Totalled NSX, need advice

[PKim]

Guys,
just like the title states my NSX got totalled last Saturday, I let my friend test drive my car (he has a 997) and he losted it in a turn and let the back end come around and that was history, I know, I know never let a porsche guy drive a nsx. The car is just totalled, I am sick right now but my buddy is feeling terrible. I'm just glad that he and I are alive. I took some pics with my cell phone and I have to go to the shop and take decent pics of the car. He and I are fully insured and he wants to have his insurance take care of it. We put in the claim and I have not heard yet from his insurance, but I have been looking at KBB and it stated that in Excellent condition with year, make and model, as well as milage it came to $25,170. I'm afraid that they will just low ball me. My main concern is that KBB is not a good reflection of what the car is worth, my was a prestine '91 with 67kmiles. the exterior was 8/10 and interior was 9/10. the only mods was comptech headers, finstar exhaust, downforce intake, tein RA coilover and 17/18 volk racing GTN wheels. I have taken exceptional care of the car. I'm hoping that the insurance company will give me replacement value and not just what KBB states. Has anyone had this situation? I need some advice on how to deal with the insurance co.

 

[VietNamNSX]

Guys,
just like the title states my NSX got totalled last Saturday, I let my friend test drive my car (he has a 997) and he losted it in a turn and let the back end come around and that was history. The car is just totalled, I am sick right now but my buddy is feeling terrible. I'm just glad that he and I are alive. I took some pics with my cell phone and I have to go to the shop and take decent pics of the car. He and I are fully insured and he wants to have his insurance take care of it. We put in the claim and I have not heard yet from his insurance, but I have been looking at KBB and it stated that in Excellent condition with year, make and model, as well as milage it came to $25,170. I'm afraid that they will just low ball me, is there anyone that has been in my perdicament? give me advice or just console me. I'm not sure how to post pics but when I can I will.

I have been in your shoe and the the way to counter this problem effectively is to get the pricing of similar NSX's in year and mileage and give it to them, then telling them that this is what the market for similar NSX's like yours go for.

 

[titaniumdave]

Bummer,
I went through a similar situation a few years ago. I had documentation of all the mods I had done on the car, plus like comps of cars which had been sold in the recent past.

Blue book was about $28K, they gave me $14k credit(about 50%) for the CTSC, brakes, wheels and other mods = $42K. I bought the car back for $7K which was the salvage value, got a check for $35K, spent 3 months parting out the car and got another $28K(Not counting the 200 hours!).

It took a solid month of negation with the insurance company, coming up with documentation and always NOT SIGNING the settlement offers! I kept saying "I don't want to get lawyer, that never works for anyone, I just want to be compensated fairly for what I had."

This worked for me, all these decisions come down to economics, how can the insurance company pay out the least, legal is an expense and most adjusters understand that. If they can make you go away for few $K more, they will once they have put up a good front to try and make you fold. This is a business transaction, they make offers, you make counters, they 'go back to the manager' and see what they can do...often works like buying a car, be willing to walk out a few times, always be polite and make a convincing argument to why it should go your way.

Good luck.

 

[MoogieBoogie]

Since KBB and Edmunds doesn't accurately price out the value of the NSX, you could print out a listing of what these cars are selling for. Printouts from autotrader.com and completed auctions on eBay might help your case. What insurance company are you going through? That makes a big difference.

 

[ShiftyBob]

I had my customized 01' Expedition stolen and stripped about 3 years ago. My insurance company didn't go by KBB, they went by Fair Market Value, which saved my ass about $10k. Check and see what they go by...

 

[PKim]

Thanks for the replies,
I guess I will have to wait and see what the insurance company is willing to negotiate for, by the way my friend has USAA Insurance, I don't know much about this insurance co except most have military association. Is it worth it to buy back the car? and is the price of buy back negotiable?

Paul

 

[Dtrigg]

You may be in luck if your friend has USAA. I've had them for years and they are a fantastic insurance company. When I lived in Europe and had my first NSX someone tried to steal it. Well, popped ignition, ruined airbags, etc. They never asked a question. Just sent a flat bed to pick it up and repaired everything. No problems with them at all.

 

[titaniumdave]

Is it worth it to buy back the car? and is the price of buy back negotiable?

Paul

It all depends, I got luck because all 4 corners got smashed, they low balled the value at wrecking yard wholesale. It is all negotiable...just depends on how hard you want to work it.

 

[WOODY]

I had this situation a year ago. What I did was negotiate my best deal using a stack of the highest auto trader etc. comps I could find. Explain to them that regional changes in value dont apply as there are too few cars in the entire U.S. to narrow it to a region. Once you have their best deal tell them that the only way it will work is if they let you keep the wreck to help cover the money you are loosing from their settlement. They probably wont give it to you but you might get them down to a token 1-2 grand ( the wreck appraisal guys have no idea where to start with these cars!). Then you have pieces worth 5-10 grand depending on your car. The motor will get you ~4000 plus tranny, interior, quarterpanels etc you should end up in decent shape.

 

[brahtw8]

I had this situation a year ago. What I did was negotiate my best deal using a stack of the highest auto trader etc. comps I could find. Explain to them that regional changes in value dont apply as there are too few cars in the entire U.S. to narrow it to a region. Once you have their best deal tell them that the only way it will work is if they let you keep the wreck to help cover the money you are loosing from their settlement. They probably wont give it to you but you might get them down to a token 1-2 grand ( the wreck appraisal guys have no idea where to start with these cars!). Then you have pieces worth 5-10 grand depending on your car. The motor will get you ~4000 plus tranny, interior, quarterpanels etc you should end up in decent shape.

Ditto on the advice and the prior experience with this situation. :frown:

 

[heathbar0]

You may be in luck if your friend has USAA. I've had them for years and they are a fantastic insurance company. No problems with them at all.

+1 I have USAA too, you are in luck!

 

[schuey1010]

My insurance company didn't go by KBB, they went by Fair Market Value, which saved my ass about $10k. Check and see what they go by...

Insurance companies CAN'T use KBB. They have to give you fair market value for your car. What it would cost to replace it. I used to deal in insurance (actually in total loss) and can let you know how it works. If you need more info. PM me.

 

[PKim]

Insurance companies CAN'T use KBB. They have to give you fair market value for your car. What it would cost to replace it. I used to deal in insurance (actually in total loss) and can let you know how it works. If you need more info. PM me.

Thanks Schuey,
I might need your expertise in this matter, I will pm you as soon as I know how the insurance co want to handle this.

 

[theman1990]

I for one have to say USAA Sucks. They gave me $1900 for a COMPLETE REPAINT. Yeah.... Not su much.... maybe for a camry.

 

[NSXclear]

Insurance companies CAN'T use KBB. They have to give you fair market value for your car. What it would cost to replace it. I used to deal in insurance (actually in total loss) and can let you know how it works. If you need more info. PM me.

Different insurance companies use different formulas to come up with replacement cost. The CAN use KBB if they want to.

Just remember it is a BUSINESS transactions. Insurance companies is a business, although they may act like they are on your side, they are actually against you. They will DO anything to payout the minimum they can. If you are naive enough to take a low offer, then that is what you will get. They will not volunteer and give you what you deserve. You will have to earn every penny with them. That means doing your homework, and getting the documents to help pursade them to increase their offer.

Just be diplomatic about it. You need to be firm, but don't piss them off. Don't threaten them with lawyers. Take the advice from previous post and mention lawyers, but not as a threat. I've seen too many example of people getting mad at the adjuster. You wouldn't yell at the guy making your burgers would you? Be FIRM and you will get what you want.

 

[jerryho]

In California, the insurance goes with the car. In your case, your insurance will be PRIMARY and your friends insurance will be Secondary, better known as "excess coverage."

You cannot dictate which company to come in to take in the claim. This is about how all 99% of how insurance policies are written.

 

[schuey1010]

Different insurance companies use different formulas to come up with replacement cost. The CAN use KBB if they want to.

It has been 4 years since I worked in insurance, but when I was employed by that great company, IN THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA, companies were not allowed to use KBB to determine the actual cash value of your car.

**JUST AN EXAMPLE**

If they offer you say, $10,000 for your car, you are not going to get $25,000 from them. I know this is being stupid, but I am just giving you the facts. Some people say if you keep fighting you will get what you want. Doesn't work that way with the big boys. If you keep bitching and threatening them that you won't settle, they will just send you to an arbitrator. You pay for yours and the insurance company will pay to have their boy show up. These two people will hammer out an agreement that will be final. This was 4 years ago, in CA. that I dealt with this, but that is how they work. They know that once you find out that arbitrator is going to cost you $XXXX you will be more than happy to accept the offer, knowing that your arbitrator may think your car is even worth less than they were offering.

The insurance will get the values from local cars similiar to yours that were sold in the area and add and subtract for mileage and condition (and sometimes year, at which time KBB comes into play) and come up with the fair market value (the average of all those cars sold). They will then offer you the AVERAGE price of all those vehicles sold as a starting block. They do have a little bit of room to make you happy, but nothing too major.

 

[nsxtcy85]

NADA, is what the banks use for loans. Atleast with my past experience. Insist on them using that for your totalled quote. Its much higher than KBB which is a joke when it comes to sports cars.

 

[NSXclear]

In California, the insurance goes with the car. In your case, your insurance will be PRIMARY and your friends insurance will be Secondary, better known as "excess coverage."

You cannot dictate which company to come in to take in the claim. This is about how all 99% of how insurance policies are written.

I think Jerryho might be right about this one. When I crashed my brothers car a couple of years back (I was only 16 and stole his car out of the garage :tongue: ), I couldn't pick to have it go through my insurance instead of his.

But now that I'm older and much wiser, I've learn there is always a way to get around everything. It just takes the time to learn how the system works and thinking out of the box.

I'm not sure if any of these ideas will work, maybe someone in the forum can ellaborate more. I just want to get the creative juices flowing and think out of the box.

1. Say that you rented the car to your friend? When you rent cars from a car company, you can either use their insurance or your own. Therefore, that is a way around the rule that the insurance must follow the car.

2. Say that your friend was test driving the car to buy it. He crashed it during the test drive. Everytime I test drive a car, the owner asks to see if I have insurance. If the rule is that the insurance follows the car, then it doesn't make much sense to ask the test driver for insurance. This might be a way around that rule.

3. Say that you sold the car to your friend. Just get a bill of sale slip and date it a day before the accident. If I recall, he has up to 30 days to get insurance for the new car. His existing insurance pollicy will cover any accident he gets into during this period. But I'm not sure if it only covers Liability.

I'll try to think of more.

Again, none of these might not work, but I'm just trying to throw out ideas here.

 

[brahtw8]

I think Jerryho might be right about this one. When I crashed my brothers car a couple of years back (I was only 16 and stole his car out of the garage :tongue: ), I couldn't pick to have it go through my insurance instead of his.

But now that I'm older and much wiser, I've learn there is always a way to get around everything. It just takes the time to learn how the system works and thinking out of the box.

I'm not sure if any of these ideas will work, maybe someone in the forum can ellaborate more. I just want to get the creative juices flowing and think out of the box.

1. Will saying that you rented the car to your friend work? When you rent cars from a car company, you can either use their insurance or your own. Therefore, that is a way around the rule that the insurance must follow the car.

2. Say that your friend was test driving the car to buy it. He crashed it during the test drive. Everytime I test drive a car, the owner asks to see if I have insurance. If the rule is that the insurance follows the car, then it doesn't make much sense to ask the test driver for insurance. This might be a way around that rule.

3. Say that you sold the car to your friend. Just get a bill of sale slip and date it a day before the accident. If I recall, he has up to 30 days to get insurance for the new car. His existing insurance pollicy will cover any accident he gets into during this period. But I'm not sure if it only covers Liability.

I'll try to think of more.

Again, none of these might not work, but I'm just trying to throw out ideas here.

Your intentions may be noble, but advocating insurance fraud on a public forum is not a good idea.

 

[Alan C.]

1. Will saying that you rented the car to your friend work? When you rent cars from a car company, you can either use their insurance or your own. Therefore, that is a way around the rule that the insurance must follow the car

If you do this you may have the claim denied. You're indicating it is a commercial vehicle.

Maybe the best thing to do is get your car appraised. That is what my agent told me to do. I submitted that information to the insurance company and they were of with the value. I believe I paid a bit more but that is fair. Keep in mind that there is a 'stated value' and an 'agreed value'. They are not the same.

 

[ABhagat]

I agree with everyone about autotrader, cars.com, etc. Just find 10 or so comparable listings. When my '95 was totalled, they gave $42k for it. I bought it for $33k 2 years earlier.

 

[Yflyer]

A few years ago, my daughter totaled a nice Mercury Mystique with 350 miles on a new motor. State Farm went by NADA Blue Book "Retail - Good condition" and then gave me 50% of the cost of the motor, claiming that the motor was "maintenance." I did not have the time to argue, and since the car value was fair, I settled.

With an exotic, actual sales in your region seems a better negotiating approach.

 

[SFMarine0311]

I've never had good luck with insurance companies. They're all bad imo. When i wrecked my car, i had all documentation and they still didn't honor all my mods. Get ready for a fight! It's probably not worth it to buy it back...depending on how bad the damage is of course. I'd say start fresh and go with nsx-t.

 

[PKim]

Okay,
thanks for all the replies so far. I just got a call from the insurance co. and Jerryho is correct, my car will go through my insurance as a primary, and my friends insurance will be secondary. I currently have wawanesa insurance. Has anyone dealt with them? Further the agent told me that most likely the rate increase will be on my friend and not myself, since I was not the driver.

Brahtw8,
you have some creative thinkin my friend, but I am going to tell the truth, there is no reason for me and my friend to lie.

Does anyone know how to host pics, I just got back from the towing center and it was like visiting the morg, very depressing.