Fear, loathing & denial. I think my Tacoma is totaled

Believe me, I’ve been running these numbers in my head constantly the last few days. Ultimately I think it’ll just be too many “if’s” for me to keep. One of the reasons I own a Tacoma is the retention of value. I’m a little nervous of a salvage title because there are no certainties of resale value, every salvage is different and people are skeptical.

On the other hand, I can easily pay off my loan, keep the truck, and still have some cash in my pocket. Tempting to say the least.

 

Cheap and Tacoma is never in the same sentence lol. I was actually looking on line at a few . If you need any help on dealerships in Greensboro ,Kernersville or surrounding areas let me know . Ill be happy to give a little input on the ones I have bought from . I'm looking at getting a second Tacoma myself .

 

After a grueling amount of market research and haggling, I was able to bump up my figure again. I'm now at $29,300 for the total loss, plus keeping my lift and other equipment. It feels like a victory to get more, but honestly its not. After dealer fees, taxes, title, and pick-up costs, I'll be lucky if I get out even. I'm not saying you can't buy a good Tacoma for $29k, you absolutely can. However, I think it will be very difficult to get exactly what I had without paying out of pocket. But hey, here's to hoping.

One thing I've realized throughout this process is how few cards the victim of an accident is holding. Yeah, I could take the driver / his company to court for hitting me, but then I would be paying lawyers and the inconvenience goes on indefinitely. It's an ironic shift from actually selling a vehicle, in which case if you don't like the deal - you simply walk away and keep the vehicle, maybe sell it another day. In a total loss situation, it's a more like the buyer (the insurance company) is holding a gun to your head and they'll you pay whatever they feels like paying you.

More to come...

 

Yes, but when you win you can recoup court costs as well...

 

Insurance is a scam. Its a product of legislation, and the legislation is the product of lobbying and wallet padding. It has nothing to do with protecting drivers from each other, because most people can afford to pay a *sensible* repair bill for the other driver out of pocket, and the rest comes down to just choosing to accept the risk, and by that I mean, I accept that some drivers won't be able to pay the repair bill if they crack up my car, yet I could choose to accept that risk anyway. And it would be a heck of a lot more palatable if the cost to repair vehicles wasn't insurance inflated.

When you think carefully about the value of repairs, you look at a stamped body panel, and you can't help but realize that its only about $1 worth of steel. And yeah, a bit of labor, a bit of paint, and $0.30 worth of additional plastic parts, but how do you go from there to tens of thousands of $? And the reality is that the cost of body parts and body labor is so high, only because those offering the parts and service are aware that insurance companies are going to pay for it.


And besides... who here has *actually* claimed more from their insurance than they've paid into it over the years? I've never made an insurance claim, and the amount I've paid into it would cover the purchase of multiple of them, BRAND NEW.

 

fwiw, i'm selling my 6-speed 2008 TRD 4x4 access cab soon. 36500 miles, asking about $18K[*], has a few minor upgrades **, in central California.


* I want $18k flat, wife thinks I should ask more and dicker down. I hate dickering, and was just going to make it non-negotiable.

** snugtop body matched shell, toyota rubber bed mat, nerf bars, KO2 tires with 20k miles and 70% tread, airbags, pioneer bluetooth stereo...

 

I honestly had no idea you could haggle with the insurance company over total payoff price. I thought that would be a fixed price based on market values and whatever internal bullshit algorithms they use to determine costs.

Good to know.

 

This is exactly how it is. I work in personal injury and very often the cost of the injured party’s medical expenses exceed the coverage of the negligent party so even after a 5 year litigation there is no possible upside.

You can’t get blood from a turnip.

Process sucks.
Glad you were not physically harmed.

 

Man glad youre ok, late response.

My GF's Corolla was totaled 2 months ago as well

Least you get to do some car shopping now

 

It's been a few months, so I wanted to post the conclusion to the saga if anyone is actually following this or going through a similar situation. It was a complete headache for me, but it actually turned out in my favor.

After receiving a final offer of $29,300 from insurance, I completely changed course - I followed some sage advice from TW memebers (@96carboard) and decided to "keep" the salvaged truck and accept a lower payout from insurance. Before I finalized anything, I listed the truck on CL to gauge interest and I got a huge response (about 15 people messaged me, 5 were serious, 1 had the cash ready). Insurance offered me $22,000 if I kept the salvage truck, so as long as I made at least $7,300 on CL I was winning. So I listed the truck at $15,000 and took $14,000 which means I cleared right at $36,000 for a totaled truck that I originally paid $26,500 for.

At the same time, I was looking for a new truck - I ended up driving from NC to GA to buy a 2018 DCSB TRD-OR, Cement Gray, 6-speed manual transmission. I got an exceptional deal thanks again to TW members posting competitive prices. I ended up paying right at $32,000 OTD. All in all, I ended up making roughly $4,000 on this ordeal and got a brand new truck in the process. I'll be using the extra cash to upgrade the suspension and a few other things I want to do.

all in all, I'm very fortunate that it turned out this well - the hard work and negotiation paid off. For anyone going through something similar, I hope this helps.

 

That’s a mega win! Congrats.

 

props to you on this... we just got done haggling over my wife's totaled 2017 RAV4... She was rear ended by a young girl who wasn't paying attention enough to even apply the brakes before ramming into my wife at 55 mph. No injuries to speak of, but what get's me is the cop told my wife it was safe to drive her car afterwards. The front end had extensive damage from launching over a curb......my wife saw the girl coming and turned the wheel, otherwise she'd have plowed the car in front of her.... oh and she had 2 flat tires. Safe to drive?! That pissed me off....It took about a month and a half for it to be declared totaled..... we ended up in a good place too, but not as good as you. The common denominator is Toyota vehicles hold their value extremely well..... Congrats on your new truck and spending money!

 

Congrats! Enjoy in good health.

 

Glad everything worked out brother!

 

Wow, really glad everything worked out! And that new truck is slick. Love the color!