So, here's where I stand after my car accident last month. (https://www.rx7club.com/forum/showthread.php?t=426660)

Insurance deemed that the other driver was at complete fault, so his company (which was also my company) offered to pay for all my expenses.

Now it's come time to settle on a value for the car with insurance. The car was declared as a total loss, so the insurance company will be buying the car from me. I was told by multiple sources that insurance was obligated to pay me the bluebook value of the car plus the cost of any modifications that were installed on my car at the time of the accident. I had kept every single receipt for every modification that I ever put into the car, so I went to the effort of making two documents to help the insurance adjuster properly assess my car. The first was a short history of the car and the second was an itemized list, both providing a breakdown of each individual modification, cross-referenced to the original reciept.

They can be found here:

http://pages.sbcglobal.net/wompa164/...CarHistory.doc
http://pages.sbcglobal.net/wompa164/...ce/CarCost.xls

I submitted these documents and all of the original reciepts to insurance so they could properly adjust for the value of the car.

After waiting about 2 weeks, I got a call from the adjuster lady this past Tuesday. First thing that grabbed my attention was that she sounded like a ******* nasty bitch, and I knew that I was in for a long amd bumpy ride. She tells me "I will give you $6,000 for the car". I said "I think you'd better read over those documents I sent you again, because that offer is completely unacceptable - it's not even close to the value of the car."

She called back later in the day and said "Ok, I talked to some more people and I came up with a new figure. I've come up with $10,900 after title, tax and registration." I told her "You're getting warmer, but that's still a low-ball offer. I'd like to know how you managed to come up with that number - could you provide me with an itemized statement that explains the complete breakdown of the value?"

5 seconds later and she had still said nothing. "Look," I continued, "I went to great deal of effort to provide you with those 2 documents and all of the reciepts so you could properly evaluate the value of the car, and now you're trying to pull a low-ball figure from thin air without offering any clear breakdown or proof on how you arrived at your number?"

"Well, I talked to some RX7 shop in Garland about the car, and I got the value by combining the book value of the car and figuring in the cost of the modifications." she stammered. I went on the offensive - "Oh really, which shop did you talk to? Could you provide me with the name of the shop and their phone number, along with the name of the person you spoke with?"

15 seconds of silence elapsed before I repeated my question. I could tell audibly that she was getting frusturated with my questions. "No... no I can't. I can't remember."

"Also, how did you figure the cost of the modifications?", I continued. "I was under the impression that since the car was totalled to no fault of my own, you are now purchasing the car from me so that I may replace the car. The cost of what it would take to build up the exact same car that's being replaced is stated exactly on the sheet that I provided you with - why is your offer coming up $6,000 shorter?".

"I just can't pay you that much for a car from 1988." she said. "Why not? That's what you owe me!" I said. "I have no desire to continue discussing what you 'think' the car is worth until you can provide me with a clear and accurate itemized breakdown on how you derived the value of your offer." I finished.

She finished our phone conversation with "I'll get back to you in a while bye."

It's been a day, and I have yet to hear back from her. I'm kind of stuck on what to do at this point, and that's why I've come to you guys for advice. Should I spend the time looking for a lawyer that could possibly get me what I deserve for the car, or am I just being greedy and stubborn, and save myself the time and effort and just take her offer?

The reason that I'm holding out for more money is because I'm looking at buying a very nice 3rd Generation RX-7 (FD) with the insurance money, and $10,800 is definitely not going to cut it.

Does anyone have any experience in the past dealing with issues like these, or could perhaps give me some advice? I'd really appreciate it!

 

Sounds like you blew her away, Good job. Give it a little more time see if they ever come to an agreement on what you want for a settlement. If a week goes by, then I would take action with an attorney.

 

$10,900 doesen't sound too bad. What is a 10 AE modded selling for in the market? To me that would be your only argument. If you could show recent sales (and document) of similar cars being sold.
I'm really surprised your insurance company is giving you any credit for the mods. I assume than you must have informed them ahead of time. I know my agent told me that if I wanted the mods I did to my F-250 covered that I would need to disclose those to him.

 

I went thru a similar ordeal many years ago. I got the run around until I popped off with the statement of "Replace the car with another just like it". After they finally found another car of the same make, model and special edition trim package, they tripled their offer. Plus, they allowed me to keep the car that was "totaled", so I could keep the stuff I had added, since there was no other car like it.

 

Sounds like you're on your way. Just stay strong and don't cave no matter what kind of BS they try to throw you. This would probably be a lot easier if yours and his companies weren't the same. But I'm keeping my fingers crossed it'll turn out well!

 

Most insurance carriers will insure what is "bolted" in the car. The rest of the stuff should be covered by homeowners insurance as long as you provide receipts.

The "other" party will fight over the value so stand your ground as it's a negotiation process that may take weeks to finalize. Perhaps you can get something like Rogue where you can get a decent value for a car similar to yours and buy back your "totaled" vehicle for a cheap price and re-use the parts.

Good luck!

 

His personal insurance has nothing to do with it since he was at fault, the insurance company of the person that hit you should have to cover everything, even if they have to write some of it off as property damage (Which he should have coverage for also). You do need to talk to your insurance company as they should be the ones persuing the other persons insurance company. When my wife was rear ended and her car totaled I contacted my insurance company and gave them the low down on the car and they called me back a few days later and said they got me X amount of dollars, which was fine since it was more than I paid for the car. The only time I delt with the other persons insurance company is when I we got a settlement for pain and suffering.

Which is something else you need to think about. Did you go to the Hospital? If your ever in a wreck that is not your fault and the police say its not your fault go to the damn hospital, I don't care if you feel the best you have ever felt in your life after the wreck. The other persons insurance will cover the costs and then you can hammer them for pain and suffering and they will almost always settle out of court as long as your not asking a crazy high price. If the guy hit you hard enough to destroy your car he hit you hard enough to do damage. Its an easy way to get an extra grand out of the insurance company, and lets face it you deserve the extra grand just for having to put up with all this bullshit.

Stick to your guns, coordinate with your insurance company and go over your itemized price lists step by step if you have to. Don't back down, my wife has been in two accidents since we have been married, the first a guy on a motorcycle rear ended her and totaled our car, we walked away with $3000 more on top of the price of the car. The second time my wife clipped the side of a bus (An Air Force bus at that) with her Saturn, did $300 in damage to my wifes car the AF legal department had the bus damage appraised for $5000. I fought it for 6 months and proved that there was no way she could have done that much damage using witness affadavits and calling bus repair places nationwide to get quotes for the damage I felt she had done and ended up getting completely dropped.

You can get satisfaction without a lawer alot of the time for the mere fact that the other persons insurance company dosen't want to go against a lawyer for the fact that the guy was proven at fault, so they are fighting an uphill battle already.

And after typing all this I realized someone bumped a month old post, but its good info to have. And lets face it, I get a woody fighting insurance companies.

 

Might be a month old post, but since the OP never updated it, the info you gave could actually help.
Also good info for anyone else that ever encounters this type of situation.

 

....and there you have it folks, that is the reason why the rising cost of insurance.
No matter if it is medical, dental, malpractice, home owners, car, motorcycle.....etc

 

Wealth needs to be forcibly re-distributed somehow.....

 

What ever happened to honesty, self respect, truth, hard work, character and responsability for your actions???
I think these are words mean nothing and don't exist in our modern society of:
"It was not me...", "I was molested...", "My mom didn't love me..." ,"I grew up with no dad..." , "I wanted a dog..."
I think we'll stop at nothing for a dollar and will not stop complaining when the tables are turned.
I think OKRX7 advise was wrong and that reflects our culture and upbringing.
Way to go and keep it up!!!!!!
NOT!!!

 

no **** what an *** bag!

 

Agreed!

 

Uhm, dudes, I don't know if you've ventured out of the South section, but this forum is infected with 'em.

It's worse than the roach problem in downtown Austin.