Salvage Title ??s

Caver Dave

Caver Dave

Just holdin' it down here in BFV
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Joined
Mar 10, 2005
Location
Hooterville (24171)
Long story short, after only 2.5 months of driving daily, "Junior" ass-ended a Lexus a few weeks back in the '97 Camry LE (I've been pedaling the Burb anyways). Hood, core support, rad, AC evap, all lights, bumper & grill smoked, but fenders were untouched... the Lexus had minor damage (only $800, if that tells you how minor)

Insurance company called it totaled (didn't realize my wife was paying collision on it :rolleyes: ), said $2700 or $2000 & I keep the car.

While "high miles" (175k), it was a known quantity since we put the last 125k on it & know the maintenance history.
  • Outside of the core support (should be able to cut the spot welds, pull it, & drop another in it's place)
  • The rest is bolt-on (shouldn't take him long to figure out... with me standing watch)
  • Parts are highly available in the local yards (don't care if it ends up a PINK facia, but may luck out of the same color)

By my ciphering, for the $700 difference & guesstimating it'd take another $700-$800 (estimate based on Pull-a-part pricing & fighting the Latino parts buzzards) worth of JY parts to put it back on the road... don't think I can replace it, even for the the total $2700... but could rebuild it & use the diff to pay the premium increases? :shaking:

Insurance adjuster says the title stays the same as long as it's in my name, but once sold, the title would then show "Salvage"... no need to "re-register" it at this time? Insurance would know it's salvaged and keep my wife for further stupidity (liability only)...

For those of you familiar with all this, am I missing anything? Math good or bad? Lost cause?

:beer:
 
Dave, I don't quite see where their $ is coming from.
If they total it, the rule is that you can buy it back form them for 20% (or less) of the value.
If the value is $2700, how come it costs you $700 to buy it back? Shouldn't that be $540 at most?
If there is extra cost for teh title change etc, that is their cost, not yours. B/c technically for a total loss, they have to pay you value + title fee + title tax, everything you would pay to get an identical car on the road. maybe I'm misisng something?
 
Couldn't you find the parts for $700 and not total it out, just fix it and not go through insurance? An $800 accident doesn't hit insurance hard, if at all, but a $3500 does. Might be cheaper to just let insurance pay out that $800 and you fork the $700 to fix it to keep insurance down.
 
RatLabGuy said:
If the value is $2700, how come it costs you $700 to buy it back? Shouldn't that be $540 at most?
Click to expand...

Sorry Dave, the difference was the tag/title payback...

Blaze said:
Couldn't you find the parts for $700 and not total it out, just fix it and not go through insurance? An $800 accident doesn't hit insurance hard, if at all, but a $3500 does. Might be cheaper to just let insurance pay out that $800 and you fork the $700 to fix it to keep insurance down.
Click to expand...

Interesting idea Blaze! Will investigate & LYK what I can find out!
 
^ That's kinda what I'm thinking too. Plus you probably have a deductible of at least $250, right?

Sounds like you're going to either do one claim ($800) or two claims (one for $800 and one for $2700 minus a deductible) and end up with a salvage title. You might want to speak with your insurance agent to see if it will keep your insurance down if you drop the claim against your own car.
 
Unfortunately, you may already be "hit" by the insurance company, regardless of what they pay out.
The problem is that it's going to be on your ins. record that it happened, even if they don't pay a dime. It's not the total payout that affects your rates, it's what catagory the actuarial tables put you in - which is based on # of incidents per year, not cost to them.
In short - once they know, and you have a claim # established, you might as well get as much $$ as possble. Dave, if you're on good terms w/ your agent, just ask him and hopefully he'll explain it outright whether it's the case here or not.

This happened to me, I dinged a lady's car driving a 24" moving truck (oops). I offered to pay it out of pocket to have it taken care of quickly, but she reported it to my ins. co. anyway. They denied responsibility b/c it was a commercial vehicle, and actually Rider paid it. Guess what - it's still on my ins. record as a "no cost collision". Rates when up w/ the next contract period, even though their payout was $0. Bastards.
 
I rearended a girl a few years back in my Blazer. Didn't do anything to my truck, but my tow hooks ripped through her bumper and bent the trunk lid. $1300 damage claim to my insurance and my rates didn't go up a dime because it was less than $1500 worth of damage.
 
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