Ok so memorial day a big locust tree at my house decided to fall on my truck, had it towed to the body shop that nationwide covers and just got an estimate. its gonna cost 12,823.00. Its a 2008 f150 supercrew with 36,xxx miles on it. The truck is paid off so there gonna write me a check for the amount and i can do whatever i want with it. Im pretty pissed off in general cause the truck is alot flatter than what it used to be but basically i am just interested in if anyone else has had this happen to them and what did they do.

should i trade it in like it is and take the cash and get something else? i dont know what to do..

bed is completly done its crumbled, the roof is done and the rest can be fixed probably pretty easy, windshield is smashed and driverside window is smashed.

i will try and get pics up asap

 

Get more than one estimate, have your insurance pay the highest amount. How much is your truck worth? Pics will help.

 

I'd be pushing for total loss...

 

Agree, with that amount of damage, I would rather not have someone work on it, doubt it would ever be as good as it was before the incident. Not to mention if you go to sell it down the road the vehicle history is going to scare the bejesus out of the buyer.

 

The guy at the shop looked at the value of my truck and said it is approx. around $24-25,000.00. so in order to total it, it would have to be atleast 18,000.00 in damage because that would be 75-80 percent of the value. It sucks *** cause truly they are gonna bondo the **** out of like 3 places cause he said it is part of the cab and unreplacable so they are going to "repair" it. i will get pics up when i get home

 

Your state may also take into account depreciation. If so, that would likely put you over the hump. 75% to 80% of value is a bit on the high side to attain total loss. I am more accustomed to seeing about 60%. Push, push, push...

 

You also have a legitimate claim for "lost value." Once the Carfax shows the body work, your trade-in value goes in the toilet. How Lost Value is handled varies from state to state, but the claim has past presidence on its side (been successfully claimed before).

 

It comes down to what you want to put yerself through. Why fight the insurance company, put yerself thru all the grief, and then maybe not get any more. Just trade the truck and take the hickey.

 

I'd fight for it. It's a lot of money and it's something you have to live with. I don't think I'd trust any body shop to do work on the structure of the cab.

 

"Lost value" and "depreciation" are the same thing. Many states also have a painless process for battling out property damage issues. You likely won't even need an attorney. For more info, contact your county's clerk of court. They may be helpful.

 

'Depreciation' is a general term with many meanings. I think 'diminished value' is the common term to describe the depreciation value loss due to collision damage.

 

I was simply trying to explain that we were talking about the same thing. Anyway, thanks for definition... *sigh*

 

You're both wrong. Depreciation is amount of value lost over a given time. Like it loses $3500 in value a year, after five years a $30k truck would be worth $12.5k.

Diminished value would mean the truck w/o a wreck history would be worth $24-$25k but now if it was repaired even if it looked/ran the same as before may only be worth $13-17K. so the diminished value would be a difference of ~$7-11k.


As far as the OP, I'd fight to get it totaled.

Then get a Raptor!!!

 

I would hit every panel that is not already dented, and then go get new estimates

 

Cool.