i got $17,000 for my car. after it was totaled. it's what i "paid" for my car equipped with what i had. i had $12,000 on the loan still, and will be paid the difference. plus i got about $500 minus my $100 deductible for my stolen personal items that were attached to the car when it was junked.

so i'm gonna buy some new mods for the new car!!!

 

Sorry to hear

 

Glad to hear you're okay, nice to see side curtain airbags in action. I'm sure your head is thankful they were there

 

Damn, Chels... sorry to hear the bad news

 

Man, I guess I need to wash my car with holy water or just walk!!

 

Well the estimate hasn't even begun but I did call the shop and gave them the OK to tear it apart to assess the damage. The guy I talked to said it looks like it may be totaled but he could be wrong when he pulls things off the car.

I'm not a praying person but I am praying my **** off that they don't total it. He asked how much it was new and it was about $16k, maybe closer to $17k, and that he was going to KBB it and see how much it's worth now.

Hopefully on Monday he'll have the estimate done and I'll find out then. This weekend is going to be so painful.


Wait how did you get them to give you the full retail value of the car? I don't remember but was your car only a few months old?

 

Chels,

This just occured to me. Let's assume they do total it. There is still a way to keep your car if you want, if the money numbers work out right.(I haven't done this with a car but I have with my friend's small plane that had a minor accident) Obviously once the insurance company decides to total your car and pays you its value, your car now becomes their property. Naturally, they are going to want to recoup as much of this paid out money as possible and are probably going to sell your car as salvage, most likely to a wholesaler for pennies on the dollar. The wholesaler will most likely sell the car at auction, or part it out etc. There's nothing keeping you from approaching the insurance company after they have made the decision to total the car and asking if they plan to sell it as salvage. If so, make them an offer. After all, you just got (let's say) $12,500 from the insurance settlement, and could probably buy it as salvage for a mere fraction of that.

Now obviously there are a lot of if's here. We have to assume that the actual cost of repairs plus whatever your salvage purchase price is not going to go over the final settlement figure like the one I just made up. If you are serious about keeping YOUR car, go ahead and ask the shop what the total cost of repairs would be. Maybe you know someone who could hook you up with this and that, which would lower the total repair cost even more.

There are 2 downsides here unfortunately. First, (and it's a big one) is that once you have your car repaired even good as new, the car was still declared a total loss by the insurance company which by technicality, invalidated the car's original title. When you purchase the car back from the insurance company, it will come with a salvage title. Unfortunately once a vehicle is issued a salvage title, it has an extremely diminished resale value, and will most likely be very difficult to insure to anything past liability/un-insured motorist/personal injury because the car has no real value to any insurance company anymore (they can't total it twice really.....). BUT you don't care about this necessarily if you could still be driving around in your baby right? You just won't be able to sell her for much when you're done.

The second downside is that if you have another accident like the one you just had, you're done.

Good luck.

 

I dont know about all states but here in Pennsylvania and Illinois I had no problems insuring my old Neon that was an R-Title: reconstructed after having been given a salvage title. My dad's hobby at the time was to buy not too badly damaged salvage vehicles from the junk yard and fix them up, I got a very nice first car out of the deal. Here in PA you had to jump thru some hoops to get the title changed from Salvage to Reconstructed, taking photos and filling out a lot of paperwork at the DMV and such. And the value was still decreased of course but I always had zero problems both getting a loan for it (yup had to buy it from Dad!) and insuring it for full coverage.

 

Well... $14k in damage and they're not going to repair it so says the body shop. Have yet to talk with the insurance about this. Not sure what I'm going to do about getting a new car. I loved my xD, it would be awesome to get another one and just move my parts over to that but I do like my boyfriend's VW Rabbit...

Gathering all the paperwork for my aftermarket parts in case the insurance won't let me remove them -.-I don't think it would be a problem seeing as how I have all the stock parts to swap them back out with, right?

 

i paid an extra $80 a year on a thing called "new car replacement" through my insurance provider. you can read up on it here....
http://auto.erieinsurance.com/Car-re...-coverage.aspx

and my car was exactly 1 year and 4 months old.

the reason i got so much, was they couldn't find any 2009's on any lots to compare it to for retail value, and so they had to go with 2010 models, which benefited me in the long run.

after 2 years, that insurance becomes gap insurance. it's well worth every penny!!!

 

I don't know if you are upside down in the car (owe more than its worth), but at the beginning of 2009 I was able to buy my 2008 XD 5 speed with 6000 miles for 13500. It is still considered new because it is less than 3 years old and has less than 25k miles on it. So it is eligible for new car interest rates. Point is I just hopped on either cars.com or autotrader.com and looked for vehicles in a 500 mile radius from where I lived that were used. You should be able to find a few, and when you do, e-mail them letting them know what you want to spend. Then you can pit them against each other for the sell. Just remember time is on your side if it sells local, because you're holding out, there are others available. This may be a better option opposed to buying new off the lot because of the "pure price". The only thing my local Toyota/Scion dealer ship would offer for incentive was throwing in some floor mats.
I live in southern Tennessee, and ended up buying my car in Troy Michigan! Road trips are always fun especially when you bring back the rental with 2000 miles in 2 days.

 

If I get a new car I will definitely be getting GAP insurance.

Thankfully I owe less than what the car is worth. The body shop told me the car is worth $14k, not sure how he came up with that. Suggested retail value off of KBB maybe. I really hope I don't have to fight to get my aftermarket stuff off the car seeing as I have all the stock parts and they're only insuring the stock vehicle. *sigh*

 

well i hope everything works out for you chels,
but hey that new rabbit does look bad ___.

 

if you're the registered owner of the vehicle; why would there be a problem with you taking out a few parts? The parts you noted (seat covers/stereo/...something else..I forget) had nothing to do with the accident right? It's your property. Whatever body shop its at now just go take em off. The vehicles totaled; just sit the OEM parts on the seat and the car will be auctioned off anyway

 

I was able to get my HU, seat covers, armrest, broadway mirror, left over personal items and... I think that's it.

Springs and rear sway bar are shot as well as my wheels sadly. Going to pull my K&N filter and bundle it with my K&N filter cleaning kit.

Really leaning towards a nice white 2008 VW Rabbit I found so if I'm able to get $14 for my xD I'm going to get that Rabbit then sell off my aftermarket parts. Most likely I will keep my HU instead of selling it.

Armrest, seat covers and headrest covers and the TRD muffler is all I'm able to sell. I'll think of prices later.

It hurts so bad to see my baby with missing body panels and de-modding her. I started to cry when I walked in to the bodyshop to begin de-modding.

 

not all the time

 

$14k in damages?! Holy crap!

 

damn chels,
your car was one of my fav's when i first started modding.
i still remember asking you what kind of percents i should get my tints.
I really hope you get everything you put on the car.
also, can you also file claims if they dont let you take off mods??

 

damn chels. if you're gonna part out, how much for the arm rest? LOL

<----VULTURE!!!!

 

Make sure you get one with stability control, too. All VWs come with their "ESP" stability control, so you'll be good if you go with the Rabbit. Just expect the Rabbit to have more little quirks along the way... expensive service and electronics that go bad. As a former VW owner and current VW tinkerer, you can trust me on that!

Sorry to hear about the loss of your xD... but at least you came out of it alright... other than the hassle of having to deal with insurance companies.