Help with insurance company totaling a car
 

Hey guys, need some advice.

This girl I just started dating drives a Honda prelude and crashed it on tuesday night into a group of mailboxes (snow tires in the rain). I haven't seen the car, so I can only go by what she says. She told me the car had alot of scratches on it and the only major thing was that the front bumper was pulled off. Granted god knows what could have happened underneath the car, but lets just say its nothing major in this case.

Insurance company told her its totaled and they will give her $6900 for it. She loves the car and is really upset about all of this. Is there anyway to get around it and keep the car? I'm online now trying to find other preludes in the area for her, but I know she would much rather keep her own.

Any advice? Also any other cars in the $7k range that you could throw out there would be great. I'm gonna try and help her sort this all out by the weekend, so I figured while I read up on everything I would post this here as well to see what you guys thought.

AFAIK most places let you buy back the car for cheap.

Yep, i know a lot of people that have bought their car back from the insurance company.

Ok so say the insurance company wants to give her $6900 for the car, what are we talking about price wise buying it back? Is there a % they go by or they just come up with a number?

Also I just read something about when you "buy back" your car it now has a salvage title and in some places it can be harder to insure?

Would you guys say its even worth doing, or she'd be better off buying something else with the payout money?

If you buy it back, the current company almost guaranteed will no longer insure it for full coverage but if you drop it to liability they shouldn't have a problem with it.

They will make an offer to let you buy it back based on what they think they can dump it for at insurance auction. It's a pretty low percentage.

On the "better off" thing, you have to see it first and find out what the buy back really is to see if it is a good deal. If you can get 6900, buy it back for 1000 and fix it for 1000, that would be a good deal. As the amount goes up to, say 1/2 of payout, it becomes less attractive. The simplest thing is take the money and just go buy something else.

Awesome, perfect advice. :bigtu: I guess I will try and see if I can go check the car out myself and see whats what. She said the mechanic shop told her something about underneath the car, but who knows what the fuck they could be talking about.

I agree that it would probably just be easier to grab something different, but I know she really loved the car. Hell, with $6900 I would totally be able to help her pick out a miata and turbo it! lol

Thanks for the quick responses guys! Any recommendations on cars in that $6k-$7k price range?

It could be clean up top, but we had a car towed into the dealer, person ran over post or something of the like, Ripped the control arm from the subframe, axle out of the transmission, and rammed the tire into the wheel well. It totaled it too. So the body could be good still, but the drivetrain could be hurt. Be careful. Insurance companies go by an 80% rule. if the costs to repair the car meet or exceed 80 % of the value of the car then its totaled. so 80%of 6900 is 5500... they might sell it back in the 4000k range i would bet. I totaled my VW. Payout was 12,500. buyback was 9100. Not worth it in my opionon to worry about part out, Still ran and drove but there was no fixing my car. Smashed in the Passeneger side.

Goodluck. Sounds like with a prelude, she likes fun cars so there are still good options out there.

Surprise nobody asked for pics of said girl.

Fixed.

If you knew what vash looked like in person, you wouldn't want to see a pic of his gf. Heheh jk Joe.
Back to topic, if you ask the insurance they will let you know what's the buy back price of the car. But for sure no more then $1000. Why not buy a newer Honda with the $6900?

Ok guys, I just got off the phone with her and she said that the insurance company told her that if she keeps the car she would get $6195, and if she was to junk it she would get $6738.

She asked me if I want the car. What do you guys think? She lives far away and the tow would probably be pricey. I have a place I could keep it, I'm just not sure what to do. Kind of spur of the moment and she needs an answer by morning. What would you dudes do?

I feel like I want the car, but that she should just junk it and get the extra $543 out of it.

Fuck, one day? And not one pic to go on? The one day sounds like crap but they probably don't want to pay storage on it. That said, $543 is pretty cheap which means it may be more work than you want to take on for a project. How many miles and what kind of condition was it in before the accident?

EDIT:

I just reread your first post. "GIRL I JUST STARTED DATING". I'm thinking tell her to take the check and get another car. I'd hate to see you balls deep in fixing this thing and she flakes and leaves and you have a pile of used parts.

142k miles and overall the condition was really good. When I last saw it everything looked good and she didn't have any problems with it.

She said now the front bumper is missing, and the driver side is beat up a little, leaving the rest of the car with scratches and dents, but nothing too serious.

I know dude, I wish to FUCK I could go check the car out in person first, but its too late tonight and I wont have time to tmr. :vash:

If you just take the cash, don't take their first offer.

So are you saying that she can negotiate the payout? If so, how so?

Thanks for the help guys! :bigtu: This is helping me on the points scale for sure! lol

What year and trim level is the lude? If it's a newer H22 I would think the motor/tranny would be worth considerably more than $600. That would make a very nice swap into an older civic. I'm sure you could part it out and turn a pretty good profit if you had the time to mess with it.

Well it looks like I now own a 2001 Prelude. lol

Yeah its the one with the H22.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it just yet. I'll get it to my shop and put it up on the lift to check everything out and go from there. If I can I might just turn it into a DD for myself.