As everyone knows... I was in an accident last week. My body shop just called me to tell me that my insurance considered my car "total loss". HOW MUCH SHOULD THEY PAY ME?

Information on my car:
- 2003 TL Type-S.
- PERFECT CONDITION (inside/out) before the accident.
- Around 24,000 miles.
- Navigation.
- Body Kit.
- Rear spoiler.
- OnStar.
- Dunno what else... it was basically flawless...

My auto shop says that they checked on the Kelly Blue Book and it says $29,000 retail price. The person at the auto shop says that he does not understand why its totaled because they estimate the price to fix it to be around $10,000 (airbags were deployed), so they are telling me that unless I get around $29,000 that I should not take it. CAN ANYONE CONFIRM THIS NUMBER? FOR HOW MUCH SHOULD I TAKE WHAT THE INSURANCE WANTS TO OFFER ME INSTEAD OF FIXING MY CAR? PLEASE HELP MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!! I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HOW MUCH SHOULD THEY PAY MEEEEEEE?????????????

BTW, I just checked on the Kelly Blue Book online and according to the specifications I have my car is worth $29,500 RETAIL PRICE... IS THIS WHAT THEY SHOULD PAY ME??????

 

Bah, can't link KBB things. Just go to www.kbb.com to get the retail amount. I did it for you and got like 28,800.

 

LINK DOES NOT WORK... BUT IS IT THE RETAIL PRICE I SHOULD BE LOOKIN AT?

 

About 25k sounds alright, I think.

NADA puts the trade-in price at about 23.6k and retail at about 27k. Expect near trade-in price on their first offer, but negotiate and settle around 25k, I would say.

Good luck and sorry to hear. Got any salvageable parts? I'm scavenging already.

 

Edited my post

 

I can hook you up with the exhaust or eibach antiroll bars if you interested.

 

So Should I Be Asking For The Retail Price Then?

 

No, they are not going to pay you retail. They will give you an offer near trade-in price, but you will have to negotiate. I mean, depending on the insurance company, it's different. Some make legitimate offers straight off the bat, others like to fuck around to save a few bucks.

 

sorry to hear about that... sucks. hopefully u get a good amount. i'll ask you about parts once you're ready to deal with that.

 

SO HOW MUCH WOULD YOU CONSIDER FAIR GAME? AND UNDER WHAT CIRCUMSTANCE SHOULD I DECIDE TO FIX THE CAR RATHER THAN CONSIDER IT TOTAL LOSS? THANKS!

 

Already got sway bars, but I'm still running on stock mufflers. How do the Apex ones sound?

 

I must say that I love my Apexi Exhaust. It has a very nice and deep sound, not like crappy ricer shit you know? But where you located? The exhaust is cat-back so it might be a pain to ship and stuff.

 

Like I said in the first post, 25k is probably quite fair on both parties. But you should push for 27k and see where that lands you. Probably somewhere around 25k-26k; but that's up to the insurance company and the adjuster.

As for fixing vs. totalling -- Well, what kind of damages has your car sustained? Suspension, cosmetics? Frame?

It is a possibility that you could buy it back and part it out. Or fix it up for cheap. But do keep in mind that since this car is totalled now, it'll have a salvage title if you bought it back and fixed it up -- that means no more factory warranty.

 

Ah, it's catback. Nice. I'm located in Michigan. It really would be a pain in the ass to ship it. But we could still work something out. Shoot me a PM and let's discuss in private.

 

Here are some pics:

CLICK HERE FOR PICS

I would believe that my car only has cosmetic and suspension... dont think the main frame was damaged but the body shop does not know since they haven't tore the car apart to see what happened underneath...

 

im gonna go ahead and say the frame is most likely damaged... thats hiw im guessing the other side is misaligned. you probably got the dents on the other side from the bumper being pushed to that side.

 

Let's assume that the insurance company went by the trade-in price -- which is listed around 24k.


In most cases, costs of repairs around 70% of the car's value is considered a total. That means 16,800 dollars in damages.




HOLY SHIT, I just saw the pictures. Looks like just about every panel is damaged. The rear quarter panels are very expensive to fix, since they are big single pieces and integrated into the car.

Well, I would say that if you have a friend or something that'll give you a good deal on fixing her up, you should go for it. Suspension damage seems to be limited only to the front left, and that could be fixed at a good body shop. Replace all damaged panels, hammer out the rear quarter panels, repaint... That'll cost a lot, but if you wanted to keep this car, you could buy it back and fix it up and have a few thousand dollars left over in your pocket.

I would go that route, since I love my car too much if that happened to me. But like I said before, there won't be a factory warranty anymore due to the salvage title, so you've gotta keep that in mind, too.

 

also, how much would u be willing to let go the sawy bars for?

 

I feel for you, man. The Type-S is a helluva car even without all the mods you put into it. Now it's all ruined cause of some careless jerk. I remember seeing in your pics of the accident that your rear door wouldn't close correctly even though the door itself didn't look like it sustained significant damage. Did the collision repair guy mention anything about a bent or misaligned frame? If it's anything like that I'd just take the money and run. On the bright side, you'd get to go new car shopping. On the darker side, you've already taken the steep 1-2 year depreciation hit.

 

hey one question. Was your car still being financed? or leased? or was it paid in full? you have to see, becuase most times with financing you might be an upside down. meaning you owe more than its worth. thats when GAP insurance kicks in. and all that.. but if it was paid in full. its all your money! but dont take less than 24k

 

My car was paid in full.

 

The fact that the rear doors do not close properly when they were not even "visually" damaged makes me feel insecure about this car. A car in an accident is never the same as a car free of accident. One good thing is that I get to buy a new car... but if I am not planning to add more of my own pocket money, I won't be able to buy a car even close to my beautiful TL-S. There are no really nice cars for 26-28k that could compare to my TL-S. That's what sucks.

 

y would they tell you its totalled with 10k or so in dammage if BB is around 25+????
as for what you should do, how much do you like the car? its nothing a little yanking here and there cant take care of, and over all the damage didnt look that bad other than a little tweaking of the frame, nothing a good auto body shop cant take care of.

oh and if you do decide to total it, DONT let them low ball you

 

I would make the insurance company pay you retail, plus tax and prorated license. The idea is to be in the same position you were before the accident. No one is going to sell you another car at "trade-in" price, they will want retail price and you will have to pay sales tax (if your state has sales tax). If they only offer trade-in, ask them how you are suppose to buy another similiar car at a trade-in price. My wife totaled a car awhile back and they paid us retail, plus sales tax and prorated license fee without much argument.

 

But who has the last call in considering a car totaled or not? Me or the insurance company? It is weird that they did considered it totaled and that is why I will call my insurance and see how much they are offering me... but before I did that I wanted a good idea of how much its worth if its totaled.

 

I totaled my Accord 4 years back. After that I bought my 01 TL. I read your signature and you have mods. I had mods on my Accord also. They will pay you about 75% of what the parts are worth as long as you can provide them with the receipts. Thought it might help to know that.

 

Value on KBB don't mean shit ... 80% of the time..

I have prior claims experience. Most companies in CA either use CCC or ADP for total loss valuation. who is your insurance company? Both of these companies provide a very comprehensive method of valuating your car and does not even compare with KBB's general valuation based on depreciation.

As far as making the call of totaling the vehicle or not... unless you have a very very good argument, they will total it. Value of the total loss minus salvage cannot exceed the repair costs. Since they looked at your car and wrote an estimate for only 10k and considered it to be a total loss, there probably is severe frame damage or they cannot restore your vehicle to pre-loss condition or they did a tear down and found extensive damage underneath.... there can be several reasons.... many reasons. If you decide to keep your vehicle in hope of repairing it, the insurance company will cut you a check for the value of your vehicle minus an estimated salvage recovery. It's a good idea not to retain your vehicle..... to be honest with you. When you get your settlement offer, the settlement includes sales tax, vehicle licensing fee, etc. don't worry about the little things.

As for your aftermarket parts, some companies will not reimburse you, but you can always ask for reimbursement from the at fault insurance company. I hope you have all the receipts or they will give you a hard time.

PM me if you have specific questions. I could probably answer it pretty good since it's in CA

 

I don't totally agree with that. The insurance company will find the cheapest way out.

Method 1: pay for the repair (estimated $10,000 in this case, but will most likely be more due to hidden damage), let assume $3000 in additional damage found = net cost to insurance $13,000 with the possibilty of even going higher.

Method 2: Total the car (pay you $26,000 or whatever) minus what they can sell the damaged car for (lets say $13,000 at an auction for damaged cars) = Net cost to insurance $13,000.

They will want to do whatever is cheaper. Repairing a car can very greatly from the estimate. So at trade-in price, my guess is they will total it. At retail, they may want to fix it.

 

insurance does.

i think they called it totaled since the doors dont align that means frame damage i noticed nasty suspension damage.

also you might want to measure FL to RL wheel distance and FR to RR if they dont match up theres trouble there too. gl

my advise they say trash it get your money and buy yourself a new one dont let them low ball you. goto a dealer if you have to and qoute your car with similar miles and same options as if you were going to buy it.

 

I gree with TLAE5NAV. The idea to have an insurance is to get you in the car that is either equal to your totaled car, or represents the same value/status/condition. All this is without you making up the difference in form of applicable taxes, fees, etc. If insurance company is not willing to come up with enough $$, ask for identical car with close mileage and in the same condition that they will just buy for you.

Sorry for your loos, I hope you are OK (that is all what counts).

 

THAT is totalled? I've seen way worse than that that wasn't considered totalled. A crashed car never performs like it once did, so if you could get 29,000 for it, I'd take that. How many miles did your car have?

 

my tl-s was purchased after a totalled car. it was a 2000 accord coupe ex v6. paid 26K out the door. when it was totalled from a t-bone , it was only 1.5 years old with about 19K miles. i have 21st out of cali, and according to them, they check various resources like used car lots, newspaper ads, etc for something similar and then take an average (they provided the printout to me). in the end, i got 24.5K for the car plus reg and other tidbits. i basically lost out on interest, insurance, gas, maintenance, etc.

i also had a bunch of aftermarket stuff, like 7K worth of audio and miscellaneous that probably totalled ~13K, and they gave me about 75% back (little less than 10K). fortunately, they did not offer miscellaneous insurance, plus i called to check, so they had to payout on this as well. they have since added this type of insurance so the default is only 1K.

 

I didn't say that the damages on the car was 16,800 dollars. I was just saying that USUALLY if the cost of the repairs is around 70% of the car's value, it'll be totalled. But if the frame is bent (badly, not just minor), then you could have little damage and still get the car totalled.

Was the damage estimated at 10k? I didn't see that part.

 

But will they pay for the after market stuff if you did not declare them when you signed the contract with the insurance company? Coz I basically said that my car was stock...

 

I just finished talking to the insurance people and basically my car is totaled because there is major frame damage... they say that they will give me the numbers on Monday as to how much they are going to pay me. I guess I have no choice but to get rid of my baby...

 

varies from company to company. AAA will not pay you. Farmers Insurance will cash you out if you have receipt. Since you have Unitrin... not sure how that will go. let them know you had some accessories on the car.

 

Did the other party have insurance or you don't know??

Here is a friendly advice.... when you rent a car, keep the rental under you rental coverage. DO NOT take out additional insurance on the rental. any extra insurance you buy on the car is not reimbursable from both insurance companies

 

They are supposed to give you market value, not trade-in value

 

IF it has substantial fram damage, they may total it regardless. They are supposed to give you market value, not trade value.

 

Does MARKET VALUE = RETAIL???