QuestionMy wife was in an accident in the beginning of October. She was in traffic on a highway when a van rear ended the car behind her at a pretty high speed, which then slammed into my wife's car and then my wife hit the car in front of her. the front of the car that was behind my wife went under her car. There was also damage done to the bumper. The officer on scene labeled the car as not drivable, because it was making and awful sound like there was no muffler. When we set everything up at the body shop the insurance adjuster came out and took some pictures and wrote everything up. when we picked up the car the body damage was fixed but the sound was still there. The insurance agency said that it is not responsible due to wear and tear and the muffler had rust on it. We argued and argued and insisted that this was caused by the accident. We noted that we were not happy. When i picked the car up I immediately took it to our family mechanic who told us that underneath the car did not look like this when he did work on it in September. There was no rust, just dirt. Our mechanic said that the part is going to cost big money and the car should have been totaled. The initial cost at the body shop was $2000. We were informed that the job is going to run us around $4500. The car is a 2005 Volkswagon Jetta. Our insurance is with Statefarm, and they refuse to cover this claim. We feel like we have our hands tied however it does not make any sense at all. When my wife calls and tries to talk to the supervisor they are down right ignorant and rude. My wife is 5 months pregnant and was being screamed at, and treated so nasty. please tell me what my options are and how we can get state farm to cover this claim.
AnswerHello,
You may not like my answer here, but I will lay it out with my 20 years of claims experience. I am not some advocate for insurance companies either. I am kniwn to oppose State Farm's experts quite often.
We commonly dealt with issyes such as yours while in the repair business.
The courts state you are allowed to only be made whole, nothing more nothing less.
I obviously have not seen the $2,500 damage your mechanic states is there and all I have to go by is your statement.
What this sounds like is a simple three car crash and i cannot imagine undercarriage damage happening in a situation such as this.
I can however understand your complaint with the muffler damage, but I also understand State Farm's point.
Granted, it would not be loud if the car did not hit the exhaust from the rear end hit, however it appears State Farm contends this is a maintanance issue due to rust. I get it.
Normally the insurance company would assess if the damage you are complaining about is a direct cause of the accident. Even if they determine this, you are not entitled to a new exhaust system because it was not new when hit. Depriciation is considered. Lets say uou have a 100,000 miles on the car. There has been years and 100,000 miles of use. It is not worth anything and you will have to pay whether you did or did not have the muffler noise before.
Many people want their car totalled after a crash or a theft. Read the policy. The insured does not have this option, what happensx to it is up to the insurancce company.
You are at their mercy. You have no say and that is why you could not get a lawyer to fight this on a contingency. Sure you will find a lawyer to steal your money, but this would be a nothing case and you might just lose on the betterment issue.
You could have them reinspect for the undercarrige damage and I am sure if the damage can be proven to be caused from the crash they will pay, but I don't see you getting a new exhaust from them because they don't owe it.
Http://www.autotheftexpert.com
