Repairable or totaled?

I got a call from the ins company while ago. They’re having to go over the preliminary estimate with the body shop again, and have other folks involved with determining if it’s a total loss or not.

The body shop said that the ins company estimate was $1800 shy of what they expected the repairs to cost.
That means roughly $4000 preliminary estimate, goes up to $5800 on the truck they said is valued at just a little over $10K.

The math is very easy, and $5800 is just barely over 50% of the actual cash value.


How come the insurance company doesn’t realize this? Are they trying to get me to keep the truck, fix it myself, and pay them the average salvage value on it?

Its confusing on my end, because in TN in order for a vehicle to be totaled- the guidelines say the repairs need to be more than 75% of the actual cash value. From what I see, it’s only at about 58% of that.

 

Sounds like you should get a green light for a repair would be my best guess...
Insurance companies repair approval involve a bunch of hoop jumping, it is what it is..
Normal protocol, my not be the most efficient...

 

If for some strange reason, they offer it to me for the salvage value, which I’m guessing would be 2-3000 I’m probably going to keep it and fix what I can myself.

 

wow you still dont have any closure from the insurance company yet???

 

I would have guessed about $8k for the repair. I think even $5800 is a bit low.

Not sure what your state guidelines are saying with that 75%. My guess is that if repairs are more than 75% of the value, they may be required to total it and pay out the full value. They can surely choose to total it for less, but that's not always a great business decision. There's some cost they incur to manage the claim and deal with the repair shop, so sometimes just paying out the claim is more cost-effective for them. To them, it's all just numbers and formulas, nothing more to it.

 

Ok- just got an update.
I can take a check for $11,000 and they keep the vehicle.

Or they’ll give me a check for $6000 and I can hang onto the truck.

 

You were exactly right sir- thank you for the reply.

 

I was an insurance appraiser, body shop tech, body shop estimator. Done seen it all from every angle. Hope you got a fair settlement.

 

I paid $8K for the vehicle, just a few months ago. I mean I guess that’s fair- but I’d much rather have it back in one piece.

 

I’ve checked around and it’s going to take awhile to find another truck for that price.

I sure wish they’d have just went ahead with the repairs.

Like some of you posted, they couldn’t care less about the truck, it’s only money to them.
It would be a bad decision for me to pay $5000 for the truck as-is. If they get someone to pay $6K for it, then they’ve saved about $1000 as compared to having it fixed.

Maybe I can get with them and see where it’s headed for sale?

 

Maybe you can play hardball & squeeze a bit more out of the turnip...

 

Thats a costly fix & really not for the backyard DIY guy but doable I guess...
The bottom of the radiator core support is f'd, needs to be ground out & replaced, etc...
Its not just slamming some panels on it & paint...