Quote Originally Posted by colorider View Post
Well, we just got the offer from my son’s incident. His Civic is “a total loss”. They are offering us $2500. Minus the deductible we will get a check for $2000. Their virtual inspection and their comps in coming up with a price seems to have missed the fact his 94 civic has a JDM type R vtec with headers in it. Something they were aware of and charging for in their premiums. I’m going to bring this up to decline their offer and see what they come up with. I have enough free time in the next 2 days to be a dick and see where we can go with this. Then, make a decision on what to do with the car. Hell, parts for this thing are dirt cheap and available all over the internet. From my lounge chair mechanic experience, it looks like a project we could fix in about a week or 2. The frame and major parts didn’t get a dent. USAA will definitely be dumped after this though. I’ve had Progressive on my motorcycles for years and have always been happy and enjoyed my dealings with them on the phone. I’ll see what their rates are tomorrow.
Good luck brother.

All of my cars are insured with USAA. Here's a couple of the horror stories with USAA I referred to earlier:

1) About 8 yrs ago my son (driving "my" car for his use...and on the insurance) was t-boned by another USAA insured driver in an apartment building parking lot intersection. It was a slow speed accident that damaged the exterior of the drivers side front and read doors of the 2002 Dodge Intrepid that we bought new. No structural damage and both doors operated perfectly but unsightly. USAA chose to total the car without even looking at it because "the post could have been damaged". They refused to back away from the total declaration and since we wouldn't get much more than $1000 after paying the deductible for the car (engine was in excellent condition), we rejected the offer and just kept the car. It would have cost us more $$ to let them total it and do a buy-back - and we'd have to have a salvage title on the vehicle after that. USAA informed me that they'd no longer cover it for comprehensive coverage on the car if we did this. Just got rid of the car in January and they had continued charging us for comprehensive coverage on that car until we cancelled the coverage. 8 yrs after it getting t-boned we traded it in and got more for it than we would have if it'd had the salvage title, and more than USAA claimed it was worth 8 yrs ago.

2) In July 2020 my 2017 Civic EX-t got hailed on at Schriever SFB. That hail storm caused hundreds of cars to be totaled. After the USAA contracted adjuster evaluated the car they chose to total it because the cost to repair it was "over the threshold". I found out later that if I had a $1000 deductible instead of the $250 deductible the amount USAA would have had to pay to fix the car would have been under the threshold and the car would have gotten repaired. The option to "buy it back" was too costly - for what they wanted to charge me + the cost of making it legal to drive (windows, lights, mirror) would have cost more than it was worth. USAA tried MANY times have a tow truck come and take the car - even before I had agreed to their terms. I warned them and COPART (who was sending the tow truck to recover the vehicle) that the vehicle was located on my property (in my drive) and if they tried to come onto my property to get the car I'd call the police and have them arrested for motor vehicle theft and trespassing. They were especially aggressive about taking the car right away. Once they had the car my options for how to handle this would have been significantly limited so I wasn't goin to let them take it until I had a deal I could agree with.

3) About 10 years ago my wife got her first speeding ticket in more than 10 yrs (probably closer to 20 yrs); she was driving about 18 over the speed limit on a regular roadway (not in a school zone or anything). I received calls and multiple letters and emails from USAA indicating that this ticket was going to increase our rates and encouraging me to drop my wife from our insurance. Um, what? No!

I had a 2005 F-250 Crew Cab. We all know the cost of pickup (esp F250/2500's) is ridiculously expensive. I need a truck this size to pull my camper. I'm scared something will happen to this truck (hail, accident, etc.) as I know USAA will just total it and give me less than it's worth to keep and maybe only 10% or less of what it would cost to replace.

I know cars cost more now than when I was a new driver and insurance needs to cost more. That said, I pay about triple each month to insure each of my vehicles now than I did as a new driver. That wouldn't bother me so much if I felt I'd get a fair pay off or handling of a claim when I needed to make one; which I do not. The only reason I haven't left USAA already is that I know other insurance companies will operate similarly and "it's better the devil you know...".