Usaa may want to "total" my pristine pathfinder please help

Georgia

97 Pathfinder excellent condition 53,000 miles.
Accident damaged only the front left fender area pushing it back several inches. I made the mistake of having the vehicle towed to USAA's "preffed" body shop here in town. The service manager says "his computer shows it as a total loss, over 9000.00 to fix". this is absolutely ridiculous as the frame was not touched and the rest of the vehicle is completely pristine. I can smell a screwing coming.

I have an adjuster from USAA (I think it's a company guy, but it could be an independent) coming out "this week" is all they would tell me. I don't even know if I'll be able to talk to the guy first or not.

I want to keep the vehicle and have it fixed (with an undamaged title). Do I have the right to take the vehicle somewhere else and get another opinion as to whether it's totalled?

The online pricing reports show this vehicle at $12500 (nada) to $14500. What settlement price should I expect him to hit me with and what would you come back with? Again I would like to keep it and have it fixed.

I have my mortgage and credit cards with this company, and they can kiss it all goodbye if they screw me on this, I'll refinance it all just so they don't get the thousands of $ profit on my mortgage. Think this would push them my way a little?

Your problem sounds just about like mine when this major #(&*#*&(@# runs a stale red light. I wanted to keep my vehicle but it had over $15,000 in damages. A 1993 Jaguar Vanden Plas with only 56K miles :-( The entire passenger side was smashed in, windows blown out, I was spun around and car tossed over to the next lane (I was injured, but not life threatening -- at any rate that's another story) and apparently some suspension damage ( the equivalent of "frame damage" except there is no frame). I sooo wanted to get it fixed but the insurance company dictates in these matters when you 'contract' with them to cover your collision/comp and they accept your premiums. In my case, they paid me, but were able to subrogate to the at-fault insurance company and get most of their money back and they gave me the deductible back also (the at-fault driver's limits were too low -- geeeez it's a good thing *I* had collision insurance even when it wasn't my fault (I had two witnesses thank goodness! that's another story too )********************************************************...

The only thing you can do, and I hope this reply isn't too late, is to make sure that if you are not happy with the money they offer, make them state how they came to this conclusion. Make them fax, send, something written that states did they get this from an automated program, from dealerships, from where.

My vehicle was somewhat unusual and so they finally called TWO dealerships and asked them what my car was worth. They took the average DUH, duh DUH.

I exchanged several fax packages with my adjustor who was actually very nice and we finally agreed on about $1500 more than their first offer. In other words, these things are negotiable to a point. Know what your car is worth and be able to prove it (ads in paper, dealerships, even NADA and Edmunds are okay for a general price) but also make sure they prove to you what they are offering.

Okay, I'm rambling, I'm at work now and should go back ::smile:: But when I saw your message, I just hope you can negotiate with them to get what the car is worth. Don't be desperate to settle too quickly. They will try to use various tactics to make you think it's a good offer even when it's not.

If you want to "chat" more, email me at [email]JagBabee@aol.com[/email].

~Diane~

I don't know anything about insurance law in Georgia and am probably wayyyyy too late....but, will give it a go.

Our car was hit while it was parked outside of our home by a car doing about 60 mph.So, right now we are going through basically the same thing.

Initially, we agreed to have the car towed to the insurance company's preferred body shop who totalled it. We weren't at all comfortable with their decision and called another place and made arrangements to have it looked at there. We then called our insurance company (Geico) and TOLD them that we wouldn't sign off until we had a second opinion.

We figured it was OUR car, OUR dime, OUR hard-earned money paying the lienholder and paying the insurance company their premiums because WE chose THEM BOTH to give business to. Therefore, it was OUR call.

As it turns out, we were absolutely right.

They made all of the arrangements to have it towed to the other shop (where it is right now) and we feel alot more comfortable knowing that we'll get an unbiased opinion now.

The adjuster was also pressuring us to sign off. I finally asked him if there was a time limit because he was getting on my nerves. =) He told me there wasn't and hasn't brought it up since.

I wish you the best of luck. This is not fun.

God bless,

Michelle