Car Wreck question (wife's car is toast)

Tacoma747

Tacoma747

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 20, 2005
Location
Winston-Salem
My wife was pulling in the neighborhood today and was rearended by some guy in a F-150. She was in a 98' Accord, her car is smashed, he didn't even touch the brakes, and pushed her car about 100 feet or more. She's fine went to the ER just for a check-up, I'm sure she will be sore though. Speed limit is 45 (maybe 50?) so he was probably going that or faster.

I kept the car because I figure the barganing would be harder if it was hauled to the junkyard. How is the best way to get the most out of the car from his insurance? NADA is about $6K retail, and the car is definetly worth it, had about 115K miles on it, in immaculate condition. Is there a 'standard' that they pay? I'd be very pissed if all they pay is private party value (about $4200), because like I said, the car was immaculate.

Thanks
 
the insurance company will most likely try and low ball you, don't accept their first offer. The insurance adjuster's job is not to make you happy, its to make his employer happy by giving you the smallest settement possible. It might help to mention your looking at attorneys, and even though she got checked out at the ER, maybe tell the insurance adjuster she's thinking about going to her doctor for a second opinion, she thinks her neck might be sore...Be careful about signing any medical waivers.
 
Make sure you look at comparables. As said earlier, the insurance co will try to low ball you. Every time this has happened to me or someone I know, we've had to practically get our lawyer involved to get what was fair.

glad to hear she is OK. good luck
 
Tacoma747 said:
My wife was pulling in the neighborhood today and was rearended by some guy in a F-150. She was in a 98' Accord, her car is smashed, he didn't even touch the brakes, and pushed her car about 100 feet or more. She's fine went to the ER just for a check-up, I'm sure she will be sore though. Speed limit is 45 (maybe 50?) so he was probably going that or faster.
I kept the car because I figure the barganing would be harder if it was hauled to the junkyard. How is the best way to get the most out of the car from his insurance? NADA is about $6K retail, and the car is definetly worth it, had about 115K miles on it, in immaculate condition. Is there a 'standard' that they pay? I'd be very pissed if all they pay is private party value (about $4200), because like I said, the car was immaculate.
Thanks
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unf they won't really care that it was "immaculate". Their job is to give you "replacement cost" not the "value" of the car. From their point of view, everybody says their car was perfect. They will indeed try and give you private party or some relatively low amount, no way wil lyou get retail... sorry...
you do NOT have to accept it, you can haggle, argue with them. Start NOW looking on AutoTrader and other local spots for the going cost of the same car... be sure to pull ones with matching mileage etc. They wil ltry and match it w/ a lower-end model w/ 200k miles. You can provide them a list of what the ACTUAL replacement cost will be based on matching models near you. Luckily for you this is a common vehicle and you hsould be able to find actual similar deals.
As much as I hate to say this, you need to be prepared to be a jerk and aggressive if you want to not get screwed.

oh and Also, having it NOT at a junkyard dosn't help. Actually if it's at a yard, they are goin gto end up havin gto pay the daily storage fees so they're motivated to get the ball rolling.
one thing that DOES help is for you to push for a rental car - she IS entitled to it. She is out her only means of transport (as far as they know) and cannot work w/o a vehicle.
once they are paying $25/day or whatever for the car, they will not ant to let it go unresolved too long.
 
I'd be more concerned with her. She may end up with neck problems weeks from now. It is funny how that type of thing works. I injured my neck 9-10 years ago in a snowboarding accident. The neck muscles were very sore the next morning, but nothing that kept me from riding. The real pain didn't start until 2-3 months later, and has been getting significantly worse the older I get. I don't know how it works with the insurance company, but I would want to be able to wait 3 months before signing off/settling on medical for the accident to see if any problems arise.
 
Find three local adds that are comparable and tell them to take the average of the three and pay. If those three are newer or nicer trim they will adjust the value. Also KEEP THE CAR. They will probably say it's worth $200 or $300 and deduct that from what they pay. Then sell the totaled car for $500 to $1000.
 
yeah, they have to let you buy it back, I believe the rate is 15% of the final agreed value. I don't know what teh parts demand is liek on these, it may or may not be worth the hassle.
 
I'm going through the same thing right now. Rear ended by a Freightliner on Aug 21st and still waiting on the accident report from Cabarrus County Sheriff Office. The trucking company will not respond to them nor my insurance company or myself and they have no insurance info for the truck and driver since it seems that the driver provided false/wrong info(policy #) at the time of the accident. In the mean time I'm without my DD and have hospital bills that are coming in and a truck that is totaled and I need my $$$ to get it replaced. Good luck to you and the insurance battle. I'm glad no one was seriously hurt. At the time of the accident I was felling fine but about 3 hours later my back was killing me and I was to the point of hardly being able to stand or walk. Lower lombardial(sp?) muscular strain. Not fun!
 
Just like has been said, Just like buying a used car; it's a back-and-forth bargaining process.
The Insurance company is essentialy trying to buy your car, so of course they start with the lowest offer that might be acceptable to you.

Start collecting links/ print outs of ads for similar cars. and fax/ email them to the adjuster. You won't get Top dollar retail value, but you will get market value.

When my 87 accord was totalled in high school, my dad told the other parties' adjuster "If you can find me this car for the amount you're offering me, then buy it and give it to me" the adjuster responded with an offer 20% higher and the deal was done. :lol:
 
I would be careful when you are wrapping up the car biz to make sure that you are NOT wrapping up the medical claim. You will ONLY sign that you have completed the vehicle part of the claim settlement.

Schedule a followup with her doctor in a week or three from now, as mentioned above, alot of times the pain is delayed especially in this exact type of accident. (The whiplash movement is really rough on the neck)

Lots of good advice up here, call the UPullit folks to see what you could sell it to them for, may not be worth your time keeping it.
 
As said before dont settle the medical claim yet. If you have a medical claim pending they are more likely to give you a better price for the car, happened to me about 5 years ago. Dont settle the medical claim until a little while later
 
Thanks for the advice, someone else had told me not to settle the medical claim, we will drag that out for awhile just to make sure she is OK (I think you have 2 years?).

I've actually thought about keeping the car for the engine to put in my honda buggy, big jump from 1.5L to 2.3L, plus all the electronics are already there...
 
just hope it's not gmac for your sake if you don't like there amount let your ins. co settle it if you have full coverage on it if it is gmac just go ahead and get a good lawyer and not be in no hurry it took me almost a year to settle with them
 
hillbilly27017 said:
just hope it's not gmac for your sake if you don't like there amount let your ins. co settle it if you have full coverage on it if it is gmac just go ahead and get a good lawyer and not be in no hurry it took me almost a year to settle with them
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Same with nationwide. They lowballed the car and medical bills when my wife was hit by a drunk driver insured with them. I told them that we wouldnt accept their offer and they said then if you dont like it sue us. So we did. It took 2.5 years later to settle the case but got a fair amount of money..
 
tknopp said:
Same with nationwide. They lowballed the car and medical bills when my wife was hit by a drunk driver insured with them. I told them that we wouldnt accept their offer and they said then if you dont like it sue us. So we did. It took 2.5 years later to settle the case but got a fair amount of money..
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This is a slight tangent (hopefully no trelevant anyway) but I'm curious, when you have to do that and it goes to court, will they allow your incurred legal expenses to be included in the lawsuit for this kind of case?
 
My wife got hit last Jan by some 18 yo girl who was texting while driving,didnt hurt the car too bad but sent her to the hospital with a neck injury.
The car was fixed but we still have not settled with Gico over the medical bills.They have tried numerous times to settle but we have'nt because were goin to give it some time and make sure she's is alright before we do.
Her out of pocket expenses for doctor bills and time lost from work is over $4k plus the $10K or so that her insurance has paid on the doctor bills.
Gico will not pay any of the medical bills until the claim is settled.I'm sure they do that to pressure people to settle.
 
Never sign a release. You are not required to sign it, so don't. Once you do, you are SOL if something comes up.

I've never signed an insurance release, EVER for any of my accidents and neither has my family.
 
RatLabGuy said:
This is a slight tangent (hopefully no trelevant anyway) but I'm curious, when you have to do that and it goes to court, will they allow your incurred legal expenses to be included in the lawsuit for this kind of case?
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We were set to go to trial and before we started they made a settlement offer. We turned it down. They then made a sizeable offer and we took it. They knew we had them over a barrell, they just wanted to see how far we would take it. We had to pay the lawyer a third of it for his services.
 
tknopp said:
We were set to go to trial and before we started they made a settlement offer. We turned it down. They then made a sizeable offer and we took it. They knew we had them over a barrell, they just wanted to see how far we would take it. We had to pay the lawyer a third of it for his services.
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I'm curious too. So after paying the lawyer his fee, did you end up with a fair amount?
 
Settled the car today. She first offered me $5,661 and -$500 if I kept the car. I was very suprised it was that high, I figured they would offer in the low to mid $4K's. I ended up telling her I would do $5,500 and I keep the car, and she was OK w/ that. Retail value was $6,000 so I think I did alright.

We are also getting $510 for a rental car (although she is using her parents car).

She's had minor neck pain, not bad though. She was prescribed Darvocet, but she has just been taking Advil. Slight tingling in one of her fingers that she said is less today, so we will see what happens on the health stuff and hold out on doing anything with it.

So it looks like the Honda buggy is getting an engine upgrade and it hasn't even been driven yet...
 
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