Hi All,

So here's the situation, last Saturday I had a small engine fire because of an exposed wire in the ignition coil. I put the fire out, and the fire department came. My mechanic had worked on my car earlier in the week to replace the ignition coils and the exposed wire could infact be their fault.

The car was running great, the only problem was that ignition coil. I called my insurance company as what I'm "supposed" to do, they opened a claim, inspected the car and said it was a "total loss." From my understanding when a car is considered a total loss and covered under the insurance, they will pay of the cash value of the car to the financing company, and you don't get much, if anything out of it.

So I'd pretty much be left with no car and have to find a way to get another car and/or loan.

My mechanic has the car in his shop since that's where my insurance towed it to, he looked at the damage and it's minimal. He was able to get the car running again but won't do anymore work since the insurance company said they are going to take the car to salvage on Monday.

According to my insurance company, if I withdraw the claim, they are going to drop collision and comp and report the total loss to my finance company.

What would you all advise? Just go with the insurance and let them pay off the loan, leaving me with no vehicle? Or find a way to keep the vehicle? Or what other options are there?

I'm in NYC if that matters - I appreciate any help.

 

Ask your insurance company what the 'buy back' is on the car (give you the car back and some money vs no car and more money). The car may carry a salvage title on it now, but the only thing that would affect is the price you'll get when you eventually sell it. Your agent can explain it better than I can, I haven't dealt with that option in quite a few years.
Other option would be to request another adjuster to look at the car. A 'total loss' is when the repair value exceeds 70% of the value of the car. If you say you already got the car running again, and there isn't much else to fix, that doesn't sound like 70% to me...
Tell the adjuster you want to keep the car, and they may work with you. Most of the time I think they just write off the car because its easier, and a lot of people would rather just buy a new car than deal with repairing one with a decent amount of damage.

 

So here's an update for anyone who else might have this happen to them.

I asked geico if there's anyway for me to get the car back, buy back, paying it off from the bank, taking a salvage title, etc etc ... apparently when it's involved in a fire, no matter how small, if it's declared a total loss + fire damage, there's no way to get the car back because there might be other parts that can't be seen that are effected by the fire.

So unless anyone has been able to find a way to get the car back, even with a salvage title, please do speak up.

Ach, I do appreciate the response and hopefully this is a lesson learned.

 

They make an offer yet on a payout?

Have a friend who went thru a bunch of crap recently. One of his cars was stolen by some punks who were doing donuts in the parkinglot behind Lowes. They drove into one of those big wooden sound retaining walls, backed out of it but tore a fuel line, backed across the lot and into the fence again before the car caught fire. Geico lowballed him, but he fought with them until they paid out an acceptable number. Whole front of the car was torched, so no use buying it back, but the point is, Geico turned out to be some real a-holes when it came to giving back the money you pay them. Stay on them until you're sure you can't get what you want (if you want the car back). All thats going to happen is the car is going to end up in a salvage auction/parts yard where someone else is free to buy the whole car if they want. Why shouldn't you be able to?

 

They told me that they are giving my finance company about $11k including the deductible taken off already, but I have about $13k left on the loan which I think the GAP insurance will cover.

I'm asking the same question you asked, if they are just going to resell it like that, why wouldn't I be an option as a "buyer" it would save them some time and money.

My mechanic called me this morning and asked what's happening with Geico because he fixed it and was able to drive the car around with no problems. If Geico doesn't budge, then I guess he's going to have to "undo" his work.

 

the whole thing sounds screwy. good luck with it.