DH stopped for a pedestrian and got rear-ended

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is pretty easy to find a 2011 Hyundai elantra (I assume that is the model) for less than $9200. That would make you whole; it would replace the care that was totaled with a similar car.

Your car was not the 4 yr old car it was when you bought it; it is a six year old car.

As an extreme example, imagine, in 1999, you bought a loaded 2000 honda accord for 23000. In 2014, it is totaled. Insurance will not replace it is a 2014 Accord, but rather give the money for a 2000 honda accord which is much less.

pp here. Here is another example: in rare cases, cars can appreciate. in 2001 (post 9/11), we bought a 2001 SAAB station wagon at a great price -- almost 10K below MSRP, or 25% below MSRP. At that moment, there were huge incentives -- post 9/11 people were not buying cars. Heck, we wouldn't, except we had a baby coming. 6 months later, a car blows through a red light doing 70, t-bones the car, and totals it. Insurance gave us what it would cost to buy a 2001 SAAB 9-5 SE. The deals were over then, and it would cost us much more than we paid to replace the car. Insurance did not look at our costs. Rather, they looked at the replacement cost, and we walked away with a 6K profit. (we moved to a minivan and pocketed the difference).

Quite rare, I would say.

[Anonymous]

This is why you have an emergency fund. Life happens. If the insurance company gave everyone a new car after accidents, you would be complaining about the cost of your insurance.

Keep money in an emergency fund and realize that life has curve balls. What do you do when you have to replace your HVAC or your roof starts leaking?

[Anonymous]

OP here.
Thank you for the input and especially to those who took the time to post calculations.
The variety of responses are really helping us process this event- way more thought-provoking than the responses I've gotten from actual people

Other things I'm responding to from various posts:

1) This is the first time I've posted about this.

2) No, I am not a millennial. It's not that we are feeling "entitled," it's more about re-thinking what would have or could have put us in a better situation. Just as some posters said- our insurance must not be great. But we already checked on that. Insurance coverage is as good as it could have been. You never really know exactly how insurance is going to work until something happens. I've had zero accidents so this is the first time I'm dealing with this.

3) The other motorist was insured but State Farm told us that it didn't matter if we went through ours or theirs. Our premiums aren't affected. State Farm will be the one go after the other person's insurance. We went through ours because we've been with State Farm for more than 25 years and they have been good to deal with with other matters.

4) You cannot possibly expect to get a new, or even used car, valued higher to replace the one you had. Yes, I know. It's not the first time we've lost money from an insurance claim. New flooring from a water leak costed us money too. We've lost money from travel insurance too. The bottom line is it sucks to be out of pocket. I'm very thankful that the pedestrians weren't hurt and DH wasn't hurt. Total inconvenience, yes. The other driver did admit that he plainly just zoned out.

5) Thanks for the suggestion on the 2016 models. I think we will look into that. As much as we didn't want another car payment, we'll put our out of pocket into a newer car. The old, paid off car was a 2011 with 50k miles on it. We have not been able to find one just like that. We have 2 weeks left on our rental car so we need to find something fairly quickly.

[Anonymous]

This whole situation is so cringe inducing.

[Anonymous]

I am the pp who said you could have gotten the valuation report and negotiated. I did that and got a $4,000 offer on an older, very high-mileage car increased to $4,600 by State Farm. They look at similar cars currently for sale in your area and add/subtract $ for differences and offer you the average of the adjusted values. The report shows all the items they think your car has. They did not have the correct package and didn't account for various other features. They also took off for mileage, and in retrospect, I should have tried to negotiate the cents per mile they used for that lower. Also when they sent the POA, I said I would not sign it until they had updated the report.

To the other posters, whether someone has an emergency fund doesn't change whether they should try to get the maximum value from the insurance. Often those buying used cars are the same people who realize the importance of an emergency fund.

[Anonymous]

Try to sue the other driver, either personally or via the other driver's insurance. You should be made whole.

[Anonymous]

You should get your deductible back after State Farm subrogates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here.
Thank you for the input and especially to those who took the time to post calculations.
The variety of responses are really helping us process this event- way more thought-provoking than the responses I've gotten from actual people

Other things I'm responding to from various posts:

1) This is the first time I've posted about this.

2) No, I am not a millennial. It's not that we are feeling "entitled," it's more about re-thinking what would have or could have put us in a better situation. Just as some posters said- our insurance must not be great. But we already checked on that. Insurance coverage is as good as it could have been. You never really know exactly how insurance is going to work until something happens. I've had zero accidents so this is the first time I'm dealing with this.

3) The other motorist was insured but State Farm told us that it didn't matter if we went through ours or theirs. Our premiums aren't affected. State Farm will be the one go after the other person's insurance. We went through ours because we've been with State Farm for more than 25 years and they have been good to deal with with other matters.

4) You cannot possibly expect to get a new, or even used car, valued higher to replace the one you had. Yes, I know. It's not the first time we've lost money from an insurance claim. New flooring from a water leak costed us money too. We've lost money from travel insurance too. The bottom line is it sucks to be out of pocket. I'm very thankful that the pedestrians weren't hurt and DH wasn't hurt. Total inconvenience, yes. The other driver did admit that he plainly just zoned out.

5) Thanks for the suggestion on the 2016 models. I think we will look into that. As much as we didn't want another car payment, we'll put our out of pocket into a newer car. The old, paid off car was a 2011 with 50k miles on it. We have not been able to find one just like that. We have 2 weeks left on our rental car so we need to find something fairly quickly.

I posted a car that met your requirements, and was less than the insurance settlement. What do you mean you are unable to find a replacement?

Furthermore, by filing on your own insurance, you have lost your deductible. You may get it back, but it doesn't sound like you are in a position to loan anyone $250 right now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Try to sue the other driver, either personally or via the other driver's insurance. You should be made whole.

She is being made whole. She is getting the replacement value of the car that was totaled. She isn't entitled to a newer or better car.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here.
Thank you for the input and especially to those who took the time to post calculations.
The variety of responses are really helping us process this event- way more thought-provoking than the responses I've gotten from actual people

Other things I'm responding to from various posts:

1) This is the first time I've posted about this.

2) No, I am not a millennial. It's not that we are feeling "entitled," it's more about re-thinking what would have or could have put us in a better situation. Just as some posters said- our insurance must not be great. But we already checked on that. Insurance coverage is as good as it could have been. You never really know exactly how insurance is going to work until something happens. I've had zero accidents so this is the first time I'm dealing with this.

3) The other motorist was insured but State Farm told us that it didn't matter if we went through ours or theirs. Our premiums aren't affected. State Farm will be the one go after the other person's insurance. We went through ours because we've been with State Farm for more than 25 years and they have been good to deal with with other matters.

4) You cannot possibly expect to get a new, or even used car, valued higher to replace the one you had. Yes, I know. It's not the first time we've lost money from an insurance claim. New flooring from a water leak costed us money too. We've lost money from travel insurance too. The bottom line is it sucks to be out of pocket. I'm very thankful that the pedestrians weren't hurt and DH wasn't hurt. Total inconvenience, yes. The other driver did admit that he plainly just zoned out.

5) Thanks for the suggestion on the 2016 models. I think we will look into that. As much as we didn't want another car payment, we'll put our out of pocket into a newer car. The old, paid off car was a 2011 with 50k miles on it. We have not been able to find one just like that. We have 2 weeks left on our rental car so we need to find something fairly quickly.

I posted a car that met your requirements, and was less than the insurance settlement. What do you mean you are unable to find a replacement?

Furthermore, by filing on your own insurance, you have lost your deductible. You may get it back, but it doesn't sound like you are in a position to loan anyone $250 right now.

Not OP, but that car has way more than 50k miles and you have to account for sales tax that should have been part of the settlement, so it might not really be less.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Try to sue the other driver, either personally or via the other driver's insurance. You should be made whole.

She is being made whole. She is getting the replacement value of the car that was totaled. She isn't entitled to a newer or better car.

Yes exactly. This is very odd. And judging by the OP's response, she still doesn't get it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

4) You cannot possibly expect to get a new, or even used car, valued higher to replace the one you had. Yes, I know. It's not the first time we've lost money from an insurance claim. New flooring from a water leak costed us money too. We've lost money from travel insurance too. The bottom line is it sucks to be out of pocket. I'm very thankful that the pedestrians weren't hurt and DH wasn't hurt. Total inconvenience, yes. The other driver did admit that he plainly just zoned out.

soooooooooo if you get this (and you don't), then why did you make this thread?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: The bottom line is it sucks to be out of pocket.

you will not be out of pocket if you replace the car you actually lost and do not buy a more expensive car. it sounds like you're upset you didn't profit from this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here.
Thank you for the input and especially to those who took the time to post calculations.
The variety of responses are really helping us process this event- way more thought-provoking than the responses I've gotten from actual people

Other things I'm responding to from various posts:

1) This is the first time I've posted about this.

2) No, I am not a millennial. It's not that we are feeling "entitled," it's more about re-thinking what would have or could have put us in a better situation. Just as some posters said- our insurance must not be great. But we already checked on that. Insurance coverage is as good as it could have been. You never really know exactly how insurance is going to work until something happens. I've had zero accidents so this is the first time I'm dealing with this.

3) The other motorist was insured but State Farm told us that it didn't matter if we went through ours or theirs. Our premiums aren't affected. State Farm will be the one go after the other person's insurance. We went through ours because we've been with State Farm for more than 25 years and they have been good to deal with with other matters.

4) You cannot possibly expect to get a new, or even used car, valued higher to replace the one you had. Yes, I know. It's not the first time we've lost money from an insurance claim. New flooring from a water leak costed us money too. We've lost money from travel insurance too. The bottom line is it sucks to be out of pocket. I'm very thankful that the pedestrians weren't hurt and DH wasn't hurt. Total inconvenience, yes. The other driver did admit that he plainly just zoned out.

5) Thanks for the suggestion on the 2016 models. I think we will look into that. As much as we didn't want another car payment, we'll put our out of pocket into a newer car. The old, paid off car was a 2011 with 50k miles on it. We have not been able to find one just like that. We have 2 weeks left on our rental car so we need to find something fairly quickly.

Your heavy use of insurance claims will end up costing you in higher premiums. Insurance company track the frequent flyers and price their rate accordingly. And you cannot just jump companies to reset - they share data in something called CLUE, which tracks both your homeowner and auto insurance claims over the last 7 years.

[Anonymous]

OP you still do not get it. You are NOT losing money on this. You are able to take the insurance money & purchase the exact model & condition of car you lost without having to add more money. You will come out whole with the same car. What part of this does not make sense to you?