Ameriprise and Total Loss Protection

[darrelld]

Received my 2018 Model S 100D new inventory the first week of October 2018. By October 11, 2018 a car ran into rhe front drivers side of my new 100D and put me in the ICU for 3 days.

Video and pictures;

Ameriprise says this car can be fixed and have not declared a total loss yet.

What do you think?

 

[drklain]

Unfortunately, its quite possible the insurance company will NOT total loss the car. To be a total loss, the cost of repair has to exceed a significant percentage of the car's value.

My wife was in a horrific head-on collision in a minivan with a total value of around 23K. Despite having to basically rebuild the front end, replace the engine and transmission, the cost of repairs didn't exceed the threshold.

Unfortunately, your car's value was likely somewhere around 90-100K. It will take a long time to repair that car (mainly waiting for parts from Tesla), but I'm not sure the cost to repair will exceed 45K. You've got several body panels that need replacement and repainting -- call that 10-15K. New wheel axles and likely the linkages-- call it 5K. New windows -- call it 2-3K. New airbag and possibly steering wheel -- call it 1K. New rear bumper cover and ultrasonic sensors - 2K. New rear hatch and possibly glass - 2K. Replacement interior trim - .5K. Total now is somewhere around 28-29K. You may have another 5 K in other parts/labor but I don't see you reaching a total loss threshold.

Your best bet is to work with a reputable shop that will accurately cost out the cost of repair and ensure they include EVERYTHING in the estimate...and then make the argument that the damage is so extensive that the car will never be the same and you want them to total it. Will really depend on how sympathetic your adjuster is. Good luck working with the insurance company. Remember -- they are not your friend and they are going to do everything possible to minimize the amount of money they have to pay out. You may be in a position where you need to hire someone to represent your best interests who has experience negotiating this kind of stuff with insurance companies...

 

[sharpgator]

I’m interested in how you weathered the accident. Do you feel like the Tesla did its job?

 

[Tesomega]

Make sure to make a Diminished value claim, if they end up not totaling the car.

 

[JasJ]

add in a month or two of a car rental of 100D (or 'equivalent $100K' EV) during repair and with diminished value, you might be close to totalling the vehicle.

Good luck

 

[Russell]

Damn that sucks. Hope you have a full recovery.

There's a lot of damage to your car. I would be surprised if they don't total it.
Tell the body shop that you prefer to have it totaled.
Keep us posted.

 

[Russell]

Unfortunately, its quite possible the insurance company will NOT total loss the car. To be a total loss, the cost of repair has to exceed a significant percentage of the car's value.

My wife was in a horrific head-on collision in a minivan with a total value of around 23K. Despite having to basically rebuild the front end, replace the engine and transmission, the cost of repairs didn't exceed the threshold.

Unfortunately, your car's value was likely somewhere around 90-100K. It will take a long time to repair that car (mainly waiting for parts from Tesla), but I'm not sure the cost to repair will exceed 45K. You've got several body panels that need replacement and repainting -- call that 10-15K. New wheel axles and likely the linkages-- call it 5K. New windows -- call it 2-3K. New airbag and possibly steering wheel -- call it 1K. New rear bumper cover and ultrasonic sensors - 2K. New rear hatch and possibly glass - 2K. Replacement interior trim - .5K. Total now is somewhere around 28-29K. You may have another 5 K in other parts/labor but I don't see you reaching a total loss threshold.

Your best bet is to work with a reputable shop that will accurately cost out the cost of repair and ensure they include EVERYTHING in the estimate...and then make the argument that the damage is so extensive that the car will never be the same and you want them to total it. Will really depend on how sympathetic your adjuster is. Good luck working with the insurance company. Remember -- they are not your friend and they are going to do everything possible to minimize the amount of money they have to pay out. You may be in a position where you need to hire someone to represent your best interests who has experience negotiating this kind of stuff with insurance companies...

I had less damage to my car and the estimate was over $43k

 

[Akikiki]

If I break my S, such as someone hitting me and its a bad break, it will likely be down for quite a while considering the history others have with getting parts and back on the road. But I have a plan. I am going to buy an older maybe smaller battery S (probably with a CU loan) and drive it til mine's fixed. You know how Murphy works. Having/driving another will probably expedite parts and repairs so I won't need the "spare" as long. Then, I will sell the spare and get back in mine. Sure, I will likely lose a little. But the spare will look better the day I sell it than the day I buy it, but I won't be stressed out while mine is in the shop. AND while I am waiting for mine, I will still be safer in the best car being build in the world.

 

[whitex]

@darrelld . Has the Tesla approved shop done a detailed repair estimate? We had our Model S hit in Feb. Initial visual estimate was $16.5K so the insurance was not even thinking about totaling (as they should btw, I don't blame then given the information they were provided). 3 weeks later (today I hear the wait is much, much longer around here), after the shop finally got to disassembly and detailed estimate, they stopped at $65K of estimates to check with the insurance whether they should keep on going (it was a barely 1 year old MS so they had no threshold in their computers). At that point the insurance company declared it a loss. 2 months later we got a new Model S. My wife walked away from the accident by the way, though with some pains and bruises which lasted for few weeks.

Btw, not sure what your insurance covers but ours maxed out at $1,000 of rentals. I checked after the accident whether I could increase that limit for the future, but State Farm said they don't offer any higher insurance for car rentals. Maybe if it wasn't for the fact that we were hit but an uninsured motorist who fled the scene and was never found, maybe they we could have sued for more car rental reimbursement.

Here is the accident and damage done to the car for comparison; your car looks more damaged though ours was at higher speed. The video came really handy proving accident fault - without it it would have been impossible whose fault it was (similar outcome if our car were to cross into the left lane) and without the other driver it would have been a different claim. The deductible difference itself covered the cost of dashcams in both of our Tesla's - that's why I install dashcams front and back on all our cars, then hope to never have to use them.

 

[whitex]

Btw, watching the OP's accident, it make me thing whether in situations like this it wouldn't be better (for the OP) to just steer into the offending car instead of trying to avoid it and getting hit from the side. There is a lot more crumple zones in the front of a Tesla than sides to absorb the energy. Maybe he could have walked away from this without the ICU.

Of course this is all Monday night quarterbacking, I was just thinking to myself if I would ever find myself in that situation. Not sure though, as it guarantees an accident vs. trying to avoid it and maybe, just maybe, the moron driving the other car would looks up from their cell phone and stop just in time.

 

[darrelld]

@darrelld . Has the Tesla approved shop done a detailed repair estimate? We had our Model S hit in Feb. Initial visual estimate was $16.5K so the insurance was not even thinking about totaling (as they should btw, I don't blame then given the information they were provided). 3 weeks later (today I hear the wait is much, much longer around here), after the shop finally got to disassembly and detailed estimate, they stopped at $65K of estimates to check with the insurance whether they should keep on going (it was a barely 1 year old MS so they had no threshold in their computers). At that point the insurance company declared it a loss. 2 months later we got a new Model S. My wife walked away from the accident by the way, though with some pains and bruises which lasted for few weeks.

Btw, not sure what your insurance covers but ours maxed out at $1,000 of rentals. I checked after the accident whether I could increase that limit for the future, but State Farm said they don't offer any higher insurance for car rentals. Maybe if it wasn't for the fact that we were hit but an uninsured motorist who fled the scene and was never found, maybe they we could have sued for more car rental reimbursement.

Here is the accident and damage done to the car for comparison; your car looks more damaged though ours was at higher speed. The video came really handy proving accident fault - without it it would have been impossible whose fault it was (similar outcome if our car were to cross into the left lane) and without the other driver it would have been a different claim. The deductible difference itself covered the cost of dashcams in both of our Tesla's - that's why I install dashcams front and back on all our cars, then hope to never have to use them.

I have contacted Tesla and they stated they do not send appraisers to do repair estimates?
Odd response I know.

 

[whitex]

I have contacted Tesla and they stated they do not send appraisers to do repair estimates?
Odd response I know.

They don't. Your car should be at a Tesla approved body shop which has people (or a person) who are trained to do the appraisal. Those people occasionally reach out to service centers for help, but it's not Tesla who does the estimates.

Unless of course somehow your car is at one of Elon's touted Tesla body shops, but there are very few of them and I don't believe any of them do any structural damage.

 

[darrelld]

add in a month or two of a car rental of 100D (or 'equivalent $100K' EV) during repair and with diminished value, you might be close to totalling the vehicle.

Good luck

My plan is definitely to file diminished value which on a 1 week old car will equal the value to attempted repairs. Texas gives you 2 years to file.

 

[darrelld]

I’m interested in how you weathered the accident. Do you feel like the Tesla did its job?

Considering the other car bypassed all the front crash protection and basically rammed straight into the passenger compartment I would say it performed well beyond what it was designed to do. Most of my injuries occurred on opposite side when the car spun and hit the pole at a backward angle.

 

[darrelld]

Btw, watching the OP's accident, it make me thing whether in situations like this it wouldn't be better (for the OP) to just steer into the offending car instead of trying to avoid it and getting hit from the side. There is a lot more crumple zones in the front of a Tesla than sides to absorb the energy. Maybe he could have walked away from this without the ICU.

Of course this is all Monday night quarterbacking, I was just thinking to myself if I would ever find myself in that situation. Not sure though, as it guarantees an accident vs. trying to avoid it and maybe, just maybe, the moron driving the other car would looks up from their cell phone and stop just in time.

It happened so quickly that I didn't have time to take anything but reflexive evasive action. I was not running Autopilot but it would have been interesting to know how it would have handled.

 

[darrelld]

They don't. Your car should be at a Tesla approved body shop which has people (or a person) who are trained to do the appraisal. Those people occasionally reach out to service centers for help, but it's not Tesla who does the estimates.

Unless of course somehow your car is at one of Elon's touted Tesla body shops, but there are very few of them and I don't believe any of them do any structural damage.

Currently the car is at a salvage yard, do I call someone like Service King for transferring the vehicle?

 

[darrelld]

Unfortunately, its quite possible the insurance company will NOT total loss the car. To be a total loss, the cost of repair has to exceed a significant percentage of the car's value.

My wife was in a horrific head-on collision in a minivan with a total value of around 23K. Despite having to basically rebuild the front end, replace the engine and transmission, the cost of repairs didn't exceed the threshold.

Unfortunately, your car's value was likely somewhere around 90-100K. It will take a long time to repair that car (mainly waiting for parts from Tesla), but I'm not sure the cost to repair will exceed 45K. You've got several body panels that need replacement and repainting -- call that 10-15K. New wheel axles and likely the linkages-- call it 5K. New windows -- call it 2-3K. New airbag and possibly steering wheel -- call it 1K. New rear bumper cover and ultrasonic sensors - 2K. New rear hatch and possibly glass - 2K. Replacement interior trim - .5K. Total now is somewhere around 28-29K. You may have another 5 K in other parts/labor but I don't see you reaching a total loss threshold.

Your best bet is to work with a reputable shop that will accurately cost out the cost of repair and ensure they include EVERYTHING in the estimate...and then make the argument that the damage is so extensive that the car will never be the same and you want them to total it. Will really depend on how sympathetic your adjuster is. Good luck working with the insurance company. Remember -- they are not your friend and they are going to do everything possible to minimize the amount of money they have to pay out. You may be in a position where you need to hire someone to represent your best interests who has experience negotiating this kind of stuff with insurance companies...

There is no way to know what damage was done to the battery pack and photo 10 appears to have intruded into. If you have ever watched Rich Rebuilds videos you quickly discover pack costs to add add up quickly.

 

[darrelld]

Unfortunately, its quite possible the insurance company will NOT total loss the car. To be a total loss, the cost of repair has to exceed a significant percentage of the car's value.

My wife was in a horrific head-on collision in a minivan with a total value of around 23K. Despite having to basically rebuild the front end, replace the engine and transmission, the cost of repairs didn't exceed the threshold.

Unfortunately, your car's value was likely somewhere around 90-100K. It will take a long time to repair that car (mainly waiting for parts from Tesla), but I'm not sure the cost to repair will exceed 45K. You've got several body panels that need replacement and repainting -- call that 10-15K. New wheel axles and likely the linkages-- call it 5K. New windows -- call it 2-3K. New airbag and possibly steering wheel -- call it 1K. New rear bumper cover and ultrasonic sensors - 2K. New rear hatch and possibly glass - 2K. Replacement interior trim - .5K. Total now is somewhere around 28-29K. You may have another 5 K in other parts/labor but I don't see you reaching a total loss threshold.

Your best bet is to work with a reputable shop that will accurately cost out the cost of repair and ensure they include EVERYTHING in the estimate...and then make the argument that the damage is so extensive that the car will never be the same and you want them to total it. Will really depend on how sympathetic your adjuster is. Good luck working with the insurance company. Remember -- they are not your friend and they are going to do everything possible to minimize the amount of money they have to pay out. You may be in a position where you need to hire someone to represent your best interests who has experience negotiating this kind of stuff with insurance companies...

So Ameriprise would happily send me on my way with a Rick Rebuilds Tesla? Does not sound like the Replacement Cost addition to the policy is a legitimate addition as its difficult to collect. Not a good experience with Ameriprise at all and the Texas TDI will probably hear from me soon.

 

[whitex]

Currently the car is at a salvage yard, do I call someone like Service King for transferring the vehicle?

When our accident happened, the car was towed to a local tow yard, but I immediately called Tesla to find out who is the Tesla certified body shop, then the insurance company to have them tow it there next day. They actually towed it to a Service King near my house, only to find out that this location didn't do structural Tesla work, so they towed it again to the correct Service Kind the next day, where it got the visual estimate done ($16.5K) and waited in line behind other Teslas for an actual estimate (>$65K) a couple of weeks later. What is the insurance company telling you the next steps are?

 

[trm2]

So Ameriprise would happily send me on my way with a Rick Rebuilds Tesla? Does not sound like the Replacement Cost addition to the policy is a legitimate addition as its difficult to collect. Not a good experience with Ameriprise at all and the Texas TDI will probably hear from me soon.

Is Ameriprise your insurance company? Theirs? Both?

The total loss decision is something like this:
Car purchased for $100,000
Car driven off lot, now worth $90,000
Oh wait, there was a tax credit involved - value $82,500.

Initial estimate to repair (well, not initial, but AFTER they start taking things apart to really find out)
< ~$65000, then fix (this allows for supplements to pop up when they discover more)
>~$65,000 - total loss as supplements/rental, etc. will likely take it over the value.

Now, if they (the other person's insurance if insured) determine a total loss, then the replacement cost comes into play.

But yes, Ameriprise would absolutely send you on your way with a repaired car.