Magown

Great article, looks like a good magizine too. I just signed up for a free copy.

Peckster, having spent most of my life hanging around a repair / body shop, I have witnessed numerous insurance claim battles. All it usually takes to deal with them is some *****, brains, time, & persistence. They know the average Joe doesn’t have what it takes to fight so everyone gets low balled. It wouldn't surprise me if 90% of the people just accept the offer and never look back.

Peckster

What I said was that a "great portion" of the victory was probably due to his being a lawyer

I'm not saying you HAVE to be a lawyer to get a claim increased, just that it helps. Tom, did you happen to let it slip that you were a lawyer during the negotiation, or do you think your familiarity with legal terms etc. might have tipped them off?

I'll tell you what, if I were an insurance company, I'd settle a lot faster if I knew the owner was a lawyer. That's got to be a factor in this case, assuming , of course, that they knew.

Several years ago I got an offer increased substantially on my own, so I'm well aware you don't to be a lawyer to win.

Tom R.

i'm pretty sure i told her i was a lawyer after i got the first offer, i also told her i specialize in valuing businesses.

also, at one point in the negotiations i mentioned a car listed in panorama that was in maryland i believe. they told me it was too far away to use. i then told them to find me another one. the closest actual sale to mine was AndyK's. they said that was no good because he bought it a few hundred miles away. i told them he lived 50 miles from me, and had to find on three or four hundred miles away. that didnt sway them. they just dont get it.

they value accords and camrys all day. they cant understand why people would fly halfway across the country to buy a car.

try getting all that in on one page in a magazine!

88BlueTSiQuest

I second that statement. If you can do the footwork like Tom did, and you fight enough, you can make the insurance company bend to your needs and wants.

I have an '83 944, it's currently sitting with 100,004 miles on the odo. Interior condition is good, dash is cracked of course, but no other interior problems. The exterior was decent, it had been repainted but the paint job was pretty shoddy work, otherwise exterior was good.

Now think about how much a car like this would cost you, maybe $4k at most? I was able to get nearly $4k from my insurance to repair my car after I struck a deer. And no, they didn't total the car and sell it back, they adjusted their value of the car to what they considered the FMV of my car. They essential slapped a $5600 value amount on the car, figured in that totalling the car would be 75%, so they alloted me up to $4200 to repair the car.

That only happened because I did the footwork before the adjuster saw the car, and I gave him a dollar value of parts to do the repair. Not to mention the damage was mainly cosmetic, as no structural damage was caused. The prices of new parts from Porsche and other OEM sources would of been near $5400, but I supplied prices for used and aftermarket parts, which is what the adjuster chose to use in coming up with the settlement amount.

Dave

In many places the insurance companies are legally required to use NEW parts, that's why mine was totalled. $3500 in body work and a cracked trans, a new trans in a crate from Porsche is ~$11,000, even after they low-balled me on the bodywork @ $2600 they listed the damage at almost $14,000.

88BlueTSiQuest

I was fighting to save my car I had just purchased it, done a bunch of work to it, and couldn't bare to part with it just because Bambi used it as a device to end her long bout with depression.

Campeck

did you ever find the car?
I hope you do...And kick the guys ***.....hard

Tom R.

Nope, never found the car, or the parts. I pulled this post up as a refresher that I may send to an adjuster.

Someone took the side of my Black/Tan E39 540i 6 speed manual with his truck and trailer while i was standing still a few weeks ago. Body shop estimated $6,300 +- damage. His insurance came back as a total at $5,800 plus tax.

My car has 79,800 miles on it when he hit me.
Comparable 1 - 1999 540i Automatic 140,805 miles with a deduction of $968 because they think it will go for less. Its a three month old ad.
Comparable 2 - 1999 528i Automatic 237,559 miles - Not even the same car. Then he deducts because the 6 cylinder has sports package, and leather seat trim. I have M Sport leather seats, and M suspension. Silly things.
Comparable 3 - 1999 540 Automatic Wagon - 169,967 miles. Sedan, Automatic. Who cares it has a roundel - it must be the same car.

Hopefully his insurance will work with me better than Geico did. He told me $1,000 for buy back. So his guy does at least $6,300 damage to my car, and I can take a check for $4,800 plus tax and keep my car with a salvage title. I sent him the national listing from Autotrader, every E39 540i Manual in the country for sale.

How does that math add up?

jeffrsmith

Good luck, hopefully you will be as successful as when you lost the Porsche. While this is not a P-car please keep us posted - always interested in how these thing come out.