Update on car insurance

A tree limb fell on my sons car and broke the back window nearly two weeks ago. He finally heard from the insurance adjuster yesterday. He already knew the estimate to repair it was over $6200. They absolutely refuse to pay to fix it. Said they'd give him $7579 for it,or give him $5779 and let him keep the car with a clean title.
A guy he works with wants to buy it for $2500,as is,but he's having trouble finding one like it to replace it. He found 2 down around Detroit,one in Cincinnati and one in the middle of Indiana somewhere.
Makes you wonder why we even have insurance when they refuse to fix what can be repaired,especially when it's such a hard to find car.

What kind of car is it?

Subaru Impreza with some letters behind it. Some kinda high performance,go fast through the turns road rally thing.

I don't understand your complaint. They are willing to pay $5779 and still let him have the car with a clean title. You said the car can be fixed for around $6200. That is only $421 dollars under the repair estimate you gave. That would be less than the deductible on most insurance policies.

The numbers you are giving show they think that can get $1800 for the car as salvage. $7579 - $5779 = $1800

If you son wants this model. Just take the $5779 and have his fixed. Most body shops will give a better deal if you are paying for the repair without any insurance paperwork to fool with. So he should be able to get his car back with a clean title for what the insurance company will pay plus what a deductible would normally be.

What your car is insured for and you get paid has little to do with how unusual the car is unless it is a collector type of car. To your son it maybe what he places extra value on this car. It must not be that valuable to others as it is not a common car.

That's what doesn't make sense. For only $421 with a $500 deductable (and I don't know if that's what he has) the insurance company would come out ahead by having it fixed. I just can't understand their flat out refusal.

I dont understand why you would put 7500 into a car that is only worth 7500. When you say the insurance co will give him a clean title you need to understand that it will be a salvage title and most possibly cannot ever be insured for full coverage again because it has been totaled once already

The relationship between body shops and insurance companies is often not the best. Because the insurance company is the"customer" and because the average insurance company thinks everyone is trying to screw them (maybe like they are doing to us) they demand how the car is repaired and what parts to use, and because they are so special they tell the body shop how much they'll pay for labor. Unfortunately for them they have screwed enough people and the resulting lawsuits they have lost and changes in the laws they are being held accountable for some of their decisions and if they demand substandard repairs with sub standard "CRAP" (Certified Replacement Auto Parts) they are loosing in court and they have to make good on repairs they directed. So now they want to divorce them selves from the repair process, give you a check (usually for less than the car is worth OR what it will take to properly repair the car) and be done with it. He has a choice take their money or take them to court, they have lawyers and language in their policy to protect them. If he looks into it the only case he may have is if they are undervaluing the car on the settlement, get figures and dicker on the cars he found if he can't buy one of them for the settlement plus his deductible with adjustment for mileage and condition counter offer to the insurance company, if they don't bite file in small claims for the difference BEFORE he accepts a check or signs a settlement. His policy may limit reimbursement for acquisition costs (travel/lodging, tax, title, transportation and doc fees. Again he is at a disadvantage because he is dealing with his own insurance company, they have to make good under the terms of the policy (that they wrote) it would be different if you were in a state with conventional insurance (verses No-fault) and another driver was at fault, then the other driver or their insurance company would have to make him whole under the LAW, not an agreement that they wrote with a customer. If your son has a body shop he knows and trusts and works with them he might be able to get the car repaired for pretty close to the settlement IF the insurance company was fair on the settlement (fair settlement from a insurance company on the first offer? buy a lotto ticket it has better odds). If he can have the car down for a while they can use it as fill in work, they might be able to find used/salvage Subaru parts that might even be cheaper than the CRAP parts the insurance company specified.

I think the point was that at the $5,775 figure, they would say they paid for the repair, and didn't total the car, so it would be a "clean" title. The $7,xxx number was for a total, resulting in a salvage title.

Guess I'd have to look at it pretty close before I walked away from $8,279 (Insurance co. offer plus sale "as is" for $2,500. Sounds like the car is worth less than that.

Why would they give him a title? He already has the title.

If the body shop finds something else wrong when they get it torn down they will have to fix that too. If you note body shops are extremely prcise on what they are repairing if they find that additional repairs are needed they will expect to be paid for those also. When its down to $500 that leaves little in the way of cushion for any extra repair.

Frankly I wouldn't want the car back after that many repairs.

It wasn't even that big of a deal. It was parked 40 feet from a tree and a limb blew down and hit it. Broke the back window out and put a few dents where the rubber window strip goes back in. Guess they were just soaking the daylights out of them to fix those areas. Nothing's cheap anymore.
Dangdest thing is,it's the body shop where the insurance company told him to take it. They've been paying for a rental car every since he took it in. Seems to me they might have had it fixed by now and been saving themselves the cost of the rental.

Semantics.

Ins. Co. wouldn't file documentation that car was totalled, thereby leaving it with a "clean" title. If they make the report to DMV that they paid it off as a total, then DMV puts "salvage" on the title.

I have a hard time believing a broken window and a few dents cost $6200 at any body shop. Must be trimmed in gold. My 2006 Lucerne got $5900 worth of Kansas hail stones last summer. My insurance said I could go to an body shop. But they have a couple that they recommend and all parts and body work is guaranteed for life of car. They replaced hood and some trim. The roof had dents pulled out. Did a nice job.

Probably a Subaru Impreza WRX or WRX STI. They are quite a car. And yes, hard to find one that hasn"t been beaten on hard.

Rick

The insurance companies have had many lawsuits when they use to fix cars that were damaged to the extent that the cost of repairs were very near the value of the car. So now they call around to get bids from slavage yards and if salvage value plus repairs come within 5-10% of the vlaue of the car they total it. They hand you a check and what you do with it is your business. If they force the repair on you and it isn't done right you sue them. Not hard to understand. They are trying to make things right without hanging themselves in the process.

Rick