Stretch Posted December 20, 2013 Report Share Posted December 20, 2013 Hopefully some of you guys can help me out here. I posted a few days back that my Mustang had been wrecked. The initial report from the insurance was that the damage totaled $9,800. They started ordering parts for it and what not. Fast forward to today, they call me again. They say they found a bunch more stuff that needs fixed and need another $5,000 to repair the car, totaling $14,800 in repairs. I'm wondering why they didn't just total it? The blue book on the car is $15,300. I always thought the damage had to be something like 80% or more of the value of the car in order for it to be totaled. Anybody have any info on this? Insurance company is AllState if that matters. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EssFo Posted December 20, 2013 Report Share Posted December 20, 2013 It's usually 80-85% of the value of the car. My dad own's an Allstate Agency, I can ask him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Karacho1647545492 Posted December 20, 2013 Report Share Posted December 20, 2013 Hopefully some of you guys can help me out here. I posted a few days back that my Mustang had been wrecked. The initial report from the insurance was that the damage totaled $9,800. They started ordering parts for it and what not. Fast forward to today, they call me again. They say they found a bunch more stuff that needs fixed and need another $5,000 to repair the car, totaling $14,800 in repairs. I'm wondering why they didn't just total it? The blue book on the car is $15,300. I always thought the damage had to be something like 80% or more of the value of the car in order for it to be totaled. Anybody have any info on this? Insurance company is AllState if that matters. Thanks Blue book for retail or wholesale? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stretch Posted December 20, 2013 Author Report Share Posted December 20, 2013 It's usually 80-85% of the value of the car. My dad own's an Allstate Agency, I can ask him. That would be great if you could Blue book for retail or wholesale? Retail. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Karacho1647545492 Posted December 20, 2013 Report Share Posted December 20, 2013 That would be great if you could Retail. Even more surprising, I'd expect them to total it out as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stretch Posted December 20, 2013 Author Report Share Posted December 20, 2013 Even more surprising, I'd expect them to total it out as well. That's what I was expecting. The shop is the one that called me and left a voicemail with the damage amount. I called the insurance adjuster and left a voicemail asking her to call back ASAP. The other crappy part is they are telling me January 10th before I get it back. I wrecked it on Dec. 6th. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Karacho1647545492 Posted December 20, 2013 Report Share Posted December 20, 2013 The other crappy part is they are telling me January 10th before I get it back. I wrecked it on Dec. 6th. considering the damage, and that EVERYONE is wrecking cars in the record-breaking snow we've had so far, that's not too bad Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flyin Miata Posted December 22, 2013 Report Share Posted December 22, 2013 The company I work for usually totals at around 75% of the ACV. I would definitely be contacting your adjuster and asking some questions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gillbot Posted December 22, 2013 Report Share Posted December 22, 2013 It's not uncommon if a shop is involved, for them to underestimate the damage to get the work then push the estimate up over afterwards. If it's your insurance company on their own, I'd question them on the repairs and see what their explanation is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stretch Posted December 22, 2013 Author Report Share Posted December 22, 2013 I contacted my adjuster but they are out of the office for the weekend. I'll be trying again first thing in the morning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LJ Posted December 22, 2013 Report Share Posted December 22, 2013 It's not uncommon if a shop is involved, for them to underestimate the damage to get the work then push the estimate up over afterwards. If it's your insurance company on their own, I'd question them on the repairs and see what their explanation is. Yep. This happened to me on a civic about 10 years ago. They had an original estimate of $5000, started the work and bumped it to 9,000 immediately, ended up over $11k. Insurance co. Was pissed, I was pissed, shop was elated Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stretch Posted December 22, 2013 Author Report Share Posted December 22, 2013 Yep. This happened to me on a civic about 10 years ago. They had an original estimate of $5000, started the work and bumped it to 9,000 immediately, ended up over $11k. Insurance co. Was pissed, I was pissed, shop was elated That's what I was figuring they were doing. Hopefully I get some answers tomorrow morning. They made sure to wait until after they had ordered all the parts and started the work before saying "oh hey there's another $5000 we discovered". The parts they say they need the extra money for are obvious things too that should have easily been seen initially. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tripleskate Posted December 22, 2013 Report Share Posted December 22, 2013 I work for Allstate as an Auto Claims Adjuster so this is actually what I handle day-to-day. What happened is that an initial estimate was written for damages that could be seen at the time. Once the repair facility tore the car down, they found additional damages and called in a supplement to AS saying that they needed more parts/repair time/money. The supplement crossed the total loss threshold, making your car financially unrepairable. I can only speak of how my unit (South California MCO) handles things, but if a supplement is written, that means an adjuster from AS saw the car, since they are the ones in charge of verifying shop supplement requests and cashing the check. If the field adjuster who saw your car confirmed it was a total loss, they would have been the ones to call you and explain that, as well as how AS determines their ACV (Actual Cash Value) on the vehicle. Who did you speak with on the phone, telling you that the car was a total? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stretch Posted December 23, 2013 Author Report Share Posted December 23, 2013 I work for Allstate as an Auto Claims Adjuster so this is actually what I handle day-to-day. What happened is that an initial estimate was written for damages that could be seen at the time. Once the repair facility tore the car down, they found additional damages and called in a supplement to AS saying that they needed more parts/repair time/money. The supplement crossed the total loss threshold, making your car financially unrepairable. I can only speak of how my unit (South California MCO) handles things, but if a supplement is written, that means an adjuster from AS saw the car, since they are the ones in charge of verifying shop supplement requests and cashing the check. If the field adjuster who saw your car confirmed it was a total loss, they would have been the ones to call you and explain that, as well as how AS determines their ACV (Actual Cash Value) on the vehicle. Who did you speak with on the phone, telling you that the car was a total? Nobody directly told me that the car was a total loss. They told me the car will be repaired and it will be done around January 10th. Is there a certain percentage that has to be met before the car is totaled? I've always heard 80% but don't know if thats true. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bam Posted December 23, 2013 Report Share Posted December 23, 2013 No percentage as far as I know but typically they will factor in cost of repairs plus rental for entire time plus salvage value if the car were totalled and compare that to the market value. Which ever is less wins as that's the most cost effective for the insurance company. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tripleskate Posted December 23, 2013 Report Share Posted December 23, 2013 Nobody directly told me that the car was a total loss. They told me the car will be repaired and it will be done around January 10th. Is there a certain percentage that has to be met before the car is totaled? I've always heard 80% but don't know if thats true. Okay, I misunderstood. I want to make a BIG note about this, because I am 99% certain EVERY big name insurance company totals a car the same way: IT IS NOT a flat rate percentage of vehicle value. AS pays a third party company, who has no stake in repair process, to run a true market value (ACV) on the vehicle, based on in-depth conditioning, mileage, vehicle details, and specific market location. This means that the numbers we receive are what actual comparable vehicles have been sold for on the local market, as verified by DMV reports. As soon as we run a T/L valuation in our system, it pings the market to find a salvage value for the vehicle. In laymen terms, if we sent the vehicle to auction as a total, what we would get for it, as is. From there its a basic formula of: ACV - Salvage Value = T/L threshold Hope this helps. If you have any other questions regarding how AS handles your claim, just shoot me a PM, and I'll try to explain everything to the best of my ability. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
99ta Posted December 23, 2013 Report Share Posted December 23, 2013 What shop is it at? that will say a lot on how shady they are.... Tripleskate is right. My guess is your insurance company has not approved that large of additional repairs yet and you will be getting a call on monday to avd you its totaled. that shop probably just called to let you know what THEY wrote. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tripleskate Posted December 24, 2013 Report Share Posted December 24, 2013 What shop is it at? that will say a lot on how shady they are.... Tripleskate is right. My guess is your insurance company has not approved that large of additional repairs yet and you will be getting a call on monday to avd you its totaled. that shop probably just called to let you know what THEY wrote. Correct-o-mundo. A lot of shop estimators love writing big sheets and trying to total cars that they don't want to deal with repairing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RC K9 Posted December 25, 2013 Report Share Posted December 25, 2013 Insurance companies LOL. I have taken them to school twice and and clawing at the chance to do it again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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