Owning a Tesla is awesome, until you get into an accident...

[skilly]

Do you know which insurance company in the US offer a "new car replacement" policy? I asked State Farm, but they had no idea what I was talking about.

Liberty Mutual and the good news with them is that they are highly rated and usually very competitive in their Premium costs. In fact, their new car replacement option is "15K miles less or 1 year newer replacement"

 

[andrewket]

Do you know which insurance company in the US offer a "new car replacement" policy? I asked State Farm, but they had no idea what I was talking about.

Allstate. Your policy must be at least "gold" which gives you accident forgiveness and deductible decreases. You can then opt in for replacement value coverage on any individual car.

 

[Jaff]

Since it appears that any sort of "waiver of depreciation / replacement cost option" is not so commonplace in the U.S. , it might be a good idea for Model S owners to shop their coverage (in addition) to just shopping price...Oscar Wilde..."A cynic knows the price of everything and the value of nothing"...:wink:

 

[breser]

Do you know which insurance company in the US offer a "new car replacement" policy? I asked State Farm, but they had no idea what I was talking about.

Liberty Mutual, AllState, Nationwide. It might vary by state what they offer.

 

[Grant Gerke]

StandardCode,
This is a very interesting topic, could I present a couple of your comments for an article on Teslarati.com? I write for them and would not identify your screen name or anybody else on this thread?

 

[JohnQ]

StandardCode,
This is a very interesting topic, could I present a couple of your comments for an article on Teslarati.com? I write for them and would not identify your screen name or anybody else on this thread?

Regardless of StandardCode's answer I find it refreshing that an author is seeking permission to reference a post rather than simply using it without permission. Kudos for doing so.

 

[EarlyAdopter]

I just replaced a two year old 2013 P85 on my insurance with a new 2014 P85D and my 6mo rate went up a whole $3.

 

[Super Snake]

Liberty mutual won't write it in Delaware even though I am already a customer. I had to go to Chubb insurance for a full replacement policy

 

[adelman]

Regardless of StandardCode's answer I find it refreshing that an author is seeking permission to reference a post rather than simply using it without permission. Kudos for doing so.

Yes, especially since the same author violated our copyright on the first "P85D" photograph and published it on his Teslerati website without either paying the requested royally nor removing it when requested.

 

[neroden]

A day later it turns out that Ameriprise is declaring my baby a total loss!! Why you ask? Apparently Tesla-certified body shops aren't cheap. In addition to the $10,000 in parts there's $20,000 in labor. Ameriprise decided they'd rather declare the car a total loss than pay $30k+tax for repair. Why you ask? Well here goes...

Since there's no KBB value for the S, apparently the insurance company can just arbitrarily decide the value! As it stands right now they estimate the value of my <1 year old perfectly maintained $90,000 baby at $70,000!

Calling this a total loss seems fishy in the extreme, since the $30K is less than $70K! Unless Ameriprise thinks the scrap value is $40K!?! What's going on here, does anyone with experience in insurance understand this?

(I owe $70k to US Bank on the car!)

That should be irrelelvant to Ameriprise...

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Oddly, it is not limited to Tesla. Any premium vehicle will most likely be totaled. It is because the sum of the parts is greater than the whole. It is more profitable to sell the components of the car: Battery, finders, rims, etc.

In that case, it is Tesla's unwillingness to sell new parts to third parties which is jacking up the open-market value of the parts. Tesla has got to change this policy.

- - - Updated - - -

I... we're also in a unique position of having our body parts be particularly expensive, even given their aluminum construction. On top of that we have sky-high labor costs at the authorized repair centers. The combination of the two providing a perfect storm that results in a Model S being totaled if you even sneeze in its general direction.

The price gouging at the authorized repair centers is a big issue, obviously, but it doesn't account for a car valued at $70K being totalled when it was assessed at $30K in repair costs. Why does the insurance company think they can get *$40K* by parting out the car?

Tesla chokehold on parts supplies is the only explanation I've heard so far.

- - - Updated - - -

Again, I have to challenge this statement as we have the same insurance company yet my rate has only gone down over the last 2 years of Tesla ownership. There clearly are other factors at play.

Location. People in the big cities on the East Coast (DC, NYC, etc.) have increased rates because there are a *lot* of fender-benders out there.

 

[standardcode]

Update:

Ameriprise decided to repair my car in the end. The body shop did a beautiful job and my car looks as good as it did before the accident. If I was to rate the companies I had to deal with on a scale of 1-10 I'd rate Tesla a 7+, the body shop a 9 and Ameriprise a 1. Time to shop for better insurance with replacement value...

 

[EdA]

Update:

Ameriprise decided to repair my car in the end. The body shop did a beautiful job and my car looks as good as it did before the accident. If I was to rate the companies I had to deal with on a scale of 1-10 I'd rate Tesla a 7+, the body shop a 9 and Ameriprise a 1. Time to shop for better insurance with replacement value...

Hope you don't have to go through this again...glad it is looking good

 

[Jaff]

Thanks for the update...a lesson for all here...

Update:

Ameriprise decided to repair my car in the end. The body shop did a beautiful job and my car looks as good as it did before the accident. If I was to rate the companies I had to deal with on a scale of 1-10 I'd rate Tesla a 7+, the body shop a 9 and Ameriprise a 1. Time to shop for better insurance with replacement value...

 

[Gizmotoy]

Thanks for the update...a lesson for all here...

What I wish was that there was a better mechanism to find out what insurance companies are actually good. I've spoken to some brokers with access to smaller companies, but they seem universally bad. I'd like a higher quality insurance, but even the more expensive boutique places have reviews no better than the well-known national brands. Seems like a crapshoot.

 

[Zextraterrestrial]

What I wish was that there was a better mechanism to find out what insurance companies are actually good. I've spoken to some brokers with access to smaller companies, but they seem universally bad. I'd like a higher quality insurance, but even the more expensive boutique places have reviews no better than the well-known national brands. Seems like a crapshoot.

TMC crowd fund insurance?
(not that anyone here would want to insure me :tongue

 

[Jaff]

Unfortunately Giz, a lot of it has to do with the quality (or lack thereof) of the personnel of the local branch office (in Canada at least) ...dunno about the U.S.

For every testimonial you read from a satisfied customer of a specific insurer, you can always find one from a dissatisfied customer...everyone has a different level of satisfaction ...(just like this place, where most are realistic, but as we all can see, "you can't please everyone")

I think the best you can do is adopt a protocol of setting your coverage parameters (coverage and limits that you choose to meet your requirements...rule is coverage first, price second)... then shop only those companies that will meet those parameters...this is no guarantee, but, it would have avoided the angst of the OP in this thread.

What I wish was that there was a better mechanism to find out what insurance companies are actually good. I've spoken to some brokers with access to smaller companies, but they seem universally bad. I'd like a higher quality insurance, but even the more expensive boutique places have reviews no better than the well-known national brands. Seems like a crapshoot.

 

[SteelGrey]

Liberty Mutual and the good news with them is that they are highly rated and usually very competitive in their Premium costs. In fact, their new car replacement option is "15K miles less or 1 year newer replacement"

Agreed - LM was only about $15.00 more per year for my P85D than my 2014 Cadillac XTS (comparing apples to apples on coverage). I did add the "Better Car Replacement" option for the Model S at an additional $151.00 /year.

 

[castor]

I have Ameriprise and now I'm concerned... another company to recommend?

 

[golfski]

I have Ameriprise and now I'm concerned... another company to recommend?

In WA I would go with PEMCO…they have a history of doing the customer right. There is no guaranteed replacement in their auto-policies but I think you could do an Agreed Value. They have a history of treating customers well and only insure the highest quality drivers (no tickets, etc..) which keeps their rates very low.

 

[taurusking]

I was looking up online to see if there is any rating of the insurance companies and I did find one website.

State Farm , All State and Geico were top rated but the website did not specify by region.

I switched from Geico ( was very happy with their customer service ) mainly because Liberty Mutual offers Better Car Replacement pkg.

Some insurance companies offer agreed value only in certain states.

Just my thoughts.