My mom borrowed my car yesterday and was in a wreck. She is luckily fine, however my 2008 Jetta not so much. Basically she was crossing an intersection after stopping at a stop sign when she rammed into a 2012 range rover driven by a teenager heading to prom. Now this one is easy to determine who is at fault. The Ranger Rover was driving on a one way road.....going the wrong way. So my mother was not expecting a vehicle to come out from that direction. The police gave the teen a traffic citation and nothing to my mother and told her its 100% the Range Rover's fault. This is what I'm worried about. I have Liberty Mutual for car insurance. When I called to claim the accident I told the lady basic info about the damage to the car and the current mileage on the car. I probably didn't give a good enough explanation of the damage. She entered this "assessment" into some computer algorithm and the computer determined there is a possibility for repair. She told me this is just to determine whether to tow the vehicle to a body shop or to a salvage yard. If it is towed to a body shop it can still be deemed as totaled by the body shop. For Liberty Mutual, "totaled" means repair cost > 75% of value of vehicle. The NADA value of my car is roughly 11,000 grand. So repair costs will have to exceed roughly $8,000. I'll be honest. I do not want this car repaired. I would rather start over with the $11,000 on another vehicle. Reason being is that a repair of this magnitude will definitely lower the selling value of my car when I do plan to sell it. So here are some pictures for you to do a very rough evaluation and see if the repair costs could exceed $8,000. If you have any other tips or input I would appreciate it since this is my first experience with major wreck like this. Damn I can't edit the title. I know I spelled repairable wrong.
Do you get to keep the car? You can sell it for parts. If you're enterprising enough you can probably make a couple grand off of the parts on ebay and craigslist.
Yeah that car is definitely totaled. Honestly I've seen cars with a lot less damage that were labeled totaled. You need to contact your adjuster and get it settled out.
yo dawg, i think u getting a check problem is though, i'd think the check is coming from her insurance co. Hopefully they are legit like LM
That thing is not totaled. In fact most cars that are for sale on sites like craigslist have been in accidents even worse. I have family that fix cars for a living and this car is far from totaled. It would probably cost about 2k to fix with labor if you got a hookup. Otherwise you might be charged way more.
Used to use that guy. Think his name was boz? But felt like he was overcharging. Now I go to the cornerstone automotive a little down the street on dairy Ashford and have been very happy with them
I am fairly confident your car is a total loss, if indeed the value is around $11K. I can see one of the rails. You have significant structural damage. What is the name of the storage lot your vehicle is at? Did your airbags deploy and/or did any seat belt tensioners deploy? A few things: 1) Overall, your vehicle can be fixed. It will come down to a financial decision for the carrier (if repair cost would is less than their net on a total, then they would repair). The 75% rule is not hard a rule. IOW, most carriers will deem your vehicle a total if the repair value plus the salvage value exceeds the market value. Since salvage value across the board averages 25%, most say repairs have to exceed 75%. However, if salvage value is say 20%, then you are looking at exceeding 80% on the repair to total. If your salvage value is as high as 30%, then you only have to exceed 70% on the repair. 2) Most carriers are not going to base your settlement on any type of "book" value including NADA. Most are going to bast it on market value. To get an idea of that, research Autotrader for similar vehicles. Make sure and factor in dealer vehicles as well as private party vehicles when you do your research.
Oh also, don't consider retaining salvage on your vehicle if it is a total (i.e. parting it our yourself). First, the insurance carrier is going to deduct the salvage value from your settlement if you do retain. Second, you will have to disassemble all the parts that are still good plus dispose of the parts that aren't. I have never seen anyone come out ahead by doing that.
I believe the airbags did not deploy which is odd considering the damage and my mother having no significant injury. I'm taking her to the hospital tomorrow morning to check if she has a concussion or any other hidden injuries. Do the airbags deploying have any impact on the total/repair decision? Also how can I determine the salvage value or at least estimate it? The Liberty mutual agent over the phone told me that Liberty Mutual adjusters use NADA for their estimates. However, I have been told by others also to go look on autotrader, cars.com etc and look for listings similar to my vehicle and show the insurance company these listings if I feel they have under valued my vehicle
