totalled, please advise

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Stock4AG
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totalled, please advise

Postby Stock4AG » Thu Jul 18, 2013 1:10 pm

Today I am in an accident in my 86, it's likely to be going to be my fault.
I got the car home.. (I insisted and I think it is the right move), I am OK.

I was wondering how to go about dealing with insurance and getting my parts off the car? I am not experienced in this area.

I have liability only so it is not likely going to be a buy back scenario.. As far as I know I own the car and everything on it, right?

Would it be ok to lay a wrench on the car before an insurance adjuster comes out.

What if, just what if I'm am not at fault or 50/50 how does that change things.


Thanks for any advice you have..

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Re: totalled, please advise

Postby kulitko » Thu Jul 18, 2013 1:55 pm

They will not take your car. You dont have a buy back or anything. You can just keep it in your drive way for ever. They will only pay the person you hit and not pay you to fix it. So its still your car.

Hope that helped....

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Re: totalled, please advise

Postby Stock4AG » Thu Jul 18, 2013 2:04 pm

If anyone wants to swap for gts rear end or you got some cheap wheels you want to upgrade
Rear suspension etc
Please let me know. I just need your stock part

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Re: totalled, please advise

Postby Stock4AG » Thu Jul 18, 2013 2:26 pm

So there is no financial interest in my car
Does the insurance company still need to come out to look at my car?

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Red
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Re: totalled, please advise

Postby Red » Thu Jul 18, 2013 4:32 pm

They may want to look at your car, both your insurance and the other guy's, because your car is evidence of the crash and the damage may help prove who was at fault. There should be a police report and I wouldn't touch the exterior until you've seen that, just in case there are questions and the insurers want to see the car. No, you don't have to wait for them, but why give them any excuse to give you a harder time? I'd give it a week (after the police report has been made available) and then do what you please if they haven't contacted you.
-- Original owner, 1985 GT-S

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Re: totalled, please advise

Postby HASport AE86 » Fri Jul 19, 2013 12:03 pm

You should be asking your insurance company these questions, not random dudes on club. My car was totalled out and they just told me they weren't paying for anything so I just started cutting it up and threw it in the dumpster at work. Mine was a hit and run though and we never found the driver, had we found him I could have gotten paper moneys and get to kick them in the d!ck.

BUT!!!!

If they determine the other driver was at fault even with liability you can sue the other driver for damages and get money for your car after all. Talk to your insurance company and ask them these questions and what they recommend you do before you go messing with the car. Pictures of the car as it sits as well as the police report will be needed in court so don't go screwing with the car just yet. There will be plenty of time to get low balled for any parts you sell on the car by cheap members, they're not going anywhere so time is on your side.
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Re: totalled, please advise

Postby Stock4AG » Fri Jul 19, 2013 12:16 pm

Yes, I am waiting for the claim to close, I'm in no hurry (a bit shaken up) and it's too hot to work on the car right now. So far they just told me since it's liability only, nothing will be paid for my car, so they didn't really ask me anything about it.

What if I had it towed to the yard , driver said insurance will take care of the bill, but (liability only, at fault).. would insurance still paid?

Should you always tow it to home if possible?

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Re: totalled, please advise

Postby Deuce Cam » Fri Jul 19, 2013 12:55 pm

Yes, always tow it home or to a garage that YOU chose. If you plan on working on the car yourself tow it home. That way you don't have to get it back to your house at a later time. I advise against letting the insurance company choose a garage unless you're familiar with that garage. I wouldn't touch the car until all the necessary adjusters see it.

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Re: totalled, please advise

Postby Red » Fri Jul 19, 2013 2:16 pm

Things disappear in storage yards. Police yards, insurance yards, doesn't matter whose yard, wheels, engines, all sorts of things just disappear overnight. So if you can keep it at home? Way better. And of course since you had one tow already, this way you don't argue over who pays for the next tow, or the yard storage fees, or the disposal. When things are over, then you can worry about that.

Personally, I wouldn't take the word on the average wrecker driver about anything. Not even whether it was raining. There are some honest hardworking guys out there and I've had the pleasure to meet a few, but there are also a lot of plain old fashioned thigs and thieves. Once your car is on his hook, he doesn't give a damn, he knows someone's gonna pay his bill and sadly most really doesn't care who.

So, the car is home? Cover it up, ignore it until the rest gets settled.

Check your state insurance department also. Usually insurers have a set limit, like 30 days, to either make their objections or else pay any claims, and after that time limit is up, they're not allowed to argue any longer. They won't tell you that up front, either.
-- Original owner, 1985 GT-S

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Re: totalled, please advise

Postby SidewaysGts » Fri Jul 19, 2013 9:52 pm

If the accident IS indeed deemed to be "your fault", your insurance will come into play. As you only have liability- They will only be covering the damage(s) that you are "liable" for, ie- The damage you did to their property/their medical bills- Thats assuming the costs of these is less than your coverage rates as well. If the repair bill/medical bill exceeds what your insurance policy covers you for, you will be legally obligated to cover the excess.

If you had included comprehensive on your policy, then theyd be helping with damages to your property as well- minus whatever your deductible is. Say for example you had a 500 dollar deductible and did 1000 dollars worth of damage, theyd pay you 500 bucks (1000 - 500). Like wise if it was 600 in damages, theyd only pay you 100, etc.

IF the accident is deemed as being "their fault", their insurance (IF theyre insured :\) will deal with you and cover the damages to your car.

IF the accident is deemed "partial fault", they will deem the ratio- and act accordingly. Say it was deemed 50/50- And their repair bill was 1000 bucks, your insurance would cover half of it. Likewise youd obtain a quote to repair your car, and their insurance would pay you whatever the split was.

But as you seem relatively confident that the accident will be "your fault", chances are your insurance will cover the damages you caused. If this is the case dont worry about your car, because your insurance company wont care.

May we inquire to what happened?

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Re: totalled, please advise

Postby Stock4AG » Fri Jul 19, 2013 10:06 pm

will explain later on..

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Re: totalled, please advise

Postby Red » Sat Jul 20, 2013 10:01 am

"If you had included comprehensive on your policy,"
Not so simple on old riceburners. What an insurer will pay depends on how the policy has been written and what your state laws require. Typically their payout is limited to "book value" or "market value" and state laws define how that is calculated. Market value is typically what the same model, in the same condition, has actually sold for within the past xx days and xx miles, such as 90 days and 50 miles. If there have been no similar sales, that valuation can't be used (unless you and your insurer agree to something else) and it goes back to book value. Except, book values typically stop at ten years and old riceburners haven't been accepted as "collectible" and listed in that market yet either. (Concourse, first time in Cali this year, not a standard yet.)

So the insurer can say "You car was worth $500 since it was running, your deductible is $500, we owe you nothing." And that's legal and proper.

Which is why many people don't carry collision/comprehensive on old cars, instead of arguing with the insurer over what an old car with no book or market value might be worth.

Now there is also "agreed value" insurance, but you'll often find that can't be bought except for collectible cars. Defined by the insurer as not your primary car, you must have another daily driver, you can't drive the collectible except to shows and events, less than 5000 miles per year, and oh yes, riceburners need not apply, at all. And some insurers who claim to write "agreed value" actually say "agreed value or market value whichever is lower" in their policy.

So, Catch-22, insurance isn't always available, even if you want it.
-- Original owner, 1985 GT-S

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Re: totalled, please advise

Postby Stock4AG » Sat Jul 20, 2013 10:05 am

I am think even if I am not at fault
And they pay my car $1500 - 500 deductable
But I really need to buy the car back to get my wheels etc
So I probaby get nothing no matter how I insured it or whose fault
That's just a little quirk of driving these old cars

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Re: totalled, please advise

Postby Red » Sat Jul 20, 2013 2:45 pm

Wheels can be listed with an insurer as "permanently installed equipment" on the car, if you have comprehensive. Basically, anything that has been professionally bolted in or added on, that you have a receipt for, can be added to a policy and noted as an increase in the value of a car. So if you've got a new set of thousand dollars wheels, or some incredible audio equipment, you can usually add it on. That's the kind of thing an insurance broker can tell you about, but a "direct" telephone insurance company usually wouldn't mention.
-- Original owner, 1985 GT-S

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Re: totalled, please advise

Postby SidewaysGts » Sat Jul 20, 2013 9:31 pm

Red wrote:"If you had included comprehensive on your policy,"
Not so simple on old riceburners.... Which is why many people don't carry collision/comprehensive on old cars, instead of arguing with the insurer over what an old car with no book or market value might be worth.

Now there is also "agreed value" insurance, but you'll often find that can't be bought except for collectible cars. Defined by the insurer as not your primary car, you must have another daily driver, you can't drive the collectible except to shows and events, less than 5000 miles per year, and oh yes, riceburners need not apply, at all. And some insurers who claim to write "agreed value" actually say "agreed value or market value whichever is lower" in their policy.

So, Catch-22, insurance isn't always available, even if you want it.


I cant argue with your experiences, but in my own experiences- I can say every insurance company I've dealt with has allowed me to call them up and discuss what I viewed as the value of my car based on the upgrades Ive made to it. Youll have to pay more for the extra value, but I've yet to personally see an insurance company that wasnt open to taking more money per month.

I am think even if I am not at fault
And they pay my car $1500 - 500 deductable
But I really need to buy the car back to get my wheels etc
So I probaby get nothing no matter how I insured it or whose fault
That's just a little quirk of driving these old cars


Wait, buy your car back? Are they taking or "buying" your car off you in the first place?

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Re: totalled, please advise

Postby Stock4AG » Sat Jul 20, 2013 10:30 pm

If I had comprehensive they would offer a check but they keep the car
That's all I'm saying
Unless I buy the wrecked car back from them which I don't know how much it would deduct from the check

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Re: totalled, please advise

Postby SidewaysGts » Sat Jul 20, 2013 10:45 pm

If thats all youre saying thats fine- Im just confused as to why theyre taking your car. If all you had was liability, they shouldnt care one way or the other about your car. They should just cover the damages you caused to the extent that your policy covers and be on their merry way. Unless theres more to it than whats been stated here, and that falls into the "all your saying" category- In which case I wont pry. Just dont want a fellow rolla owner to get screwed.

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Re: totalled, please advise

Postby Stock4AG » Sat Jul 20, 2013 10:50 pm

No the car is safe and sound now
By the way what do I do when I need the wrecker to take the carcass away how much does it cost?
How to retire the car with the dmv have you done this?

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Re: totalled, please advise

Postby SidewaysGts » Sun Jul 21, 2013 12:16 am

Shop around. Some will charge you a small fee to take things like that away. Others will pay you to take it away (for the scrap value). How bad was the damage to the car? If you can Id strip -everything- you can off the car of value.

As for the DMV- Depends where you are. In all likeliness just call them up and tell them the car is totaled and off the road for good. They may have a specific form for that, may just say ok, or might make you fill out some forms to render the car "non-op". Depends on the state.

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Re: totalled, please advise

Postby Red » Sun Jul 21, 2013 11:41 am

sideways-
Yes, you can always get a carrier to agree your car is worth more and they'll be glad to charge you more every month. If I tell 'em my car is worth $50,000, they'll write the policy and charge me for it.
But that's money down the toilet, because when it comes time to make a claim, a different department pays out the claims and the pay them based on the written terms of your policy. UNLESS you have an "agreed value" policy, they will not pay what you insured it for. They will pay according to the written policy terms, which will point back to book, market, or other "fair" value as defined by the policy or by state law.
Insurers sometimes outright lie and cheat on that. When mine was stolen I was told xx dollars "or we'll never pay you a cent" and when we got done, they paid me four times the original amount, thanks to some advice from the state insurance commission about how the insurer was breaking the law and making the wrong valuation for the car. Wrong, each time in each way, and I call that outright malice not an honest error.

Last time I checked around, because my car isn't the average 1985 rat, the closest I got was from Progressive. The phone rep was a gearhead and we got to talking, and he confessed that while he could sell me "agreed value" insurance for the car, their policy would state "agreed value or market value whichever is less" so guess what they would pay? 1985 "rat" book value. And none of the companies that deals in actual agreed value (with no nonsense) would touch a Japanese car, or a daily driver. A Japanese daily driver? Hell no, none of them could underwrite that.

Unless you've actually insured one, filed a total loss, and gotten the payout, you'll find the reality of insurance is not what the salesman told you. If you think you can get agreed value (aside from additions for permanently installed equipment) for a Japanese daily driver...by all means, tell us who will write the policy. And, what the written terms of the policy are.

These people earn their living by picking our pockets. Like a casino, they never really lose.


On total losses and salvage titles: That will vary from state to state and with the insurer. In theory, if the car is deemed a total the carrier is supposed to take transfer of the title from you, submit it for re-titling in THEIR name, get a salvage title issued, and then dispose of the car. And then most of them would rather not pay towing or storage fees or wait for scrap auctions, so they'll almost always sell it back to you for the scrap value, i.e. $500. When they do that they are supposed to return it to you with the salvage title.

In practice? Come on, getting the title from you, submitting it for title change, waiting typically a month or two for the new title, receiving that back and transferring it back to you, would cost them two months of sitting on the claim and probably over a hundred bucks in internal labor time costs. So almost all of them will simply allow you to keep the original title and the "salvage" status just gets posted on a database, never makes it to the title unless someone has been compelled to do so.

Now, salvage laws and titles have gotten tigther in the past 10-20 years because of flood damaged cars and a couple of states that are notorious for allowing titles to be cleared of salvage status too easily. As in mass fraud. So things will still vary a lot. But whenever they can? The insurer will skip the costs of changing titles, but the insurance database noting "total loss" will still haunt the driver, and the vehicle, until and unless it is cleared with a re-inspection. In some states, that's damned expensive. In Cali, oddly enough, apparently very easy.

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[And how do you say that in metric? Your kilage will vary? <G> ]
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Re: totalled, please advise

Postby SidewaysGts » Sun Jul 21, 2013 5:39 pm

Red wrote:.. Unless you've actually insured one, filed a total loss, and gotten the payout, you'll find the reality of insurance is..


Been there, done that. Consider myself lucky I suppose. Just need to be crystal clear and get it all in writing I guess.

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Re: totalled, please advise

Postby Red » Sun Jul 21, 2013 5:55 pm

When I finally (literally) laid the law down to my insurer, who oddly enough has a great reputation, the rep's manager called me back and said I had literally put her in tears. I said tears is better than jail, because if I'd had a recording she'd be going to jail on extortion charges. "Take this offer or else" is not acceptable customer service to me.

Funny thing, almost every cell phone in America has had call recording disabled. Apple won't license apps that do it, and mysteriously, all the Android phones from all the carriers have had the Android's native call-recording code removed from the OS. And no one admist to knowing why. Buy the same phones in an "international" version, even a Chinese or Korean version (countries not known for being particularly liberal) and the original code is still in there.

Funny, huh?
-- Original owner, 1985 GT-S

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Re: totalled, please advise

Postby mitzdzyjij » Mon Aug 19, 2013 9:33 pm

Red wrote:When I finally (literally) laid the law down to my insurer, who oddly enough has a great reputation, the rep's manager called me back and said I had literally put her in tears. I said tears is better than jail, because if I'd had a recording she'd be going to jail on extortion charges. "Take this offer or else" is not acceptable customer service to me.

Funny thing, almost every cell phone in America has had call recording disabled. Apple won't license apps that do it, and mysteriously, all the Android phones from all the carriers have had the Android's native call-recording code removed from the OS. And no one admist to knowing why. Buy the same phones in an "international" version, even a Chinese or Korean version (countries not known for being particularly liberal) and the original code is still in there.

Funny, huh?


Thanks for your share, it's very useful :D

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Re: totalled, please advise

Postby grappletech » Mon Aug 26, 2013 6:35 am

Great info Red. Good stuff to keep in the back of the mind
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