I fell into the job of working in auto insurance. Quite literally, I fell and sustained an injury severe enough to require surgery. So while I was recovering from surgery, I knew I needed a desk job since I would not be able to turn a wrench as a mechanic for at least a year or more. After some research, I saw some postings for adjusters and most positions offered on-the-job training.
[Ed note: Ada is a reader, car enthusiast, and auto insurance adjuster. They agreed to write this post on the condition that we do not reveal their employer. – MH]
Once I finished with the interview, I was off on a crash course in Auto Damage Adjusting. It turns out the insurance industry will train anyone, you don’t have to know about cars, or even like them. This surprised me a bit, since I have a bunch of cars here at home, love all things with wheels, and impress absolutely no one when I can tell the tire track in the mud of things like a BFG A/T tire. So here is a car nerd who found himself working in a total loss department, virtually, from home.
It might sound decent at first, but I have a hard time focusing on the job requirements when I feel that so many of these cars could easily be saved. My job is to KILL cars. For example, any older car that gets a light hit that requires a handful of parts and paint labor? It goes to the scrap yard in a hurry. The formula is simple: Get the value for the car, write a damage estimate, add 30% for potential supplementary repairs, get a bid on the salvage selling price and then do the math. If the value is higher than those three combined, it gets repaired.
Keep in mind this is for the listed part price, plus labor, plus paint if necessary. That little distance sensor in your grille that helps with your cruise control? Usually anywhere from $500-2500 for that one sensor. You also have to pay mechanical labor hours to have it calibrated. In short, modern cars have so many complex components that they are very expensive to repair even with what looks like light damage.
What a person like me loses sleep over, now that I’ve been doing it for a short while, is the stories you hear. That’s the other part of the job. You have to call the owner and let them know their car is determined to be a total loss. This is not fun at all. There is no upside to these conversations. Owners can fall into many different categories, but not many people like to go car shopping unexpectedly. The majority of folks do not want to suddenly replace their car. I’ve heard elderly folks candidly admit that the car that I just deemed a total loss was supposed to be the last car they ever owned.
They don’t want a new, fancy car with fussy screens and beeps and bings. They like the one they know and use. I’ve called people who have unfortunately gotten very bad deals at those buy-here-pay-here places. How about owing $22k on a 9-year-old Nissan Sedan that is valued at less than half that? The financing fees and balances owed can cripple people. I’ve totaled people’s dream cars, the $60,000 sports car that the owner then spent thousands on modifying but didn’t add the aftermarket parts to the policy as an endorsement? Not covered, sorry about the loss.
The car gets valued as the VIN decodes. If you add parts, vinyl wrap your car, upgrade suspension or wheels, better add that to the policy or never plan on getting a return on it if it is in an accident. I don’t relish these policies. In fact, I modify my own cars, upgrade loads of stuff, and it’s not on my insurance policy either.
Another thorny issue that is tough for people whose cars get totaled is the high price of new and used cars these days. Even if the value of your 2004 Jetta is low, at least you own it, have no payments and it runs OK most of the time aside from eating bulbs like movie popcorn. The devil you know is sometimes nicer than the huge new car financing you are suddenly forced to contend with because the payout on your old car likely won’t cover you for an exact replacement.
Sure, there may be some high-priced ones selling, and some lower ones, but when these companies plug in the software to “adjust according to mileage and condition” sometimes the values that come back are a bit offensive. Guess who has to let the owners know. Yup, I do. I get to tell people the company is paying $20k for a vehicle that is listed all over the internet for $22k-$23k. Of course, this leads to disputes, and eventually, with limited rental coverage and a need to settle and move on to get a replacement car, guess who ends up with the short stick? The customer.
I’ve reviewed over a thousand cars in a short time and only two of those were deemed “repairable,” which meant that the damage was way too light to meet the value. The rest were deemed a total loss. You might think that being repaired was still preferable. But consider that a vehicle can be in the shop for months waiting on parts that are backordered or in short supply, especially after the pandemic supply chain issues. Some people do not have rental coverage and need a car to get to work, others have limited coverage that runs out.
Does that make me feel better about totaling cars? Nope. I still feel terrible. But the kicker is that the job pays better than what I was making when turning wrenches. So how do you leave? I haven’t found a solution to that question yet. For now, I’ll be the person who takes the extra time to listen, who notices the great condition your car was in when rating it to send to the valuation company and the person who will genuinely care that you have enough rental time to work your way out of the mess that accidentally happened.
OK, insurance is a business, selling a product to the public for the purpose of making money. Everything stated in this article seems completely and totally fair, more so even than I had imagined, in light of this fact.
Except for the other fact. The fact that purchasing this insurance product is mandated by the government, under threat of penalty, and not voluntary. At that point none of the processes and procedures designed to protect company profits to the detriment of the public is fair in any way.
Imagine your rates if insurance was not mandated. Furthermore, contemplate the risk of not carrying insurance. This is a public health issue and makes perfect sense as a government mandate.
If it becomes a government mandate they might as well use a government fund for the basic things, since you know, most people pay taxes. Especially if the insurance needed is just to cover medical expenses.
Well, yeah, socialized medicine would solve this (and many other) problems.
Hear, hear!
My argument was not with the rightness or wrongness of the government mandate. It was that since is it government mandated, ostensibly for the public good, then in the course of the adjustment process priority should be given to the public good, not the company’s good.
No need to imagine, I can just remember: It was cheaper. The biggest reason is the government rarely stops at “if you drive you must carry insurance”. They also do things like forcing companies to accept high-risk drivers which of course makes your rates go up since you have to subsidize the losses they bring.
In California they also decided it’s somehow not fair that the guy that gets 3 speeding tickets and a wreck annually gets charged higher rates for each one but someone with a spotless record doesn’t get charged for their first speeding ticket or wreck in a decade. This is why those “accident forgiveness” commercials always have “not available in CA” in fine print.
Sorry to say, but this is incorrect. You ARE NOT mandated by the government to buy physical damage coverage, just liability. That is to protect other drivers on the roads you share and no one should have a problem with that.
Further, insurance is just one way (though certainly the most common) to show “proof of financial responsibility.” You can also satisfy this with a Financial Responsibility Bond in some states.
This is indeed true.
I feel like a lot of people miss that nuance because they have been required to carry damage coverage by lenders. If you’ve always had a loan or lease, you probably have always needed damage coverage.
I don’t know what percentage of Autopians have never owned a car outright, though. You’d think the liability insurance requirement would be common knowledge here more than in the general public.
Super salient, super excellent point!
Yes, you’re right, only the liability insurance is mandated. However, and maybe I missed this in the article, I believe the adjusting practices detailed herein aren’t only for customers of the optional product. These practices also apply when the wronged party in an accident are having their damages assessed by the responsible party’s insurance company in the process of fulfilling their obligations as the guarantor of responsible party’s liability (mandated) insurance. In these circumstances their priority should be the welfare of the aggrieved party, not the welfare of their profits.
When my 67 MGB got totaled, they really screwed us. I had rebuilt everything and was planning on a new paint job next, when the drunk hit me. I got way more in pain/suffering than the car. I had fought them really hard about the stereo of all things. Try to completely isolate a neg ground stereo in a pos grounded car LOL
This brought back memories, a little different in Ontario, Canada, but the sickening part feels the same. Dollars quoted are CAD. I had full coverage.
I lost my rare-ish low mileage 2000 Saturn SW2 5 speed in 2017 through no fault of my own I was offered $1,300 for it and had to fight to get $2,400. The estimate for repair was supposedly $8,000. I found a couple of examples with higher mileage for sale for $6,000+, but they were out of my area and so they wouldn’t count, but they were the only ones on the market. I had a rental car for 3 weeks, but couldn’t find anything cheap and manual that appealed to me. I ended up some days riding my motorcycle in February in freezing weather looking at cars. My final choice was a $10,000 2014 Ford Fiesta 5 speed and now with some suspension mods it’s as much fun, but it’s not the same.
I had no need for financing and owed nothing on the car, I’m horrified thinking about those caught in that trap. )-:
Free advice from a 35 year insurance agent. Get Stated Value coverage for your car with a deductible you can stomach. Sure, you may need to update it from time to time and it probably isn’t the cheapest option, but you can control the equation to a significant degree.
He probably works for PDA. 🙂
I had to do that with one of my bikes, it’s 24 years old, I gave them a couple of current pictures so they could see it wasn’t a scam and didn’t go nuts on the valuation.
Yeah, I own a couple of twenty year old Audis with only 20k miles each. A single drop of bird shit on the hood would be a total loss if I went with their valuations.
How hard is it to collect if the there is an accident? (Figure the vehicle in question is insured for $50,000 when current trade in value is $5,000 and it’s 13 years old.)
Well, if they agreed to cover it for $50k and you paid your premiums, not hard at all. It’s really just basic contract law. If they agree to do, they have to do it.
I was skeptical because I saw a lot of insurance companies that agreed to cover many houses for hurricane insurance, but when Charlie hit said, “See ya.” and left without paying.
I figured that the insurance company would use their in-house lawyer to fight the payment.
Just like people, there are good and bad ones. I know a lot of companies have gone under in or because of Florida. Charley wiped some out as well. Beyond going under, there are scumbag insurance companies who try to deny valid claims and scumbag customers who get insurance companies to pay bogus stuff and squeal like pigs when they get denied.
However, that said, it is a reasonably well regulated industry with strong incentives not to play games (read punitive and treble damages). Most claims are fairly processed but it really can be complicated stuff with plenty of attempted (and successful) fraud. Having been in the industry for a long time, I can say that the vast majority of the people working in it good people, but because there can be lavish rewards for cheating, it can attract the occasional sociopath who can become very successful because that’s what sociopaths generally do.
Thank you for this. I am arguing the point that even if the insurance is higher, it is still lower than a new truck monthly payment.
I can understand how that would work with collision or UI coverage, but how does that work when the other party’s liable and insured?
#1 Your insurance writes you a check, then decides if it’s worth going after the other insurance.
#2 Your treasures go up.
Your coverage would pay you (less deductible) and then subrogate against the liable party.
Nice, thanks!
Thanks for the quick thanks. It improved my mood measurably. 🙂
Be sure you update if you have a classic car that might appreciate in value. My husband didn’t and he literally paid the price
Exactly. You have to set the numbers correctly when you go with agreed value.
I appreciate the details and explanations of things I didn’t know. I still think part of it is insurance company ripoff, not your fault, just not all of it now. Especially since price on all cars and parts is way up except for insurance value.
Interesting read, if not a bit depressing – If you were following my Twitter thread with my Autopian friends, my 1991 Thunderbird SC (that I just bought two months ago) was rear-ended on the interstate last week. It is insured with classic car insurance and I opted for “cherished salvage” coverage, so if it gets totaled, I have the option of getting the car back at no additional cost in case I want to fix it myself. Whatever happens, I at least get the comfort of knowing my Thunderbird won’t end up in a junkyard.
The downside is that classic car insurance doesn’t provide for a rental car. I’m stuck daily driving my 1968 Olds while waiting a week and a half just to find out if my car is totaled. I’m definitely going to look into whether or not I can do both classic car insurance and insurance from a regular provider to cover the rest of the incidentals. Not sure if that’s an option. Meanwhile, I’m pretty bummed about my Thunderbird and this doesn’t make me feel much better about the prognosis. It’s one of a small number of ’91 Super Coupes in dark blue with the Mazda 5-speed manual. Meticulously maintained with full documentation.
Sid! I’d actually been sitting on this story for a while and your tweet reminded me I should run this post.
Glad you ran it! It seems scarier for modern cars… I feel like there’s a chance my T-Bird may not be totaled, but it’s so hard to tell. My wife scraped the side of our Honda Odyssey on a parking garage wall and the dent was enough to require the body shop to cut out a chunk from aft of the sliding door halfway to the back of the van and weld a new one in. I was shocked it wasn’t totaled, but the insurance company covered what amounted to roughly $8k in repairs.
Classics are different beasts, so who knows.
Typically classic car policies won’t allow you to daily drive the car on said policy and have some restrictions on usage. Premiums are usually much lower because they’re expecting it to be a pleasure car, not what you drive to work, so the lack of rental car coverage makes sense there.
Yep. Very aware of that… My main insurance provider won’t put regular insurance on older cars, so they started subbing it out to my classic car provider. I actually structured the policy to accommodate daily driving. It allowed for the car to be outdoors and driven year-round. It bumped the price up a bit, but made it so I could daily drive it. Also, the wreck wasn’t my fault, so it’s really on the bad driver’s insurance.
Spot on. All my personal cars are from last century. After 20 years collector plates an appraisal of value and a fixed payout less deductible is my way of dealing with the crap above. I was t boned by an asshole without insurance without a license and in Someone else’s car. My beloved 1986 VW Cabriolet netted 2,000. Of course a fraction of what I had spent. I was 2 months from collector insurance. Grrr. The downside is you can’t drive it in January. News flash. If you value any car you do not drive it in WI winter. Finally I seem to recall an article here about a Rivian in a minor fender bender and the CTR was >70,000. Eff that.
How many times have you totaled a car, then found out that the owner used an independent appraiser to get the true value for it and not the undervalued amount from the “non-biased 3rd party evaluator” thereby making the math balance on the other side of the equation?
I kind of had the opposite experience with my ’17 CX-3 last year. It took a hard hit to the left rear, enough to push the fender liner against the tire. The insurer even sent an in-person adjuster, who did not total the car. It probably helped that it was otherwise in good shape with relatively low mileage for the age.
But as the shop worked on it, the cost went up and up, way more than 30%. Not sure how the adjuster missed or failed to anticipate so much, but I suspect that someone better trained or more skilled would have totaled it. Not that I’m complaining; it spared me a foray into a highly dysfunctional market.
I, as many do, hate insurance companies. I know that I could never replace my car for what I would get for it if it were totaled.
This makes me recall and relish the Land Rover Discovery 1 that was the family hauler for a while. Twice it was involved in accidents like some of the things described in the article.
Once it was forced onto the shoulder of the highway by another car doing an unsafe pass, whereupon the right side plowed into ice and snow piled up by the plows. It didn’t even slow the Rover down. Snow chunks flung high and far as it plowed through for nearly 50 feet. Semis swung over a lane to avoid the debris flying. NH state cop was behind the whole mess and didn’t slow down, didn’t bother to go after the car that did the unsafe pass, either. Got out to check the damage, and found nothing. None. Zip. Nada. Polycarbonate headlight and turn signal lenses unscathed. Plastic bumper end undamaged. Not a scratch on the paint. Fender and hood completely straight.
Another time a pickup pulling a landscaping trailer braked and turned hard-right to get into a Dunkin’ Donuts so fast that the trailer basically stopped moving forward and pivoted. On a busy street. Wife was driving the Rover and slammed on the brakes as the stopping distance just evaporated, but at the same time not so hard to cause an accident behind her, and meanwhile the truck and trailer stopped with the trailer hanging out in the road. The Land Rover plowed through the trailer an obliterated it. The truck was left with a trailer tongue attached to the hitch and nothing else. Cars behind stopped too fast and caused a chain-reaction accident. A cop was in traffic and saw the whole thing unfold; the pickup driver who caused it started yelling and getting physical and got “escorted” into the back of the cop car. Cop checked the Rover for damage and found… Nothing. Not a scratch, no plastic bits broken, nothing. Sent my wife on her way. I met her later and picked some pine needles out from between the plastic bumper end and the body and asked where they’d come from and she told the whole story. I looked close at the plastic bumper end and could see about an inch of the texture on it was rubbed a tiny bit shiny. That was it.
Nothing seemed to ever put more than a scratch on that Disco… It was not the sort of car you’d ever want to strike your own, but as the owner it was probably not going to sustain enough damage in a fender-bender type accident to put out of commission. The only thing stronger than it was the tinworm, which ate the steel inner body structure out from the inside, especially around the rear door frames and latch anchors.
I have a 2020 civic that got a cracked windshield. It ended up being cheaper to find a local shop to fix it and recalibrate the acc sensors then make a claim. I only figured this out because the adjuster had a heart and told me my monthly rate would go way up if I make another claim, meaning more money in long run.
I hit a pothole in my 2020 Civic and it knocked the radar sensor out of alignment so I had to pony up $250 for the dealer to recalibrate it, which took all of 15 minutes. I spent more time waiting for the porter who didn’t know how to drive a stick to find a grown-up to pull it into the service bay!
On a non-car related note, this also goes for homeowner and renter insurance policies. In particular, “collectibles” are never, ever covered unless you pay for a rider for them, and you may be required to have someone validate the inventory.
I have riders for my video games and my old Magic: the Gathering cards (staggered at what those are now worth), and try to ensure fellow nerds do the same. I can only imagine the number of claims for collectibles that are denied because people either didn’t know better (probably 49 out of 50) or chose not to add a rider to the policy.
Not only that, but if you want your house re-built to its true original quality and construction (“complete” replacement or rebuild of the house itself), that’s also a rider or additional item on your homeowner policy. It might not be a big difference on smaller tract homes in a development, but larger high-quality homes, older valuable homes, and custom-built homes typically need extra coverage or the “replacement” will be whatever slapped-together stuff the general market is having built at the time.
Insurance can be confusing and opaque. It pays to have a good agent who can explain it all and help you figure out what coverage options you really need and can choose from. Sometimes the cost of the riders and extras isn’t even all that much, but you need to know about it.
Had a friend who paid for replacement value for over 20 years. Her house burnt down and a rhymes with hate barns insurance fought her for over 5 years on the claim until she settled. Tried to make her use the foundation despite a licensed state inspector ruling it unusable. She was lucky she had rental property and the insurance company was required to pay her for using one of her own apartments. The state department over insurance in PA is investigating them.
I was in a similar situation many years ago. Allstate was very good. The policy was a “Cadillac” type; full replacement value on the house AND contents AND all code upgrades.
It helped our adjuster was about to retire and (I suspect) was looking to stick it to the company by giving lots of good tips to get the full coverage amount.
For older houses in particular you need to see if your policy covers any required code upgrades. Mine does fortunately, and it’s going to save me and my wife a few grand on the upcoming replacement of our hail-damaged roof. The rafters on the existing roof are double spaced compared to the current code. Whether they were even to code when the house was built or not is a moot point 40 years later.
Always, always, always get Guaranteed Replacement Cost coverage if you own a home. Always. Always! Get the point?
Private adjuster. They work for you, not the insurance company. Many people don’t know they are allowed to have their own for a home claim, auto’s it’s only worth it for big $ claims.
I went through most of the interview process for a major car insurance company and was blown away by how all of it operates. Not a lot of car people in that industry.
Well if nothing else it’s nice to know that there is someone working for the insurance companies who don’t relish totaling cars or undervaluing the payout.
I will say anecdotally through people I know who have damage on older/specialty cars that the “non-biased 3rd party evaluator” is often completely out of touch with reality in those cases. I recently saw someone fighting the insurance company because they were trying to pay him basically scrap metal circa 2002 values on a very clean Fox Body Mustang that got totaled when he probably coulda sold it on the market for $15K before the damage. IIRC he ended up collecting a lot of values for comparable cars on the market, getting his own 3rd party assessment on the value of his car, and the insurance company finally relented and paid out a fair value.
My C-Max was written off. Adjuster was actually decent. I didn’t love the price they were offering. He gave me the comps they used, and told me that if I could find better/more expensive comparables, he’d increase the offer.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t, so I took some solace in that they paid me what the market said, not what I though it should be. Also, C-Max headlights are just under $3K each.
My wife just got reared by a C-Max last week. It took the brunt of the damage because its slid slightly under the Outback. We were talking about it on the discord and I was shocked at how much C-Max headlights are.
Outbacks are a tough car to rear-end, did so in my Golf one time and needed new fenders, hood, headlights and grille – the Outback basically just needed buffing.
Thankfully, I haven’t had to call my insurance company for any car accidents in a very long time (knocks on wood), but in pre-covid days, my wifes 2005 Honda Civic, which she loved, was up in miles with 275k on the odo and with a kid on the way, we purchased a Prius V. However, with so many miles and typical Honda rust I know the Civic wasn’t worth much so we kept it around as a 3rd vehicle and let others borrow it as needed.
One day it was parked on a side street in town and the front quarter panel was backed into by an individual pulling out of a flower shop. They kindly left their information on the windshield, so I field a police report and called their insurance company. The adjuster came out the next day, totaled the car due to age and mileage and wrote me a check for the value minus scrap ($1500). A quick call to local scrap yards turned up a front quarter panel in the same color and after ~1hr of work the car was good as a 275k car can be. Eventually sold it for $1000 a few months later. It was the most profitable outcome for a little old Civic. My wife still misses that car 7 years later.
So is there a difference between insurance adjusters that look at the policy holder’s cars vs the cars they may have damaged?
Just from my limited experience, when our cars got flood damaged and we went through our own policy it was a much more straight forward experience than that time I got rear ended at a red light and tried to go through the other driver’s insurance. The adjuster in that case severely lowballed the damage. He agreed that the bumper was damaged but not the bracket that attached the bumper to the frame. I’m showing him that the driver side bracket is straight and the passenger side bracket is shaped like a 7 and he just looks at it and says that’s how it came from the factory. I point to the stress marks in the metal from where it bent, nah, that’s how they make these things. I asked him how he sleeps at night, and he just shrugged and walked away.
So do they tell you guys to err on the side of more expensive for policy holders to just total and suggest you guess low for others?
I can’t tell you if that’s the case, but I had the same experience.
Different companies have their own internal adjusters, but will sometimes hire an independent adjuster. Depends on who you get and what company. Some are more likely to total than others.
You know who doesn’t get their car totaled by an insurer? The person without insurance (legally mind you). NH doesn’t have legally mandated car insurance yet it has the lowest rates for car insurance in the country.
When the government mandates you buy X product or service the sellers of said product or service can charge you whatever they want.
Honestly I have such hatred for insurance I’ve chosen to not drive. Where I’m at currently I can walk or take a bus everywhere I want to go with the occasional rideshare ride. When I move in a few years I’m seriously considering either moving somewhere I don’t have to drive or somewhere without government mandated car insurance.
I want to agree with you but the fact is that most people are judgment proof. Insurance requirement at least gives the damaged party some measure of compensation.
Mind you state-mandated minimum coverage is laughably low. $25k in NYS for injury? That’s barely enough for a paper cut.
In NH you do not need insurance. People ignore the comma. If you elect to not have insurance, you must be bonded for the minimum coverage. Cheaper to get insurance.
Better than insurance only
Considering the min coverage is a around 50k and a done says you have that just set aside doing nothing…I vote just buy the insurance. It cost me under 3 grand to get the level.
$3K annually?
yep about 1 grand per car
(I’m not a lawyer, this is not legal advice)
Just looked into it again, apparently if you can cover the up to $50,000 for liability and $25,000 for property damage resulting from an accident you’re fine to drive without insurance in NH.
Apparently Virginia if you pay the state $500 a year you’re exempt from the car insurance mandate.
Neither option provides you coverage in the event of an accident but considering the level of coverage insurance provides (piss poor if at all in my experience) I’d rather go the route of legally not having auto insurance.
I hope you never have to figure this out first hand but over a certain amount of money it’s cheaper for insurance companies to pay the lawyers they have on retainer to not pay out your covered claim and just wait you out for better terms. The people who make insurance claims are the people who need the money from the insurance claims, there’s a decent likelihood that the insurance company can wait you out till you’ll accept a lower settlement, possibly go bankrupt via legal expenses, etc.
Insurance companies are not your friend, they’re literally in the buisness of paying out less than they take in, and the bigger they are the less they pay out relative to how much they take in.
I have had mine for years and get money back if no claims. Having been hit my uninsured drivers is a PITA. The will claim no money and I am on the hook. I would rather have my insurance deal with them vs me.
That is my view, everyone is entitled to their own. Last time I was rear ended the cost to repair and rental was over 14000. My cost, zero. Seems like a good trade.
Interesting article! I’d like to see more of these insider articles.
And wow, Just as I suspected, the valuation of your vehicle is calculated by the man behind the green curtain! What’s up with that? ┗(･ω･;)┛ it seems like this saves the insurance company some money!!
I was an adjuster back in 06-07 and it is an absolutely thankless job. The company always overloads you with claims, the customers hate you because you’re overloaded and can’t get through them fast enough, and the body shops hate you because you’re not agreeing with them on every little thing. The time I spent has been valuable for personal use whenever I’ve had to deal with an insurance company though. Being able to speak their language helps get you what you want.
Same here, but from 07-09. Managed to get out with a little scrap of what might be called soul left. Been working for an animal shelter ever since. The pay sucks but at least most of what I do actually seems to help the world a bit.
Things are NEVER the same after an accident. I want the car back, but only to strip it for parts so I can find another clean chassis.
Depends on the damage, had an Audi written off only needed a new door no other damage, other damage can be cosmetic, the days of real heavy accident repair I think are gone due to the prices for parts and the electronics. Where I live you have to show not just the repair but before photos, receipts and your repair plan, then it is inspected and they are nasty, can fail you on brakes under 50% failure to follow plan- ie straighten part rather than replace
I would say depending on your shop and communication. I hit a deer in my company truck. Everything was about usual until my vinyl hood with a year valued at $4,500 was not available. The shop called me 1st I needed the truck we agreed fix everything else and give me a check for the $4,500 hood value but 0 for labor. That helped keep my company alive until the Covid shutdown killed it.
I’m the opposite, When my wife had her accident in a 2 month old car, I was sure it would be totaled, but the repair bill came back at 60 something percent of the value, and insurance insisted on repairing it over my protests.
I’d have rather had it totaled and gone to buy another new one vs. living with a car I know had been obliterated and forever having a reduced value hanging over my head.
Yeah, that was where I was on my Civic when it was rear-ended, then separately backed into in a parking lot. There was enough damage that it really hurt the value (on a car that I had decided I no longer wanted, no less), but not enough to total. I would have gladly dealt with it being totaled.
Same when my Mazdaspeed 3 was broadsided by a motorcycle last year. I was kinda hoping for it to be totaled except for the PITA factor of finding a replacement, but surprisingly it was repaired.
I had a car that kept getting hit (side swiped twice, rear ended once) and suffering $5,000-$10,000 in damage but none of them were enough to total it. Its not quite the Jeep of Theseus, but it is getting close. I will now own it until the wheels fall off because it is worth more to me as an extra car than on the market as a car with so accidents affecting 3 of the four sides of the car.
Aah the Sisophis Jeep. Just keep rolling it up that hill just to be rolled down.
You can make a claim with insurance for “diminished value”.
I did, but it’s not as straightforward as a normal claim.
My daughter crashed her cream puff Pontiac Vibe. The damage was pretty light, and no airbags deployed. I was kinda surprised it ended up totaled, but even after paying the deductible, I got $500 more than I paid for it a year and a half prior.
I kinda enjoy car hunting, and at the time, I had a car my daughter could drive while I looked. I found ANOTHER cream puff that I paid LESS than trade in for, during the height of the car shortage in Covid!
So while I was a little upset the Vibe got totalled, when it probably could have been easily repaired, I still came out ahead.
Wow. That seems like a really low percentage repairable. Is there some sort of damage threshold for bringing you in? I’ve never had a car totaled, though I have only had three cars repaired through insurance, so not a large sample. (I really thought the Civic that was rear-ended and then backed into within the space of a week would have been a prime candidate, with two insurance companies and two accidents causing damage to entirely different parts of the car.)
I have to reassess how lucky I feel.
If they’re a total loss specific adjuster theyr’e getting thrown cars that are expected to total, so having only a couple hey this may actually pencil claims in there makes sense. There’s another set of adjusters who are looking at less damaged/more likely to be repairable cars at the body shop.
That makes sense. Thank you.
Yeah I know an adjuster and he said most of it is done by photos, he only looks when it is a close call or something odd
Funny thing in my experience in a small population my independent adjuster was one of the few in the area and most insurance companies used him.
Dang, that must be nice. When I was an adjuster, we had to do some of everything; one claim would be a door ding from a shopping cart and the next might be a total loss with a fatality.
I got moved around a lot for a job I was at only a year, sometimes total loss specialty, sometimes everything, sometimes minor drive in claims.
I would GUESS new adjusters would be given the hope to write off claims.
Eh, they dont learn that way.
If I read this right each accident is valued separately if it was repaired before the 2nd accident. The author may correct me.
They were repaired at the same time, in the same shop, since the second happened before I could get the first repaired. The fact that they were two different insurance companies probably kept it from being totaled. They likely each looked at their damage without considering the other.
Then I am like you perplexed
This makes me rethink my policy of not ever buying salvage title vehicles. Thanks for the insightful article.
Yep, other than the higher insurance premiums I’m not automatically scared of salvage title cars.
Insurance companies just love salvage titles. 😀
My gf just went through this process. 2012 Civic with pretty extensive front end damage – no fancy sensors or snazzy headlights, but still clearly totaled. Paid off, got a decent check from State Farm, rental coverage, etc. but being forced to buy a replacement NOW was overwhelming for her, and I was out of town and unable to help. She hates what she bought, we’re already making plans to replace it. This is really best-case scenario for someone who’s not independently wealthy or at least owns multiple cars; I can’t imagine being upside-down on the loan, paycheck to paycheck, and have to replace things in today’s market.
she should have just bought a $3500 honda beater to tide her over while car shopping. ANd maybe find out an older car is just fine without a payment anyway.
Do $3500 Honda beaters exist? Do they run and drive?
Yeah, they do. They are 1991 Accords though.
Mine was only $1,800, and after triple that in repairs and upgrades isn’t even a beater anymore!
Lots of cheap cars around. I have a ’95 Camaro that I’m transitioning into daily driver duty. I’m in it for around 4 grand. V8 with 3 pedals. Comfortable, reliable (for now), car that’s fun to drive. Perfect winter beater. All for 1/12th of the average price of a new car. And it has T-Tops.
Everywhere. What’s your zipcode? I will find you something.