Advice on not-at-fault insurance claim in WA

[GrimRe]

Typical story: was rear-ended at about ~30MPH. Damage to rear quarter-panel, bumper, door, wheel etc. Initial estimate $20K from a Tesla authorized auto shop with earliest start time of mid September and then a further month for parts repairs.

Geico (insurer of at fault driver) says they only owe me a rental car while car is in the shop and max 30 days. We only have 1 car and not having the Tesla is a SEVERE inconvenience for us. We use it to drive to our respective jobs and we also are going on an extensive road trip with everything all booked in July.

If you combine the repairs, rental, diminished value the total liability is about the cash value price of the car.

Does anyone have any experience on how to convince insurers its in their interests just to total the car in the face of quickly escalating costs?

 

[ewoodrick]

Typical story: was rear-ended at about ~30MPH. Damage to rear quarter-panel, bumper, door, wheel etc. Initial estimate $20K from a Tesla authorized auto shop with earliest start time of mid September and then a further month for parts repairs.

Geico (insurer of at fault driver) says they only owe me a rental car while car is in the shop and max 30 days. We only have 1 car and not having the Tesla is a SEVERE inconvenience for us. We use it to drive to our respective jobs and we also are going on an extensive road trip with everything all booked in July.

If you combine the repairs, rental, diminished value the total liability is about the cash value price of the car.

Does anyone have any experience on how to convince insurers its in their interests just to total the car in the face of quickly escalating costs?

Then you may need to bring some layers in.

 

[GrimRe]

Then you may need to bring some layers in.

Yes I fear that also.

Has anyone successfully bought a new Tesla in the mean-time and then claimed loss of use as a per day compensation?

My plan would be to let the repairer fix the car; buy a new car now; wait till old one is fixed and then immediately sell it. I want to claim the time without the old car and then loss in value after selling.

 

[IdaX]

Don’t go through your insurance. Go through theirs. They are required to pay either for a rental car or, better, loss of use for yours. I got $75/day plus $15/day from the at-fault party for 4 months to get my Model 3 fixed back in 2019. You have to fight though — as you might imagine, the other insurance company won’t just volunteer this stuff. Plus they should pay you for diminished value, too.

I ended up buying a used Leaf in the interim, but I like your idea of a new Tesla and then sell the old one even better!

 

[GrimRe]

@IdaX was this $75 per day retro-actively via a lawsuit? Or did you somehow convince the insurer at the time to pay out the loss of use?

 

[IdaX]

@IdaX was this $75 per day retro-actively via a lawsuit? Or did you somehow convince the insurer at the time to pay out the loss of use?

I wrote them a detailed 3-page letter outlining my argument -- that their guy crashed into my premium car and that I needed an equivalent vehicle and not a clunker, and that Model 3's were going for $100/day on Turo so they owed me $100/day. They said that $75 was their max, but offered me $15 more a day to offset the gas cost. I took it rather than quibble about the difference. I then priced out my car on kbb.com as if in "Excellent" condition, where it started, and as if in "Good" condition, which I thought it would be evaluated having been in an accident, and asked for that difference as diminished value. They agreed to send it to me.

Both of these were after having been blown off by the initial agent who said that it "wasn't their policy to do diminished value". I informed her that her "policy" was irrelevant: the law was that I needed to be made whole, and they would be paying it in the end one way or another. I got transferred to another agent I guess, and the new person understood the situation more fully, and it was that new person that I sent my requests to.

 

[IdaX]

Here's a redacted version of the letter that I sent. They didn't buy point #2 at all, and I didn't push back on that...

As you can see I hadn't remembered all the details when I related them in my previous post. There were also more... amusing editorial phrases than I had remembered, too

 

[GrimRe]

This is extremely helpful. Thank you very much for taking the time to respond.

 

[ewoodrick]

I wrote them a detailed 3-page letter outlining my argument -- that their guy crashed into my premium car and that I needed an equivalent vehicle and not a clunker, and that Model 3's were going for $100/day on Turo so they owed me $100/day. They said that $75 was their max, but offered me $15 more a day to offset the gas cost.

Car rental during repair is normally a completely different price than an average rental.

I don't believe policies tend to support "comparable" rentals. $75 is actually a pretty good allowance, repair rentals are often something like $20 a day.

 

[IdaX]

Car rental during repair is normally a completely different price than an average rental.

I don't believe policies tend to support "comparable" rentals. $75 is actually a pretty good allowance, repair rentals are often something like $20 a day.

They don’t just have to rent you any old car — they have to make you whole, by renting you a comparable car. Of course they try to get away with putting you in a $20/day econobox but you don’t have to take it.

If it’s your own insurance company paying for the rental then it’s a different story…

 

[ewoodrick]

They don’t just have to rent you any old car — they have to make you whole, by renting you a comparable car. Of course they try to get away with putting you in a $20/day econobox but you don’t have to take it.

If it’s your own insurance company paying for the rental then it’s a different story…

And where is that written?

If you wreck my Rolls, I can expect to drive a Rolls?

 

[IdaX]

And where is that written?

If you wreck my Rolls, I can expect to drive a Rolls?

yes.

If they wreck your minivan, they can’t get away with renting you a Ford Fiesta.

They hit you and deprived you of use of your car. They owe you a per-day amount corresponding to the loss of use of that car while it is being repaired to make you whole, or you can accept a rental at your discretion.