My baby destroyed by a distracted driver

Sucky situation. Glad you're not hurt more than just sore.



Only input I have from experience is I've never had any good dealings with anyone else's insurance company. Anytime it's needed I turn in the claim to my company, they take care of me and they can wrestle with the other company. My company has always treated me fair and frequently gone above and beyond.



TL
 
bigfish528 said:
Good luck to you if these people were taking of the planet it would be no loss whatsoever.
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That includes all who drink and drive.



Yakky, sorry to hear man. I think it will work out in your favor.
 
Thanks for all the kind words guys, it keeps me more upbeat. This is really a total bummer. Some recent developments:



- Got the police report, all is in order, it mentions her admission to fumbling with the cell phone and that she claimed her brakes did not work. Also has that she was cited for reckless driving

- Insurance of the at fault is USAA, and they have accepted liability

- I talked to my bodyshop, D&V in Chantilly (total class act) and the news is not good. They were confident the car would be totaled. They offered to do some frame pulls for free to get it back into being no-totaled status if I wanted. But they mentioned extensive work would be required and I might want to forget about keeping the car

- The insurance company is hot and bothered about getting the car in their hands, which I am not allowing. I told them they could have an adjuster come by and do all the looking the want, but there weren't going to take possession of the car until they paid for it.



At this point, my expectation is to get the money to find another car in like condition (not an easy task) and then have them cover moving all my mods over to the new car. I don't think this is an unreasonable expectation, someone ruined my car and I want an equal replacement and no less.
 
yakky said:
Thanks for all the kind words guys, it keeps me more upbeat. This is really a total bummer. Some recent developments:



- Got the police report, all is in order, it mentions her admission to fumbling with the cell phone and that she claimed her brakes did not work. Also has that she was cited for reckless driving

- Insurance of the at fault is USAA, and they have accepted liability

- I talked to my bodyshop, D&V in Chantilly (total class act) and the news is not good. They were confident the car would be totaled. They offered to do some frame pulls for free to get it back into being no-totaled status if I wanted. But they mentioned extensive work would be required and I might want to forget about keeping the car

- The insurance company is hot and bothered about getting the car in their hands, which I am not allowing. I told them they could have an adjuster come by and do all the looking the want, but there weren't going to take possession of the car until they paid for it.At this point, my expectation is to get the money to find another car in like condition (not an easy task) and then have them cover moving all my mods over to the new car. I don't think this is an unreasonable expectation, someone ruined my car and I want an equal replacement and no less.
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1st of all, USAA is a great Insurance company. I know several people that are Appraisers there and they tend to take care of their customers and have great replacement parts policies.



If the vehicle is deemed a Total Loss, it is customary for the Insurance company to take the salvage before paying the claim. They usually will move it to a storage free location so they don't incur additional costs just by the vehicle sitting at a shop. If you refuse to let them do this, they could make you pay the storage fees the shop is charging.



Yes. I think it is unreasonable for them to pay you to remove and/or reinstall the Mods to another car. They don't owe you for this. As a matter of fact they don't owe you for any of the Mods that are on the car if they are removeable and not damaged. If you are planning on de-modding your car, keep in mind that they might want you to reinstall the stock pieces back on the car. This includes the radio too. If you don't, they could claim that it reduced the salvage value and pay you less.



Also, If they do repair your car, consider filling a Deminished Value Claim with USAA. Feel free to contact me for more info. I do this all day and would love to help if you're interested.
 
David, the car is at my house, so no worries about storage fees :wink: Why do you think its unreasonable to move my mods over? I had a car in near perfect condition, I put a lot of work and money into it. We're not talking about a K&N air filter and a fart can, this car has extensive mods, requiring an engine pull to get the turbos and related bits out. Someone took that away from me by driving recklessly. Why must I suffer the consequences of their actions? I'm not asking for a new S4, I want exactly what I had before 6:50pm on May 5. What if I upgrade to a Porsche or Ferrari for my next car, can the insurance company decide that I didn't need that car and give me a Malibu?



To me its about putting back what I had, not what they think I need.
 
My son's last car and both of my last two cars were totaled by crappy drivers, I know all too well how you feel. At least you escaped serious injury!
 
I knew there was a reason why i keep a 20lbs wrecking bar in my trunk. These people on the phone while driving and lying to cops later should just be taken out by the knees first!



Sorry for your loss! I get to deal with the same junk (Fresh of boat) drivers around here, who buy their drivers license and can't drive nor respect the roads.



Also, even if the insurance company is a decent one, they are normally responsible for the mods, thus if you have receipts for installations, parts ,etc they are responsible for covering that as well, as it has raised the value of the vehicle. Don't bother de-installing the items. Just have them cover it.

As per health aspect, make sure you have yourself checked out. Remember whip lash can cause issues years down the road and you wouldn't know about it now. And as there is a statute of limitation of time on this, you may be stuck covering health costs later down the road yourself.
 
USAA is horrible. Good luck dealing with them. From what I've experienced in the past, they treat their customers wonderful and the victims of their customers HORRIBLE!!! I won't go into detail here. Be cautious of what USAA tells you. This may be the right time to consult your own insurance company. Remember, USAA is not on your side, they're on the side of the lady that hit you.
 
Any updates with the claim? Who is your insurance company btw?





yakky said:
David, the car is at my house, so no worries about storage fees :wink: Why do you think its unreasonable to move my mods over? I had a car in near perfect condition, I put a lot of work and money into it. We're not talking about a K&N air filter and a fart can, this car has extensive mods, requiring an engine pull to get the turbos and related bits out. Someone took that away from me by driving recklessly. Why must I suffer the consequences of their actions?
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As I said, you’re free to remove the mods from the car, but you’ll need to return the car back to stock if that’s possible. Otherwise, they will give you a pittance for them regardless of how much they cost to replace. If you remove them and leave the car with missing parts, they could actually deduct for the missing parts(stock) from the settlement. You see, those things(especially that extensive) don’t add value to *most* cars. In fact, it can reduce the value as it only caters to a very narrow retail audience. Most people who modify their vehicles buy special/extra coverage (usually stated value policies) so if anything happens they can rest assured they will be covered. In this case, they don’t owe you this specialty coverage, just basic.



yakky said:
I'm not asking for a new S4, I want exactly what I had before 6:50pm on May 5. What if I upgrade to a Porsche or Ferrari for my next car, can the insurance company decide that I didn't need that car and give me a Malibu?



To me its about putting back what I had, not what they think I need.
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When the vehicle is repairable, it’s about putting you back to your prior state, but in the event of a Total Loss, they owe you Actual Cash Value or Fair Market Value. If you feel their offer is too low, you can go through your insurance company and they will subrogate against USAA. I actually advise people to see what their carrier will offer them because many times it could be more.



Same thing happened to Mike Phillips a while back when some idiot insured with AllState totaled his Modified 4X4 truck. They basically offered him what the custom wheels & tires originally cost. Not much you can do unless you have specialty coverage.



As far as paying to install them into your replacment car, they don't do that. Plus, there's way too many variables involved with that anyways. Even many times when you buy the exact vehicle. You can also entertain the thought of buying your salvage after they total it. It can be pretty cheap. You can strip the car and sell it as after.
 
David Fermani said:
Any updates with the claim? Who is your insurance company btw?



As far as paying to install them into your replacment car, they don't do that. Plus, there's way too many variables involved with that anyways. Even many times when you buy the exact vehicle. You can also entertain the thought of buying your salvage after they total it. It can be pretty cheap. You can strip the car and sell it as after.
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David, you are a walking poster for specialty insurance! I'm with State Farm. And yeah, after they get done screwing me I will probably have to buy the car back as salvage and then transfer the parts to even recover 1/2 way. We'll see, I haven't seen any numbers yet, which is probably a good thing, it might ruin my weekend.
 
**** the m105 will not have cutting power to remove that defects :(

sorry about the car but its sucks that that thing was modded, take off those parts as much as u can they will probably take that car anyway
 
Glad you are ok. Cars can be replaced!



I wonder if her brakes were actually not working, although I cannot imagine how that could be possible unless she couldn't find the right pedal.



(As much as I would've wanted to, I wouldn't have apologized either. An apology can be construed as an admission of guilt, which could bite you in the *** in the event of a lawsuit and/or settlement. Don't they tell you never to admit guilt, except to the police or your own insurance company?)
 
yakky said:
David, the car is at my house, so no worries about storage fees :wink: Why do you think its unreasonable to move my mods over? I had a car in near perfect condition, I put a lot of work and money into it. We're not talking about a K&N air filter and a fart can, this car has extensive mods, requiring an engine pull to get the turbos and related bits out. Someone took that away from me by driving recklessly. Why must I suffer the consequences of their actions? I'm not asking for a new S4, I want exactly what I had before 6:50pm on May 5. What if I upgrade to a Porsche or Ferrari for my next car, can the insurance company decide that I didn't need that car and give me a Malibu?



To me its about putting back what I had, not what they think I need.
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The issue is what were you paying to insure?



If you were insuring the car, including all of its mods, then that should have been factored into the salvage value of the car. If this is the case, and the vehicle was still totaled, the insurance company has the rights to the car and all of these mods. Because of this, I do think it is unreasonable for you to charge the insurance company for removal of your mods.



If I were you, I would negotiate the highest settlement possible with their insurance company. If this is not enough, I would sue the driver of the other vehicle. For an accident this severe, you should have no trouble asking for $25k+ in pain and suffering, and mental anguish alone. Heck, it sounds like you are actually sore from the wreck!



BTW, did you wreck the car on May 6? If so, you and my gf both got your cars totaled the same day!
 
yakky said:
Drivers around here do suck, and so does USAA, still waiting on the check....
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What's ups with that? Was there a delay in USAA accepting liability? It doesn't take that long to issue payment once the liabilty is confrimed and the settlement amount is calculated.
 
David Fermani said:
What's ups with that? Was there a delay in USAA accepting liability? It doesn't take that long to issue payment once the liabilty is confrimed and the settlement amount is calculated.
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Since the car didn't fit their mold of cookie cutter cars, they had to sub out the appraisal. According to the adjuster (super nice guy) the 3rd party appraisal "came in super hot" He let me see it, kinda funny, said "exceptional for most everything. I'm sure they had to review it again since it was nearly double KBB. Then we got back into repair territory so they had to come back out and look at the car again because they stopped the repair estimate at blue book value. Then they sat for two weeks with not a peep, I had to call them and remind them I didn't get any money. Checks in the mail supposedly....
 
amcdonal86 said:
The issue is what were you paying to insure?
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What I was paying to insure has nothing to do with it. I could have had no insurance (ok by VA law) and her insurance would still have to pay me. I'm not dealing with my insurance company for obvious reasons. And it was May 5.
 
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