Insurance claim

[bumpsmac]

I got rear-ended yesterday in my 1970 510 wagon. The rear bumper and hatch are badly dented, but I think those are the only parts of the body itself that will have to be replaced. There is at least one cracked taillight lens. I think the frame might have skated by undamaged, but I'm not equipped to say for sure.

 

Anyone have any experience or tips for dealing with an insurance company? I suspect that State Farm will want to declare the car totaled, even before bothering to figure out how hard it will be to get the parts. (I'm in Missouri -- there are approximately zero Datsuns around here. Also, as an added wrinkle, my 510 has the vinyl top.)

 

I will not let them scrap it; it's too good of a car. But I also don't want to accept a payment that won't get the car back to where it was.

 

So if anyone has any thoughts, I'd welcome them.

 

And if anyone has a line on a hatch door (preferably with white vinyl top) and/or a rear bumper, let me know.

 

Thanks.

[Dat Lurka]

Let them total it

Take the money

Title it

fix it

drive it

[uieluck]

Sell it back to me for $200!!!

Oh, now I'm sad. :crying: :crying: :crying:

[Just Joel]

Yeah but blue book is only like $1500 on an "old Datsun"...

 

Joel

[uieluck]

Oh, then $175!

[bumpsmac]

Joel -- Yeah, I guess that's my question, whether anyone has any experience demonstrating that the value is greatly in excess of KBB value.

[Dat Lurka]

Find a company that offers classic car insurance.

well

for next time...

[Laecaon]

Well if you lived in a state with more datsuns, have other people make fake CL adds. Then base your value off of those... but that is a little hard to do...

[skyblue]

NADA guides has a slightly better value for classic cars.

http://www.nadaguides.com/Classic-Cars

[Just Joel]

NADA guides has a slightly better value for classic cars.

http://www.nadaguides.com/Classic-Cars

 

Says an average (described as a good 20 footer) wagon runs about $4900... Better than I thought. Although the next step down is around $1900

 

Joel

[skyblue]

Says an average (described as a good 20 footer) wagon runs about $4900... Better than I thought. Although the next step down is around $1900

 

Joel

well it also varies by location. according to my zip code, a "20 footer" is valued at $4825 and the step down is $2025. which is not that big of a difference, but hey $75 dollars is $75 dollars.

[DanielC]

Is it your insurance company, or the other person's insurance company?

 

One phrase I have heard around insurance companies is "Like kind and quality"

If your car is totaled, the insurance company is obligated to replace it with another car, of "like kind and quality", or pay for repairs to your car to get it to the same "like kind and quality".

 

Just my opinion. I do not work for insurance companies, nor am I a lawyer.

[yellowdatsun]

You may not have a choice when it comes to them totaling it. If they want to, make sure you agree with them beforehand to buy it back. You could probably buy it back for a couple hundred, that seems to be the going rate for buy-backs.

 

If it's your insurance company, it's not so good. If it's their insurance company, you have the upper hand, and can demand more.

[datsunaholic]

"Like Kind and Quality" only works up to their opinion of the value. Having never seen a pic of this particular car, I don't know what it looks like. They'll offer in the range of $500-700 first. Never take the first offer, you're going to be in a fight just to get half what you think it's worth. They WON'T fix it. One big issue is that they don't usually use ads to determine value, but recent SALES. Which really, really sucks when most people declare far under the actual price paid to aviod taxes (maybe that's a Washington phenomenon, but I think it's pretty universal). It's really hard to declare it's worth $4500 when the average local sales are listed as $500. The insurance company will have papers showing they're worth that. So unless you have receipts showing you paid more very recently, it's a problem.

 

Last time I had a car totalled (and it was, no fixing that one) the insurance company not only had a $400 average sale price, but had MY (less than a year before) purchase price of $100 for that very car on record. I only got more by (truthfully) showing that the car had been purchased with a blown enngine which was then rebuilt. But that was still only $750, minus the buyback (I had just rebuilt the engine, which was worth more than the buyback). I should have fought harder, but I had no paper trail to prove it was worth more.

[yellowdatsun]

And these ^^^ are the reasons to get an "agreed" value policy.

[thatguy]

Either way, let us know the outcome please. I was interested in this as well. Seems like an insurance company will definitely want to low ball the value.

[Just Joel]

And these ^^^ are the reasons to get an "agreed" value policy.

 

Exactly, and the rates are pretty reasonable in my experience.

 

Joel

[bumpsmac]

I appreciate everyone's input on this. And I'm happy to say that my insurance company, State Farm, did right by me.

 

They did declare it a total loss -- but because they couldn't find replacement parts, not necessarily because the repair cost (in the hypothetical world where a replacement hatchback door could be found) was too high relative to the car's value.

 

To determine the value, they used NADA, rather than Blue Book or Edmunds. As others in this thread already noted, NADA gives the average retail for that year/model as $4800. But because my car was in good shape, State Farm actually valued it at six grand! And they're letting me buy it back for $800, which I could probably double if I wanted to part it out (I don't).

 

So I guess I'm in the market for a new old car. And I'll put my 510 in the garage until I can find a rear door for it.

 

I can't promise that everyone would have the same experience. It might have worked to my benefit that Datsuns are so rare in the midwest. And I also think that it helped that the body shop estimator was a big Nissan/Datsun fan. He put in a lot of effort to try to locate parts and I think that helped convince State Farm that the car had some real value.

[uieluck]

hell, I'll buy it back for $805.00!

[skyblue]

niCe! sucks that it was crashed but buy back for 800!? dude you hella scored. so what are you thinking of getting?

 

also, how about some pics?

[Dat Lurka]

I don't get it.

If your car gets wrecked you have to buy it back?

My redneck ass does not understand this.

[Ranman72]

they give you money for the value o0f your car therfore the totaled and bought your car from you

so you have to buy it back as a salvage vehicle for an agreed term usualy cheap

bummer about the total but seems they did right

wheres the pics you kinow the rules

[Dat Lurka]

So if they deem the value 5000$ they give you that and if you want you can buy it back with a salvage title?

I know nothing about insurance.

I gave them $ for liability and left.

[yellowdatsun]

Correct. They would give you the money for the car if it was totaled, then you can usually buy it back for a couple hundred bucks.

 

If you only have liability, and you wreck the car, you get nothing.

[datsunaholic]

Also be aware that most States, when a car is reported totalled the State cancels your registration and title, which require it to be inspected. Not all do this, but just be aware. This doesn't matter if it's your insurance company or the other party's insurance company's insurance. I've had cars totalled by both mine (had full coverage, other driver had no insurance, police didn't determine fault), and by the other company (Other driver was clearly at fault and had coverage). In my case, both cars were clearly totalled but I kept the second one. Back then buyback was under $100, but today I've seen buybacks exceed the payout (which should immediately be cause for a value dispute).

 

Folks really should know what insurance does. Just "Having Insurance" doesn't mean you'd ever see a dime, especially if you're at fault. But you can be totally the innocent victim and recieve nothing if you have solely Liability coverage and the at-fault driver has nothing. A bad case is when you have liability-only and the cops mark the accident as "undertermined fault" or 50/50. It's usually not worth the legal costs to contest it over property damage, and if you lose you might be determined totally at fault.