mattTc

im writting to everyone depressed as hell, saturday night, around 11:30 at night i was at an intersection turning left, the light was green (i live in milwaukee, that night we had blizard-like conditions, snow was everywhere) the light is green, i SLOWLY creep foward to yeild, there is a van coming, its in the turn left only lane (the lane markings are covered in snow) i figured the lady was going strait so i continued to stay and let her pass, she must have drifted just a little bit to her left because the next thing i know, i wake up, im in my car on the side of the road, the car is on an akward angle, the cabin is filled with the smoke of the air bag powder that went off, the girl i was with is screaming and crying and i have that iron taste of blood in my mouth, my horn is stuck and continues to sound and i am dazed and confused... i undo my seat belt, open the door and kind of fall out, after making sure the girl i was with was alright, i walked over to the car that hit me. the lady comes out and just starts yelling at me... everything she is saying isnt making sense to me because of everything that was going through my head, i just kept asking if she was alright. once the cops came and my parents came it really hit hard what had happened... long story short my car is pretty muched F'ed in the A... I got the sitation for "failer to yeild" no matter what the situation, im gunna be the one at fault basically... the lady didnt swerve, honk or do anything which makes me think that she wasnt paying attinion to the road... im 17 years old, this is my first car, its 2005, and paid 15K for it, i work 30 hours a week, am a senior at a private highschool, and just got accepted to an amazing engineering college... every penny i had went to paying for the payments and insurance, every extra dollar went to mods... this was my life and its dead now, im sooooo gratefull that everyone is alright and not hurt. if my passenger would have been hurt i wouldnt have been able to live with my self...

the insurance agent went out to my car yesterday and looked at it… he called me and said that “it’s a total loss” and that “Saturday night was the last time your ever gunna drive it” he said that it would cost about 20,000$ to fix. Then him, me and my father start talking about the value of the car, its an 05, automatic tramsmission, 24,000k miles. I have the scion security system, rear lip spoiler and after market rims that cost me about 800$ and winter tires that cost me about 600$. I had a Avic D3 nav system in it that I bought for 700$, underglow for roughly 200$ and fig gloss black grille… (im so depressed/emo right now)

the guy comes up with a value…..11,050$......yeah….right now there are 3 Tc’s selling in my area with 30,000+ miles on it with stock rims are going from 16,999-15,500… so were trying to come up with a new value but eather way I lost about 7 grand on this car with the money I originally put down and the 7 months of payments… it hurts to think that the last 3 years or work all the money I saved up and all the checks I put to my car are a waste right now…..

anyone have any input or situations close to this? Try to make me feel better? Please!?!

jonathan110987

sorry about the car... at least everyone is ok.

its just a car. those can be replaced.

mattTc

i know, my car didnt look like a car after the crash, it really is amazing that we both walked out of the car. now i just hope my whole family doesnt get dropped by the insurance company and we all have to suffer, not just me

viventi

i dont see how they could only give you 11k for it...in june, my 05 mazda3 was totaled. and it had 33000 miles on it...i got 16k for it...i only owed 11k so i got 5k back from the insurance of the guy who hit me.

but besides that, im glad you and your friend were okay. things will work out for the better im sure. and honestly, i'd take this to court, she lost control of her vehicle....i got a ticket for wreckless driving once, when i was 17..a woman in a minivan t-boned my car and totaled it (yes ive had two totaled cars...im not very lucky). but anyway, we took it to court and got the charges dropped. and the lawsuit she tried to file against me was dropped too....you never know.

BZinn1

Take everything out of the car that you put in...........they are not going to pay you for it so take it out........serious.........I put $4500 into my cameros motor.........had receipts and they refused to pay for the value,so I pulled the motor before they towed it away.........then they called me and said I needed to give them the motor.........I said fine pay me for the motor..........they said it does not work that way...........I said it does not work that way on my end either...........the motor was only 3 weeks old...........I sold it to private party for $3000.........still lost,but at least not to them..........

A good idea for anyone doing mods to their cars it to goto the insurance company and talk to your agent..........tellthem this is what i have put in my car and I want it value insured..............like right now I have almost $1500 into my car in the last 6 months........I pay about $4.50 amonth more to insure this value added into the vehical cost......

NightGlide

I can fill your pain dude.
Hey think about this, that you are okay, and alive.

Hey think about this, you can make a bigger down payment, or is their other car that you like better?

bencott

i'm sorry about your loss, but it could have been worse. i feel for you, mainly because from your post it seems like you handled the situation as well as can be expected. you can fight the ticket in court if the incedent really wasn't your fault, and possibly after that ruling get the van lady's insurance company to pay for the damages. as for your tC, there's really nothing left to do with except try to salvage whatever parts are still good. consider it a lesson learned that putting money into your car is always a gamble. sometimes you lose. anyway, keep your chin up and be thankful for what you still have. you'll get another car, and you'll have more knowledge going into it. good luck with everything.

mattTc

basically after have a Tc for 7 months im in love with it, there is no other car i have seen or driven that i like better, my friends have SRT-4 and other nice faster cars but id still go with scion Tc, maby if i dont get dropped for my insurance and it doesnt cost me 1200$ a month to drive i could get same car but manual transmission

engifineer

Remember that insurance companies will ask for the unreasonable a lot of times and get it if you dont fight back. But, an 05 isnt going to have much for blue book value. Maybe a tad more than you are being offered, but not a ton. Your aftermarket parts do nothing to increase the blue book either.

So, take all the aftermarket parts you can off the car and the the insurance company they cant have them. Hell, I have known people that took the money for a total AND kept the car, after a short argument with the insurance company, they backed off.

Any time you wreck after leaving a stop sign, they will cite you for it. Be sure that it was indeed your fault before just giving in. Here is the scenario I went through about 10 years ago:

I was pulling out of a road onto a small, 2 lane county road. I was leaving the lake, so there was a long line of cars wanting to turn into the road I was leaving. Probably 5-6 pickups pulling boats and a few cars behind them. The front truck needed a wider turn, so he waited and motioned for me to pull out so he could pull in. I checked to the right, nothing coming. Obviously, traffic was stopped to my left, because they were waiting on the truck, that was waiting on me to pull out. They were on a hill, and in a no passing zone. I pull out to turn left. When I get around the truck, I see a little pr!ck in an S-10 passing the entire line of cars, up the hill, in a no passing zone, getting ready to hit me head on (couldnt see him behind the other, larger trucks). I floor it, and try to cross the road and get out of his way. He hits me about 3 inches behind my drivers door, spinning me around and off into the ditch. He was running approximately 90 mph when he hit me.

Anyway, God had his eyes on everyone that day, because I just got a few bruises and the little moron on in the S-10 and his passenger were ok, even though their engine was pushing the dash away from the firewall after it was over. There was a bit of violence on my end, but a couple of bystanders secured me and made sure I sat down and calmed down, saying that it would not help my case any if I got a hold of the two idiots (who, by the way ran away from me when I came out of the truck) I was sited for failure to yield, even though I was completely in the right. The cop even knew it, but said it was standard procedure and to just show up at court and he would make sure it was dropped, which they did. Bad thing for me was that the kid had no insurance at all, and was his second offense for not having it, so I was out a truck.

engifineer

But, in the end, be happy that you and your passenger are ok. It could have been much worse. In the immediate, losing a car seems like the end of the world, in a few years, you will be driving whatever car you have then (probably modded like the one you have now) and it will all be in the past.

landark

iTrader: (1)

I would ask your rep what he is using to determine the value.
Most insurance companies use NADA, not Blue Book.
I work for an insurance company and just did a quick search and determined that your car is worth $14,450 using our official calculator. That is with it being in mint condition. If you had prior damage, you have to take that into account.
That number includes your Scion Security and that it was an auto (-$525 if manual).

As for your accessories, in order to be able to collect anything for them, you have to insure them on top of your car. Aftermarket parts generally don't add value to your car - and any parts that do are supposed to be rated per your policy agreement.

I had a claim with a guy who had a 2001 Prelude with a full turbo set-up, engine swap, coils, body kit, and rims. The guy poured his heart and soul into it and some schmuck tagged him in the back. I practically begged him to take everything off the car before giving it to us, but he didn't. Without rating it as it sat, we could only give him the NADA value of the car stock. He took a bath on it. He ended up getting about $12k for a $25k car.

Remember, anything you take off and keep has to be replaced with something functional - so keep all your stock parts!

mattTc

yeah and i keep telling myself that in 3 months or how ever long it takes to get everything situated ill be fine and move on, just sucks tho that it had to happen like this, my car is being towed yet again to another location farther away where the insurance company said i have till sunday to get everything out of it, i have to work the whole day thursday, saturday, and sunday, so i only have today, wendsay or friday to drive the 90 min and basically spend 6-8 hours stripping off all the stuff, and if you dont know wisconsin weather, right now its snowing and theres about 6 inches on the ground at 22 degrees, which is gunna make the 6-8 hour work around 10-12... i need to find replacement rims and tires for it because i want my aftermarket which all togather cost me about 1500$ so i need to go to the junk yard and get some poop ones for hopefully under 100$,....ahhh so much stuff to do (my friend wanted me to put this smiley...i dont know why )

toeveryhour

iTrader: (3)

11 is low balling... i'd look into that more.

Zebman

I got $14.5 for a base manual, no options. They're f*cking you good.

Hyghgynx

You maybe bummed but look at it this way;

You and the girl you were with both have your limbs intact and possibly 'walked away' from a serious crash. Don't get swept up thinking the insurance company is going to drop you and your family. If you go to school, concentrate on that! Don't worry about what could happen until that time comes. Also, tell your insurance what you told us; conditions were bad, lines were covered with snow, and the lady drifted into your lane. (From your story, it sounds like she didn't check her blind spot for you.) I hope everything turns out okay.

First and foremost; KEEP YOUR CHIN UP!! Cars can be replaced!! YOU CAN'T!!!

mattTc

yeah thanks everyone, after today I'm starting to feel better, my father was talking with the agent some more and got him to get to around 13,900$ and with some of the warenty money back I should have somewhere around 14,500$ so I guess thats pretty reasonible...agh this would have way better to not get hit intge first place

BZinn1

I feel for Engifineer..............I think that people with no insurance should be tied to a post and let the person the hit beat them to a differant state of being............

MattTc how much do you still owe on the car..............????cause they are gonna take that out of that $13,900 I am pretty sure...........make sure yo are careful about a value decision.........and please take everything out of the car that you put in...........

theunclesam

At least you're ok. 10 years from now this will just be an interesting story.

ibnboxin

matt umm make sure you didn't have gap coverage with your insurance. i know this is what people say is pointless money in insurance. but look into it. if you do not have it on this car get it on your next car till you drop below the values of what your insurance will cover.

like everyone else i am glad you and the girl are fine. get a police report as soon as you can.

you say that it was blizzard conditions. how did the cop note failure to yield??? were you able to see marks on the ground or were they able to??? did they give a vailid reason for giving you the ticket???? were they able to clearly see both sets of tire marks??? where exactly was the car damaged on the drivers side or passenger side??

here is what i will bet. no they couldn't see the tread marks in the snow the lady said you pulled out in front of here the cops failed to do a walk through the accident scene to try and recreate what and how it actually happened. they saw a 17 year old Vs and older driver and gave the ticket to a statisic that was most likely the cause.


Seriously get a police report ASAP. see if the cops actually did make notes. the lady in the accident will as well. once you have that spend some time and money and take ot a lawyer to go over with. they can explain it to you.

Ryfly

thats odd,

I live in Colorado and my friend who almost died, was turning left. Well he pulled out some and waited for the lady in the oppsoite lanes. It was during a 2 foot Snow storm. Well, the lady was goin REALLY fast, and slid into the Middle of the intersection into My buddies Jetta.

The Lady got Wreckless Driving, and Driving to Fast for conidtions, this was possible by the two witnesses said that SHE was goin WAY to fast and that my friend did Stop and yield. Even though he was partially out in the intersection.

So, sort of interesting as well, plus the county was on accident alert which makes tickets more interesting.