Auto Insurance Claims: have a claim on a car with many upgrades, sound deadening material, wheels and tires


Question
QUESTION:
Hey I had a few questions for you experts. I have only had my car for 6 months. It is a 2000 maxima gxe with 82,000 miles on it with leather interior. I was rear ended fault is with the other party, and my body shop has given me an estimate of $7000 to repair the vehicle. I have had two credible people tell me that it is a totaled car as the KBB retail value is 10,200. My dilemma is that the car has 4-5k worth of upgrades and work done to the car and only a few of these upgrades are removable. The work done includes, installing an a $1000 gps in dash unit, upgraded speakers, Sound deadening or dynamatting of the entire trunk, install of all speaker wiring, window tint, tail light tinting, side corner tinting and more. Just three months ago I put $1000 worth of new wheels and tires on the car, as well as had $550 worth of preventative maintenance done.  I paid the $550 worth of preventative maintenance anticipating being able to drive the car another 80k miles and wanting to keep it in good shape as I was certain to buy this car in perfect mechanical condition. I was wondering if the person's insurance(ALL STATE) would pay to compensate me for any of these extra expenses. How would they go about figuring out what I would be compensated for? Unless they give me a fair and reasonable price for me leaving the in-dash gps unit, wheels and tires, and speakers on the car, I am planning on removing them. This will of course “depreciated” the value had they been left on the vehicle but I have all the original equipment to place back in the car. But say I take the things I can physically remove off, I am still out the money on the things I cannot remove from the car, such as the window tinting, tail light tinting, the dynamat/sound deadening in the trunk, the $500 in preventative maintenance, the labor cost to install the gps in dash unit, the labor cost to install the 4 speakers, the labor cost to put on the sound deadening material, the labor to run speaker wire and hook up my amplifier, etc.. The labor/install costs comes out to just as much as the actual items being installed…and that will all be a loss to me when I go to have my new car restored to the condition of the old one.
Not to mention there is probably a 5% chance the wheels and tires will fit my on my new car making them nearly useless to me when they total the car. I will have to sell them for much less than what I bought them for which was not in my prior plans. There is another 30% chance the in dash gps navigation unit will fit in the new car. So part of me wants the insurance company to fairly compensate me for them and let me start over, and part of me wants them not to total the car just to avoid the hassle of having to have everything done over on my new car and essentially(if the insurance company wont pay to have them reinstalled) having to pay to get everything installed again. What can I expect the insurance company(allstate) to pay for out of these losses?  What do you think my best course of action is in dealing with this issue?
Thanks so much for your help!!!


ANSWER: Hi Adam,

The insurance company will not pay you for the cost of the added items. They owe you for the value of the car. The items you added to the car did not increase it's value by an amount equal to what you spent on the items.

The best thing for you to do is to remove the items you can, replacing the original items. The you can either reinstall them ino another vehicle or sell them when toy can.

In the future you should remember this lesson. Don't put more stuff into a car than the car is worth to begin with. Not only will it not be paid for by insurance, but it makes you a target for theft.  If you took that $5000.00 and put it into a mutual fund, it would likely be worth several hundred thousand dollars when you were 60 years old. I'm not telling you what to do with your money, just something to think about.

I hope this helps
Richard Hixnebaugh

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: How is that fair. If I were to go sell the car prior to the accident, it would clearly be worth more than a basic car with the same year and mileage. So to me, value is what the car would sell for and since it has had work done to it the value increases. I'm not saying the value should increase to the extent of the cost of the items put on the car, but i at least should be compensated for the items i cannot remove from the car plus the labor to do what i have had done to it over again minus depreciation and the cost of the items I've taken off the vehicle. I have estimates to have the work redone equaling $875 in labor and $1100 in items that are not removable. If the insurance wont cover it should i take the woman that hit me to small claims court? My father is a non practicing attorney so I wouldn't have to pay any legal fees, but it'd take up a lot of his time and i wouldn't want to do that unless necessary.  Also on a side note, I am having neck pains from the accident and have gone and gotten x rays of my neck and seen chiropractics and the physician. What can i expect to get from injuries from the insurance company? I've been told 3-10 times your medical bills? Which seems like a wide range. What is your opinion on medical expenses and collecting on bodily injury claims?

Answer
Hi Adam,

You can certanly try to negotiate with the insurance company regarding the additional items in your car. I was simply saying that in my experience those items will not add enough value to the car to reasonable compensate you for what you spent. You may be able to negotiate say $1500 to $2000 abouve the normal value of the car. Thats why I said that you may be better off to remove the items you can and either reuse them in another vehicle or sell them. Then you can negotiate for the remaining items that you can't remove.

As for your injury claim, based on your description of your injury, it sounds like a minor soft tissue injury. In these cases the insurance company will try to low ball you. They may only offer you $500.00 over your medicals. It will be up to you to stand your ground and negotiate the best possible settlement. However keep in mind that the more minor the injury the lower the settlement.  To try to find out what your claim is actually worth you should check out www.collisionwizard.com This is a free service of the Better Business Bureau Video Series. It has a claim calculator that can help you ball park the value of your settlement.

I hope this helps
Richard Hixenbaugh