also call up a dealership and ask how much they think the care is worth...rough guess without the damage and go from there, definately try and fight it a little. Insurance companys hate people who are pains, so they will almost definately offer you a sweeter deal.

Brian HCM#1 · Jul 8, 2006

Have it totaled, most of the time insurance companies pay out pretty well. Remember, if they want to consider totalling it, that means most likely there is undercarriage damage, suspension bent of bent frame. Even if fixed to look great again, it will never ever drive as well as it originally did. Trust me I know my vehicles. Take the $ and buy something newer.

MMike · Jul 8, 2006

Why would you want to keep a damaged car?? I've argued with insurance companies when they refused to total it!

Good riddance I say......

Brian HCM#1 · Jul 8, 2006

geargrrl said:
Um, I have two teenagers? I can give it to them to drive.

Take the $ and buy them each used Honda Civics

valve bouncer · Jul 8, 2006

Brian HCM#1 said:
Have it totaled, most of the time insurance companies pay out pretty well. Remember, if they want to consider totalling it, that means most likely there is undercarriage damage, suspension bent of bent frame. Even if fixed to look great again, it will never ever drive as well as it originally did. Trust me I know my vehicles. Take the $ and buy something newer.

there's a reason they write it off. Big T-bone like you've described almost always means some chassis stress.

Brian HCM#1 · Jul 8, 2006

splat said:
Fight it!

Threaten to take them to court! Find similar cars of similar value and show them how much they are worth.

if he was DUI , unlicenesed , etc they don't have a leg to stand on.

Yep, then go for that 745 BMW you always dreamed of :thumb:

valve bouncer · Jul 8, 2006

Just a fwiw GG- 100k plus miles on an 11 year old car means it would be way way past its used by if in Japan. I've heard Subarus are somewhat susceptible to rust in the sub frame at least from that vintage. Add that to a hard side impact and.......well.

trailhacker · Jul 8, 2006

Take it to a few different body shops. Not the "buddy" one on their "network".
If the damage is $2800 and they want to total it then they have to give you market value. If KBB, NADA, Edmonds say its private party value is $4500-5500 then that is what they have to pay you. If they are willing to do this and that works for you then cool.
If they are not willing to pay you this amount then they have to give you an average of what the estimates are and if their buddy shop is signifigantly less then you will probably have to fight it out with them. This is assuming that they don't total the car.
If it comes to this then you might be better off having your insurance company handle it. Talk to them and find out what they would give you if they were in a similar situation.

If you really want to keep the car, assuming there is no frame damage or other safety concerns, there might be something else you can try.
I get on a truck forum for 73-87 Chevy/GMC trucks and a guy went through something similar. Another user claimed to work in the insurance industry. He said that even if they give you the full value of the car, it is still legally your car - because it is considered a total loss it theoretically has no value. It was supposed to be a dirty little insurance ind secret?
If this is true you get the full value and you keep the car, but I believe it leaves you with a "branded" title; showing it has been totaled or rebuilt. It was argued that since the title never changes hands it might never get branded but I don't remember the final outcome of this situation.

Good luck!

PS, if the safety of your children is a conceren, I would rather have them driving a Subaru with a dented door and fender than a civic.

trailhacker · Jul 8, 2006

valve bouncer said:
Just a fwiw GG- 100k plus miles on an 11 year old car means it would be way way past its used by if in Japan. I've heard Subarus are somewhat susceptible to rust in the sub frame at least from that vintage. Add that to a hard side impact and.......well.

Yeah, but we are not in Japan. People buy cars and drive them for 20+ years and well over 100k miles here. Hell, we buy all the 60k-70k engines from Japan and the tuner kids put them in 15-20yo cars that have well over 100k?
I wouldn't be scared to buy a Honda, Toyota, Nissan, etc with 150k on it for a decent price. I am pretty sure it would get me to the 200k mark with out any major issues.

As for insurance companies only totalling cars if they have "major" damage, you haven't been in an accident lately have you? If they total your car, lo-ball you, then sell your "hulk" to a wrecking yard, they generally come out ahead of if they were to have paid you just for damage and had nothing to show for it.
I was watching a dateliine type show not so long ago. The guys that buy all these totals from the insurance auctions were saying that over the last few years they have been getting out bid by foreign buyers. They take these cars out of the country, fix them then sell them at a high profit. No worries about branded titles or any of that american non-sense. On the show they were showing these containers being loaded on ships and each one had like 4-5 cars and some of them were pretty messed up!

splat · Jul 8, 2006

valve bouncer said:
Just a fwiw GG- 100k plus miles on an 11 year old car means it would be way way past its used by if in Japan. I've heard Subarus are somewhat susceptible to rust in the sub frame at least from that vintage. Add that to a hard side impact and.......well.

I have a 95 Legacy Wagon with 151K on it ! Love that Beast!! I see where GG is coming from

SkaredShtles · Jul 8, 2006

splat said:
I have a 95 Legacy Wagon with 151K on it ! Love that Beast!! I see where GG is coming from

I finally sold my '95 Legacy Wagon a couple years back because I had too many cars. It had 196K on the odo when I dumped it.

h22ekhatch · Jul 9, 2006

trailhacker said:
If you really want to keep the car, assuming there is no frame damage or other safety concerns, there might be something else you can try.
I get on a truck forum for 73-87 Chevy/GMC trucks and a guy went through something similar. Another user claimed to work in the insurance industry. He said that even if they give you the full value of the car, it is still legally your car - because it is considered a total loss it theoretically has no value. It was supposed to be a dirty little insurance ind secret?
If this is true you get the full value and you keep the car, but I believe it leaves you with a "branded" title; showing it has been totaled or rebuilt. It was argued that since the title never changes hands it might never get branded but I don't remember the final outcome of this situation.

Good luck!

PS, if the safety of your children is a conceren, I would rather have them driving a Subaru with a dented door and fender than a civic.

I have been through this a couple of times (either personally, or family). You can have them total the car for the market value, but you will have to 'buy back' the wrecked car. Legally you don't own the car anymore, they bought it from you (you sign the title over). That said, you can usually buy back the car pretty cheap.

My cousin bought his Honda back for $900 (he had a good $8k in parts he pulled off it after getting it back from the junkyard so it was worth it) and my father bought his car back for $350 (it was a POS though).

***Both these were in Oregon though, cant speak for any other states.***

MtnBikerChk · Jul 9, 2006

never go through the other guy's insurance company. Let your company fight for you - that's why they get paid. Your insurance company pays lawyers to go to court over this kind of stuff.

mrbigisbudgood · Jul 9, 2006

You need one of these

SkaredShtles · Jul 9, 2006

mrbigisbudgood said:
You need one of these

Too liddle.

And I wouldn't trust that in the hands of a 16 year old kid.

LukeD · Jul 9, 2006

mrbigisbudgood said:
You need one of these

i have one of those :love: may i recommend one as well? lol mine is on the left in silver...my friend's monster (320whp) on the right.

Toshi · Jul 11, 2006

LukeD said:
i have one of those :love: may i recommend one as well? lol mine is on the left in silver...my friend's monster (320whp) on the right.

what mods does your friend's '04? '05? wrx have? to get a legit 320 whp would require something the size of a 20g on a 2.0 liter...

Kornphlake · Jul 11, 2006

Having been in your shoes I honestly think you came out ahead by getting the car repaired. I had a car that was wrecked and the other guy's insurance gave me the option, take $4000 to total the vehicle or keep the vehicle and they would pay for repairs not to exceede $2800, I didn't want to hassle with the guy's shady insurance company any longer as it had taken 2 months to get to this point so I let them tow away my car. Turns out I couldn't find anything in near as good condition as my 8 year old car with 115k miles for $4000. Cars that are traded in and sold at that price were unloaded by their previous owners for a reason and in most cases it isn't just because they wanted something newer, most of them had symptoms of transmission problems if they were an automatic and/or rough idle, not to mention cosmetic flaws ranging from cracked windshields to holes in the door panels where somebody did a hack job speaker installation and removed the tweeters before selling the car. I wouldn't sell my 96 saturn with 154k miles on it at this point, KBB doesn't even list a value in it's current condition, when I do sell it a junk yard will be the buyer. Given my Saturn's age and condition I know that even if I sold it for a good price and got $1000 for it, I wouldn't be able to buy a car in better condition for less than $5000.

brungeman · Jul 11, 2006

geargrrl said:
short version, t boned by an asshat who ran a stop sign, 100% his fault. DUI-high risk insurance, imagine that.

My vehicle is a 95 Sub Legacy wagon, fully loaded, only 115K miles, NICE shape, really nice car. I love this car. Damage is not that bad: the passenger rear door is crunched but fully functional, and the rear quarterpanel has a crease.

His insurance had me go to some body shop that's on their "e-auto" network for the estimate which came in at 2800, and they say is a total loss.
Here's the deal .This car is worth way more than that, at least around I get ranges from Kelly, NADA and others that average around 4500-5500. (retail, private party, not trade in) I haven't even researched locally yet. If they want to total it, don't I want a better value for it than what they say? Or, if I want to buy it back on salvage and keep it for my kids... I want a low value then, correct?

Or, do I fight for a high value, take a check for the repair estimate and keep the car, instead of buying it back on salvage?

My insurance has made it clear that if I don't like what his is offering me to just give them a call.

thoughts, anyone?

geargrrl

sorry to hear that... I can say EVERY TIME i have been in this situation, I have been screwed... I have tried to fight the $ amount, only to find out that the driver had limited tort and only caried $10,000 worth of coverage and he dammaged 3 cars totalling over $18K I got $8k for my subie, and to buy the same car (only a year older) again it cost me $12,500. and that was the cheapest one I could find!

wrecks are a pain in the @SS!

SkaredShtles · Jul 11, 2006

geargrrl said:
N<snip> .I know, you'll tell me I still should but life without car payments is good.

gg.

I won't tell you you should. Keep the smashed up car, spend the repair money on booze and gigolos!

Car payments suck balls.

They want to total my Subaru

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