Someone ran a red light and hit our 9 year old car on the rear door. We’ve maintained the car in top condition, doing all dealer recommended repairs to the engine. It’s a BMW so we’ve sunk a lot into maintenance. The only damage is to the rear door and panel and some wheel parts. We were disappointed to hear that the insurance company considers it a total loss because the repair estimate came in at 70% of the replacement value. The repair estimate included $2500 to repaint the whole car and used all new parts for the calculations. If we want to keep the car our only option is to buy it back from the insurance company by subtracting the car’s salvage value from whatever they offer us. We’ll also have to designate the car as “salvaged” with the DMV and get a special inspection.
Has anyone successfully challenged an insurance company in a situation like this? Have you opted to keep your totaled car?
Back in the nineties, our old Ford was similarly “totaled.” The only damage was a completely smashed door, and replacing it and repainting was more $ than the value of the car. Back in those days, insurance co. just let us keep the car and wrote us a check. No salvaging of the title was needed. Mr. bought a rubber mallet and some automotive paint… $40. The painted door looked ugly, but it was functional. Two years later, we sold the car to a young guy for peanuts, and he similarly “totaled” it. So the car turned out NPV positive!
If you plan on keeping the car for a while, go through the salvaging process. If you do not plan on keeping it for much longer, just settle and get a new car. BTW, you might be able to repaint it for less. As much as people diss Maaco, they did a nice job with our truck - for a fraction of what others quoted.
If you withdraw the claim and pay for repairs yourself – only the ones that are really needed, and done at a place that doesn’t charge too much – then you can keep the car and the insurance.
I am currently going through the same experience. My BMW was hit by a truck and declared a total loss. Like you I also was very good in maintaining my car and had all my maintenance records. I also had the option of keeping the car and deducting the salvage value from the amount they offered. I had really hoped that they would have repaired the car. The last two months I have been driving a rental which I have had to partially pay for. There is a big gap between what the insurance offers you for your car and what it costs to purchase a replacement car.
I too had damage to a rear driver side door and tires. I was told that they declared it a total loss because after they did the appraisal of the damages they may find out when it is getting repaired that there in fact could be more damage to the car adding to the repair costs. There could be damage to the frame of the vehicle. For this reason I decided to give them the car and take a check instead. They assessed the damage to the vehicle to be about $4400 to repair. Had I kept the car and a mechanic found more problems it would have cost more.
Research the value of your car online and try to negotiate what they give you. It took me five weeks to get a proper offer for my car value. I received initially a very low offer. The appraiser came back and gave me a second offer which I complained was still too low. Finally I accepted the third offer but to purchase a new car I will have to come up with the gap from my pocket.
If you decide to get it repaired yourself you will probably be paying for a car rental which is quite expensive. Even after the repairs are made you may feel that the car is not quite the same and have to take it back to the shop for further repair. For me this would be a big hassle.
Do you have a reliable mechanic that you trust who could look at the car and give you their own assessment? Try doing that and seeing if they say the damage is not too bad and that it is repairable at a reasonable cost.
Also I was told by my insurance company that if I decided to keep the car and repair it myself I could no longer have collision coverage on the car. That maybe something to think about.
raclut, that’s interesting. I didn’t carry collision insurance on my car–it was pretty old. I was paid by the insurance company of the car that hit me and I got a check for the book value of my car.
@oldmom4896 I learn something new on this site everyday. I would be upset if I were to find out that what was assessed as repair costs ended up being a fraction of it instead. Sometimes it could be less and other times it could be more. My car was a 2003 model with about 120,000 miles on it. It worked perfectly before the accident and I would have driven it another two or three years had it not been for the accident.
@raclut, for sure I didn’t get my car repaired to like-new. It was old enough that the book value wasn’t very high. One tail light was destroyed and the rear bumper was damaged. I perused used auto parts (aka junk yard) websites and found the light for around $100 and had my mechanic install it; at the dealer it would have cost many times that. And I lived with the bumper as it was. The car was old enough that there weren’t so many electronics behind that bumper as there are in newer cars.
Awww, I hate to see older BMWs get taken out like that. It sucks but I think the best thing to do is allow the insurance company to total the car. You’ll need to argue with them that the value of your particular car is higher than average due to the condition, as I’m sure they’ll try to lowball you on the payout.
As others have said once the bodyshop starts pulling damaged parts off you never know what other hidden damage they’re going to find. And insurance companies are pretty good at math - they’re going to price the salvage value such that it won’t be worthwhile buying the car plus repairing it vs just finding a comparable used version.
I would not recommend it. Generally speaking, if it is “totaled”, there is likely some damage to the frame, and that damage can be difficult to fix correctly. I know a few people who opted to go down this path and their cars ended up with misaligned doors, leaking doors/windows, weird noises, etc.
YMMV, of course, but personally I would just bite the bullet and move on.
We had this situation about 5-ish years ago. But not with a BMW, with an SUV. We thought the insurance company was being ridiculous, but it turned out that there was a crack in the undercarriage and another in the axel (I’m not a car person, so the exact names might not be correct), and my daughter was nearly killed when she went through some seriously bumpy terrain on a highway and the bottom of the car pretty much fell out.
I have. I had a old Volvo years ago and got hit. Because of the age of course the Insurance totaled it, but it needed around $2000 worth of repairs to the passenger front, so I declined the insurance “offer”, made them/negotiated with them and they give me a grand and I fixed it and I drove it another 75,000 miles.
My daughter is currently driving a ‘salvaged’ 2001 Honda. She was in a fender bender and the ins co totaled it. She had it repaired and it’s been just fine. The next accident will likely be the final end of it, but for now, it is working out just fine and it even looks decent (Just a tiny patch of rust which our mechanic told us is common to this specific make/model. It is only cosmetic.).
My daughter’s housemate’s dad just went through this with a 1999 Buick (?) (clipped in a parking lot and front bumper was knocked off). The insurance company offered one pay-out for totaled, and a lower one for salvage. Several additional repairs were necessary in order to re-register the car in Maryland. The dad took the lower pay-out and sent the car to his favorite mechanic who tracked down all of the pieces needed to repair the car and fixed it completely so it could pass inspection. The final repair total including registration fees came to less than what the insurance paid, so the dad actually saw a small “profit”.
My son was rear ended on the Surekill Expressway in our Mitsubishi Montero. The insurance company totaled it and we had it fixed and reregistered. Two years ago I drove the car cross-country from Pittsburgh to LA. This summer we transferred the title to our son who will need to register it in California. Hopefully, that will happen with no problem. We all love that car!
Raclut your story is so similar! I got the same warnings about hidden damage driving up the costs. And zoosermom, your story is terrifying and the one that would keep me in panic when we’re on the freeway. I confess that I have been monitoring the market for newer certified pre-owned vehicles for more than a year, but my frugal husband thinks this car can easily go another 100,000 miles. He grew up in Germany where good diesel cars go hundreds of thousands of kilometers without major issues. I think we’ll just have to wait and see what the insurance company offers before making a final decision. We just bought new tires, spark plugs and valve seals for this car. What a waste!
If you really love the car and want to keep it, taking whatever the insurance would give you minus the salvage value might be the way to go. I don’t know where the car is currently, but if you are thinking of keeping it if at all possible, it may be worth your while to pay a mechanic to look at the car (or an experienced body shop person), because even though the damage appears minor, there could be serious damage to the car not easily visible. Insurance adjusters, especially with an older car like yours, basically go into it with the idea of totalling it, and they basically will put together a list of visible things to fix (which are expensive), to get you to settle and make the problem go away. The frame could be warped or cracked, there could be damage to the rear suspension, mounts broken or knocked out of kilter, in some cars things like floorpans are integral to the cars rigidity and if there is damage there it may be difficult to replace…an experienced person can tell you whether the damage was surface level (sheet metal panels, lights, etc) or if there are more serious problems. Re-aligning frames, fixing mount points for the suspension components, are time consuming (expensive) and may not in the end work well. Whatever someone would charge to look at it, it is worth it, believe me, that couple of hundred bucks may save you a lot more, either in going ahead or endding up scrapping the car after starting work on it.
I’ve found a collision repair place with excellent reputation and the owner said the damage didn’t look too bad from the photos I sent. I asked about a closer look at the suspension, but it seems problems can crop up even after all the work is done. I was surprised to read on several web sites that most owners want their insurance company to declare a total loss so they can cash out. And companies are eager to total cars because the actual repair costs often exceed original estimates. I suspect the insurance companies also like the higher premiums generated by newer replacement cars.