insurance says it's totaled, need help/advice

["T. Reed" <treed2@wsu.edu>]

Well folks,

I had a shred of hope that Daun would be wrong and the insurance would 
just "take care of the repairs", despite being a big hassle.

Nope.

The inspector came out and looked at the car on Monday. He seemed very 
optimistic and said that it was in good shape for its age, he took down 
all the option codes and asked about the damage. He said he didn't think 
it would be totalled because the damage was so minor.

The next day I received a fax from him showing an estimated $1800 in 
repair costs. I figured he had probably valued the car around $2000, so it 
wasn't looking good.

I haven't really mentioned to anyone yet that I have invested thousands of 
dollars and hours in to the car, but I kinda doubt they care anyway.

Today I finally got a call from the insurance company, telling me "the 
appraisal was finished for your car and it was deemed a total loss, 
probably based on the mileage and year".



Looking through the faxed damage appraisal, I can see about $800 in expenses 
that I consider bogus or unnecessary:

2.5 hours of labor for fixing the front bumper, which was lightly 
scuffed (not even "scratched"); barely noticable and not something I 
really even care about since the bumper has all kinds of scratches already 
and someday I will get euros or repaint it.

$180 for new us headlight assy; I expect it to cost less than that to get 
a replacement euro mainbeam lense and repair the driver headlight myself. 
Oh, and 1 hour of labor to install the headlights, plus a half hour to aim 
them. That's all crap I don't mind doing myself if it saves my car from 
being totaled.

Over 2 hours of labor to remove and install fender flares and molding.. 
don't know why? The fender wasn't even damaged in the accident.

2.5 hours of labor to repair(?) and blend the fenders. I don't really 
buy this one since the car is clearcoated, and my understanding is that 
you can't blend a car with clearcoat?


And.. a half hour to remove and install the windshield wipers. I can 
(obviously) do this myself before taking it in for paint and body work.

So the old numbers were:
12.6 hrs @ 44/hr for body labor
11.8 hrs @ 44/hr for paint labor
11.8 hrs @ 22/hr for paint supplies
(plus sales tax, etc..)

total: $1790

deleting the aforementioned items brings it down to:

7.4 hrs @ 44/hr for body labor
7.7 hrs @ 44/hr for paint labor
7.7 hrs @ 22/hr for paint supplies

total: $1050

Can I negotiate the totaled status with the insurance and get them to 
fix my car, or is that "not how things work"?


The message on my voicemail said that a different insurance jerk will be 
calling in a few days to discuss the "total loss" with me.

I need to know what to do next; should I call the appraiser (does not work 
for the ins. co), should I call the insurance jerk that just informed me 
of my car being totalled?

Can I get them to waive the "salvage title" status because the car was 
hit so lightly that it only broke one headlight and mangled one spot on 
the hood?

(again, see pictures: http://www.wsu.edu/~treed2/pic1.jpg and
http://www.wsu.edu/~treed2/pic2.jpg)

Man, I'm so irritated and entirely sick of this problem. I should 
have just stayed home that day.. or beat the living crap out of that 
dakota driver for paying so little attention that he drove in to the front 
of my car, head-on.

Grrr

-Toby

_______________________________________________
Scirocco-l mailing list
Scirocco-l@scirocco.org
http://neubayern.net/mailman/listinfo/scirocco-l