| Re: "If I ever totalled my car..." |
Subject: Re: "If I ever totalled my car..." by bogus on 2013/2/12 4:10:23 Allstate sucks. I have heard nightmares about how they assess car values in accidents. I have State Farm, and the kid that hit the Jeep had Farmers, they both use a CCC Evaluation. In short, they don't look to replace that exact vehicle, but what it would cost to replace it in like-kind, meaning, a well cared for, well maintained Cherokee with reasonable miles. It's the legal concept of "making you whole." Not just paying the tab, but to make you right where you belong. They check dealers to assess what they would sell a vehicle like that for. The math on that one worked out well... We bought the Jeep for $1700 in 2007, drove it for 70k miles, and then got $3400 for it. Whoa. The Suburban we just bought, drove it off the lot, cash, for $5100, so it cost us only $1700...  Not bad... not bad at all. Figure we drove the Jeep for free, all we had to do was gas and insurance. Travelers SUCKS at this, too. I hate those bastards. I had two accidents where the fault lied on their customer... and both times, I had fights with them to get work covered, to get things looked at... I was arguing with the adjuster over the 2nd accident, my 94 Prelude VTEC... a 6 wheel delivery truck (24' long like for furniture and stuff), clipped my left front wheel in a parking lot. Bent the living shit out of everything. The alignment was so far out... I was surprised they could get it back. The column? they had to bend the bracket to straighten it, and when I bitched that it needed replacement, they blew me off. The adjuster was telling me I didn't know jack,and I told him he was a fucking tool for not listening to me and yes, I know my car better than you do you fucking asshole... whew, still pisses me off 12+ years later. He really angered me. Tried to make me feel like I was a moron or something, but I know more about how Honda did their suspension then he ever knew, and when I put that rag of armor all around my finger, and I could no longer rim-ride where the column met the dash, without my finger jamming up, I knew I was in trouble. I used to be able to run that gap with no problem, after? It was listing to the right about 3mm, enough to stop me from dusting that area properly. When I told him that, he said "they are all out of alignment there." I replied, "no, they are not, cause mine wasn't until your insured hit my front wheel." ARGH... the asshole STILL pisses me off. I ended up selling it, with full disclosure about the accident, but withholding my fears. If I was right, the new buyer had a legit claim against them for shitty repairs. The engine did dump an oil seal, causing an accident... even after I alerted him to the recall, he still did it himself. Apparently, the dealers in North Jersey suck. I have no idea what became of the car after that, so I am unaware of any major suspension failures down the road. The other time was back in 1985, a little old lady hit the right rear corner of my 1981 Celica Coupe. Pleasant little car, good for a college kid. Good trunk, marginal back seat. Sunroof, air, 5spd. Ran pretty good. However, she bent the rim when her bumper crossed from the fender to the quarter to the bumper. At the body shop, I expressed concern, and said, "the wheel was hit twice, I am worried about the bearing or even the axle." I was all of 20 and no one wanted to listen to some punk ass kid with some knowledge. Except I was right... it was about 18 months after, the rear started to howl like crazy... and I went and bought a new/used rear end from the junk yard. My friend and former coworker, Doug, swapped it out for me... yup... right rear outer bearing was shot to shit. If the bearing was 4" round, lets say, there was a chunk a good 1" to 1.25" just gone. And the balls inside were all scored up. I took the broken axle back to my insurance company, State Farm, for an opinion, and they said, sure, try it, 2 years hasn't expired. So I refiled an additional claim and guess what... they blew me off, no proof it happened at that time, no proof it was from my car... blah blah blah... All for a lousy $100 I wanted. If I had been asking for $5k, sure, but $100? The parts price and Doug's labour... I had receipts, Doug was willing to attest to the fact that he removed the axle, and that it came from the right rear side... all of that... but those cheap bastards... Never EVER will buy insurance from Travelers. They have ripped me off enough to have gotten their pound of flesh from me. They low ball repairs, they don't do them right... it's crap. I am impressed with Farmers and State Farm... When my niece totaled my first Prelude, 1992 Si, SF ran the CCC on it and kicked back $16,999.00... on a car I had purchased 18 months earlier for $17,300.00!!! I also had been paying a bit extra on the car loan, so that was down to only $12,999.00... after my niece gave me the deductible back, I had some $4k to put down on my next car. Not bad, eh? As I said, SF rocks. Farmers is very very good. And Travelers sucks. |
