2003 Ford F150 Lariet Supercrew 55,000 miles

As I was accellerating after pulling on to a street and I was rear ended. I think I was going around 20-25 mph. The guy that struck me skidded 125 feet before hitting the drivers side of the rear bumper. Witnesses thought he was travelling between 50-70 mph. Speed limit was 40mph.

The frame is bent up just behind the rear wheels. The back of the cab actually has a dent where the fiberglass bed cover came up and stuck the cab. This leads me to believe that the frame may also be bent closer to where the bed meets the cab. The truck definately looks bowed in the middle. I couldn't raise the bed cover because the latches were in a bind and I didn't want to force additional damage. The truck had to be towed because the rear drivers side fender was forced up against the tire.

A local used car dealer urged me to ask for the truck to be totaled because the resale would be shot because of the frame damage.

I'm also concerned about any damage that might not be evident until a few miles down the road. I'm thinking the rear end, transmission and fly wheel may have issues from getting struck so hard that won't show up for 20 or 30 thousand miles down the road.

Any recommendations? What should I look for or ask for when considering a total loss situation?

KBB shows Reconditioned lot value as $20,000 and as low as $14,000 for a good condition trade in. I figure the insurance company will try to go with the trade in value of around $14,000. I still owe about $7000.

 

Tough to say.... FWIW, our opinion doesn't really matter anyways. It's really up to your insurance adjuster, in all honesty. If the frame is bent, combined with the body damage, it could probably be slavaged, but it likely won't ever drive like it should again, and you will never be completely happy with it. Of course, I've seen some miraculously mangled vehicles emerge from the body shop literally looking like new. It's amazing what a good shop can do!

On the other hand, some people don't care.... it's really between you and the adjuster.

 

The damage has been estimated at $6747. Well below the 70% of ACV required to total the truck. I've asked what the ACV of my vehicle is but have not received a reply yet. I was also informed that there is no appeal process.

Here is what they said.
I have received the estimate from our appraiser and the total after your $500 deductible is $6247.63. Our estimate includes 10 hours of frame time which should be adequate to make any necessary repairs to the frame. Under Arkansas law, a vehicle is considered "totaled" if the damage is 70% or more of the ACV of the vehicle. In this instance we are no where close to the 70%, therefore we will not be totaling the vehicle. Please advise as to whether or not XXX will still be doing the repairs so that I can write the check accordingly. As we previously discussed, you will need to give them a copy of our estimate in the event that any additional damage is found once the repairs have begun. That way, they will have our contact information in order to request a supplement if needed.

You inquired about an appeal process, and unfortunately there is no such thing. Please understand that we prepare our own estimates using the same program that many body shops use, therefore I feel very certain that your truck will be able to be returned to its pre-accident condition with the estimate that our appraiser has prepared.

 

The "appeal process" is more correctly called a "civil lawsuit against your insurance company", and yes, it DOES exist!

But anything's possible, if you have the time. You might buy a used frame from a junkyard & have all the good parts from your truck swapped onto it, then replace the damaged ones with new. I swapped this whole body for less than 1/2 your estimate, so it's something to consider.

Have you ever seen this project?

 

PeteJC... Look in my gallery. I was involved in a accident the 9th of June this year. My truck actually looks VERY repairable. The value of my truck was 43K. The damage was estimated at 19K(By insurance adjuster)Then the issue of "Diminished Value" was brought up by my lawyer. My wife and I paid cash for the truck which during the employee discount program. MSRP 43K minus 10K equalled 33K. I also received about 3K in rebates and incentives which left the price at 30K. I am a disabled verteran, and repeat ford customer and took the cash instead of a years worth of gas(est. Value) with these additional discounts which came to: $500 for DAV, $500 for repeat customer and $1250 for the gas credit made my final cost of 27,750K. We wrote them a check and away we went. I had the truck eight weeks and then the collision.(truck had 4564 approx. miles)
Well the guy who was at fault had State Farm insurance and they offered us the 33K after employee pricing for our loss. We then filed for the dimished value and received an additional 10K. Plus our personal injury settlement. If it has not already been mentioned please ask about diminished value. Which relates to the trade in value of a comparable vehicle (Not involved in a collision) and yours which must have the collision disclosed when you sell or trade it. Your value will be much less than a non-wrecked vehicle.

 

I forwarded the attn general letter to my Farm Bureau rep. She said I'd have to take it up with the insurance adjuster for the company representing the guy that hit me. It's AIG. Bummer that my insurance company won't go to bat for me with AIG. Hopefully I won't need a lawyer to get this processed. There is a local salvage rebuilder that I've bought a car from before in our area. I'm going to discuss the pre and post crash value of my vehicle with Mr. White at White's Auto in Cabot. He helped to write the salvaged title legislation here in Arkansas.

How do I find the photos you reference? You didn't leave a link for your gallery.

 

The camera icon in his profile links to his gallery. Look at the top R of his posts.

 

have they put it on a frame rack yet to set up and measure?

 

I talked to them yesterday. They will begin tear down today. They are not going to order any parts until they tear down and evaluate the extent of damamge. With the initial review he thought that the estimate would have to be revised much higher that the initial $6700. He didn't think it would go high enough to be totaled since his pre crash value was around $22,000. He said they wouldn't know anything for certain until they tore it down and evaluated all the hidden damage including the real damage to the frame itself. Should know something by the end of the week.

 

Last night the truck was still sitting in their yard untouched. They are supposed to start the tear down today. I'll drive by there to tonight to see if it's been moved yet. They did a re-eval and decided they could order parts before the tear down and the damage was not as bad as they had thought initially. The bed part of the frame is twisted but they think it is very repairable. I go back and forth between it being just bad vs. horrible every time I see the truck. I'm not going to fish around for opinions on pre-crash and post-repair values for my diminished value claim until I get an updated post tear down estimate of the needed repairs. The AIG rep was very open to a diminished value claim but from what I understand it can't really be calc'd until after the repairs as the quality of repair is part of the calculation. I asked the repair shop rep to give me his un-official opinion of what I might get in diminished value (he's not an insurance rep). He guessed around $1000.00 give or take a couple of hundred. The initial estimate includes 10 hours of frame work.

 

Any updates? In regards to diminished value, let me ask you something; If you could buy a used truck with no accident history or one with a history for $1k less, which would you buy? That's what I would say anyway. Just a thought. Good luck!

 

The diminished value is calculated at the end of the repair process. It takes into consideration the value of the vehicle before the crash including wear and tear and milage vs. the value of the vehicle after the crash and the repairs. The actual quality of the repair is also taken into consideration. They just started repairing my truck yesterday so it looks like I'm about 2 weeks out. Of course 2 weeks seems to be their standard reply to any timing issue. I originally imagined $3000.00 for some reason. The body shop customer service dude figured $1200-$800 just as an educated guess.

I'll let you know as this thing developes. The rep at AIG (insurance of the guy that hit me) acted like it was not big deal.

 

They didn't make their Christmas date. When they told me it would be close I told them I'd rather that they not be in a hurry to re-assemble my truck. I don't know if that will get me any additional quality but I didn't want them to have the "you said you were in a hurry" or "Friday before Christmas" quality excuses. I'll call AIG to see how they want to handle the post repair inspection for my Diminished Value claim. It's supposed to be ready by Wednesday.

 

21,450 - NADA Est value of my vehicle before
2,145 - 10% of NADA Value
1.75 - 2nd from worst damage modifier
.5 - mileage modifer for 56,000 miles
$804.38 offered diminished value settlement.

I told him I had to think about it. He seemed open to me taking my time.

I have the truck the repairs look great. You can look under the truck and tell the frame had to be fixed but you can only see the repairs behind the back wheels where the towing package frame attaches to the rail of the frame. The trailer hitch bracket acted as a lever or break to bend the frame. If they had to straighten anything else on the frame I couldn't tell from a quick look. So the frame damage was outside of the wheelbase which I would think would minimize the impact on the how the truck rides or handles. Other than that my truck looks much better than before the accident.

I could probably whine and beg and squeeze a little more from AIG but I think the settlement is fair. I'm good at urging other people to ****er but not much of a player myself.

So what do you think?

I also have this outfit taking a look at my final repair bill.

http://www.appraisalgroupofamerica.com/appraisal.htm

 

I'll update this post as I get more as I try to find a reasonable number.
DV adjuster service $6000 - $8000 for $320 they will take my case.