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.


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[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.

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[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...

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[crays]

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

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[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.