Ive been in this situation more times than I wish. They use the value guides and also price all the comparable sales in your area both private party and dealers but mainly dealers and then come up with a value. You can contest their payoff amount, especially since you arent at fault the other persons insurance will have to pay and be pretty much at your mercy. If they offer less than you want, you decline the offer. Your insurance will get an attorney or you get one and summons the defendant(at fault person) and have them served for court. 99% of the time if your demanding price is semi reasonable the defendants insurance company will pay up without hesitation before it even gets to court

 

Glad she's alright Herb. Unfortunately, that is why they invented gap insurance. You're suppose to pay them TWICE to make up for depreciation of what the first policy wont cover. I'd still argue that they never reduced your premium to reflect depreciation. With some of the discussions I've observed here, you just may have a chance, good luck.

 

Thank the Good Lord she is OK, Herb. Insurance companies always pull the replacement value over what its actually worth to the owner. Gap insurance can help in this situation, but I'm not sure if there's a window of time/mileage. On a side note, the PT cruiser is a cool vehicle, however, it has a poor frontal and side crash rating so my Uncle said "no way" to my Aunt when she fell in love with the PT. Again, thank God your wife is OK! Seat belts have saved more lives than caused deaths. A lot more lives! Kurt

 

Glad your wife is ok!! You can buy another pt cruiser (loser), but you can't buy your wife back if she had been totaled!! So, that is great news!!!


My mother unfortunately has had her health fail in recent months and recently went to a nursing home. She has a 2001 PT Cruiser (I call it a PT loser) that she most likely will never need again. It is like new with I think 28,000 miles on it. PM me if you are interested. It is a white with a beige interior.

 

actually i read somewhere recently that the PT had fared well in collision tests.

 

Sounds like it did well in this test! Glad shes a-ok.

One thing to consider, is they dont have to use values LOCAL. If they see a PT cruiser of comparable quality for sale 200 miles away, they can use its value and adjust $50 for fuel to get their and back and call it a day.

All you should expect is the bare money to buy a replacement one just like it...

Fight and fuss too much and you may see your premiums go up a little more than you thought.. they get their money one way or another :-X

 

should not affect my premiums ? the man who ran the stop sign was at fault and was ticketed.

 

Didn't matter in Wisconsin! When I had my accident in the '90's, I was considered at fault partially, just because I was there. If I hadn't been driving that day, the collision would not have occurred. Their exact words. I wound up being 50% at fault, since the officer at the scene didn't actually write the citation to the driver, but wrote they were the primary cause of the wreck. If the citation had been written, I would have been 25% at fault instead. I was not happy!

 

You have to remember that it's just a car. Emotional attatchment does not add value. The value is what it is.

The car is replaceable, the wife is not. I'd gladly let my truck get totaled and get nothing for it in return, than to see the wife or one of the boys get hurt or worse.

 

Herb, When my 95 was wrecked, the other person's insurance company was going to give me 7500 for it. I explained to my insurance agent one one of his adjusters that he sent over that it was worth significantly more than that. My agent asked me to go look around at the auto trader and some car lots and find a few similar trucks. I found two that were very similar with similar mileage for 14000. I found one that was within 500 miles of the same mileage, same year, same lift kit for 13500 in the auto trader. I forwarded this information to him, and he went and looked at it. Two days later, he called me back and said he talked to the other insurance company and and we agreed that 13000 would be an acceptable price.

Get your insurance agent to help you out. Often times they have working relationships with other insurance companies and can help you out on your negotiations.

More than anything, I'm glad there were no serious injuries.

-Trey

 

Glad your wife is ok brother! As far as the PT cruiser, my parents had a limited edition with leather and a 5 spd manual for a while (a 2001) and they traded it in on a toyota corolla. When they traded it, it was payed for but the dealer only gave them $5k for it. They loved that car, but had to buy something that got better gas mileage. I would definetly look for another PT if I were you. Sounds like it stood up to the test. If it were me, Id be talking to the gentleman who's mother has that low mileage PT a few posts up.
Scott

 

I think its standard practice for them to try to offer as little as possible for the total. Most times people probably dont contest their offers at all. I have every time and every time my request was granted when I showed proof of other comparable sales in the area. Ive found that a lot of these adjusters are lazy and only look 1 or 2 places for some comparable sales. For instance I had a ford ranger and they only called 2 new Ford dealers I figured out that they were advertising theirs lower than book just to entice people to come look at them so they could then spring on the customer and try to sell them a brand new one for more money. First thing I did was called the insurance and asked if they also added to the value the $550 doc fee! They attempted to tell me that was not part of the price So I went and done my own homework at some used dealers and found acceptable comparables for them to go check out. They always had some dumb excuse as to why they couldnt use each one of them also. Thats when I had my agency threaten the other agency with a suit for the money. I had the check the next morning at 8am

 

Worked out ok. they went from an original offer of 5800 to a settlement of 7100.00.
flew to NC and bought another 01 with 23000 miles on it from the original owner for 7800.00.

 

That sounds good.

Only thing... Your avatar made me throw up a little into my mouth... Sorry.

 

Good point, but since he wife is fine, it's not an either-or situation and the status of his wife has nothing to do with the status of his car--- two completely different things.

JH