Things are progressing along at a relatively good clip regarding the processing of my claim.Gotta hand it to the gecko, I think they’ll pull through for me in a timely fashion. The adjuster is checking out the car today and I should know a little better by this evening when I’d get a check…and, more importantly, for how much.
Of course the humorous TV commercial with James Lipton “translating” for the “actual customer” implied that a claim check could be cut within 10 business hours. We’ll see how much over that timeframe my claim takes. So far it’s about 16 business hours since I filed the claim online. Eh, if I can get a check today or tomorrow, that’d be fine with me. If it takes ‘till next week though….arrrgh!
I figure I should get “replacement value”, that is, the actual cost including taxes, etc. of getting a replacement automobile of the same make, model, year, mileage and condition as the insured vehicle. I’d have to read the fine-print to be sure, but that sounds logically like the way it should work. If they assess the car as a total loss, which, well you see the pics in the previous post, I think they will.
So, scoping around, I figure a replacement cost for the car would be around $5,000 (about what I paid for it last year). After my $500 deductible, that should provide me with about $4,500 to use for a new one. At least this is what I hope. We’ll see what actually is provided.
Adding that to what I have available in my checking account, and I am faced with one of two choices; either go out and buy a similar used car for cash, or, drop a really nice down-payment on a newer used or even a brand-new car.
I don’t come away from all this with the illusion that I will suffer no losses and only gain.
Yes, a replacement value payoff for the car should be a much better deal for trading up than if I tried to either trade-in the car as part of a purchase deal from a dealership or attempt to sell it to a private party. In those situations, I would have been looking at $2,000 to $3,500 max. The price in both cases tied closer to book value.
But, my insurance rates may now go up since I had been paying pretty low rates being that I am middle-aged, work in an office 3 miles from home, drove a conservative-styled car with many safety features (like ABS brakes and airbags which helped minimize this event to just a property loss issue rather than adding personal injury to the mix, thank you!), and, until this past weekend, hadn’t had an accident in about 20 years.
Also, I have the ticket. The state trooper said that he understood it was the road conditions and the rain that contributed, but he did have to write me a ticket for careless driving. That’ll be about $130 after I take the online traffic school course to eliminate the points on my license.
As far as the property damage to the redneck's 1979 Ford pick-up, there's no way it'll exceed the $25,000 property liability coverage I have. That's a relief. Whew! Though these yahoos might try to get themselves a sleezy lawyer and sue me, but they don't have anything to stand on. They just have big, loud country-bumpkin trash talkin' mouths. I actually wondered if they were "fixin' to string me up" that day. Gulp!
In the meantime, I’m riding around in my rental. It’s a Chrysler 300. This car is very cool-looking and is a sweet ride, but frankly it’s too much car for me. And it drinks gas like it’s going out of style. (Which it is, really.) I can’t wait to buy my replacement and turn this bad boy back in. Plus, it reminds me of the satanic car in that cheesy 1970’s flick “The Car”. I’m scared of it.