2010panny4S

OP, it's good to finally move on... IMHO sometimes, fighting over a couple thousand for weeks is not worth it and may also lose your chance at finding that great replacement vehicle for your dearly departed vehicle, while you haggle with insurance.

damien996

That’s tough news for you, sorry. I do understand wanting to get this behind you but It may take you months to find your car, it would seem that you should be protected if the car market turns and goes up and be forced to accept such an extreme loss. In your defense, you could point to the current stock market as an indicator of where the economy is forecasted to go and make the case the downturn should be considered a temporary market correction. Best of luck on your hunt. Please keep us posted.

97supratt

Hire an attorney and sue both the insurance company and liable party for monetary damages. Don’t ever accept monetary loss from an accident that isn’t your fault.

Carlo_Carrera

I have done that route and did it pro se to save on lawyer fees. It took over a year to complete, hundreds of pages of depositions, repair estimates, damage estimates, questionnaires, etc and at critical points, like when the case actually went to trial, still needed a lawyer to step in on my side. Not an easy nor inexpensive process.

97supratt

Retainer fees should be included in the suit. What was the outcome? Settlement? Judgement?

Carlo_Carrera

There is very little chance in a civil case this small a judge or the other side is going to concede legal fees as part of the settlement. If desmotesta does as you suggest he might in the end walk away with a third of the car's value he lost. Is that amount worth his time? Only he knows.

In my case I did win in the end. Other side settled just as it was about to go trial. We were all literary in the court room, but considering the time and effort that was burned in the process it almost wasn't worth it.

97supratt

That’s how it is with any suit. Lawyers drag it on forever for billable hours.

Carlo_Carrera

I agree completely. By doing it pro se it all comes down to how much personal time desmotesta is willing to put in. The other side is going to bury him in paperwork.

pfbz

Fair or unfair, a $7K loss for a totaled 991 isn't bad... Far better than having an 'almost totaled' car that spends months in the shop and is never the same again. Yes, it sucks that it wasn't your fault, but IMHO not even close to being worth pursuing with legal action. And it sounds like most of the loss is due to the recent decline in Porsche resale prices rather than the insurance not paying full value.

Additionally, you can likely make up a good deal of that 'loss' on your replacement purchase. There are some great deals out there right now... I just picked up a 991 Turbo S for at least $15-20K less than it would have been sold for three months ago.

visitador

Agree. Scratching my head on this one. @desmotesta already knows the comps of how much the market has gone down. So, in a sense, if he buys a similarly equipped 991 to replace the totaled one, it would be a wash, given the market right? Had Covid-19 not been around, insurance would have paid him more but he would have had to pay more for a replacement. The tricky part is how much of a loss he incurred for the few months he owned the dream car

Porsche_nuts

How much is your time worth. By tying up your time with lawyers and after fees, if you win, its a few thousand more if you are lucky. Do you want to spend the time and money for a few thousand - maybe? Or you could be in a newly purchased Porsche and enjoying your ride. Weather is getting warmer, you want to be out driving instead of tied up in a lawsuit. My opinion.

darylbowden

Exactly. If the market value is accurate and assuming he can replace at the stated value awarded to him, all is even.

As others have said $7k is almost certainly not worth the fight legally speaking. Unless you yourself are a lawyer who has experience in this area and you have spare time on your hands, you will end up breaking even at best by the time it is all said and done. And you will have wasted many days of your life. I've personally gone down this path and it's just not worth it unless you're looking at a much higher number than $7k.

Aaronr

Deleted - will PM

slingshot60

Fighting insurance companies is almost like joisting with windmills... they always have more lawyers and money than you do. Good luck with whatever course of action you end up taking.

raidersfan

That sucks. I am really sorry to hear about what you are going through.

I hate the word "accident". That needs to be taken out of car crash vocabulary forever. Rarely if ever is an accident an "accident". You were hit by someone doing something they shouldn't have been doing and should be compensated for not just your monetary loss, but your time.

We are well beyond ready to stiffen up requirements to obtain a driving license in this country. People are driving faster and more aggressively than I have ever seen; I saw 3 absolutely moronic crashes in the past 2 weeks, one resulting in the death of 3 people. What gives someone else the right to put my life in danger by riding 3 feet off my bumper at 80mph and swerving through traffic aggressively, doing 20mph more than everyone else on the freeway?