Buying back a totaled car

[mindfold]

Sister was just in an accident. Everyone good. I built this Jeep for her and want to pull parts off of it for her next one and take back the new drivetrain I just put in it.

How difficulty is it dealing with insurance company on this? How much negotiations will it take to get fair value for her car? She was not at fault. Someone blew through a stop light.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[20X11]

No such thing as "fair value"...Insurance companies only deal with "book value".

[henpecked]

Should be easy make sure she is getting paid for any after market upgrades like winches, bumpers, bug gaurd and recent mechanical work..motor transmission

[BladesNBarrels]

No such thing as "fair value"...Insurance companies only deal with "book value".

Legit question - isn't the book value zero after the insurance company total's it? So, would it be salvage or what a junk dealer would pay?

Worked at an equipment dealer in the 70's and we would get insurance company reports of totaled vehicles.
They would ask for bids for salvage.
My boss got a pretty decent Cadillac sedan and ran it through the equipment shop for a rebuild.
The mechanics loved doing it as a change from repairing heavy equipment.
But, it did have the Salvage Title that really kept him from re-selling it.

I would just call the claims adjuster at the Insurance company that your sister dealt with and ask them how to make an offer.

[20X11]

Legit question - isn't the book value zero after the insurance company total's it?

Nope...Totaled means it will cost more to repair it than the "book value" of the vehicle. The insurance Co gets to pay the insured the "book value", and offset their expense by reselling the vehicle on a salvage title.

Edit: When they totaled my sons car a few years back, we had 2 options... get a check for 8,000 - they keep the car, get a check for 5,000 - we keep the car.

[crays]

If they towed it, you'll be looking at the tow and storage costs in addition to salvage value.

Quite some time ago, my car was parked in front of my sister and bil's house. While we were out at the races in Dacono for the evening, a drunk driver plowed into it and then another as she tried to flee. My car was never towed from the scene, (but we did have to move it out of the yard and into the driveway).
After what seemed like too long a period, the insurance company finally offered up a check for totalling it.
My bil inquired about buying it for salvage because he wanted to make a demo derby car out of it. After hearing their asking price, he presented them a bill for storage, since it had sat on his property since the incident.
The bill was more than the asking price, so they signed over the title.
Side note:
Rear axle got snapped early in the first derby, so after a trip to the junkyard for a replacement, it made a second derby appearance where he lasted a bit longer, but still got his ass handed to him.

TLDR; if you maintain possession of the vehicle from early on, you have leverage.

Sent from somewhere...

[crays]

Not so humorous addendum to the above post:

Over this past Labor Day weekend, I lost another innocent unoccupied car that was parked at the curb to an errant driver. Totalled. Guy wasn't drunk this time, and stuck around to claim responsibility. At least there's that...

Sent from somewhere...

[crays]

I won't be trying to buy that one back.

Sent from somewhere...

[DFBrews]

I bought back my forester that was totaled Because it got stolen and thrashed
buy back price was like 500 dollars and insurance paid out over 5k

[SouthPaw]

I’ve bought back two vehicles due to hail from the insurance. They will give you a ‘fair’ market value and salvage value and you get the difference. Both times, I came out ahead by a mile. My ‘03 Tahoe I purchased for $2700 was valued at $6700 market, $1200 salvage so I netted $5500. Motorcycle was purchased for $5000, valued at $6500, salvage $2000, netted $4500. Both titles were already in my name and were not marked salvage.

[theGinsue]

Nope...Totaled means it will cost more to repair it than the "book value" of the vehicle. The insurance Co gets to pay the insured the "book value", and offset their expense by reselling the vehicle on a salvage title.

Edit: When they totaled my sons car a few years back, we had 2 options... get a check for 8,000 - they keep the car, get a check for 5,000 - we keep the car.

This is what I'm going through right now and just how it works.

My 2017 Civic was deemed "totalled" by USAA due to hail damage in July. They'll either give me $17.5k for the car or $8k and I keep the car. Estimated cost of repairing the car completely (no evidence of damage) is $12k. This week I finally decided to just cash out, let them take my car and buy a new Civic as similar to the one I had/have as I can get. I would have much preferred to just have the car repaired and keep it, but USAA says that isn't an option unless I want to drop my claim and pay for all repairs out of pocket. NOTE: In CO, even if an insurance company totals a vehicle due to hail damage they can't force a salvage title to the car - you still get a standard title if you buy it back. The whole process sucks for the consumer.

ETA: A couple of items to note: USAA never offered me the information on buying the car back - I had to specifically ask them to provide that information, which they reluctantly provided. Secondly, the day after they notified me of their decision to call this a "total loss/"damage exceeds the threshold" I was contacted by a third party entity which USAA never told me about. This company wanted to come by immediately to take my car - even before I'd received any of the paperwork for the payment to me or title transfer. I informed them politely that if anyone stepped onto my property to try to take the car I'd have them arrested.