After being rear-ended last week I finally got the F150 to the body shop.
$11955 to repair my 04 STX 2wd. New frame, bed, bumper, and much more.
The repair tech explained that another $2000 and St Farm would total the truck. I am going to try persuade my insurance company to total the truck.
Anyone with any experience in a totaled truck-I will never be able to sell this vehicle!!!!!!

 

daaaaang that suxx...at least you wernt at fault. that other persons insurance is goin way up. y would u want yous insurance company to total the truck? if you want to total it maybe you can give it a nice rock on the hood or ligt it on fire or somthing. say it was from the accident. have any pics?

 

Slip your bodyshop guy a (krispy kritter as my uncle calls it) or 100.00 bill to find 2000.00 more in damages.

 

What hit you... A cement truck?

Back in the day you could take it to 3 different repair shops for a quote. I would take it to the Cadilac dealership and another high dollar shop. If that doesn't work contest it at State Farm, and don't waste your time with the adjusters go straight to the manager. If that doesn't work go to the district manager. Ask for the friggen president of the company for that matter. Don't let those boneheads give you a run around. Friggen 2k shy... Sheeesh

 

Or you can drive it straight from the body shop to the dealership and trade it in as soon as you get it back. Then I'd get the insurance company to pay for 'diminished value' at trade-in. They have paid it before and will pay it again as long as you have your ducks in a row.

 

You should claim diminished value up front so they may total it now. Remind them that almost all used vehicles are CarFaxed and it will show up and cause you to lose a sale or suffer a substantial loss of value at trade in time. Another option is to sell the vehicle as-is to a rebuilder who will pay you more than the insurance company because you still have a "clean" title. I handled insurance claims for 30+ years and I always had a few rebuilders available to suggest to owners who would buy vehicles that were close but not totaled. It worked especially well for trucks.

 

Bad Advice:

Good Advice:

 

bad advice

 

 

Go with the diminished value claim. About 4 years ago my wifes new Subaru Outback was hit by a driver. The car only had 16666 (all those 6's freaked me out) miles on it and was about a year old. Did about $6300 damage; I requested diminished value compensation from the other driver's insurance (Utica) and with no questions asked they offered my an additional 20% of the damages in diminished value. Since the car was leased I walked away with around $1200 cash in pocket. The adjuster told me the standard for diminished value was 20%, so if your damages are around $11,995 then 20% would equal more than $2000. You might just make it work. Be polite, be firm, and you may get your wishes for the insurance to total the truck. Remember the squeeky wheel gets the grease, just start "squeeking" to State Farm.

vroten

 

Last summer my Tracker was hit in the rear so hard it bounced into another car in front of it. They wanted to fix it, but I pointed out all the possible problems that might occur with the drive train, from mysterious leaks, to possible engine damage. They decided to total it.
Then the fun started. They wanted to give me about half what it was worth, and using every trick in the book they tried to show that it could be replaced for pocket change.
It took three months before the last check was cut, bringing the price up to just about 500 bucks less than it would have cost to replace it. Dozens of phone calls, and I had to prove everything about the truck that was different from the lame examples the adjuster keep comparing it to.

On the plus side, I bought it back from them and had a friend that is very good at this sort of work repair it, for a fraction of what they wanted.

Turned out the damage was not as bad as the body shop had claimed.
Example, they told the insurance the 'uni-body' was bent and it would need to be straightened.
The Tracker has a ladder frame that wasn't even touched.

After fixing it up, it is as good as it was before. No mysterious noises, handles great, looks the same, etc. But it now has a salvage title, and thus I could not sell it for near what it was worth. The difference in what I collected does cover this, but the hassle was not worth it. I dumped that insurance company, after twenty years, and went with one with a better reputation.
They may have saved 500 bucks by penny-pinching, but they lost 1800 bucks a year for life.
Ironically, since there was never any doubt that it was the other guys fault, they would have got the 500 bucks back from them anyway.
Adjusters don’t average too bright, I’m afraid.
Chris

 

-----------------------------------------------------------

EXACTLY ...... Any truck damaged that bad that it needs a " new frame " is a
junk truck at best. I couldn't in good conscious drive it down the road after
"supposedly" getting a new frame. Something shady is going on there for
sure. What insurance co. in their right minds would risk a new frame, the
liability alone of it's safety factor after that should tell 'em total it. Like R.J.S.
said, if they don't total it then when they tell you it's " fixed " I'd drive it to a
dealer and that would be all she wrote, a new truck for me.. ALL GONE .....
As a matter of fact I'd be at the nearest dealer right now doing some shopping ....... either the adjuster is incompetent or he along with the co. he
works for has a shady system in tact and no one has been brave enough or smart enough to teach 'em a lesson by revealing their crooked little scam.
Don't be a dummy get out of that truck forever ......... junk is junk period.

 

Since I was an adjuster 30+ years, it's interesting to see how you fellows would handle your claim. Regardless of who you go to, the claim comes back to the adjuster. If you are a jerk, the adjuster can be a jerk. If you are polite and have a reasonable basis for your demands, you will be more likely to be successful than the jerk approach. Whether it is the amount of damage or the value of a vehicle, there is a range of value that is acceptable. If the owner is mean and nasty to the adjuster, the numbers are less favorable and it becomes a contest. People used to ask me why I never got mad when people were yelling and screaming at me and I would simply smile and remind them that the nastier the people got with me, the more money and/or time it cost them. Research your damages with documentation and by the time you nicely show the adjuster their final cost which includes damages, diminished value, rental vehicle while it is being repaired and potential supplemental repairs that may have been missed on the original estimate, you may get what you want and even make a friend. The adjuster can only pay what he can document and he has 3 or 4 people above him looking at every claim and some claims are even reviewed by the Department of Insurance. They will penalize the insurance company for overpayment (due to lack of documentation) more quickly than they will underpayment because it impacts rates.

 

Carfax will not show ANYTHING on this vehicle because it isn't being totalled.

If there is not a salvage or flood title on it, Carfax will have no way of knowing. Thats a big problem with CarFax.

We had a 5 month old, 5K mile 4Runner that had $13,400 damage after this idiot in a Cadillac made a left in front of me (I was doing 45 mph).

State Farm would NOT total it out because it wasn't 51% the value of the truck. You can argue until you are blue in the face but you'll likely not win the argument.

When we got the truck back it was a POS. Wind noise through the d.s. door frame, didn't track right going in a straight line, etc..

Ironically I took it back to Burt Toyota to trade it in (They don't have a body shop, Burt Chevrolet did the bodywork) and after the appraiser looked at it he kind of scowled "who did the bodywork?".

I looked at him and said "You guys did a**hole". He said they weren't interested in taking it as a trade.

I ended up dumping the truck at another dealer with a less detailed appraiser. He didn't catch any of the repairs. So somebody ended up buying a one owner low mileage 4Runner that had been to hell and back already in its short life.

I hope you come out better than we did.

 

Personally i would try to get them to total it. Unless you have a damn good repair guy it'll never be "right" again with frame damage and all the other stuff you didn't mention. Speaking of, I'm brand new to this forum so what happened. Somebody try to ram their car up your reciever hitch? I know how you feel though man i got my ranger totalled on the 21st of last month. Guy came around a curve in my lane and hit me almost head on. At least the guy that hit you had insurance....