Hey so a few days ago a girl hit me on the freeway. She didn't check her blind spot and bumped into me and then she lost control of her car and spun out in front of me and then I T boned her as a result of that. Then another car rear ended me after that. I think the car will be totaled but I am not sure how to prove the worth or how this works exactly.

1996 Civic EX with a B18C swap. Its got Koni/GC suspension plus camber. Its also bar legal with intake/intake mf/header/exhaust. I been running this thing for 4 years now and about 30k miles. Anyhow the car has alot of miles on the odo 228k. The kbb is only like 2200 for the car. I dunno what to do. I have alot of receipts to prove its worth more or I could try and get the car back then part it out. Oh and here is the damage

 

they might try to fix it. most insurance companies let you put custom insurance on cars that have been modified. depending on what they tell you i would try to have them fix it

 

That b!tch is probably totaled, sorry to hear that. You do have an option if you don't want to lose your investment though.

Unfortunately, you have to pay more for your insurance from the beginning, let the company know your car is worth more to you than it's kbb or whatever because of it's mods. Your insurance is partially based on the car's value, if you don't tell them otherwise, it's $2200, so that's all you'll get and also why it's probably totaled.

What you can do, is "buy" the car back from the insurance company if they total it. So say they were going to give you $2200 for the car, the car gets taken. Usually, for around 10% of that, you can "buy it" (keep it). So they'll give you, say, $1980 (2200-220) minus your deductible, obviously. So that leaves you with around $1500 and the car, you can part it out to make some money back, move your swap/suspension to a new chassis or try to fix the car yourself. Good luck!

 

if i were you and if they total the car. i would use the option to buy it back and then part it out. most insurance companies will only give you book value for your car. they do not care if its modified at all. remember your dealing with their insurance company not yours. they will try their hardest to pay you the least they can.
when you buy your car back they issue a R title. its worthless as a whole but very valuable as a pile of parts. if they give you 4500 forit being totaled they may offer to sell it back for 500. so you get 4000 and then the opton to part it out or use your parts to build the one you just bought for 4000.
adam

 

i so totally forgot about the deductible...lol
adam

 

Yeah the accident was not my fault and the girl had insurance. So I shouldn't have to pay anything at this point. I think i should argue a higher value due to modification and then try to get it back? hmm that would be the best thing to do if I can do that. Luckily I have a receipt from Hmotors and I have most all other receipts too.

 

You can try, but it won't do you any good. You have to get papers from your insurance company about the car being modded/insured for more than KBB. I don't know a ton about this, but you would've had to insure your car that way all along, even though it was her fault, her insurance. It sucks, but that's how it is, modding a car is never profitable/economical... Just part it out yourself.

Unfortunately, I got in a few accidents in high school (one my fault, a couple someone else's) and got pretty familiar with the workings of insurance.

 

Another thing you could try, is talk to the girl. Be like, "just give me $1900 cash and I won't file a claim." You'd probably come out ahead and her insurance may not go up, if she's interested. Also, if you went the route of fixing your car it wouldn't have a salvage title (I don't think).

 

And cash is tax free, I bet Obama's come up with some way of taxing insurance pay offs nowadays.

 

this seems like the best option

 

Yeah I am gonna talk to my insurance next week and ask about claiming the aftermarket stuff. Though the option of talking to the girl directly might be good except for the fact that there was a third car involved. They will certainly file a claim against the girl I am betting. My insurance is already involved so I dunno.

 

If her ins co says your car is totalled, and makes an offer you can refuse it. You DO NOT have to accept their 'first offer'.

 

If her insurance is covering the damage, then your car is totalled, and they don't care about your mods even if you have receipts.

If you go through your insurance, your mods can help the value of the car, and you can argue them to either raise the damage to get more money, or lower the reported damage to avoid it getting totalled.

I always park my car in the drive way after an acciddent. I never let it get towed to a shop. Thats when the Insurance companey takes control of the situation. I always have the insurance companey send someone to my house, do a little small chit chat, explain him my situation and what I want, and after he looks at the car, we get down to business on what we are going to do. Always works out for me.

 

the rear quarter panel damage alone is whats gonna total it....

good luck

 

It certainly won't matter unless you've declared your custom parts with your insurance company and paid the extra cost of insuring them. Like a poster said above, you can whine all day about custom parts, insurance companies don't care. The vast majority of Civics out there are stock. So insurance companies are only liable to repair your car back to stock form. If you had declared custom parts with your insurance company, they'd cover those losses.

 

i was involved in a accident and my real quarter panel lookd like that they did not declare my car as total lost...

 

wow that really sucks man. it says you live in SLO, im in Santa Maria. good to see local members on.

 

OP, the car will be totaled, I got hit like that in my accord last year and had the same damage. You need to get the car towed to your place, no where else. While its there, I would clean the inside out and make it looks a clean as possible on the outside. If you have another cluster with lower miles, now is the time to swap that out. Her insurance comapny will try to lowball you for your car and sometimes they will call you and try to negotiate or send a rep to look at the car. Find some pictures of the car when it was fresh and clean, you will want to show these to both adjusters to show that the car was properly maintained and free of major blemishes before the wreck .Bottom line you want to present your car as being well taken care of. I ended up getting over 3k back for a stock accord with 260k on the odometer.

 

I feel like I am gonna get totally screwed on this. I think the only option I really have is to total it accept that then buy it back. I will get more for the parts alone than the check will be I am willing to bet.

 

My '00 coupe got totalled a couple of years ago. I was rear-ended by a Chevy Tahoe, doing an estimated 85 MPH (drunk driver on a cell phone). %$@! hit me so hard, I was pissing blood for a week.

Anyway, I asked the insurance adjuster if I could keep my exhaust system, wheels, et cetera, and he said, "Sure! It's going to auction anyway. Just as long as it rolls..."

So I bought four steelies at the junkyard ($100), went down to the impound, and stripped all the good **** off my car.

That made me feel a lot better about getting screwed...

 

I did all that, but the thing that helped the most was getting on the web and finding similar cars in my area that were for sale.

They offered me $4600 for my ride - which was a total insult. They were going by KBB. All the custom add-ons didn't mean **** to them...

They said if I could find similar cars in my area, selling for more, they would consider adjusting the price.

I found 5 cars in my area and submitted them to the adjuster. He took the paperwork to his boss, and they upped it to $5200.

I called Showcase Honda (local dealer) and asked the sales manager if I was getting screwed. She said, "No! I can't believe they're offering you that much. I'd only give you $3800 on a trade-in, in perfect condition." LoL!

The mileage killed me. I drive a LOT, and it had 184,000 miles on the odometer. They said that was 80% more than average...

 

Yeah well I have a motor swap. Thats the major thing. But my odometer has 228k. I am actually gonna take all the suspension exhaust off since I still have the stock parts. **** tho if i could just start stripping **** off it I would.

 

Dude swapping the cluster is illegal/unethical.

You could also buy a cheap d series on craigs in swap it in, but that'd be a lot of work.

 

Yeah I pretty much ignored that suggestion. But no I dont wanna swap any motor. I don't have time for that ****. I would rather pay to buy the car back than do that. Probably would cost the same.

 

I got rear-ended hard by a pickup while I was stopped in a line of cars. I went through my insurance and let the shop know I was going to fight hard if my company wanted to total. Things worked out OK, got repaired. Educated the shop on the engine value vs. the chassis plus low miles etc.

Best of luck!