Totaled at 120k

[Mark]

The company I work for requires me to have full coverage.

That makes it unavoidable, but not the worst thing in the world. Way better than those who drive without insurance (illegal in all 50 states)!

[stevedmc]

That makes it unavoidable, but not the worst thing in the world. Way better than those who drive without insurance (illegal in all 50 states)!

It sucks but it is what it is. I get a very comfortable vehicle allowance (which isn't reported as income to the IRS) as long as I am within compliance. Being in compliance means I have to drive something 6 years old or newer, and have to have full coverage with super duper extra liability insurance. I think I pay $140 a month for the Mirage. Part of that high price is because of the high amount of miles I drive per year as well.

[stevedmc]

I acknowledge Murphy's law and now when I see a pickup truck with a couch in the back or even a work truck towing a trailer I change lanes ASAP and do not follow behind it.

It never hurts to keep an extra safe distance. When I am on the interstate and see a vehicle where I suspect something might fall off of it, I adjust my speed to either pass or get well behind it.

The speed limit on most stretches of interstate is 70 mph where I live.

If I feel I can pass the vehicle and stay ahead of them without maintaining a speed in excess of the speed limit, I will briefly accelerate to 80 mph just to pass the vehicle and then drop back down to 70 mph.

If I don't think passing a vehicle will allow me to stay ahead of it, I simply slow down to 60 mph for a few minutes until the vehicle is well ahead of me and then I bring my speed back up to 70 mph.

This thread reminds me of a time I was driving a rental while I was out of town. I think I was in a Hyundai Accent somewhere in or near Iowa. I was going up and down hills and I suddenly found myself stuck behind an old beat up van that was something you would expect poor white trash to drive.*

I said to myself, "I doubt they can afford to do proper maintenance on that vehicle and I doubt they even check their tires."

It was not safe to pass the van because this was on a two lane road going up and down hills. I decided to slow down until there was a very safe distance between me and the van. Cars started stacking up behind me and I can imagine they were upset because I wasn't tailgating the van.

A few minutes later, the tread separated from one of the rear tires on that van which would have hit me had I been any closer. The van pulled over into the grass and I kept going along my merry way, unharmed and now driving the full speed limit.

*Disclaimer: While the term "poor white trash" is probably not politically correct, I use it anyway since I am poor white trash. I lived in the trailer park until I was 23 years old.

[Loren]

This thread has gotten a little busy and I don't have time to read all of it. Couple thoughts that may have already been mentioned.

1. As has been mentioned, all you need to do is tell your insurance company that you want to buy back the car. They will sell it to you for next to nothing. (They're happy to do it, they don't have to transport it anywhere, they don't have to pay to store it until auction, etc.) If it's a repairable car, this is almost always worth doing. Be aware that they're almost surely going to flag the title as "salvage", and you might have to go through whatever process your state requires to get the car a "rebuilt" title after it's repaired. It's possible (I've seen this happen) that they could even issue a "certificate of destruction", in which case you could buy the car back, but it would be for parts only.

2. High mileage doesn't necessarily mean a low insurance payout. Now, it IS still a Mirage rather than a sports car that might be considered "potentially collectible", and my story relates to a 1992 Miata. But, my friend's 300k mile Miata that he bought new got rear-ended. Insurance company wanted to total it and give him something like $3,000 for it (which would have been GREAT for the typical 300k Miata). But, his Miata was perfect, he had done a lot of restoration on it in recent years. He had receipts for everything, and photos, and the car spoke for itself. It took a lot of phone calls on his part, but he eventually got them to cough up something like $7,000 to repair that car!

Had another friend with a similar Miata that got crunched... They offered him something like $1800, he contested and got it up to $4k.

Same friend had yet another Miata get bit (the one he bought with the money from the first one)... They offered him $4500 and he got it up to $8k.

Only guy I've ever known who's managed to buy used Miatas, crash them, and MAKE MONEY from it. The second car above was a "certificate of destruction" car. We literally took EVERY single part off of the car. And then before the shell went to scrap, a Spec Miata builder ended up buying it for $300!

Moral of the story, and it's obvious from the story in this thread: Don't take the insurance company's first offer. The COMPANY claims adjuster is going to offer you a low offer and hope that you take it. You don't have to take it, and in most cases you shouldn't. Get private body shop quotes. If it's getting totalled, get independent appraisals. Find YOUR OWN comparable cars for sale to show what it's worth. That's what it takes to get top dollar.

[Mark]

This thread has gotten a little busy and I don't have time to read all of it. Couple thoughts that may have already been mentioned.

1. As has been mentioned, all you need to do is tell your insurance company that you want to buy back the car. They will sell it to you for next to nothing. (They're happy to do it, they don't have to transport it anywhere, they don't have to pay to store it until auction, etc.) If it's a repairable car, this is almost always worth doing. Be aware that they're almost surely going to flag the title as "salvage", and you might have to go through whatever process your state requires to get the car a "rebuilt" title after it's repaired. It's possible (I've seen this happen) that they could even issue a "certificate of destruction", in which case you could buy the car back, but it would be for parts only.

2. High mileage doesn't necessarily mean a low insurance payout. Now, it IS still a Mirage rather than a sports car that might be considered "potentially collectible", and my story relates to a 1992 Miata. But, my friend's 300k mile Miata that he bought new got rear-ended. Insurance company wanted to total it and give him something like $3,000 for it (which would have been GREAT for the typical 300k Miata). But, his Miata was perfect, he had done a lot of restoration on it in recent years. He had receipts for everything, and photos, and the car spoke for itself. It took a lot of phone calls on his part, but he eventually got them to cough up something like $7,000 to repair that car!

Had another friend with a similar Miata that got crunched... They offered him something like $1800, he contested and got it up to $4k.

Same friend had yet another Miata get bit (the one he bought with the money from the first one)... They offered him $4500 and he got it up to $8k.

Only guy I've ever known who's managed to buy used Miatas, crash them, and MAKE MONEY from it. The second car above was a "certificate of destruction" car. We literally took EVERY single part off of the car. And then before the shell went to scrap, a Spec Miata builder ended up buying it for $300!

Moral of the story, and it's obvious from the story in this thread: Don't take the insurance company's first offer. The COMPANY claims adjuster is going to offer you a low offer and hope that you take it. You don't have to take it, and in most cases you shouldn't. Get private body shop quotes. If it's getting totalled, get independent appraisals. Find YOUR OWN comparable cars for sale to show what it's worth. That's what it takes to get top dollar.

Loren - Good advice for anyone to read. Insurance companies are out to make money.

[A-Aron]

Stevedmc,, I'm ok with white trash comment,,
But the add posted below your comment in the milage one caught me off guard...

Talk about wrong add in wrong post,,,
Or right..
Does someone pick them????

[A-Aron]

Ps. Hospice is an awesome organization and strongly support there actions. Not only with disabled but especially the terminally ill.

[Eggman]

Talk about wrong add in wrong post,,,
Or right..
Does someone pick them????

Google Ad Services displays ads based on what They think are your interests based on your browsing habits, among other criteria.

It's noteworthy just how much data Google is collecting on us.

[stevedmc]

Advertisements aren't cool. It really isn't that expensive to run a vBulletin forum such as this one. Advertisements just demonstrates the priorities of the person who owns this forum: money

Head over to my forum if you want to see what a forum can look like without advertising: www.dmctoday.com

I think my initial investment in vBulletin was something like $300, it took my redneck self less than a day to figure out how to get the thing running, and the hosting is so cheap, I prepaid up to the year 2021 with Godaddy. It probably averages out to less than $5 a month for unlimited data hosting.

[Dirk Diggler]

Im looking at Hospice or Long Term Care for work. I graduate soon from CNA school.