Sonic wrote:
Sadly, most agents have little idea of what coverages actually are or how claims actually work. I agree with Klayfish as another insider as to how these things usually work
Exactly what I was going to say. Agents are usually nice people, but completely clueless about claims. Kinda like a car salesman giving you advise on how to rebuild an engine. Get a hold of someone in claims. I understand what you were saying, but unless you have some really bizarre policy, your agent is dead wrong. It will carry to the rental car in full. I deal with it all the time.
Well then I think it may be time for a new agent. The one I had used for many many years sold the business about a year ago. The new staff seems nice but if what you are saying is true it is time to move on.
I do not speak to my agent very often but when I do it is usually important that I get the right information as it usually involves my money and me spending it or the protection or my assets. Now I am even more irritated with them than AMICA. Maybe I should see about moving over to AMICA when this is done. They have been compleetly professional and everything has played out just as they said.
Speaking of that the last time I was run in to and it was clearly an at fault situation like this is my agent was calling making sure I was ok. Filing the formed for my medical to be looked at and generally being helpful. The new batch actually told me they had to go as people were waiting when I called looking for clarification about this yesterday. Looking back on yesterdays conversation it is clear that I am not valued by them.
dean1484 wrote:
Insurance Company's are a PITA. They say "We will give you a rental at not cost" What they don't tell you is that they don't pay for the FTC and GL on it. You are supposed to use your insurance (so said the rental car people and the insurance co that is paying for the rental). WTF The insurance costs are not cheep. Like almost $50/day.
I did more home work on this and found that say you have a $6K car (like my Jag) and you have full coverage on it. If you get a rental and say it is a brand new car (say $30K). Your insurance will cover you BUT only up to the value of your car not the full value of the rental that you are driving. So if you total a 30K rental car and you don't have the rental car insurance and your car is only a 6K Jag you are $24K out of pocket.
I don't have FTC on my car so in this case with this rental I don't have any insurance other then general liability and my medical up to my limits. So in short I am going to have to either get the insurance co to pony up for the insurance coverage on the rental or I will turn in the rental on Monday as I am not going to pay that kind of $$$$ for insurance. I only pay about $150 a month ($5.00 a day) for full coverage on one of my other cars and for the Max GL and Medical on the jag. Where do they get off charging almost $50 a day for the rental.
I am not happy at the moment. This is actually borderline deceptive on there part. So I am in the wonderful position that even though I have a "free rental" I have to pay just shy of $50 a day to have it. If I don't pay the insurance on it I could be out the entire cost of he rental if something was to happen. I know statistically speaking every day you have the same chance of getting in to an accident but I have gone almost 30 years with out an at fault accident and statistically I have the same chance tomorrow as I did 30 years ago but A little voice is telling me get the insurance.
If you are using a credit card to pay for the rental, many, if not most, credit cards will cover rental car insurance, even if only the difference in what your primary won't cover. Might be worth looking into.
Credit Card Car Rental Coverage Info
Got the insurance on the rental sorted. Amica is paying it.
And I got the word today that the jaguar it is a total loss. Turns out that there was a lot of damage to the rear of the tub, rear sub frame and the rear suspension. Guess it was a bigger hit than even I thaught. I am kind of sad as I saved that car from the pick and pull and now it will be going back. Ohwell. I went looking for replacement
today on line and there were zero comparable ones in my area that I could find.
So how does this play out from here. I was told that I would here from them later in the week about the payment. I am getting prepared for a fight but I can hope that they will give me decent money.
How long do I get to keep the rental now that it is a total loss. I have a car I could put on the road but would prefer not to.
If the payout is less than what I can get a car for locally what do I do then? What if there are no really comparable cars local to me? Most are either newer or have less millage.
On the flip side there are a lot of cars that are older or with much higher millage or that have the smaller v6.
Amica will run a valuation on the Jaguar and present you with their settlement offer. Ask to see their valuation report, it's not confidential, you're entitled to a copy of it. If they're missing things like options or something, speak up. Keep in mind that while it may be frustrating, if you're having a hard time finding cars that are comparable to yours, so will they (well, their vendor). They'll do the best they can to come up with an accurate value. If you think it's wrong, you just need to be prepared to show them why. Be prepared with facts and examples, not emotion or "sentimental value". As I've said before, cars that are unusual or rare can be harder to settle simply because the market for them is very small.
Insurance companies typically allow between 7 to 10 days from the time of their first offer to leave you in a rental. We do 7.
In reply to Klayfish:
Another question. The car is totaled. Insurance on it will be canceled today. How does this effect insurance on the rental? Since there will now be no insurance. Actually there will be kind of. I still will have the H2 on the road this is really my wife's car but is in my name and has full coverage. Would that now carry over?
To be safe, when my car got totaled out I waited until the insurance company had the title before I cancelled the policy. I wanted to avoid any potential fallout from the state DMV saying I wasn't carrying insurance on that car.
I paid insurance (and drove) my Miata from the September accident until we settled and I got the check in January. USAA then refunded all my payments from the accident on. YMMV.
As others said, I'd leave the Jag on the policy for now, so that there couldn't be any issues if heaven forbid something happened to the rental. Then you can cancel it retroactively.
Klayfish:
Quick Question.
Amica is saying that they will pay tax but they will not pay Title and Registration fees / costs. I am arguing it saying that before the accident I had a car that was titled and registered so it could be driven legally on public roads. In order for me to be made whole and have a new car that I can legally drive on public roads I will have to register it and get a new title and pay the costs for them.
Hold my ground or fade back and punt on this one?
On the flip side they are being nice and they will cover all repairs / upgrades I made to the car in the last 12 months. There normal time period for this I was told was 6 months but they have offered this in instead of the title and registration fees. This could be a much better deal as the items I remember off the top of my head include 4 tires, replaced the transfer case, ball joints, tie rod ends, rear upper suspension links and an alignment. They do not cover fluids or normal consumables.
I am thinking I should cave on the title and registration fees if they pick up the costs associated with all the repairs I did.
What do you think?
Regarding the insurance I have it in writing that they are covering FTC & general Liability on the rental so I am going ahead and returning the plates.
I'd be curious to know why they don't want to pay the tag and title fees, as they do owe them. So if you want to push back, you can. Those fees are usually small anyway. It's great that they're offering to pay you full value for work you have had done in the past year. Upgrades and maintenance are always considered when valuing a car, but it's rare that you get your full value back out of it. i.e. when you put tires on a car they don't increase the value of the by the amount you spent on the tires.
So to answer, yes, technically they do owe you title and tag fees and you can push back for it. But if they're willing to pay you for some things they really don't owe and you're coming out "ahead", then no harm, no foul. It is a bit odd though.
44Dwarf
UltraDork
3/15/16 6:27 a.m.
$75 for title and $60 for the plate but if you keep it all active until your replace the car you can transfer the plate for $25.
So fight for the $100.
They REALLY don't like plate transfers in this state unless it is a vanity plate. Not impossible but for some reason it buggers there computers and when your plate gets run it can and does come up as the other car. It takes weeks for it to update.
Well the saga is over and in the end I got what was fair I think for the car. It took some haggling and I had to provide them with a stack of receipts for all the repairs and and what not.
Now the painful process of car shopping continues for real.
I'll drink one tonight in memory of your Jaguar.
Sad to say but this is the last photo I have of the car. A busted up car in a HC spot. 
Turns out that when they got a good look at the car the impact was much larger than the damage would indicate. Most of the impact was with the tire and rim and it bent all the rear suspension components and the suspension pick up points and that was the impact that actually bent the rear tub of the car. As they said it would be a week of on and off the frame machine and the alignment machine and then all the suspension points would have to be fiddled. Then add in the replacement of all the suspension components on that corner of the car combined with the damage to the rear of the tub where the initial impact was and it was not even close to being a savable car.
Looking at the photo you can see just how out of alignment the wheel is with respect to the fender. It is way in and pushed to the front. I never really looked at it at the time. I hated looking at it.
Very sad. I will miss that car. It grew on me. At first I was indifferent to it but having lived with it for a year I cam to really like it. It was a very well engineered car both ergonomically as well as mechanical. really liked the motor in it. That is a motor that ford should have put in many other cars of the time but to mu knowledge it was only in that car.
I still have to borla exhaust for it. I guess Ebay here we come.
Have you found a replacement yet?
Nope not yet. I have been looking at A6's. Found a 04 with the 4.2 and 74K miles that I am going to look at. It has a check engine light so I will bring my scanner and see what it is saying. The story is it sat for 2 months while the owners were out of the country and when they got back the check engine light is now on. Could just be that the battery went dead and that triggered the light (BMW I think has this issue with changing batteries) we will see. It is cheep at 4.5K with that millage unless the codes say that it is something much worse. Found another with 82K with all service records. For 5.2K but I am not liking the light metallic blue paint but other than that it is a really nice car. And a third that is an 01 with 156K but has all records and a new motor from Audi dealer documented with only 25K on the motor. They want 5.2K as well but they started the conversation with the price is negotiable so I was thinking of offering 3.5 showing them the comps I am looking at with less millage on the chaise.
I have also been looking at A6' with the 2.7TT motors. I have found 2 S-Lines that I really like. I hope to get to see them over the weekend. I have never driven one but I think I may be disappointed after driving the 4.2V8 that has 50 more HP and at least that many more torques. The tempting thing is the 2.7TT can be warmed over and greatly exceed the 4.2's (The great part of turbo motors). The other thing is that the 2.7TT will overall get much better millage and although lacking little bit of go it will still be decent (I hope). It has about the same power to weight as my X type I think. I also like the exterior trim package of the S-line package much better than the 4.2 cars but I would assume that I could just get those pieces and put them on a 4.2 car.
Klayfish would you have a moment to chat this weekend? I am having an issue with Amica and them paying for some of the rental costs. It is a long drawn out story that really does not need to be here. I need some advise about how to get there attention as AMICA has said they will not pay some costs (insurance on the rental) and are not ignoring me. There is more to it but that is the VERY short version of it.
Sorry to hear that the Jag had to be totaled.
One of the things I like about the 4.2 A6 is the slightly flared fenders. One thing the 2.7 has going for it is the availability of a manual trans.
