Jeep Liberty repair or total loss?
et02_liberty
Member Posts: 4
I was wondering if anyone here can help me/ give me some guidance. I am not a mechanic and do not know the correct terms so please forgive the ignorance. I will try to describe my best the situation. I had a major car accident this past weekend. I was driving on the intestate and a car cut into my lane and in my attempt to avoid being hit by the car I ended up smashing into the retaining wall. I lost control of the car but thankfully did not flip or turned over. Both front and back axles (sp?) broke. My car is a 2005 jeep liberty limited 4WD, leather seats, sun roof, under 90000 miles. When I was able to stop the car in a safe spot (shoulder) I got off the car and saw that both front and back tires were gone, no rims, i could only see the metal parts (what you see when you get brakes fixed), there was yellow/green fluid leaking, my door (driver) cant close correctly, air bags did not come off since i did not have a collision front or back it was all on the left side of the car. Some of the car body - i guess bender around tires was gone. Both tow companies that arrived to the scene said it was total loss. Police and firefighters could not believe we were safe and had not caused major accident (THANK GOD!). So, my question is now that i released my car to the towing company that will take the car to the auto repair shop as per my insurance company instructions the guy in the tow truck says they will probably be able to repair it. Can you trust that a car with both axles broken, front door cant shut and fluid leakage be repaired and be safe to drive in highly congested interstate highways and freeways? Is there anything I can do to refute if the insurance company determine it is not a total loss. Dont get me wrong i do not want a car payment but i do want to be safe driving around town with my kids. Any help/guidance is much appreciated!
Best Answer
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Mr_Shiftright
Member Posts: 64,481
Well first of all please discount anything you hear from a tow truck driver. They may be perfectly wonderful people, and genuinely trying to be helpful, but they do not have the skills or know-how to assess your car's condition, value or the types of repairs necessary.
So let's talk about when cars are "totaled". Usually an insurance company will write-off a car if the estimated repairs are 60-70% of the car's retail value. In your case, let's say your car is worth $8000 max. that means that if the damage estimate is around $5000 it's probably going to be totaled. Probably.
From your description, it looks like the car will be totaled, even though it CAN be fixed. Any reasonable damage can be fixed.
So why does the insurance company not fix it?
Because they don't want to enter into some kind of "hidden" repairs black hole. Once they approve the repairs, they are also stuck with any surprises that come up---hidden things that could not be assessed at the time of the estimate.
So they'd rather junk an $8000 car with $5000 damage than fix it.
If, on the other hand, they DO decide to fix your car, you can't really force them to total it, since your policy states that the insurance company has the option to either fix it or pay you for it.
Modern body shops can do marvelous things with repairs these days, and your car can LOOK and drive as good as new, if things are done correctly. But even repaired, it'll never be worth the same, because the accident is now public record. So your car, even fixed up, will be worth perhaps 30% less than it was before the accident.
If someone else was cited to be at fault and causing your accident, then you do have recourse, once the car is fixed, to file a claim against the other party's insurance company for "diminished value"--compensation for that 30% loss of value you suffered, even though your car was fixed perfectly.
So those are your options based on what you've told us, in my opinion.
Keep in mind that if your car is totaled be sure that you receive a fair settlement. If you don't like the insurance company's offer, you have the right to hire your own appraiser and ask for a higher settlement, should your appraiser come in higher. (they don't always of course).
If the insurance company does not accept your appraiser's higher value, you then have the right to an arbitration hearing.
For you to 'fight' your insurance company, and hire your own appraiser and go to arbitration, will cost you another $600 or so out of pocket.
Good luck with this.
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Answers
Mr_Shiftright - THANK YOU so much for taking time to answer my question and detailed response. If my Jeep can be fixed and I am assured it will be safe to drive it around city and out of town it would be great! I've had it for 9 years and had never had any issues with it just the usual battery change/ tire replacement/ normal maintenance. I will wait to hear that the mechanic says at the repair shop and be patient
You're welcome. Yes, it's sad but true, that if the other party wasn't identified, then you have to shoulder the blame and you cannot under law claim diminished value against your own insurance company. Please let us know what the estimate is and how this turned out for you.
Definitely will keep you posted! thank you again for your help!