LGT--6 days new, 230 miles, WRECKED!

[mach_six]

Repaired or not, it still has diminished value. Asked the insurance rep if he would like to be in that car again after that accident? Diminished value comes from the shoddy job the body shop they have hand picked to do for them.

 

I got a $1k for my forester when it got rear ended for Diminished value. They painted the parts very shitty, these are areas that I wouldn't have looked at till he showed me. On the outside is nice but the inside you can see where they cut corners. One way to prove it is to sell it at an auction with the damage on the car stated and you'll see how much less it'll sell for.

 

If you really want to total the car, get a lawyer that specializes in those cases to help you do it but I heard it's a long process.

[IwannaSportSedan]

hard ball / low ball BS. They are seeing what they can get away with. Make them pay for an estimate that YOU get from a shop that has you as a potential customer, not them. at the very least.

 

And play hardball back, get your insurance / lawyer involved, especially if there is even a slight deformation in the b-pillar.

 

diminished value is huge. The car depreciated when you drove it off the lot. It depreciated a hell of a lot more when this moron hit it. if they don't total it, you will be upside down in your loan for much longer.

 

If they expect you to get the car repaired, and turn around and trade it, they had better re-imburse you for the difference between the trade-in value and whatever you pay for a new car, because yours WAS new. 230 miles is still a new car, and you had no intention of trading a new car as a used car before their client hit you.

 

Plus, it is blatantly irresponsible that they suggest you pawn over their responsibility onto your pocket book, and someone else's garage, by trading the car after repair. Their responsibility is to restore you to a car in the same condition as yours before the accident.

 

It is reasonable to expect that structural damage to the passenger safety cell compromizes the structure of the car. That is it. It isn't a 100,000 mile car with relatively minor resale value. It was a new car, that is now worth much less resale value due to their client causing an accident.

 

The title of the car will likely be marked as repaired or salvaged, It will probably get reported to carfax, and it has to be declared to the next buyer that the car has been so severely damaged. Who is going to pay anywhere near bluebook for that? What careful person will take that safety risk?

 

Then there is the topic of how repairs will be handled. Bad paint, poor job of straigtening the chassis, poor quality interior repairs... all sorts of things that can advertise "HEY! I've been wrecked and repaired poorly! Don't buy me! Don't Trust Me!"

 

The other driver pays insurance premiums to cover him/herself "in case sh!t" happens. Guess what. It happened, and that driver caused it. Now it is their insurance company's responsibility to cover their driver, and fix what the driver broke, and fix it correctly, even if it means totaling your new car. That is the whole premise of insurance. Don't let them cheat.

[gt_ltd]

man, i like it when chicks or companies fight.

[Aczwild]

Oh man all I can say is good luck deailing with the f*cking gecko. Your insurance company better be ready for a good fight and make damn sure that all the parts that are being put back on your car if its not totaled are new, not salvaged. The gay ass gecko loves doing that to keep their costs down and your car falling apart down the road, trust me i know. My old explorer got nailed at school by a drunk chick, they estimated the car fixed at $1200 with salvaged parts, but there was no way in hell that i was going to let them and the body shop guy even refused to put the used parts on my car, the final total was close to $3000 and it was worth every second i had to fight with the asses in the Geico office. Good luck and dont give in

[AWDpower]

I don't know what the law is like in Florida, but here in CA you can choose where you want the work done. The insurance company can fix it cheap, but it will look like crap in a few years when the "new" paint is peeling off the car. Take it to a place that will guarentee the work-paint for as long as you own the car. The estimate will be MUCH higher from a quality shop.

 

Fight over the "comparable" rental car too. No way a Sentra is comparable, it's cheap to rent, period. It is also a much smaller car. Tell them you bought the Legacy because it was a safe car, equipped with side airbags that saved you from their client. You should accept no less for a replacement. Why you you sacrafice your safety for 45 days to save them money? The bigger bill they rack up, the more likely they are to total it. Also, since this is a first year car, parts delays will probably add to that 45 days. You need to show them that the longer they drag this out, the more expensive it will be for them. They need to pay you and cut their losses. I find it a shame when they treat you, the victim, like a problem.

 

Jason K.

[gt_ltd]

which one is bigger, State Farm or GEICO?

[subiesales05gt]

sorry to hear about the car but at least your ok. the car can be replaced. definitly get checked out about a week down the road i was in an accident 2 and a half years ago and im still sore but it didnt kick in for about a week.

[rc0032]

which one is bigger, State Farm or GEICO?

[mmanus88]

i just had an accident this morning. i was making a left into a gas station and a korean guy (sorry i have to name ethnicity, but it makes all the difference around where i live, NJ people kno what i'm saying) came down the road out of no where at excessively high speeds, even considering traffic, knocked right into me. thank God drivers ed kncoked the whole "wear your seatbelt" thing into me. neither of us were hurt, but i wanted to kill the jerkoff right on the spot. the car is in the shop right now, i will kno if its totaled or not. only thing that pissess me off is that i have my avic-n2 navi and brand new sound system in there. all are working porperly, i beleive. but if the car is totaled, i will have to get a new car. i would only get a new legacy, of course. but navi si already in there and i dunno if the JDM DIN panel fits in the '06.

 

car was in the passenger front side, engine couldn't start, hood bent. many things messed up. but my car stayed in one peice. the other guy was driving a ford touras (sorry if spelt incorrectly) and his car came apart like legos.

 

guess i learned that subarus are safe cars as well...

 

such a fucking mess

[OCDetails]

It's really hard to total a brand new car. You have to do a lot of damage to get 27K worth of repairs done. The airbags needing to be replaced is probably a major part of the expense. I doubt they will total it. You will probably have to sue the other driver for the diminished value. There really isn't much you can do about what kind of car they give you as a rental either. GEICO is the one giving you the rental and since you don't pay them anything then you really don't have a whole lot of power to get them to make you happy.

 

I would definitely suggest calling a lawyer. Your car won't be totaled and it could have possible safety issues regarding the airbag reliability after this. If you want GEICO to total it then you are probably going to have to push really really hard. Getting a lawyer to expain how the value of the car is now much less than it would be otherwise could add to the damaged amount affecting it being totaled. However, without significant frame damage it will take a lot to get it up to $27K in damages.

 

Sorry about the new car getting wrecked. It's good that everybody is ok and there is insurance on everything, but the hassle and PITA that dealing with this sort of crap turns out to be is never worth it. I would rather just have my week old perfectly good car back again. Good luck with everything!

[LegGTLT]

Man oh man... mmanus88 glad to hear you're ok. I can't even begin to say I know how it feels. To think I got mad a "magic" door ding I recieved yesterday 5 days into owning my car. Thank goodness it was a passenger side hit. He had insurance I presume from what you say? Is this going to be another battle between Gieco and someone? Or what does he have? tennebrac - Any more updates on this? I hope your insurance company is holding Gieco to the flames right now to get you what you deserve. Did they look at it yet and make a decision on it?

[foghat]

I am a Car Appraiser in SoCal and I dont know what the law is in Florida but in Cali if a car has frame damage, but is not totaled then that vehicle is given a diminished value and you should get money from the Insurance company (about 1/3 the cost of the car).

 

I have had to fight in arbitration many times over this before and as long as you have proven that the frame is damaged your okay.

[rao]

I totalled a 5 month old WRX with no glass broken and no airbags deployed. I got hit by a guy running a red light and he hit me just at the front corner of the car and spun me like a top. His truck continued for another 100 feet after losing it's front wheel. Fortunately no one was hurt. The car didn't look that bad, but there was a lot of damage. They stopped counting the repair costs at $17k. Also, most insurance companies will not repair a car if there is more than 60% or so damage.

 

the good news here is that no one got hurt.

[turboWagon]

Sorry to hear that, glad both of you are ok. If you have any injury I will also recommend you to find Lawry as OCDetails suggested. You don’t want to deal with those insureance companies at this point.

[mmanus88]

thankfully no one was hurt in my accident. i assume the man had insurance, the cops were there so i don't think they wanted us in close proximity to eachother. an adjuster si going to my guy's shop to draft an estimate. my opinion is that the adjuster will be borderline on the car (concerning totalling it). my guy knows the adjuster and i asked him to push him towards trashing the car. don't get me wrong, i love my legacy, but a crash ona car's record won't exactly be good selling in the future anyways. especially nowadays people are tradin/selling cars like hotecakes, and i'm talking about people selling 2004/2005 cars in the year 2005. with trends like this i feel its better to total the car. will i loose money? yes, but i beleive its a wiser descision for the long run.

 

my only concern now is yanking the 3.5k worth of electronics (half of which just installed two days ago) out of the car. thankfully everything still works fine.

 

another advantage to totalling the car is making new on the lessons i learned from it, such as:

 

1. stick to 17 inch wheels if ur in the tristate area

2. don't go to carwashes and if u do make sure they use microfiber

3. various things i've learned about my mods that couldve made my experience a lot better, won't get technical here

 

and other little things. i am on pretty solid ground for totalling although damage isn't too major (about 8-9k of damage of the top of the shop guys head).

 

my new car will, of course, be a legacy (2006). i am aiming for manual this time as it will save money and is "cooler" anyways. as for navigation i don't know what to do. anyone know if the JDM DIN slot fits in the non navi 06 models? i wouldn't want my avic to go to waste.

 

guess i should cancel that detailing job for this friday now

[crash]

Take a pic of the inside of the driver-side apillar please!!!! OMG! I want to see how the airbag deploys from it.

 

PLEASE!

 

kthx

 

 

Seconded!

 

And I'm glad you're ok!

[mlrtime]

man, sucks mmanus88 I know you were looking forward to the system. I travel on 1/9 all the time thru ft lee and it can be crazy.

[mmanus88]

i did enjoy ym sound system for two days i just want this whole thing to be over quickly, lukcily insurance and whatnot went smoothly

[firedawgs]

I know I would not accept a "salvaged" title on something I did not do.

[vladt]

so is there an update on what is happening with GECKO?

[firedawgs]

P.S.

 

I would love to chock that stupid little lizard.

[DAP]

If you get the car totaled, you may not be allowed to remove the electronics you put into it. My brothe had an old junker totaled, and when he went to remove some old surf racks from the car, they wouldn't let him as the insurance company had sold off the car & everything attached to it.

[mmanus88]

car is not being totaled, thank God. being repaired and everything going smoothly. my shop guy chimed the adjuster into giving me money for the aftermarket rims and tires (which were scrachted up, that habits over a long time ago). so i get to switch to 17s. repair will take two weeks, and all electronics are fine. the car will jsut need a big detailing job when its done, and it'll be mint.

[tennebrac]

mmanus88--sorry to hear about your accident & hope that you are ok. I can tell you that the "fun" is just starting. If you were banged up go see a doctor right away. I waited a couple of days and that was a mistake.

 

Here is an update on my situation--the car is probably not going to be totaled. I have had GEICO look at the car three times now and they have upped the repair estimate to $13K but insist that there is no frame damage. My own insurance company--State Farm--did their own check and came up with a similar estimate and also tell me that the driver's door took the force and there is no frame damage. The body shop is also telling me the same thing. The body shop is a good one and I trust them. However, my problem w/all this is that the 2 insurance companies and the body shop have a vested interest in not having the car totaled. I'm not sure what to do at this point short of paying an independent estimator to look at the car. Anybody got any ideas?

 

I am negotiating w/GEICO over diminished value. An attorney I know told me that GEICO will probably offer the difference between what I paid for the car and what the car's rough value is. GEICO is having a problem telling me the rough value. Apparently there are not a lot of '05 LGT's selling in this condition.

 

I am going to the body shop today and will take some more pics of the car with its doors off. I'll make sure to get those posted.

 

Again, thanks all for you advice & support. It's been helpful and is appreciated.

[mmanus88]

your damage sounds more extensive than mine. an adjuster from geico was out to my shop the very next day and they came up with about 7 grand of damage. sometimes wehnt hey rip the car apart, that figure rises a bit, but i doubt it will for my car.

 

as for your situation, 13 grand is just the begining, i would ebelive. it coudl rise higher, like i said before. an accident like that is a true black mark on the car's record. go after the other insurance company and get every penny you can out of them. you might loose some money from the car's value, but if you were to repair it and sell it in the future, u would be at even more of a loss. all i can say is keep fighting for a total; 13k is an awful lot to repair.

 

as for me i was happy ym car is getting repaired because i have so much audio equipment in there, but thank youf or teh care of my health. not one scratch on me. as much as i disliked the other driver i'm lucky he was not hurt either; that wouldve been a whole different story.