Dave M

I posted a thread last week about my truck being damaged by a fallen tree. I just found out today from the body shop that the truck is totalled. The guy at the body shop mentioned buying the truck back from me. How do these deals work?

I get the value of the truck from the insurance company. Then buy it from the insurance company and turn around and sell it back to the body shop? He said something about buying it for $100 over what the insurance company's salvage value is.

Thanks,
Dave M.

impulsive

not sure but did billy boy's discount tree co. have insurance??

Dave M

The tree cutter was not insured. I assume my insurance company will go after him after they pay me.

ActiveThunder

Take the insurance $$ and run. If they say it is totalled they went out of their way to figure out what was in their best interest financially. Odds are it's in yours as well. And the insurance company will write it off. They aren't spending money in subrogation to chase a tree-trimmer with no insurance. Hence, why we all pay too much for insurance: to cover the uninsured.

later

when a car or truck is deemed a total loss they are saying that they will spend more money fixing the truck then if they buy the truck from you and then sell it for salvage. lets say for example purposes that you have $8000 in repair cost and the truck is worth $10,000. the insurance would call it a total loss. why you ask? because they have companies under contract to purchase wrecks at 25% of the retail value of the car regardless of condition. So they pay you $10,000 and sell the car for $2,500 which is 25% and they are only out $7500 and not $8000 and they save $500. Any car is repairable given enough money, as the saying goes when i was in the Corvette repair and restoration business give me a screw and i can build you a car. If you wanted to keep the car you would be able to tell the insurance company you would like to buy the car back for salvage or in the example $2500 so you would keep the car and a good clean title ( not salvage title which is why the bodyshop wants to buy car from you clean title ) and the insurance would pay you $7500. So if you sell the truck to the bodyshop for $100 more then you pay which is $2500 + $100 you will actually end up with $10,100, or $100 more then you would if you just let the truck go to the insurance company. Its not a big deal, and actually its less paper work for the insurance adjuster and they all hate total losses. Pimp the bodyshop for a few more $$$$'s and go for it.

any other question hollar

later

HyperBaja

The totaled vehicles is working good for me.... Friend did 3100 in damage to his 4 runner worth 4500, insurance says it is worth 2800, so he took the $, and bought it back from the ins co, for 100, and I offered him 200$ for it, dent isnt bad, still runs perfect with 67k miles

later

actually they will pursue there loss, to see if the tree trimmer has any asset worth going after, and if they decide that they could recover there loss are a % of they will go after him and if they do recover there loss they will refund you your deductible, although if he didnt have insurance to begin with he probable doesnt have any assets either.

later

Dave M

Thanks for the info guys. Time to go truck shopping.

jeff bratton

most insurance co. will issue a salvage tital even if you buy it back, to protect their self. if that is a 4x4, i would keep the salvage, you can get more for it by selling it to a rebuilder. i may be interested myself. Jeffs auto body [email protected]