01steve

hello again, so two weeks ago i did a stupid thing and i got into an accident. thankfully, no-one was hurt. i hit an 18-wheeled haz-mat truck. i blew his tire and that about sums up his damage. my car on ther other hand, killed the driverside fender, fender liners, the hood, the headlight, the bumper, the corner lights, tweaked the bumper reinforcement, fudged up the radiator support, and the left apron (behind fender). keep in mind, my car still drives completely straight (daily driven to this day), and the engine's fine-... 6years old and 94,000 miles and still going.

ok so lets get strated, the estimator came out to my work, and wrote up his estimate for $5,900!!! he came to me and told me my car might be a total!!! i asked if he was joking and he showed me his computer. he told me that the reason it was so high was because he could not find used parts for my car. i told him that i could find the parts dirt cheap and he said it's something i need to take up with the insurance adjuster.

so i called the insurance adjuster and she basically told me buy the parts, show state farm my reciepts, and get an estimate from a body shop-... from there they'd re-consider. at that point IF they could repair it under the value of the car then the car would be fixed.

and so i did. i bought a front bumper, headlight, had a spare fender (project that i never started), clear corners, and a carbon fiber hood (why not?). got all of that for just under a $1,000! took my car to a body shop explained to the guy i had most of the parts ready to go and that he'd just have to take care of the frame work. so he wrote me an estimate for $1,700! parts + estimate= just under $3,000.

faxed everything to state farm and i get a phone call saying that i can go ahead and get my car fixed! wooo-hooo! i danced and heel-clicked and everything!

24hrs later i get another call from my insurance company from the same guy. "yeah i know i told you yesterday that your car could be repaired, but my manager reviewed it and deemed it totaled."

again i called the insurnace adjuster. i verbally dis-proved this lady and made sure that her manager called me. the manager called me and told me that the body shop estimate was "in-complete" because it did not show the cost for all of the parts, and it only showed the frame parts. let me remind you that i did fax them my reciepts for all of the parts! i reminded her and she said it needed to be on the body shop's estimate. so again the estimate has to be rewritten and re-approved.

so this leaves me with a couple of questions. now that i have these parts, do i/can i sell my parts to the body shop at a discounted price? i'll take a bit of a financial hit if it allows me to keep my car.
my second question is, what is a "bad faith" claim, and who do i claim this to? a friend of mine told me once, that if an insurance company is screwing around that i can claim "bad faith" and it should set everything straight. my insurance company gets off on screwing me over and i'm sick of it.

if anyone can help, i'd really appreciate it. thanks in advance!

GreatWhiteTibby

To me, it sounds like you sent them everything they asked you to send and they told you to go ahead with the repairs. If they chose not to look at the paperwork you sent them fully that is not your fault. if you agreed to have the work done after they agreed to pay for it, I suspect that you can hold them accountable for the estimate that was given to you by the shop doing the framework. I also suspect that with your deductible you would pay the $1,000 for the parts out of your pocket anyway, so that really should not effect the insurance company's decision.

I am not sure about the whole bad faith thing, but it sounds like they told to you go ahead with the repairs, I dont think they can legally call you the next day and say that your car is now totalled, especially after the repairs have already been started

Ericy321

if they wont do anything you could always just have them total it and buy a new tib and still use the parts you have. you could also buy it back and make some cash on a part out. point is, if its totalled and they wont do a thing to help there are still other options

Mad-Machine

Let them total the car.. but ask to keep it. They will cut you a check for probably half of what it is worth.. take that money and your parts to the body shop and when the car is done, drive away happy (after getting the car inspected for it's "Salvage" title

01steve

i appreciate the replys. as for getting a "salvaged title", if i were to get a salvaged title all i can do with the car is part it out. you might be thinking of a "rebuilt title" but i doubt my insurance co. will do that. if they do total it, they are still cutting me a check for the parts i bought. i really don't want them to total the car, it's a huge hassel for me to find an rd2 that fits my expectations (which aren't very high). i don't think i could part out this car financially because i'm still paying off the car so the check would go to the bank first and then i get whatever/if any money that is left over.

demon_fox

postpics.gif seriously. you can still drive on a salvage title and ins will still cover it. mb not for full but the min they will. if you had pics i could tell you if the adjuster was screwing you on the repair estimate. and if its as bad as you seem to think. sometimes things look alot worse than they actually are. lol bad faith complaint is made to the BBB or better business bureau. it puts the insurance company on national notice for screwing people and they will be investigated.

01steve

thanks, i'll try to get some pics up. i don't have a digital camera otherwise, i would've posted before and after pics.

it's not nearly as bad as they think it is. they told me that with a salvage title that it would only be able to be used for parts and would never be legally allowed on the roads. with a rebuilt title, i'd be able to put the car back on the roads.

Mad-Machine

It depends on state to state.. and in that case, you should fill out where you are from in your profile so we can tell what area of the country we are dealing with.

In NJ it is a "Salvage" title