% of Blame

[MontyBurns]

A guy ran a red light and broadsided my car in the rear panel. I have a witness who was driving aside this guy - this is not a yellow turn red...it was red when he approached the interesection (my walk light was flashing); police gave the guy who hit me a citation for running the light. Also, he had so much momentum that he went over the sidewalk on the far side of the intersection and struck a building (there was new snow on the ground). no injuries for anyone.

My intitial estimate I got from a collision shop indicates it is totaled - 10K of damage for a $10K car.

Will it ever be possible for the other driver to be at 100% fault?
If not, is there any way to fight that (I just want to be made whole) and what are my chances of success?
What kind of value will they give me? Is it kelly blue book or NADA? Of course, the former always runs lower than the latter so I'm guessing they will lowball me.
Any value to show them asking prices of carsoup cars of similar make and year?
Can I make them repair the car (Volvo...great car - hate to lose it).

I just want to be made whole...is this a pipe dream or not?

Lastly, I have not contacted my insurance company yet becuase for obvious reasons of not wanting this on my record. Is that prudent or stupid?

Any advice very welcome.

Thanks a ton in advance!

 

[Bobby]

If your not at fault it won't be on your record you should contact your agent and get the claim started give your agent and the info you received from the other driver and he can contact their insurance company.

 

[blue_wynd]

If your not at fault it won't be on your record you should contact your agent and get the claim started give your agent and the info you received from the other driver and he can contact their insurance company.

Even though its not this guy's fault, it is still a claim if you file through your company. You rates won't go up if it is not your fault, but too many claims within a period may cause the carrier to drop you. Personally, I would go through the other person's insurance without involving my own company if possible when it is clear cut as whose fault it was and there was a police report to back it up.

 

[BlockO]

Can I make them repair the car (Volvo...great car - hate to lose it).

Why would you want to? Bad idea! Better off buying another vehicle. They're not going to give you more than what the vehicle's worth. A vehicle worth 10k will be "totaled" once the damage exceeds 7.5K, and your damage is at 10K.

Problem is, once they put all that money in repairs, what's happens then if the vehicle runs like crap after it's repaired? This happens all the time, and that's why vehicles with damage beyond 75% their value are totaled... Because they're not worth fixing in the long run.

 

[MontyBurns]

Why would you want to? Bad idea!

Because it is a model of a volvo that they don't make any more. Car was great in every respect. Can't afford a new volvo so a bit bummed to see it go.

I was just wondering if it was an option. Not going to be so it's a moot point.

 

[djs]

It is an option, almost always with totalled cars. Just doesn't work the way you think.

When a car is totalled, the insurance company buys it from you at an established price (neither KBB or NADA, but you can get a ballpark from those). You can buy it back from them at salvage value, usually around 10% of the value of the car (varies on area, make, year, etc). You can get the wrecked car back for 1000-1200 or so. Then you take the remainder of the payment they give you and get the repairs done.

You just have to find someone who can do the work for far less than what an insurance company will pay (pretty easy) and hope they do reasonable quality work. If you don't have any other source for this, simply ask a taxi driver for a referral.

Of course, you may not want to do this, or, if you owe money on the car, it almost never works out.

Dan

 

[USF3983]

As I always have to mention, there are times in my experience where you can get dinged for a not at-fault accident when you switch insurance carriers.

It isn't worth not making the claim in most cases though. This is in Florida though where we have no-fault laws.

Another thing to make clear is that it won't matter if you don't call your company if you're worried about a claim appearing. When you call into the at-fault party's company, it will be listed with CLUE (Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange) where all claims end up on record (at least with companies that use CLUE which is most).

I did have a client buy a car back from the insurance company once for sentimental reasons.