I talked to three attorneys, and they all told me the same thing: I *might* get a little more from the insurance company, but it wouldn't be enough to make up for their fee. In other words, let's say they're able to get me an extra $2,000, but I have $3,000 in legal fees. I'd still end up in the hole, out of pocket. None of those three attorneys would take the case. Plus, the girl was only 16. Plus, I hate the "sue for everything" mentality, and I refuse to be a part of it. I wanted to see what my options were, and they were basically no better than what I was already facing.

One other option would have been to file under MY insurance company instead of hers, but my agent, whom I've been with forever, told me that they wouldn't give me any more than her company would, PLUS I'd be out my deductible! Nice. Good to see that I've paid premiums for 16 years, never needed insurance in all that time, and when it comes time to actually collect on all the money I've given the insurance company over the years, I'd lose even more. I think some serious reforms are needed as far as insurance is concerned.

-djb

 

I got 'Gap' considering I drive a lil recklessly sometimz.

 

I think in my particular case, I got off light. I bought the RX-8 pretty close to "fair market value" so my equity in the car was pretty close to being equal to depreciation. $1100 really wasn't THAT big of a deal, but I do think that's seriously unfair considering someone else broke a law, not me. I don't think I should have had to have paid for someone else's mistake. In any case, that $1100 was supposed to go towards an HDTV, and instead went farting in the wind....

Abyss got really pounded by taking a $6800 loss in his accident. You'd have to pay $10/month for almost 57 YEARS to make it not worth it in his case. If it were me, since I only pay about $6/month for gap insurance, I'd have to pay for over 94 YEARS to make it not worth it.

As far as making the insurance company buy me a used car.... No thanks. I had a 9 month old car that I treated like a baby. I ordered the car and waited a month for delivery. It was exactly what I wanted, and I wasn't going to get the same thing from any used car. If I couldn't have what I had before the accident, I don't want it. I wasn't given that option anyway - I think you're on your own as far as that's concerned. When they total a car, they are really just buying the car from the lienholder and absolving the buyer from whatever portion of the debt the insurance company chooses to pay. The rest is up to me (which was the $1100 and going through the process AGAIN of buying a car). They aren't going to help me look for a car, too. The b!t(h of this is that the insurance company gets to buy the car for the cheapest blue book value they can find, then they get to auction it or part it, thus recouping some of the money they spend. Meanwhile, they won't give me enough to cover the payoff. Blood-sucking leeches....

-djb

 

Its really not that easy dude...insurance companies are not scared by lawyers anymore. You'll end up paying more for the lawyer than you get from them unless your badly injured.

 

I agree that acciedents suck... and you always end up having to pay even if its not your fault... if someone bumps my car their insurance may pay for the damage but it lowers my resale value. Not to mention time i have to take off working to deal with it all.

When my dad's last car was totalled the insurance company found some insanly low book value and he would have gotten a check for $3k b/c it was going to cost $2k to fix the damage (car was still drivable). We printed out adds for used cars with the same miles for $4-6k and they agreed to give us more than the 3k salvage value they were trying to push on us... so you can fight it to some extent.

If you are going to buy a brand new car at msrp (to get the first one or something) and do some 7 year loan and put 0 down... then yea I would get the gap but I would never be 7k upside down on my car loan and I would rather not being paying into an insurance pool to bail out people who get that inside out on a car loan since I will never be able to get that kind of value from making a claim on the gap insurance.

 

everyone knows a lawyer, have them do it for free and almost 100 of all insurance companies will settle for amounts under 10k, they would be stupid not to. All i am saying is that if you get hit, ie not your fault, then you can get any lawyer to sue for the amount that isn't covered and if you don't have a friend to do it for you, there are a million lawyers that split 50/50 and then sue for double the amount you need. Insurance companies always settle low dollar, because their lawyers charge enough not to make it worth while. I interned at one of the law firms that represent allstate, the first thing they did when it came to a law suit was have the law firm give them "quote" on how much it would cost to go to trial. If it was less then they settled, didn't really matter if they would win or not. To get 1100 in legal fees we take about 10 mins for their firms, they charge for copies, letters, phone calls etc...

 

I think its worth it. Never know what can happen.

 

Can I sell you some robot insurance... most life insurance plans won't cover you if you are killed by robots

 

Better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it....one of my philosiphies in life....

 

If you need GAP insurance, you probably should've bought a cheaper car...

 

Here's the way I understood it at the time:

Let's say that I owe $30,000 on a car. The insurance company offers $28,000 to settle the claim, leaving me in the hole $2,000. If I accept the terms, I CANNOT sue them (it's part of the deal when you accept their terms) and I owe $2,000 on the car to the lienholder. If I don't accept the terms, I'd have to sue them for what I think the car is worth, in this case, at least $30,000 + lawyer's fees. Let's say it doesn't go to trial, so the lawyer will get around 25%. I would have to sue for at least $40,000 to get the $30,000 + the $10,000 for the lawyer (that's 25% of $40,000). This is just to get the $2,000 and break even. If it goes to trial, my lawyer would get 1/3 of the settlement, so I'd have to sue for $45,000 to break even. I talked to three different attorneys, and they all said that neither of these scenarios was going to happen - I would have to accept their offer.

When you're talking about a relatively new car, amounts get pretty big. If this were a $3,000 car instead of $30,000, then the percentages don't mean much and it doesn't make sense for an insurance company to fight it (we'd only be talking about a difference of either $1,000 or $1,500, depending on whether or not it went to trial). However, I think an insurance company would definitely fight a difference of $17,000, like in the case where I chose to sue above and it went to trial, which is why no lawyer wanted to touch me.

The point is that you can't think of it in terms of just trying to get $1,100. You have to get the payoff, which is substantially more, plus the legal fees. While your thinking might apply in cases where cars are worth less than $10,000, it definitely doesn't apply when a 9-month old $35,000 car is destroyed.

-djb

 

I'm not sure I understand this statement. What does it mean?

-djb

 

Only if you total your car with a low downpayment; you will owe the bank money after the insurance payoff. Most cars depreciate at least 15% after you leave the lot.

 

not true, you can get upside down in any vehicle...not to mention I was told GAP insurance will also take care of payments if you get sick or injured and lose your job which I doubt is true but still the way insurance companies low ball and the way people drive these days you can't be to careful. That $6800 I had to pay out of pocket really f*cked me since I haven't been able to work since my accident, making me wish I'd known about this sooner.

 

one lawsuit for an insurance company is a min. of 50 k for them to fight and that is without paying out. Mayeb the states are different with their torts but the law firm I interned at settled every case under 50k for allstate that they were assigned. So I knowhow much to sue allstate for here to get my money. It isn't for everyone, my legal fees would be free, I have some very nice friends, and we take of each other. m To each his own, gap insurance isn't a bad thing. Just remember you get what you pay for and not all gap's are the same, read the policy.

 

After reading this my next car is going to be leased with the least amount of down and gap insurance. It doesn't make since to put a bunch of dough down of a lease because it looks like if some one hits it ..... There goes your money.

I generally cash purchase my cars outright. However, I think I'll save my cash next time and lease with a low down with gap insurance through my insurance company.