MNYPDRBLT

Had a lady come over to my side of the road and smash my truck pretty bad. The body man who just painted it two months ago said he's sure it will be totaled.

Lucky nobody was hurt!!!!

My biggest worry is that my truck is actually worth more than what the book will say it is...(new paint, transmission, exaust...bunch of other stuff too) I dont know how this will be handled as far as getting me back on the road...( I will never be able to buy back a truck as nice as mine was with the money I will get back out of it.) That is if I could even find one! It's not every day you find a 1991 CTD with about 90,000 miles.

I am also wondering about what kind of rental car (truck)I will get, I used my truck for my buisness to haul furniture (24' enclosed trailer) so I NEED a truck, can they force me to take a little car or can I make them give me a truck. I don't think a Dodge Neon is going to pull what I need to pull. But I will try :-)

I put a picture in my gallery of the seen of the wreck, But is still waiting approval

phox_mulder

Pic didn't upload all the way, big gray thing with a couple lines of something at the top.

Reupload it and I'll approve it post haste.


phox

wannadiesel

I'd suggest buying it back from the insurance co. and parting it out to help raise funds. You can also pull out all your performance parts to re-use if you buy another 1st gen.

phox_mulder

More of the pic made it this time, but still not all of it.

I approved it so you could see how far it got this time.

Keep trying, it will all get there eventually.


phox

wannadiesel

Heartbreaking pic. It was a corner hit so the motor and trans are probably still good. Definitely worth parting out or selling as a donor to somebody looking to do a CTD transplant into an old crewcab.

MNYPDRBLT

Yea I'll try to buy it back... Lots of good parts that could help a lot of you guys out still in good shape. It did bend the frame though, so I dont think it will be fixed.

I know I have still got one heck of a pounding head from the crash. I think my head hit the side window or something.

I just want to get a truck back...I'm needing a fix of CTD power already!

MNYPDRBLT...

spunbearing

Ok heres some advice from a guy that has had to play hardball with insurance companies on more than one occasion. They are generally obligated to give you a rental vehicle similar ( capability wise for usage) as the vehicle you lost. Also generally they will add to the fair market value of the vehicle any improvements within the last 3 months that you can provide receipts for. You may decide to settle for fair market value of the vehicle and also retain salvage of the vehicle to offset your losses. They typically used to take about $400 off of the fair market value of a vehicle for you to retain salvage. Last time they wanted $900 on one of my trucks. You are under no obligation to to let them keep your truck as a total. Just as an example last time a lady pulled out ion front of me and wiped out my truck. They tried to give me what they considered to be the fair market value of the vehicle which was peanuts. I explained to them that I was losing work because I didn't have use of my truck ( with locking boxes). They weren't able to provide me a rental truck with locking boxes and also I had suspension and brake mods made to the truck which raised the market value. I told them that I would be happy to accept " fair market value" if they paid for the same brake and suspension mods to be made to my replacement vehicle and also pay to have all of my boxes remounted plus my lost work. ( which doubled the amount that they would have to pay out) I insisted that they repair my truck.They stopped the dollar amount just short of a total so I could retain the truck. If you stop it just short of a total it won't be a salvaged title.They will always try to lowball you. Always say no to the first 2 offers and keep bugging them. Good luck.

cLAYH

I had a guy do a left turn in front of me which wiped out both our cars.

The insurance company offered $1000 for the car. I figured cost to replace from looking at adds in the paper would cost $1500. I also argued that I had just replaced the battery and tires and that should raise the value. They said it didn't because it those were regular maintance items.

In the end all I could get for it was $1000 but I did get the car back. I repaired it for about $600 myself using wrecker parts and resold it 6 months later $1200.

I got about 5X what I got for the car out of the personal injury lawsuit though! Just take your time with them, in my case they were in a big hurry to settle and I refused to untill I had my rental and was finished my physio.

For the rental they wanted to give me a little hatch back bought I fought my way up to a pickup. I argued that I carried tools and supplies around in my car that could damage the interior of the rental. I had to really push for that one though. It helped that I would not discuss anything else untill I had a rental.

One thing to check is that most rental places do not have hitches on their trucks nor do they allow towing with them.

apache

Try to work the ins company. My friend had a similar crash and they offered him less than what he just paid for the car. He told them to replace it themselves with the money they offered and they were unable. eventually they upped the funds. Wonder if a dealer or something could have a look and price it in the real world for you. Blue book is not realistic at times.

12valve@heart

Hate to say it but you'll probably have to fight to get a decent settlement. Your trump card is the personal injury claim. NEVER sign a release (on the medical or anything else) until you're willing to take their offer. Also, remember that if you were banged around in the accident, some injuries don't fully show up until a few weeks or a month later. Don't sign off until you know that you're OK.

When my truck was totaled, they wouldn't put up a reasonable offer so I wouldn't sign a medical release. I figured that I may be physically OK but a good lawyer could fix that. Took at least 6 weeks to get close to a reasonable offer and then I had to buy it back and fix it to come out even.

ares

if the frame is still intact it looks fixable to me.

MNYPDRBLT

Hey thanks so much guys!!!! Being just 24 years old I need all the guidence I can get, I would hate to get taken advantage of...Thats what I was afraid of, The insurance company can look at my record and see that I have never had a single wreck of any kind, so they might see this is my first rodeo and rack me over the coals.

I haven't signed any paperwork of any kind, not even the police report, definatly not a medical release or anything. My head has been kinda hurting ever since friday night, I might have to get that checked out pretty soon.

I am going to have to have a truck I can pull with, There is just no other way around that. If the insurance won't pay for it I will have to rent one myself. I have a load of trailers waiting for pick-up by the end of this week in Alabama. And a load of furniture to pick up in Pa. sometime soon. My buisness can't just stand still while I wait on my truck situation to get taken care of!

You guys sure have been a great help to me, I can't tell you how thankfull I am to you.

Jeff...

1st gen Hobie

If and when you buy it back, I could use a few parts if ur willing. Those grille inserts look real good.

Alec

It is hard to say for sure without seeing the truck in person, but I don't think that your truck should be totalled. It could certainly be repaired. So follow the advice of the folks on this board for dealing with the insurance company, and start looking for an alignment shop that can straighten your frame. If you find a good one, the truck will come out better than it did from the factory. The frames are only made out of 32k psi steel -- so they can be heated, formed, and annealed relatively easily.

I'm glad no one was hurt -- and my condolences!

jiMMyCTD

wow, that sucks! sorry man, im sure youll find another one but the down time would be killer.

jiMMy