Car Insurance - Jackson,MI

I can offer you my husband's expertise in this situation. He is a salesman at Hank Graff Chevrolet in Davison. (I know it is quite a distance from you) He deals with these things all of the time. The phone number is ###-###-#### and his name is Mark Swanson. He has been in the business a very long time and is very helpful. I cannot think of the website address at this moment but he can give you that information also.
Good Luck

My husband was in a flash flood a few years back, and my car floated away. It was only 1 year old. They tried giving us a certain amount, and my husband was not happy with that. So he called up the adjuster, and told him what he wanted for it, AFTER he did lots of researching, looking in the paper, and searching on Craigslist. He found out how much the cars in our area were going for, and selling for, and they ended up giving us more money than before. But, my husband was armed with his information. Make sure when you approach this, you are armed with information, and not just mad and complaining at them.

My husband and I have had two cars totaled this year. The first I was driving and was hit while stopped at a traffic light. The second my husband was driving and didn't see a red light, ran it and hit another car. Fortunately, the only injury in either accident was some mild whiplash for me.

So having just recently been through this twice, this is what I learned. The payoff for the totaled vehicle is the current market value of the car that was damaged based on the model year, the mileage and a few other things. They also base it on what that car would have sold for in your region. They do not pay you for the replacement vehicle, just what your car was worth. The $3250 sounds about right to me based on what I was paid for my car that was totaled. It was a 2000 VW Jetta with about 138,000 miles on it. I was paid a little over $3600 for it.

I am sorry that you are going through this. It is such a pain to deal with. I am glad that your husband wasn't seriously injured.

Any insurance company is pretty much only going to replace your vehicle for the book value of the vehicle. Your van was over 10 years old so has very little book value left. Her insurance company will pay yours based on what your policy says. Tricky yes but it is how I understand the system.

You will need to figure out what you can do with what they are going to give you. Make it work for you and your family so how. God can do that for you. Keep your eyes and ears open. Secondly you may be entitled to some additional funds since your husband was hurt in this accident. Do you have an attorney working for you? You may consider getting one but these funds won't come for some time and the attorney will take his cut off the top. In New Jersey that is 33%.

I hope this helps.

Thank God your husband is okay!!

I don't know who you have insurance with. Most insurance companies ONLY pay the blue book value on the car...there is one insurance company that will pay full replacement value ONLY IF the car is less than 2 years old.

Pull out your policy and read it - see what it says about payout for your policy. Many people don't fully read their insurance policies and get upset when it doesn't benefit them.

What is HER insurance going to do for you?

I know with our insurance - they will pay us the blue book value of the car(s). The W. who hit your husband - her insurance should be doing something for you - other than medical bills.

GOOD LUCK!

The mileage is a good indicator of the condition. SO, by looking at the mileage, they are looking at the condition. Go to Kelly Blue Book.com and put in your year make and model and all the features. Put in your actual mileage and select the "excellent condition" price and look at suggested retail. Now, cut the miles in half and see what it does to the value. Now double the miles. This little excercise will show you what a big diff mimleage makes in the value of the car and putting in the exact miles will tell you if they are giving you a fair offer.

I goes by value according to blue book or the like, not the value to you. Sorry but when you total an older vehicle you will not be able to replace it for what they will pay. Only once did I get the full value for an older car and it was when I was a teen and I had only bought the car three weeks before the lady creamed me. They cannot argue that it is the value when you have the receipt for the car with the ink not yet dry.

Otherwise nope, what they offered is what you will get. I would assume full coverage means they actually pay tax and title. Normally that is not done.

They only have to pay the current value of your car, doesnt matter what you think its worth or what you owe on it, the value is whatever you would get if you were to sell or trade it in. And yes it does vary on condiditon & mileage. Try calling a chevy dealer, provide your vans info ( dont tell them about accident) and tell them you are interested in trading it in and want a sight unseen aprisal. That will give you a good idea of what is fair for your van

We have State Farm Insurance. When my 2000 Focus wagon (over 100K) was totaled they gave us the amount that one in that age and milage sold for recently, plus tax title fees. I was shocked, I thought they'd go by blue book (less then $2K), but we got $4K. I was really impressed with their service. They cut the check and we went shopping. We used to have Geico and Progressive, they always tried to put sub par products on our cars. Some companies are just cheap.

I'm not sure if you can expect more, that sounds like a reasonable amount for a van that age and mileage. I did an auto trader search just now, and it looks like you can expect to pay $2-4K for one in your mileage range. Here's a link to my search. http://www.autotrader.com/fyc/searchresults.jsp?position=...

Best wishes

L.,

I would recommend talking with your mechanic and pulling all of your maintenance receipts. If your mechanic believes the van has been maintained so well that the engine and parts don't have the same wear and tear as a similar vehicle with a similar mileage, then you might ask him to write a letter to your adjustor.

Your adjustor may not accept the letter, but he or she might. But, you have to remember, you won't be getting the money to replace the van with a brand new van. You will be getting money to replace the van with a van of a similar age.

Good luck with your search for a new vehicle.

C. J.

to answer Sue H.'s question about why the other insurance company isn't paying....welcome to Michigan insurance...we have "no fault insurance". it's good and bad. If you are in your vehicle and another vehicle hits you (no fault of your own) your insurance covers the loss under collision. Now that bad part...if you have more than 2 no-fault claims on your insurance within 3 years, then our insurance goes up. How infuriating especially when the accidents aren't our fault. Now we recently just had someone hit our van with their camping trailer. No one was in our vehicle and was parked at the time it was hit. Therefore their liability insurance covers it and has nothing to do with our insurance. Hope that helps to explain our "crazy" insurance here. :)

Ugh. Sorry to hear this. I had someone run a red and total my paid off vehicle. I didn't get much money from insurance because my car technically wasn't worth much... it was worth a lot to me though because it saved me from having monthly payments.

As I recently found out after a mishap with my 2004 Dodge Stratus and my motorcycle the past month the insurance companies have there own value for a vehicle its above blue book but closer to NADA. Full coverage is to cover the value of the vehicle that is all you will receive nothing more. If the damage is more than 70 percent of the value of the vehicle they will total the vehicle and either send that amount to your loan company or to you. The next question to ask is can the van be repaired for the amount they are giving you minus the buy back price? No then look around you may have to bite the bullet and use that money for a down payment on something a little newer or take you chances with buying something off of craigslist or on the side of the road. My experience with buy used vehicles has been 50 /50 I have gotten some real gems and some really bad lemons. its a chance you take when you buy from anywhere with older vehicles. If you have a friend that is a mechanic or a car buff who knows what they are looking at take them along or ask them to look at it. You will not get someone on craigslist, ebay or the side of the road to let you take it to a mechanic to inspect it. Oh yeah GAP insurance is always a good thing if you have a loan I used to think it was a waste of money till my sister utilized it and I almost had to. Good Luck

Hi L.,
That sounds like a fair amount for a van that is 12 years old. But I would look for a new one in your local paper, on craigs list, not a dealer. Dealer prices are higher than what average joe would charge for the same car. Example, if a dealer gives you $1000 trade in for your car, when he turns it to sell he will jack the price to cover his overhead charges ( commissions, operation cost, etc.) You don't have to go to a dealer to find a new van. Your insurance company should make the check to you. If not, they should be able to write it to average joe.