(Insurance nightmare) 2003 350z value with jdm motor
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(Insurance nightmare) 2003 350z value with jdm motor
I wasn't sure where to put this so feel free to let me know where this post should be/move it to the correct place.
Tldr: I'm pretty sure I'm being taken raw by my insurance and I need to know what I can do to turn the tables into my favor. I have had this claim for almost half a year. My car was totaled with just damage to the bumper, radiator, and fans and I'm being offered 5k for a 2003 350z in good condition with a manual transmission 160k on the odo and 50k on the motor.
Story time:
So back in October of last year I hit a racoon in my z. It damaged the radiator and bumper. I went to go fix the radiator and realized aye I got a pretty low deductible on the z ill just go through insurance and go ahead and get the bumper replaced also(bad idea). So first they filed my claim under someone else's policy. Took them over a week to figure out where my claim was. I got in contact with the adjuster for that policy pretty quickly. They told me no problem they will transfer it to my policy. Ok cool **** happens. After a few days I try to contact this adjuster to no avail after a week of attempting contact i called their supervisor and then the next day they contacted me and finally filed for the transfer. After a couple days my new adjuster contacted me. We talked and decided on taking it to my preferred shop instead of an in network company(which the closest in network being over an hour from me). So I drop my car off at the shop and then boom insurance won't contact me and won't contact the shop. Weeks go by and I'm finally able to contact them. They tell me that the shop still needs to send over some paperwork. I call the shop and the shop says that they already sent over the paper work and attempts contact. Once contact was made the adjuster told the shop they sent it to the wrong email and provided the correct email. After the shop sent the paperwork to the correct email no contact was able to be made again to the adjuster by me nor the shop. December rolls around 2 months into the claim. Im finally able to contact the adjuster again and they tell me sorry but they haven't been able to contact the shop 🤣. Which was a straight lie anytime I called the shop they picked up week after week I had zero issues contacting the shop. So I call the shop let them know and the adjuster finally contacts them back stating they never received the email for the evaluation and estimate. So the shop sent it again to the same email. I decide to go pick up the car from the shop as I work 30mins from home and had been getting rides for 2months. At this point its a week before Christmas and I just ride it out waiting for contact. In January I get a letter in the mail stating how much they sent to the shop and the breakdown of the cost. Awesome I call the shop. They state that no contact had been made since the last time(in the beginning of December) and they just sent the check over not saying anything to anyone. Turns out the insurance company didn't send the full amount for the repairs and was attempting to force them to buy from a supplier the shop doesn't work with creating extra fees for the shop. So the shop contacts them. The insurance company says well thats what we pay for our in network shops and thats what their in network shops are willing to do and we refuse to pay anything more and accept any other supplier. At this point the shop is beyond frustrated and doesn't want to deal with them anymore so they refused the claim. They call me to tell me the bad news 😔... I decide hey you know what let's wait and see how long it will be till my adjuster contacts me to let me know what is going on.... an entire month goes by with no contact so I decided to send a lengthy message in a nutshell stating I pay good money for this service,its been 4 months, do your job and let me know if there is anyway to help you to do your job. At this point its February 2021 I made this claim in October 2020 for a simple bumper and radiator replacement... the adjuster contacts me the same day. We decide on taking it to an in network shop this time. Cool. I take it to the shop and after about a week I get contacted from my insurance that my car may be a total loss. Rather upset I ask how. Im informed I can contact the Collison company to get the breakdown of costs. I do so and they are wanting to replace the fender, fender linings, undershield, bumper, radiator, fans, both of the radiator hoses, and the best of all in their words little miscellaneous parts that are missing on the bumper that they have to buy oem. Oh yeah I failed to mention this earlier. The fan wires were damaged before I could get a yes from an adjuster to rigging the radiator back in place... I used a hose clamp to clamp it to the radiator support. the damage to the radiator was just the pins at the bottom that hold it in place it still holds fluid just fine. They estimate the cost to be around 4k. I try to get them to ignore everything but the radiator fans and bumper but they refuse stating liability issues. the next day I get the call with the confirmation that it is considered a total loss and was given 3 days to pick up the car before I start paying storage. I typically work 10-11 hour shifts and I work for those 3 days also my license had just been suspended 🙃(I got ticketed for 10 over and failure to provide registration I paid the speeding ticket but forgot to pay the registration... **** me). So I contact the Collison shop(over an hour away from me) and they thankfully understood my situation and waived the storage fees as not only was my license suspended but no one around me knows how to drive a manual. I ended up asking a favor of an old friend that used to own a manual z explained the situation to them and they were very ecstatic to drive a z again and turns out they were living only 5 minutes away from the Collison place. So after all of this I got the value for the car a 2003 manual with 160k on the odometer.... 4800... I ask them to find my car for that price and get back to me... the total loss adjuster tells me that basically there is nothing I nor him can do about it. I ask if we can re-evaluate the value of the car considering I put a low mileage jdm motor in it I am told no. The next day I call the general line as my total loss adjuster is out of the office and get ahold of someone else who tells me idk who you have been talking to but we can re-evaluate it as long as you have the reciepts. Awesome I send the receipt over... and just today almost half a year of dealing with this shenanigans i am informed the value of a 2003 350z with a manual transmission in good condition 160k on the odometer and 50k on the motor is worth 5000 big ones... they evaluated that with the new motor it is worth 200$ more then without the motor... what a slap in the face...
Tldr: I'm pretty sure I'm being taken raw by my insurance and I need to know what I can do to turn the tables into my favor. I have had this claim for almost half a year. My car was totaled with just damage to the bumper, radiator, and fans and I'm being offered 5k for a 2003 350z in good condition with a manual transmission 160k on the odo and 50k on the motor.
Story time:
So back in October of last year I hit a racoon in my z. It damaged the radiator and bumper. I went to go fix the radiator and realized aye I got a pretty low deductible on the z ill just go through insurance and go ahead and get the bumper replaced also(bad idea). So first they filed my claim under someone else's policy. Took them over a week to figure out where my claim was. I got in contact with the adjuster for that policy pretty quickly. They told me no problem they will transfer it to my policy. Ok cool **** happens. After a few days I try to contact this adjuster to no avail after a week of attempting contact i called their supervisor and then the next day they contacted me and finally filed for the transfer. After a couple days my new adjuster contacted me. We talked and decided on taking it to my preferred shop instead of an in network company(which the closest in network being over an hour from me). So I drop my car off at the shop and then boom insurance won't contact me and won't contact the shop. Weeks go by and I'm finally able to contact them. They tell me that the shop still needs to send over some paperwork. I call the shop and the shop says that they already sent over the paper work and attempts contact. Once contact was made the adjuster told the shop they sent it to the wrong email and provided the correct email. After the shop sent the paperwork to the correct email no contact was able to be made again to the adjuster by me nor the shop. December rolls around 2 months into the claim. Im finally able to contact the adjuster again and they tell me sorry but they haven't been able to contact the shop 🤣. Which was a straight lie anytime I called the shop they picked up week after week I had zero issues contacting the shop. So I call the shop let them know and the adjuster finally contacts them back stating they never received the email for the evaluation and estimate. So the shop sent it again to the same email. I decide to go pick up the car from the shop as I work 30mins from home and had been getting rides for 2months. At this point its a week before Christmas and I just ride it out waiting for contact. In January I get a letter in the mail stating how much they sent to the shop and the breakdown of the cost. Awesome I call the shop. They state that no contact had been made since the last time(in the beginning of December) and they just sent the check over not saying anything to anyone. Turns out the insurance company didn't send the full amount for the repairs and was attempting to force them to buy from a supplier the shop doesn't work with creating extra fees for the shop. So the shop contacts them. The insurance company says well thats what we pay for our in network shops and thats what their in network shops are willing to do and we refuse to pay anything more and accept any other supplier. At this point the shop is beyond frustrated and doesn't want to deal with them anymore so they refused the claim. They call me to tell me the bad news 😔... I decide hey you know what let's wait and see how long it will be till my adjuster contacts me to let me know what is going on.... an entire month goes by with no contact so I decided to send a lengthy message in a nutshell stating I pay good money for this service,its been 4 months, do your job and let me know if there is anyway to help you to do your job. At this point its February 2021 I made this claim in October 2020 for a simple bumper and radiator replacement... the adjuster contacts me the same day. We decide on taking it to an in network shop this time. Cool. I take it to the shop and after about a week I get contacted from my insurance that my car may be a total loss. Rather upset I ask how. Im informed I can contact the Collison company to get the breakdown of costs. I do so and they are wanting to replace the fender, fender linings, undershield, bumper, radiator, fans, both of the radiator hoses, and the best of all in their words little miscellaneous parts that are missing on the bumper that they have to buy oem. Oh yeah I failed to mention this earlier. The fan wires were damaged before I could get a yes from an adjuster to rigging the radiator back in place... I used a hose clamp to clamp it to the radiator support. the damage to the radiator was just the pins at the bottom that hold it in place it still holds fluid just fine. They estimate the cost to be around 4k. I try to get them to ignore everything but the radiator fans and bumper but they refuse stating liability issues. the next day I get the call with the confirmation that it is considered a total loss and was given 3 days to pick up the car before I start paying storage. I typically work 10-11 hour shifts and I work for those 3 days also my license had just been suspended 🙃(I got ticketed for 10 over and failure to provide registration I paid the speeding ticket but forgot to pay the registration... **** me). So I contact the Collison shop(over an hour away from me) and they thankfully understood my situation and waived the storage fees as not only was my license suspended but no one around me knows how to drive a manual. I ended up asking a favor of an old friend that used to own a manual z explained the situation to them and they were very ecstatic to drive a z again and turns out they were living only 5 minutes away from the Collison place. So after all of this I got the value for the car a 2003 manual with 160k on the odometer.... 4800... I ask them to find my car for that price and get back to me... the total loss adjuster tells me that basically there is nothing I nor him can do about it. I ask if we can re-evaluate the value of the car considering I put a low mileage jdm motor in it I am told no. The next day I call the general line as my total loss adjuster is out of the office and get ahold of someone else who tells me idk who you have been talking to but we can re-evaluate it as long as you have the reciepts. Awesome I send the receipt over... and just today almost half a year of dealing with this shenanigans i am informed the value of a 2003 350z with a manual transmission in good condition 160k on the odometer and 50k on the motor is worth 5000 big ones... they evaluated that with the new motor it is worth 200$ more then without the motor... what a slap in the face...
That is quite the wall of text, and some formatting may help others to actually read it.
I read it and the process sounds right. It sucks. The delays and timeline issues are the biggest issue in the story. It sounds like you have a budget tier insurance which often comes with budget tier customer service.
With an insurance repair, a shop has liability to fully repair the damaged filed in the claim. Otherwise you could say later that your alternator failed or some BS because they didn't replace the shield and now they are liable. The estimate sounds a little high, but not my much. Parts and labor are expensive right now.
Looking on FB marketplace in Florida, you can find a TON of 2003 Zs in the 4500-5500$ ball park with 160k miles. So their valuation seems accurate and their decision to total seems correct.
Engine whole sellers have jdm engines for 800-1000 for the long block. You can scrap a motor for 400-600$. So the value of the 200$ for the newer motor seems a little low, but not by much.
You can take them to court but it will likely not end well and will take 1+ years to get anything out of it. I would recommend haggling for the buy back and repairing the car with the money they give you at a cheap body shop or taking the total loss and buying another Z. 5000$ Zs are plentiful on craigslist and FB marketplace.
In the future I would recommend looking at different insurance options so that you do not have to deal with the timeline issues again, although the outcome would likely have been the same.
I read it and the process sounds right. It sucks. The delays and timeline issues are the biggest issue in the story. It sounds like you have a budget tier insurance which often comes with budget tier customer service.
With an insurance repair, a shop has liability to fully repair the damaged filed in the claim. Otherwise you could say later that your alternator failed or some BS because they didn't replace the shield and now they are liable. The estimate sounds a little high, but not my much. Parts and labor are expensive right now.
Looking on FB marketplace in Florida, you can find a TON of 2003 Zs in the 4500-5500$ ball park with 160k miles. So their valuation seems accurate and their decision to total seems correct.
Engine whole sellers have jdm engines for 800-1000 for the long block. You can scrap a motor for 400-600$. So the value of the 200$ for the newer motor seems a little low, but not by much.
You can take them to court but it will likely not end well and will take 1+ years to get anything out of it. I would recommend haggling for the buy back and repairing the car with the money they give you at a cheap body shop or taking the total loss and buying another Z. 5000$ Zs are plentiful on craigslist and FB marketplace.
In the future I would recommend looking at different insurance options so that you do not have to deal with the timeline issues again, although the outcome would likely have been the same.
5k seems about right for a 350z with 160k miles. Insurance pays actual cash value and will only pay more for aftermarket parts if you pay extra for them(very expensive premium to add custom equipment). Having a 50k mile motor in it does not add much value if you were to sell the car private party vs having a motor with 160k miles. The car still has 160k miles on it. I've been in the insurance field for over 20 years if you have anymore general questions. Although I do not know specific FL law as I am in Massachusetts
Insurance is really not meant to make you whole, nor place you back into the position you were before the accident.
What insurance does is offset most of the costs. Their job is to collect premiums, settle claims for the least out of pocket to them, and if they can deny claims.
$5k for a 18 year old car, that has 160K miles, shocked their paying you that.
good luck
What insurance does is offset most of the costs. Their job is to collect premiums, settle claims for the least out of pocket to them, and if they can deny claims.
$5k for a 18 year old car, that has 160K miles, shocked their paying you that.
good luck
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