OP: how much was the appraised value compared to a comparable new car ? How many miles on the car ? I'm curious about depreciation.
My 2016 Facelift Tesla Model S 90D had AP1, Gray Leather, Matte Obeche, and a Panoramic Roof. It was $99,950 new including the refferal discount. It had 5,800 miles on the odometer when we were in the accident. The appraised value was 94,320 by my appraiser and I think 93,200 by Geico. Considering I got $7,500 back for the federal rebate, it was basically a wash - even a bit in my favor. I was fortunate enough to purchase the replacement before Tesla dropped the 90D (took delivery the same day they discontinued it!). I wanted a faster delivery, so I got a new inventory car with a couple additional options I didn't care about (Audio and SubZero) and without the Panoramic roof since the all glass roof does 90% of what I cared about better than the Pano anyway. It also came with AP2 and, unfortunately, the new interior options. The new car was $104,150. Had I waited for delivery I could have saved some, but if I configured the Pano, it would have been something like $1,000.
What about, after a wreck, going to Tesla for a trade-in deal? Trade in the wrecked car - no repairs - and let Tesla work with insurance and repair companies. Is this even a possibility? [if it sounds crazy, I guess it actually is] Was Henry David Thoreau was right? We don't own things, they own us.
I called Tesla to try and get information about diminished value. They wouldn't even give me a rough number for the expected delta. Sources suggest anything with structural damage cannot qualify for cpo.
Thanks Won't it be nice if accidents become a thing of the past? How about this claim? Liberty Mutual "better car replacement" ? Better Car Replacement Insurance | Liberty Mutual
@dvhart, great writeup. I went through a similar although abbreviated process as yours, @dvhart, for another car (not a Tesla; a rare old turbo-charged stick-shift 1982 245 Volvo back in 2005, of all things). There are a few things I want to echo and ditto of what you said that I found to be true: The opposing party (their insurer in your case, my insurer in my case, could be anybody depending upon circumstances) will absolutely fight you. You must expect it. You must fight back to win ground. Since we have truth on our side, that does mean they will lie to you, and ignore law when it befits their lies. As you pointed out, being armed to the teeth helps. Having angles at every approach seems necessary. This gets to the next point: Appraisals, process flow, decision points, good knowledge are key. Having an insurance agent be your guide is one great way to do that; I forget if I had that exactly, but the general idea of going into this knowing all the angles to approach is something I totally agree with: it helped in my case. I intentionally sought out an advisor; I think I hired one (experienced topic specific) advisor and one appraiser. This made all the difference to me. The rest was just procedure (albeit, as you mentioned, laced with emotion and jousting). Dedication, persistence, and knowing that your side of the process properly executed with the above principles will win, does win. Unfortunately, they do get their blood: $6,000 for you. In my case, it was more like $3,500. They cheat us by that much. But, in both our cases, they wanted to cheat us by many more times than that originally. If we're not independently wealthy beyond anybody's needs, then it's basically worth it for us to fight the good fight and get a proper closer-to-reality settlement, as you and I both did. I found it worth the effort by many orders of magnitude. For Teslas, I think it's basically a given that this is the right approach. As your example shows, it was definitely worth it for anybody but, as I said, those who are the most rich. Thankfully, when I owned my Tesla, I never had to deal with this at all.
Awesome post dvhart! Did you have the third row seats? How well did the trunk area do? Also I'm a bit confused by your valuations here: It looks like you're saying the salvage value of the Tesla would be $35k, but the value of the repaired car would only be $21k.
GEICO also was a total pain for me in an accident last year. Similarly, other driver insured by G (w minimal coverage) was 100% at fault. After 4 months of no car (making payments) and 3k+ in rental car costs...they finally totaled it, AFTER the body shop made out w 50k of the insurance companies money, only to total after the "motor blew on the final test drive" - idiots never put oil back in the car, despite saying they did. All in all after tons of phone calls and arguing, I was probably out $1k total. For someone else's fault. It was such a ****ing headache, and without it being large enough of a situation to hire a lawyer, I just gave up. Really opened my eyes to how sad the whole system is, cut all corners at the expense of the person w the most means, hope they don't notice, and move on, instead of emphasizing support, empathy, removing burdens (they even asked me to call and get quotes to tow the car.....asking the customer!!! "Since we are an insurance company they will fleece us, it will be cheaper if you call"). These are major major major insurance companies, and the experience couldn't have been much worse. Agent was useless too. Bottom line - great thread, if anyone hasn't been in a situation like this, get ready, it's a total pain in the ass, learn from all this and try to cut to the chase to get the outcome you want. Don't trust these scumbags for a second, make your expectations loud and clear and hold them accountable, or you will be taken for a ride by the very ppl you cut checks to to provide you with service, because they get taken for a ride due to the shadiness of this industry (repair shops, dealers, etc) and someone else needs to absorb the blow w them. Terrible.
It's now time for me to lawyer up. As a fellow Portland area resident, we probably used the same body shop and appraiser. What lawyer did you use?
@dvhart Thanks for taking the time to write this up. I have bookmarked this thread, am taking screenshots on a regular basis and storing paper copies in a safe. Just in case. Enjoy your new car!
Excellent thread and great writeup DVhart. As an independent insurance agent myself, thank you for the kudos to the profession. I'm glad one of my fellow IA's has proven to be valuable. I've done the same for many clients in the same scenario, however never in a Tesla. My own brand new 85D was backed into when it was less than a week old (with 150 miles on it) and had to negotiate my own claim and settlement, including DV with the other party. Even for an agent, it was no cakewalk and I needed the assistance of a DV evaluation expert and independent appraiser. You and your agent did the right thing and went straight 3rd party, and the reasons you listed were spot on. I've argued with many on here who insist on just filing everything on their policy and letting their insurance company handle it. That has numerous drawbacks, which you detailed, not to mention a claim on your record (even as not-at fault) that could complicate issues if/when you are ever moved from your current insurer to another. Way to stay level headed and fight for what you deserved. Well done.
This story gave me anxiety just reading it, dealing with people who spend their life trying to argue against every claim, no matter how reasonable and standard would keep me up at night too. Thanks for sharing this journey, I'm sure it aged you a few years!
I just helped my sister out with her claim on a recent accident where the other party was 100% at fault. I had prepared here with answers to common "shady" statements, what to demand in the settlement, and the proper procedure for the way thing should happen. Her car was not worth much so the damage easily totaled the car but the car itself is perfectly serviceable and with some bolt on salvage parts would be perfectly safe to continue driving. With this in mind she wanted to keep the car and deduct the salvage value from the payout. She had the car in her possession but the adjuster kept insisting that they needed to tow the car to inspect it. When she asked where they were going to do the inspection, they told her they were going to tow it to Copart for the inspection. I had already told her that Copart was an auto auction house that specialized in insurance salvage auctions. They obviously had no intention to meet her requirements and planned on just auctioning it off, sight unseen. Needless to say, she turned down the "offer" to have it towed and in the end got the proper value and kept the car.
I'm dealing with an accident where I got rear ended. The body shop is saying the 3rd party insurance most likely won't pay for the entire cost of replacing the bumper, and that I will have to pay for whatever they don't collect. Their estimate was $1,600. Is there anyway to get the insurance company to pay the $1600 before the work is done, but leave the claim open in case there is structural damage found underneath? Do you also recommend keeping my personal auto insurance out of this? I don't want to give them any excuses to raise my rates.
Another independent agent here and this thread details why GEICO is perhaps the worst company to ever deal with as a claimant (the third party). They will fight and argue every step of the way. Not just with a Tesla but even with a Honda Civic. We have to intervene constantly with our clients. And they will delay paying subrogation for MONTHS in many cases. There are options you can purchase as 1st party coverage that can help in total losses, especially with new vehicles. Loan gap is one but even better are "new car replacement or better car replacement" options. Theses endorsements are extra. but in the OP case he would not have to fight GEICO at all if his company had totaled the vehicle from the outset and he had new car replacement option. I agree with the other agent that way too many people will file claims on their own policy when not at fault and there can be negative consequences to doing so. However, when dealing with GEICO there are times I will advise clients to file the 1st party claim to avoid having to deal with all the BS from GEICO.
I have my Model S insured with GEICO. They've been pleasant to deal with and the price of the policy is quite good, but I've never had to put in a claim. Should I be looking for a different company? Actually, I did put in a claim once, for a cracked windshield that wasn't patchable. But then I decided I didn't care about the crack and would just wait for another one to appear or that one to grow. It's been stable for a year and a half now, so I never followed up on my initial report. But they were quite straightforward with that -- told me it would cost me my $500 deductible and it could be taken care of quite simply. And when I told them I didn't want to go ahead with the claim, they told me any time I changed my mind would be fine. So no complaints here.
Thanks a lot for your informative write up.I wish I hadn't just acquired a reason to find it interesting: Happened today, I also got rear ended - though not at quite the speed you seem to have been hit; the other car was thrown off the road down an embankment and across a ditch; had to call emergency services for the other driver, he had a bleeding head wound and chest pain after his airbag deployed. I walked away without any hurt whatsoever. As for my Tesla: The rear bumper came off completely, the trunk was pushed in about 1 foot. Stil, it left the site of the crash under its own power even if it's no longer street-legal. The experience is not immediately comparable since my accident was in Europe. Also, I had stopped far enough from the car in front of me that I didn't get any damage in the front from being pushed forward. I guess this means totaling the car won't be an option. The time frame of about 6 months for repairs is what's most frightening for me at the moment. wish me luck in getting this resolved