[yetibone]

This reminds me of what I had to go through with Nationwide after a hung-over feller in an F-150 rear-ended a Geo Metro, which in turn was pushed under, and out to the left side of my Z-71. My chassis was bent in five places; one of them had the trailer hitch pointed at the ground. Bed, tail gate, bumper, and rear cab section were also damaged, plus, it bent the driveshaft.

To my total surprise, they wanted to fix the truck. They estimated that it would cost $5800. At the time, the truck was 6 years old, and was well cared for with only 105,000 miles, but with the chassis bent at the back of the cab, plus over the rear axle, plus at the draw-bar, AND the left frame channel was noticeably farther forward than the right, I insisted that they total it. Of course, they refused. I insisted that, upon their refusal, that they have the entire chassis replaced because a sectioned chassis might fail under a 1000 lb. payload, or a 7500 lb towload. They refused that as well. They offered to give me the $5800 and the truck back, which I refused on account of the sum of the two being less than the value of my truck before the wreck (about $12,500).

I finally had to file a formal grievance with the Insurance Commissioner's Office in order to get Nationwide to total the truck, and give me $1000 less than the book value of it. All said, it took me a month to get them to write it off, and another month to get them to stroke a check.