Hey all. As some of you may know, I totaled my s2k at the dragon last month. Long story short - I got distracted after the dragon and car went off the road. I wasn't speeding or anything of that nature.

as of today, I realized I may be in dire need of some advise when it comes to processing my claim. I have in writing from my agent the below, but now when it comes to take care of me, their paying client. They offer me 17k claim settlement on a ~16K blue book car with $18,000 in receipts attached to it.

I dont expect to get everything i put into the car, but their offer is insulting.

my question is: what are my options? I have never processed a personal claim before, and I guess would appreciate any advise before I give this to my attorney. as a layman who looked to a professional - i felt i was lied to and am now being taken advantage of.

thanks in advance.

emails between myself and state farm:

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: State farm <statefarm.l1xn@statefarm.com>
Date: Wed, Oct 5, 2011 at 4:12 PM
Subject: RE: Client car insurance
To: Client <client@gmail.com>

I’m glad I was able to answer your questions.
Call or email me anytime if you need anything.
Monica

From: Client [mailto:client@gmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, October 05, 2011 4:07 PM
To: State farm

Subject: Re: Client car insurance

Monica thank you for that reply. That is great to hear. You are exactly correct on other carriers.... i know for a fact that allstate only pays $1000 over cost of the part for OEM, and for example they will not cover anything that you cannot get from OEM - instead they try to sell you a specialized policy.

So thank you. As for my friend I am not sure his exact situation. I will convey what you have told me to him.


Unrelated, I may contact you again regarding my home policy. I recently recieved the premium and may want to adjust some items.

Thanks again
On Wed, Oct 5, 2011 at 10:10 AM, State farm <@statefarm.com> wrote:
Casey,
I just spoke to a claims central. I was told that we replace with what you have that is damaged. Anything attached to the vehicle is covered under your policy if you have full coverage on your vehicle(which you do). I myself had custom wheels on my SUV and two were damaged when I hit a curve. Yes, there was coverage from my State Farm policy. Claims also mentioned that there are many other auto companies that do exclude this. We are NOT one of the companies. It would be a good idea to keep the receipts that you have. If a part is added that is not a factory part, State Farm replaces it with what you have. If it is no longer available, State Farm will replace it with a OEM part. The reason why I say keep your receipts is, if it is no longer available and the part you had cost more than the OEM, State Farm will work with you on the difference.
Why was your friends parts not covered? That doesn't sound right. Unless they were not attached to the car such as speaker box or gps device/police scanner.

Also, I noticed you have a $1000 deductible on your current policy. It might be a good idea to change it to $500 for $5 more per month. Let me know if you'd like to go ahead and make that change.
Monica

-----Original Message-----
From: Client [mailto:client@gmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, October 05, 2011 9:42 AM
To: State farm
Subject: Re: car insurance

Hi Monica. Off the top of my head:

Forced induction turbo kit is the biggest item
All ancillary sensors
Wheels
Brakes
Suspension
Clutch

Thank you

Sent from my iPhone

On Oct 5, 2011, at 8:54 AM, state farm> wrote:

> Casey,
> Do me a favor, explain to me exactly what parts. Thank you.
> Monica
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: client
> Sent: Tuesday, October 04, 2011 7:05 PM
> To: state farm
> Subject: car insurance
>
> Hi Monica hope all is well.
>
> I have a quick question I hope you can help me with.
>
> On my 2001 s2000 I have Many aftermarket parts. Can you explain how these are covered if at all? My friend who has state farm was in a situation where his vehicle was damaged and the agent ended up not covering Many parts he had receipts for.
>
> In addition I believe certain company's only cover X amount over a stock part, but what happens when a part has been added that is not factory offered on the vehicle?
>
> I hope my questions make sense, I am just looking to clarify. And just an FYI my car is sitting safely in the garage- I just want to see where I am and am not covered in the event something happens.
>
> Thanks!
>
> Casey
>
> Sent from my iPhone

 

With those emails being for
2011, maybe they changed their policy for 2012?

 

Thanks for the response fellas.

Harry, they are offering me $4,700 for my parts and about 13k for the vehicle.

The way I read the email is the following: parts added are replaced. If the vehicle is totaled then they should provide the monetary value to replace it. The claims rep also told me they only give 50% value on replacement parts such as exhausts and wheels etc. that is fair.

So as a rough ballpark. Of my 18k in receipts lets say 8k is add on. 10k is replacement. Is it unreadable to ask for 8k for the add on parts, 5k for the replacement, and 15k for value of car?

Seems reasonable to me?

I did not respond to Monica after her last email. I thought I was good to go at that time.... And thought I was especially covered because I have it in writing

Acab. As a layman when a professional puts something to me in writing they need to note exclusions as applicable. I went out of my way as a client to ensure I was covered. They stated the mechanics and now are trying to back out.

 

Sorry to hear about this, if you want to send me your vin via PM I can let you know exactly what today's market value is and send you a copy. At least you know the offer for the car is good or bad. The other stuff is a battle unfortunately.

 

Thank you. PM sent

 

So sorry to hear about your accident. Good to know that you are not injured.

I talked to my insurance agent (from country financial) just last week regarding the claim for aftermarket part in case of theft or other total loss situation. He told me aftermarket parts are not covered unless they are declared before hand (with receipt and photos as proof), which also mean that the premium of the insurance will increase based on how much value is added to the car. Did you declare those items added to your car to State Farm before?

I also checked with Geico and Progressive, none of them seem to cover aftermarket part at all.

Please share what you managed to claim from State Farm in the end. If they do cover aftermarket part, I might consider going with State Farm. My aftermarket part doesn't add up to be much, but since my car is a 2003, the aftermarket parts are almost 30% of the kbb value of the car. So it'll be nice to have them covered as well.

 

Do you have the option to buy the car back? Try to buy the car back and salvage some of the aftermarket stuff you put on. That's probably the best way to get some of your money back.

 

they offered by back at 4k. I am then assuming another 1k to get it shipped here. I am not interested in that route.

I specifically qualified if my parts are covered. they said yes. Now they are trying to renege. I am not going to entertain their games and try to salvage my $ over the course of the next 1,2,3,4,5,6? months.

 

Sorry to hear about the loss. I've kinda been in that boat before, but didn't really know a whole lot about what went on. I was able to take care of some things though, but it sounds like that might not work for you in your current situation. When I wrecked my old car, my insurance would not cover the parts I had put on. While in my case, I had a lot less invested in aftermarket pieces, my wheels were toast and my radiator plate was ruined.

They did say, however, that if I salvaged my exhaust (for example) it would not be deducted from the claims assessment as long as the car had an exhaust. So just for kicks, here, say you had a $4,000 titanium JDM exhaust, and you salvaged it. You could put a $100 EBay special exhaust on the car post assessment and the insurance company would be fine with it, and they would not deduct from the claim.

Granted, I go through American Family rather than State Farm, and their policies may very well be different.

Hope to see you get another S2k or get yours rebuilt!

 

Thanks Paul. Sorry to hear you went through a similar experience.

I get what you're saying about the salvage and it makes sense. The problems though are the following: the car is in northcarolina. They won't let me take stuff off it, and they want 6,400 for salvage (laughable).

They finally came up to a reasonable offer on the vehicle value but are still trying to stick me on the aftermarket parts.

At this time I have not and will not except their current offer.

Well see how this plays out