Brad W

Question, I got caught in a hail storm in my 928. The insurance company totaled the car with a stated value of $8,000. I offered to buy the car back at salvage prices and the insurance company refused. WHAT? I was told that they do not do that and will come pick up the car. IF I wanted to keep the car I needed to withdraw my claim.

I can't believe this, even my 84 year old neighbor was able to buy her car back.

Anyone ever heard this?

The company is American Modern Insurance bought through Parrish Heacock.

Brad

corellian vette

Just curious - what was the stated value? I have american modern for some of my cars (not the 928) so I'm interested if it was more than 8K in damage?

docmirror

Bad news. The insurer paid you for the value of the car, it belongs to them. They can do with it what they want. Having said that, it's kind of strange that they are not willing to sell it back for some value of some kind. However it might be more than the salvage. Read your policy from front to back. Find language in there, or in their general binder regarding demised property. I doubt they have anything in there that says they MUST offer to sell it to you, or anyone.

Ask them what price it would take to get it back(notwithstanding the claim payment). If they mention any number, you have a starting point for negotiation. You may find it's close to 50% of the stated value of the insured vehicle, or close to that.

Insurance companies are not in the business to 'help' or 'secure' their clients. They are in business to make money, any way they can. Some are pretty nasty about it. I'm involved in a claim dispute right now with an insurer, and I"m going to win eventually but they do have a lot of resources to fight through. I'm not giving up, even though I'll barely clear $7000 at the end of it all, I just don't like being pushed around.

nosnow

I have heard that certain insuance companies will not allow insured to buy totalled vehicles to try and avoid fraud. For instance a theft recover that has been paid will nost likely not be offered to the owner as a buyback. In your case it could be that the insurance company does not allow buyback on hail damage. You have to read you policy to see if there are any provisions around selling the salvage. Once they pay you and you accept it is thier car.

Mrmerlin

FWIW my PDR man removed the dents in the roof and hood of my 88 S4,
it had about 30 dents total with no broken paint ,
all the dents are gone like magic

Tomkat80222

Are you getting what the car is worth? If so, then I guess you need to move on. I would assume they are going to sell it at some auction. Try to find out were they take them or maybe someone here knows about these auctions.

Ghosteh

You can't really call it a "rip off" if they're paying you in full for what you agreed the car is worth. They're fulfilling their part of the contract.

The key is to properly insure the car, for a value that's both fair market and is also enough to satisfy you if it suddenly disappeared. If you have $20K in a car that's only worth $8k, then you have a problem. Stated value policies are a wonderful thing, IF you properly insure you car to cover a loss.

Of course, I'd be sad to see one of my cars go if they were a total loss, but I'd be covered financially, and able to buy a very nice replacement.

If you're successful in buying back the car, directly or thru a friend who buys it & resells it to you, then you MIGHT have to switch insurance companies. I doubt they will insure a car that they previously paid you off as a total loss.

bureau13

I had an '85 RX-7 stolen from my apartment complex back in the day. The insurance company paid me for it, and then called me a year and a half later to tell me that it had turned up in a towing company lot in Miami Beach. I have no idea how long it had been there, but they said they were going to auction it, and apparently employees had first dibs, but it wasn't something available to me. This was in the early '90s I think.

AO

If the car had been in a major collision accident, would you feel different? Total just means the cost to repair exceeds the stated value in this case. It seems that $8k was too low...

FredR

Brad,

If you enquired about buying it back then they know you are interested. Insurance companies are not dumb - they understand attachments to older specialist vehicles and they will not hesitate to dangle you to recoup as much as they can from you. Maybe it is a standard opening negotiation gambit to test whether you walk away from it or let them off the hook.

Now you need to work out what the "residue" is worth to you and see if you can get them to bite at all but as with all negotiations do not appear to be over eager.

vanster

I'm in Stan's camp on this one...is it really $8000 worth of damage? Have you taken it to a decent bodyshop for an estimate and total respray? If you do this and then tell the insurance company you don't want their money they may change their tune. Get it painted and dump your insurance company and go to someone like Hagerty.

Speedtoys

Total respray is somewhere between 7500 and 20k for a full disassembly.

So...

prescott

Just checked out the American Modern website.....collector car insurance....agreed value policies?

What did you agree the value of the car/policy was for? $8K? or more and they are only giving you $8k?

I've got a policy on mine with a $25k agreed to value like probably most 928 owners.....I'd really hate to find out that they would only pay me $8k for my ride, after I've spent twice that getting it up to 'snuff.

Good luck!

Brad W

let me touch on a few things. Yes I did insure the car for 8K and yes they are fair in paying me that, However my only bad feeling is that most people I have talked to and also two of my neighbors have bought their car back. It is the fact that they are unwilling to offer me that option and was told that if I wanted to keep the car II will need to cancel the claim. Doesn't make sense to me If I am willing to settle for less and fix the car. Now if it was a crash and rendered totaled I would gladly let it go. But guys lets face it, most cars get totaled for very minor damage it is just the cost to repair is outrageous for "new" parts.

Speedtoys

So where is the rip off you have tied their name to since you state that they have actually held up their end of the contract?

Knowing you have an 8K value, man...that's not a lot of room for whole-car damage of any type. If you have a route to make the claim go away, Id take that in a heartbeat and move on, and save up.

Not that hard/costly to replace anything except the roof, and sometime down the road throw $10k at paint.