My car wasn’t new when I bought it, it was a car that had been used by a manager at Ford for six months.
I got a high-spec Ford in new condition, with less than 3000 miles on the clock for £10k less than the price of a new equivalent.
You are in a position to negotiate. They are self-insuring themselves as many trucking companies do, or just want to avoid filing a claim and paying more for insurance. The same thing happened to cars of mine, once with a tractor-trailer, and once with a FexEx van backing into my car in my own freakin’ driveway! Neither one totaled the car. In the first case with the tractor trailer my car was leased, technically owned by GMAC, and the business immediately said “Take it to a dealer and have them fix it, we’ll pay whatever the bill is”. They knew they weren’t going to take a leasing company for a ride. The other case with the FedEx van was different, they tried to talk me down on the repairs. I was already taking it to a shop that had very reasonable prices but they insisted my car was worth less. I pointed out the details that clearly made it worth more and if they didn’t pay the amount I was asking I was going to the dealer to get it fixed and their estimate was about $500 more. That changed their mind, along with having the details for the car’s value, they probably think most people will give in to whatever they say.
Not a car crash, but here at the condo I was recently President of, a FedEx van backed over one of our light stanchions, through a short retaining wall, and into a garden, mashing a couple of small palm trees in the process. Did a remarkable amount of damage for something that covered 20 feet at 5 mph.
FedEx were total absolute jerks to deal with. Uncooperative with us, our insurers, our attorneys, everything. First it didn’t happen, then it wasn’t them, then it wasn’t material damage then … Despite the before and after surveillance video we sent them of their truck crushing all this stuff.
I suppose they’re the new version of the Phone Company: We’re simply too big to need to care about anyone or anything.
Moral of this story: beware the crazed FedEx drivers you see on the road.
Well this truck driver wasn’t driving for FedEx but I think he qualifies as crazed.
I had stopped at a grocery store to get a pick-up. They had dropped off the groceries and I was leaving the parking lot. A large tractor-trailer was also leaving the parking lot so I followed them to the exit lane. They stopped at the stop sign and I stopped behind them.
The driver then put the tractor-trailer into reverse and began backing up. I honked my horn to let him know I was behind him. He didn’t stop and kept backing up. I didn’t have enough time to put my car in reverse and get away from him before he backed into my car. Despite having hit me, the driver kept backing up until my car finally spun around to the side of the trailer. He pushed me back around ten feet.
I have no idea why he didn’t stop when he hit me. I would have thought any driver would stop their vehicle immediately when they hit something.
Thinking about it afterwards, I realized it probably would have been worse if I had been able to get my car in reverse and tried to outrun him. I would have ended up between the loading dock and the truck. And then when he kept backing up, he would have crushed my car instead of just shoving it backwards.
My car got t-boned last October. The damage repair cost was about $5,000. It had been a 2009 Hyundai Accent and Blue Book for it was about $2,000 for the condition it was in so they declared it totalled.
I got roughly $4600 for it. I was so happy.
I was impressed with my wife for hitting a church… but you ran into a whole state! New thread winner!
I got hit from behind when the vehicle in front of me braked sharply. I stopped in time to not hit him but the car behind me wasn’t that lucky. The insurance adjuster said my van would be totaled because its value was too low. I looked confused by that, so he showed me the adjustment screen. While looking it over, I pointed out that he’d entered the color of my van incorrectly. It was grey, not white.
He made the correction and then stared at the screen. The change in color had boosted the value of my van $20, which made it eligible for repair. He said he’d never seen that happen before. I was happy. It’s a good van.
I don’t have any insurance advice, but I’m glad you’re okay, @Little_Nemo .
The value of a five-year-old new car on paper has become quite different than the actual buying value due to scarcity. Definitely work with your insurance company to get what you need to replace your car.
I actually tried to sell my daughter’s 2009 Prius when she went to school in New York, but no dealer wanted to buy it, even for $1k. So I kept it around. In late 2020, it came in handy when she came home for winter break and needed something to get around in. Then on Christmas Day, I got a call at work that she had wrecked it while on her way to her best friend’s house.
My insurance company totaled the car, and gave me $3500 for it.
New car replacement policies do exist. They cost more, but it may be something you want to look into given your predilections.
I’m seeing this more as a liability issue rather than a policy choice.
If I had wrecked my car by driving into a tree, I’d accept that my financial loss was due to my own actions. What’s annoying me is how somebody else wrecked my car but I’m the one who will have to assume the burden of buying a new car.
(For those who are unaware, New York has no-fault insurance.)
Actually, NY doesn’t have no- fault insurance for property damage, only for medical bills and such . Property damage isn’t no fault - if it was, the trucking company wouldn’t be paying for your damages , your insurance would be. If you had collision/comprehensive.
Look at the last page of this for an explanation of how no-fault works in Michigan
I’m not sure who you want to have the burden of actually buying the new car - I certainly wouldn’t want the trucking company to choose it.
I feel the person (or company) who wrecked the existing car should have the burden of providing for its replacement. And I feel a replacement car that’s the same make and model as the one they wrecked would be reasonable.
That’s perfectly reasonable and you could ask for that. The odds of getting any more than a check for the book value of the car at the time of the accident are pretty low. But you can ask.
What can I say? We don’t mess around.
My wife took a wrong turn on a dirt road in one of the PA State Game Lands, went abruptly down hill, and bottomed out, hard. No WileECoyote-style hole in the ground, though.
Watch out for that scam where they want you to buy them a whole new state instead of just repairing the broken part.
What are the magic words to make your insurance company act on your behalf? My friend just got hit yesterday and when she called State Farm, they advised her something like “we can file a claim with the other person’s insurance on your behalf, but if you deal with them directly you can more likely get exactly what you want.”
A little bondo and it was good as new
Reasonable for them may be the blue book value of a 5 year old car. Unless things have changed, that’s what you’ll get.