Help re: Auto accident claim

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70%-75% of car value, but not enough to total.

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It’s going to be totaled

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Insurance gave estimate and payout for repair work at a number somewhere between 70%-75% of car value

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Insurance companies don't have decent estimators any longer. The estimates are always very low hoping the customer will take a check and not repair.

You're at 75% right now. When they tear down the car at the shop, they'll probably find additional damage that will total the car.

ETA: the low insurance estimates make a lot of extra work for collision centers. Almost every single job these days needs supplements to the original estimate.

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Insurance gave estimate and payout for repair work at a number somewhere between 70%-75% of car value,

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It will be totaled.

My kid was in a wreck recently that wasn’t her fault. Damage to front and back due to her being pushed into another vehicle. I was thinking maybe 50% of value for repair(which would be $7,000).
Initial repair estimate came back at $15k. LOL

I’m pretty pissed and thinking about suing the a-hole who ran into the back of her. It’s the La way to handle stuff like this is what I’ve been told.

Get it done

Take the money and then advertise the car on Marketplace "as-is", you'll probably make more money that way.

Since you're getting paid 75% of value, advertise it at 45% as-is and make 120% of value.

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I am just hoping the shop finds something that insurance did not consider

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From my limited experience, the shop always finds things the claims adjuster doesnt, i.e. clips, seals, connectors, coatings, etc. Now, will that add up to the additional 25% you need for it to be totaled? Maybe, maybe not.

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My wife

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No airbags

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Sorry, baw…

In Louisiana it is 75% of NADA/JD Power value to determine if it a TL. It doesn't matter if airbags are deployed or structural damage. It's a straight dollar figure. (The will pay your total loss based on market value, but that's a different conversation)

All major carriers use the same few companies for the estimating. CCC, Mitchell, and Audatex. The system is set to flag it normally between 65% and 70%. The estimator isn't looking up the value, it is baked into the software and once the estimate is complete it will tell the estimator if it needs to be reviewed as a TL.

Insurance companies do not want to essentially have to pay for a car twice. Meaning if they start work on the car and it's mostly complete then they get a big supplement that totals it, they would owe the current repairs to the shop and then pay you for the total loss. If you want to then keep it then they offset the repairs in the salvage value.

What you should do is call and talk to the in office adjuster (not the estimator that wrote the estimate). Get them to pull the actual cash value of the vehicle and then compare it to the estimate. If it's even close to 75% they don't typically change it and will just make it an ecomnic total loss.

Low estimates that the adjusters write make more work for the adjuster. In todays climate, nobody really has time to go back and do the supplementals that the shop requests. Adjusters like to have it 1 and done. Due to volume of claims.

But they can only write what they see. Because estimates are reviewed all the time and if you put parts in there that nobody else can see, they are going to get a call.

Hypothetical question here…. If a vehicle is totaled and because of the financial outcome of this, is it even worth the effort to try to contact the at fault drivers insurance company to request additional compensation?
I would hate to have to play the scum game and fake an injury using the lawyers medical providers.
We would be happy just to get $3-$4k.