In fact, I know he does. As well, I've experienced that with every claim I've ever submitted through any insurance company.
Well, then we are basing both our claims on two very opposite real experiences. Just because your friend is ethical doesn't mean the industry in general is. Progressive (the insurer of the other driver that ran me off the road last week and that I had to chase down for two miles before he stopped) is refusing to add value for *ANY* enhancements, other than for alloy wheels - and that only because NADA lists wheels but nothing else.
They are absolutely refusing to add for my adding higher-end OEM radio, 300M instrument cluster, larger 300M brakes, and some other things to my Concorde.
Were those trim pieces part of a prior claim that had been paid Bill? What was the background information on why you needed new trim, and it was not on the car?
Prior claim? Where do you get that, and why would you assume I was doing that. But the answer to that is no. It is exactly like I said - the original black paint on the trim was peeling. I went to a junk yard and got perfect conditon chrome trim (from a higher trim pacakge). Pulled the old trim off my car a week before the accident, hadn't put the new trim on yet, and the accident happened during that week. That's it. So you think I was trying to defraud the insurance company. The adjuster didn't even suggest that. He was just being an asshole and helping his adjustment records by fraudulently devaluing the car to the max. By the way - that was on a Mazda - their OEM parts prices are off the charts - and that was what he was subtracting from the vehicle value.
Though... it generally runs pretty true to street prices on cars. I don't see how you can call it fraudently low.
You haven't done honest real world comparisons then. Nor have you compared the condition of the crap you find on the market and level of maintenance. IOW - you didn't actually look at the condition of the vehicles that were selling at the low end NADA values. You would not want to drive a car that was actually selling for the NADA value. Well
- maybe you would, but I wouldn't.
I have never heard such a thing. In fact quite the opposite is true.
(see below where you contradict yourself on that point)
When
my daughter totalled out my car about two years ago, the insurance company even provided a print out of several cars in the area of like make/model/etc. and their current selling price.
Well, I can't choose the quality of the insurers of the people who destroy my cars, can I. The experiences I have had are that they refuse to do that - they will stubbornly point to the NADA book and insist that that is the only value thay will recognize.
He might, but it is true. They are only in the business of covering your financial loss relative to the condition of the car at the time of the accident.
Yet above, in direct response to my saying "Why do you think their standard line when you challange them to find you an equivalent car for the same money is 'We're not in the business of buying cars'?" you said "I have never heard such a thing. In fact quite the opposite is true." You're contradicting yourself. Now here you just said "They are only in the business of covering your financial loss relative to the condition of the car at the time of the accident." So which of the contradictory things you said is true?
But that's just an obfuscation factor on their and your parts. You are pretending to have missed where I said that I was not asking them to find a replacement car and buy it for me. I was asking them to prove that they could find one in the pre-accident condition of my car for the actual selling price of the NADA valuation.
Our experiences differ greatly. I've had the displeasure of dealing with two totals over the past two years, and both of my experiences radically differed from yours. I received uplifts for added work we had done on the cars and in both cases received either the high end of what those cars were really selling for, or more than the high end.
But because your experience is different, mine is invalid - that's what you're saying. Next time, I will put the world in stop motion just before he/she hits me or runs me off the road to get the credentials of their insurer and then let him/her know whether I will allow them to continue the accident. Geez.
Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')
