finally insurance that worked for me

[Cpaschal]

So I recently bought a super clean 86 hatch from the original owner. the car was completely stock with the exception of aftermarket wheels from the early nineties. AC still worked as well and the interior I would give an 8 or 9 out of ten. rust free California car. Some guy backed his Dodge 2500 into the front of my car, twisting up the radiator core support and destroying the hood. His trailer hitch went straight through my grill and into the radiator. I took the car to a Toyota dealer for an estimate for repair dreading the vehicle would be totaled. The estimator came out of his office with a weird face and told me he was going to total the car out. I called my Insurance company (State Farm) immediately after getting home and explained to them that I could not afford to have my 86 a total loss. I sent massive photos of what the car looked like before the accident that were taken a few weeks before after a full detail of the car. State Farm assigned the case to a total loss team and estimated the value of my hatch at almost 7 grand. I have heard so many horror stories of clean Corollas being totaled after accidents, but never anything like this. I guess the person doing the estimate of my car had someone in her office look at the pictures and he about hit the floor. The insurance company listed my car as a classic collector vehicle. I just wanted to put this story out there for people to show that in the worst case scenario, we may still have a positive outcome.

[Cpaschal]

befor



after

[carbd7age]

That shows you get what you pay for. I had State Farm many years ago and paid a lot every month for just my one car. I got hit, they met me at the dealership for the estimate, then went with me to the rental counter and hooked me up. I didn't have to do anything. Now we have bootleg insurance from The General (I know, shaddup) our 3 cars and two drivers cost the same as what I was paying for me to drive 1 car with State Farm. Last year my wife got rear ended and the other insurance took care of it. A couple months ago (exactly 11 months later) we got a letter from OUR insurance company saying they just found out we were involved in an accident, and they demanded we provide the police report and a copy of the other insurance company's check to us to prove we had had it settled with them. The letter said if we failed to submit the paperwork with 3 weeks, OUR OWN insurance company would charge us for the repairs done to our vehicle that had already been covered by the other company. Luckily my wife is a pack rat, so she had the deposited ticket and a bank statement showing the check from the other company being deposited. Our company said thanks, now your rate has increased 10%, have a nice day.

[Deuce Cam]

Just curious, why did you go through your insurance company if the other guy was at fault?

I had a similar situation over a year ago. My gts was totaled and the other party was at fault. His insurance company (state farm) ended up compensating me $4500 for the vehicle loss portion of the claim. (My car was in worse condition aesthetically compared to yours (paint finish was completely shot.) Before fault was determined my insurance company (Progressive) determined the value of my car to be $600, and wouldn't budge.

They said I could plead my case for value by providing other cars fs in my zip code of the same make/model/year, and I had to provide the VIN numbers of these vehicles. This wasn't possible because there were none fs in my area. They wouldn't accept non local listings or nadaguides.com value. My only other option was to hire a third party appraisal company (at my cost) for a second opinion, and even then there was no guarantee it would do any good. Needless to say it was a big slap in the face.

Luckily the other guy's insurance company had to flip the bill. I really should look into State Farm. You get what you pay for.

[Cpaschal]

Sorry to here that. I have heard bad stories regarding these cars in accidents and I was stressing something bad. I am now trying to locate oem parts to help the collision center get her fixed. They couldn't find an oem hood so they are replacing it with a carbon fiber hood. I am having trouble finding the core support and the hood latch parts that all need to be replaced.

[Red]

You won't find many oem parts for a 25+ year old riceburner. And they're probably too lazy to use the internet or the fax, which CAN get all those parts from junkyards all over the country. But any junkyard can bring the parts in for you, the same way. They can get the hood the same way, they'll just wind up paying more to have it shipped because an original metal hood will be so much heavier. Although the hood itself will be cheaper, maybe they're just happier to not have to clean off old paint.

In order to replace the vacuum & emissions decals that are under the hood--required by federal law--you probably will need to order replicas from Torparts. Don't let them cheat and omit those.

[Cpaschal]

they cant find an OEM metal hood and they just asked me if I was ok with a seibon carbon hood. I am still looking for all of the hood latch parts though. a friend was able to locate a factory Toyota core support section and I will be getting that in a few days. I had a full jdm front end brand new which they will be installing as well. I get reimbursed for all the parts I supply them as well.

[Cpaschal]

so I stopped by the collision center today to see my car torn down. after the hood was removed the visible damage is minimal. the core support was salvageable but I had a freind source a nos toyota core support. the car is waiting on the hood and hood latch.

[Cpaschal]

[Cpaschal]

I finally got my car back. looks awesome.


with a little help from a good freind she looked like this

[mau5trap]

do you have full coverage?

[Cpaschal]

yep. only cost me like 40 dollars a month. of course now they upped it to closer to 100 a month after appraising the vehicle.

[Red]

Appraising the vehicle: How did they figure out a value for it? And how much, if one may ask?

[Deuce Cam]

yep. only cost me like 40 dollars a month. of course now they upped it to closer to 100 a month after appraising the vehicle.

I would complain because that sounds ridiculous.

I pay almost $40/month for my gts with full coverage. Three years ago I had a 2006 Subaru STI with the same insurance company and exact same coverage (the car was the only difference). I paid $63/month for the STI.

[Cpaschal]

I'm not sure how they figured out the value of the car. the lady in charge of the estimate had a friend that saw the pictures and hit the floor. I told them that they would be having a hard time finding an 86 as clean as mine in the entire USA let alone Utah. My best guess is they searched the web and found high value corollas to compare it to. I know the premium is high but I am just happy to have my car back and without a salvage title. The body shop reimbursed my for half of the jdm parts I used for the front and painted the bumper for free so I kind of feel like the car came out better than it did before the accident. I used all original Toyota parts including bumper and lights. everything was factory Toyota parts including the new old stock radiator support with the exception of the Seibon hood.