I wouldn’t worry about it, I’m sure your insurance company will make reparations.
UIM only covers your medical bills, so it wouldn’t apply here.
Some companies will waive the deductible on the collision policy and/or not raise your rates if you get hit by someone without liability, but you still have to have the collision policy in the first place to make a claim on it.
A couple of years ago, I had paid off my Toyota truck and was considering selling it. Was hoping to get 8, would have settled for 6.
I got rear ended at a traffic light. Total loss. Insurance paid out 10.
He’s probably referring to UM-PD. It can be very hard to get coverage under that on a hit and run and not all states or companies offer it.
I had a car totaled in December when a driver lost control of her car and bounced all over the freeway. She was found to be ‘at fault’ so her insurance covered my loss. Since your driver was uninsured, you will have to use your insurance.
Her insurance (Progressive) was kind of slow to make a decision about my car. After 2 weeks, they accepted liability and offered me a settlement for my total loss. Initially, they offered me $10,000 for my car, which was very close to and very slightly above to the Kelly Blue Book value. I asked for more because my car had some add-on’s (leather seats, back-up camera, premium stereo, fancy rims- something else I forgot now). They increased their offer to $12,700.
They covered my missed days of work at 80% and all my medical bills (Note: you cannot use your health insurance when you are visiting for a car wreck/car insurance issue and must pay out of pocket) which were not large- a visit to the doc for a check up and some prescriptions. I also asked for some glasses and a cell phone, which were damaged in the wreck. They approved both, which surprised me; especially the phone. I brought receipts for all these things.
They offered me a ‘pain and suffering’ amount. I would presume you would not get offered this since you weren’t in the car, but I don’t think it would hurt to ask since car shopping is a time consuming task, one that you would not be doing otherwise. Expect to be declined but ask anyway. They covered the phone for me which was not expected. (On the other hand, since the claim is through your own insurance you may prefer to keep the settlement as small as possible. I dunno.)
Eventually, I went to the Progressive office and met with their adjustor. We agreed on a total amount and he cut me a check right there. I dropped it in the bank that day and went car shopping. I had already looked around assuming my car would be totaled (again, it took them 2 weeks to decide this, so I wasn’t really sure if they would try to fix it. If they did, I was going to sell it or trade it.)
I used the money to buy a more recent model of the same car (Hey, it performed really well in that wreck!). I bought a certified pre-owned car from the dealer; one that was a year old and I got about 1/3 off the full retail price, but it also still has a lot of warranty left).
The end result was that while the whole thing was a hassle not of my making, and I do owe a bit on a newish car, I am pleased overall. I got a much newer and nicer car for not so much out-of-pocket money.
Happened to me twice. In short, they will give you a check (as others said, you can negotiate, but don’t try to BS) and you can either put that towards a new car, or you can see about purchasing your car back, and attempt to fix it (depending on the severity of the damage), but I’m not sure what insurance looks like after that.
That said, it’s almost never a fun process, especially when the other party doesn’t have insurance. In my case, I initiated the claim with my own company, who was more than willing to help me by giving max value for my car, after which they went after the rival insurance through a subrogation process.
My experience is that they will not offer collision or comprehensive coverage on the car, as it now has a zero or negative value. If it’s driveable (either as-is or because you fixed it enough to drive it), you can get liability and probably medical coverage.
It may be that if you fixed it enough to restore it to its previous value (which theoretically would mean spending more money than they gave you in the settlement), you could get them to inspect and approve it and then get full coverage. I doubt it would be worth the trouble, though.
The clowns at ensurance offered me $6200 and told me straight-up, “We won’t negotiate, hire an appraiser”. Where am I going to find a Hyundai Sonata 2006 with 90,000 miles on it for that much? I told them what’s the point of insurance if it doesn’t help you get back where I was before the accident. I told them that unless the appraiser was $50 dollars, how can I afford to do it? She told me that I had unrealistic expectations. Made me so angry, almost turned into a super saiyan over the phone. I am taking my money and will end up buying some hoopty that’ll be less quality than the car that I had. I don’t understand why hitting vehicles isn’t a crime, the owner should be in jail and/or his/her head on a pike. I also don’t understand why insurance companies won’t pay for you to get a vehicle of the comparable make, model, and mileage. What a scam.
Grrr
From reading these replies, it seems a good question to ask before you sign up for insurance is how the replacement cost is calculated. And get it in writing.
Replacement cost isn’t calculated at all. By default, an insurer will pay “actual cash value”, which is that figure minus depreciation.
They do - if you choose replacement value coverage. You get what you pay for.
If you still owe on the vehicle I strongly urge Gap coverage. That covers the gap from what you owe to what your vehicle is worth.
Oh, I am a car insurance adjuster. If I can answer any questions please don’t hesitate to ask.
Although they may not negotiate, make certain that they know exactly what options the car had on it. It can make a difference.
While you’re offering …
If someone drives an old verhicle (like 15+ yo), is it possible to buy enough insurance so that if something happens to the old vehicle, enough money can be recouped so that a reasonable replacement vehicle of some kind can be bought?
IOW, even an old car – if it’s still reliable enough to serve as a daily-driver commuting vehicle – has value beyond what any reference might indicate. Can that intangible value be insured?
I’m not currently in auto insurance but did it for years.
The cost of insuring an older vehicle is often going to be more than what you would get from any settlement. For example, I ran the blue book value of a 1999 Honda Accord with 150,000 miles in good condition and standard equipment. It comes back at $1356, a fairly standard deductible is $500, so you’re likely to get about $850.
About the only way you’re going to get ‘intangible’ value is if the vehicle qualifies as a classic or collectible car. Although it generally, if not always, can not be a daily driver.
For the rates, I ran that same car and did an Esurance quote. I used myself, 38 years old, clean driving record. $150.00 a month. (25/50 bi, 10 pd, 500/500 comp/collision)
Yes, if your insurance company declares the vehicle a total loss, and you decide to buy it back from them and repair it, you must go to the DMV and relicense it under a salvage title.
While the car may be repaired in your eyes, you are never going to be able to honestly get much real money when you try to resell it. It will be worth junk price no matter how much you repair it.
So if you really like the car and want to repair and salvage title it, go ahead. When you sell it you have to represent it as a salvaged car and it won’t be worth much at all. Unless it is collectable in some way I wouldn’t bother. Take the money and get whatever you can afford.
Never mind.
As I mentioned, we managed to avoid the actual declaration of “totaled” in order to avoid all this.
Like I said, we’ve been driving it just fine for about 9 years since then. It would have been a real waste otherwise.
Yeah, they missed sun roof and my lojack device. Not sure how you “miss” a sunroof but whatever.
Thankfully, I paid my car off in December.
Is car insurance a scam? The reason I ask is because I am forced to purchase a product by the State that, ostensibly, doesn’t really work as advertised. When I signed up for esurance, there was no box between “WE WILL PAY YOU CASH VALUE FOR YOUR CAR” vs “WE WILL PAY YOU CASH TO GET A USED CAR” in the event of the accident. I would’ve chose the latter. It makes me think there should be a public option on car insurance. It appears this is yet another industry that the private sector can’t do without running roughshod over consumers. 
Before someone hit my *parked *vehicle, I had a functional, fully operational 2006 Hyundai Sonata with 90,000 miles and they are giving me $6200 for it. It’s a far cry from forty acres and a mule.
- Honesty