<p>Just wanted to let this out somewhere. We drive old cars. We buy them used and drive them for a long time. We get old ones for the kids. For the 3rd time in 15 years, we have had an old one “totaled” by the insurance company and we can neither repair or replace it with what they will give us for it.</p>
<p>Accident was not S3’s fault, it was a parking lot accident totally fault of the other driver, everyone agrees. But she hit the car in the rear tire and the insurance company declared it a total loss. The check at Blue Book or Edmond’s less what they declared for pre-existing issues (we did not disagree there were issues) cannot begin to replace the missing transportation. </p>
<p>Rant - if it is not your fault they should have to repair or replace, not push it onto to us and then make it impossible to do either. </p>
<p>Sigh, now looking at used car ads for the replacement and figuring out how much more we can afford to spend beyond what they are giving us. .</p>
<p>Did you have collision insurance on the car? Interesting about the parking lot. Many years ago I had an accident in a private parking lot and my insurance company told me that they blame both parties equally for accidents in lots, circumstances did not seem to matter (at least when both cars are moving anyway). Don’t know how true that was then, or if it is true today. Also, we are in a different state from you.</p>
<p>Is it driveable (safely of course). My car was totaled out by the insurance last May. We bought it back from them at the value they would get for scrapping it and I am still driving it. In our case it is just body damage from a bad hail storm. It looks like someone who didn’t like me went at it with a baseball bat, but it works.</p>
<p>Son had a similar issue on his '90 Dakota pickup. It is a low mileage vehicle starting to rust out, but fairly reliable mechanically and we know the provenance as it was gifted to him by my father. He did put a camper type top on the bed to give him dry storage.</p>
<p>Last summer we had a windstorm and a neighbor’s trees lost a couple of large limbs which put four decent size holes in the aluminum shell. The replacement cost of the cap would have totaled the truck at current book value. Buybacks and registering a “salvage” vehicle can be a pain. He never even entertained submitting a claim.</p>
<p>A few sheets of aluminum trim stock, a couple of tubes of silicone, 1000 pop rivets and an hour of time and it was watertight. Not necessarily pretty, but effective. </p>
<p>Most often trying to replace an older totaled vehicle for the cost of the settlement is an exercise in futility.</p>
<p>No it’s not drivable. The hit on the wheel knocked everything askew and it cannot be driven more than the few feet it took to move it out of the way. Trying to get another estimate is hard then, because you have to find people who are willing to come to you. So we don’t really know the final cost to repair. If you keep the car they give you even less, the value they set minus what they think you could sell it for, or scrap value. Pretty sure we cannot repair for that. </p>
<p>Even though it was parking lot, the other driver pulled out from a perpendicular lane into S’s car so all have agreed it is entirely other person’s fault. </p>
<p>I just feel as though they know we can’t do much and the repair estimate is high and value is low. We are dealing with the other person’s insurance company but I don’t think either company will pay more than the “totaled” value.</p>
I wonder if that varies by state? I have had 2 vehicles totaled by hail and did the buyback for both. It was pretty seamless from our side - we didn’t do anything at all. Drove through the airport hanger being used by the catastrophic events team, valued the car, asked if we wanted to buy it back, cut us a check for the value less the salvage value. We did not have to do anything else. The 3rd car I had totaled in a bad wreck (other guys fault) we did not buy back as the guys insurance said the only way to fix it would be to cut the back end off (it was basically crushed up to the rear seat - everyone was amazed my daughter who was i the rear seat was alive, let alone uninjured) and attach the back of another car. I ran the vin numbers on it a couple of years later and someone in another state owned it. I often wondered if they knew how badly it had been wrecked. I would never buy a 2nd hand car without running the VIN numbers after discovering that!</p>
<p>Singersmom - you are probably right, the insurance co will probably not pay more than the totaled value. My car that was totaled in the wreck was a year old. The insurance was based on the bluebook value - really aggravating as the values drop so much as soon as you buy a new car - I could not buy a new car with the insurance money.</p>
<p>The specifics are regulated by the individual states, administered through the DMV or whatever named similarly agency is applicable. I know that in the case of CT when I reviewed the process for son’s incident it was more hassle than it was worth, requiring a full inspection, and I believe a salvage or “totaled” title was issued.</p>
<p>Like most state run programs, I’m sure some are “easier” than others. Those familiar with the workings of the CT DMV know that even the most mundane dealings are often fraught with frustration, doublespeak, and return trips.</p>
<p>Counterpoint - Are you ‘sure’ you wouldn’t be able to find a similar car for the money the insurance company gives you? This would be a similar (not exact) car with similar “pre-existing conditions” to what your car had. </p>
<p>If you search ‘objectively’ for a replacement vehicle that truly would be similar to the totaled one and can’t find one then you should appeal to your insurance company stating that they under-valued the vehicle regardless of KBB. KBB’s prices aren’t perfect and sometimes don’t account for regional differences or certain older cars that become more appealing for whatever reason. </p>
<p>How does the ‘fix it’ price compare to the ‘totaled’ price? If it’s very close then sometimes you can appeal this point to the insurance company and work with the repair shop and reach an agreement to get it fixed - i.e. sometimes the shop will be willing to do it. If it’s clearcut that they way undervalued the car then this shouldn’t be that difficult to achieve (I did it once - with State Farm) but if they valued the car fairly well then it might be tougher.</p>
<p>These things can vary with the particular insurance company and even the repair shop.</p>
<p>That, Violadad, is the understatement of the year.</p>
<p>However, we just renewed car registration online. We did it on THURSDAY night…and got the stickers in the mail today…Saturday. If I can do it online, I will NOT go to the DMV.</p>
<p>Some of these government entities, many of which can hardly afford to pay their state workers in the first place and have inefficient and frustrating services like the DMV, cumbersome snail mail property tax payment metods, etc. have methods to perform some of the services online yet want to charge a ‘convenience fee’ to do so even though it actually costs them less to transact online versus in person.</p>
<p>Now, back to the topic - sorry for the tangent.</p>
<p>This almost happened to us. Fortunately, it was a Toyota and it just made the cutoff to be repaired after S1 drove it into the back of a parked pickup in hs parking lot. I always understood this situation to be the chance one takes in driving an old car. I know our insurance coverage declines as our cars age. Oldest a 1996 Camry with 160,000 miles has only liability coverage and $1000 deductible. It is likely that anything other than a fender bender would result in our getting rid of the car. </p>
<p>I wonder, however, if one cannot purchase “repair” value insurance on an older car (for a fee, of course) just like you can get replacement value for the contents of a house.</p>
<p>“Many years ago I had an accident in a private parking lot and my insurance company told me that they blame both parties equally for accidents in lots, circumstances did not seem to matter (at least when both cars are moving anyway).”</p>
<p>Sounds like MA. Happened to me about 25 years ago in an Eastern Mountain Sports parking lot. They guy offered to pay me for my deductible. I should have taken it. My insurance company said that they took it to court and that it was in process for many years. I gave up trying to collect anything. I was stopped - this guy apparently was having a bad day and just backed out without looking. He worked at the store too.</p>
<p>I was told that if even if you are sitting in a parked car, even with no engine running, both drivers are at fault, regardless of who is technically at fault.</p>
<p>Had a car rear ended parked in front of parents home, had to get affadavits from my parents and the police statement that I was in parents home the entire day when said car was hit from behind. That was the only way my insurance carrier would not charge an accident to my insurance.</p>
<p>Here in California my W was driving in a parking lot, stopped because someone was backing out regardless, but the dufus backed into her anyway (with my W in a very visible vehicle). He was admittedly at fault so we didn’t have to pay anything - i.e. no partial fault. </p>
<p>I do think it varies by state. MA was a so-called ‘no-fault’ state but I don’t know how their insurance works now. IMO if someone’s at fault they should be … at fault.</p>
<p>OP - I sympathize. And yeah there’s lots you COULD try. But if the car can’t be driven your best bet is to find a replacement. Here in CT (the land of six trips to the DMV to fix a problem they created for no apparent reason) cars get totalled with very little damage. A cottage industry has arisen from this, with shops fixing the light damage and reselling the cars. My neighbor bought a four-year old Toyota with 40K miles for under $4000, and the car looked and ran great. Check around. This may be a way to take advantage of the “we don’t fix 'em M’aam, we total them” mentality of many insurance companies.</p>
<p>I would agree that, very often, older cars are “worth” more then they are valued by the insurance company. We have a close family friend whose truck was hit by lightening. Luckily, despite driving down the interstate at night going 65-70 and having the electical system suddenly fail, there were no injuries. Just a truck full of very frightened teens. But the lightening really fried most of the electrical stuff. Insurance initially OK’d the repairs, but when they replaced the starter, some computer box and the alternator, and it instantly shorted agaiin, that was that. Initially, the amount insurance was going to cut a check for was not enough to buy a similar vehicle. And they spent days online searching for something similar. </p>
<p>Finally, they were able to get the insurance to agree to a purchase of a similar vehicle! They located one 100 miles away that was the same year, similar high mileage, same model vehilcle. Somehow, insurance agreed to the purchase price. I dont know the particulars. But I know there was no attorney or mediator. I know the owners worked hard with insurance, and somehow showed that they could not replace that car with another nearly identical for the $1500 -$1800 being offere. They also let the owners switch out tires, the stereo system, and some other things. This kid had worked hard to keep his truck up, and had paid for upgrades. They were swapped out from the zapped truck onto the new truck. It ended up working out, despite about two weeks of anguish as they really were not in a position to buy another car.</p>
<p>Don’t hate me. I had the opposite experience. Bought an old clunker for S1 with no collision insurance (what’s the point?) he drove it for 2 years, then S2 drove it for 1 year, then they got rear-ended at a stop sign. Noone hurt but car got kinda smushed in from behind, but was still driveable. The other kid’s insurance paid us more than I paid for the car (for $500 more I could have given them the car - I kept the running car). S2 drove it for another year, then I donated it to charity.</p>
<p>Back in the day…I had a similar experience. First car I ever owned was a used one bought for $1000. I drove it for four years, and put 125,000 miles on it (a lot back then). Car was totalled and I got $1025 for it. Not bad. Still…It wasn’t enough for a new car.</p>
<p>Just FYI…we know it’s expensive but we keep collision coverage on our cars forever…just in case.</p>