Quote:
Originally Posted by Granite
The car appears to be totaled. The whole drivers side was smashed in including the front hood, trunk , both bumpers etc. The fault is with the big rig. Our insurance is USAA and they seem to be very on top of the situation. I told them to deal with everything and that appears to be what is happening. We have full coverage on the car and only owed 18k so we are not upside down in the car. Tomorrow the car gets picked up by a collision company for evaluation and they have 48 hrs to make an estimate of repairs. If they don't total the car I will force them to get another opinion.
Steve
|
If they don't total but repair it and return it to you, ask that you be reimbursed for "dimished value", i.e., a 2006 BMW X5330iTouring with the same mileage,options yadadadadada that has never been wrecked is worth more than the same car that has been wrecked even though it has been properly repaired.
I had a client whose Jetta was in a major accident but repairable. He was satisfied with the repair but about 5K miles later it began eating tires and rear bushings. Put it on a frame machine and it was still tweaked. Ins co had option to have it re-repaired or pay him for the diminished values...he took $5K and got rid of it in a hurry to a used car dealer.....
However some states do not allow recovery for this.
Another bargaining tool is possible future medicals. If wife is OK now, tell insurance company that but request medicals be left ioen for 6 months just in case. The might agree to this or they may balk and just make you a nuisance offer to settle unanticipated future med expenses just to close the case.