I spent 1,029 for a new transmission and it’s worth 41 bucks?!
By Leigha | April 5, 2008
Just about three months before my car accident, my Civic needed a new transmission. After saving up for weeks to fork over the money to my mechanic, my car was ready about a week later. It was smooth shifting and got better gas mileage than ever before. It felt like I was driving a new car!
After my car accident, I worried if I’d be able to recoup the money I sank into my car to have it running like new again. While my insurance adjuster was inspecting the car, I told him about my new transmission and that I had just spent all this money on the car and asked him how much more would my car be worth in his calculations with the new transmission in it. He asked to see my paperwork from my mechanic and I made some copies of it for him and he said he’d include it in his report.
Next day, I get my fully comprehensive and intimidating CCC Valuescope Market Report from his office. I flip through the stack of pages and see that the my new transmission added a measly 41 dollar value impact to my car. After that complete letdown, I thought the transmission is worth more out of the car than in the car! Not that I would know how to take it out or anything. Man, did that 41 dollar credit sting!
Topics: car accident | No Comments »
Trusty Civic Takes Us On a Road Tripping Spring Break Then Gets T-Boned First Day Back
By Vanessa | March 26, 2008
We’re back in Gainesville just about ready to start back our regular lives just after a spring break vacation and we get t-boned on the way over to pick up Bella from boarding at the vet.
My trusty and reliable Honda Civic took quite a beating and luckily our seat belts saved our lives. I had the most damage, needing staples in my head, and we both have neck, back and hip pain since the accident. Then the worrying started… I go to school full time trying to get into nursing school, I work full time at the hospital and I live on my own without help from the bank of Mom and Dad. What am I going to do without my car?! Will they be able to fix my car? Will they total it? Am I going to get a rental being under 25?
Vanessa here, I took some pictures of the car as soon as the accident happened. I heard that’s the right thing to do and it came in handy. Our parents wanted to know we were okay and we could send them text messages and pics from our cell phones of the car while we waited in the ER. It also came in handy when talking with our insurance adjuster a few days later.
By the time the car was towed away and taken to an authorized repair shop we were nervous. Here we are two chicks far from our parents, living on our own, working and going to school, trying to get ahead in life and now we’re faced with this new ‘game’. The game of ‘Will they screw us because we don’t know anything about how this insurance stuff works’?
My mom taught me a few things that I didn’t think would come in handy in an accident but they did: Keep track of things that matter to you, receipts, pictures, letters, emails, phone calls. Leigha kept everything related to her car. No she’s not pimping a Hummer or a Benz with spinners but being 21 year old college student, working fulltime who saved up to buy her own car, means she knows the value of her money and was going to treat it with respect. No one handed her a set of car keys so taking care of her things is important to her. Leigha kept her records for all the things she sunk into the car to repair, service or upgrade. After phone calls to 911 and her family, I didn’t know what else I could have done but make sure Leigha was gonna be alright and that the state of her car would be represented the same way later on when the insurance people were going to run their numbers.
My mom also told me when you want something keep at it, be persistent and don’t show fear that you don’t know how you’re going to get it. I was lucky in that accident, heck I think we are both lucky to be here and there was no way I was going to let Leigha get walked all over because we didn’t know how this insurance thing worked. I helped by asking questions doing some research and being nice to all the people we talked to because they’re people just doing their job, its not personal for them, just a paycheck.
After we get our personal things out from the body shop, the insurance adjuster tells us that from what he sees, there’s too much damage to repair it and he can’t promise anything but it would be good to start looking for another car, ugh frame damage on a ten year old car. Next day, he runs his report and sure enough the damages cost more to repair than the value of the vehicle.
Here we are sitting at the end of a total car loss feeling like champs. We got way more than what we thought we’d be able to negotiate and we wanted to tell our story of how we did right on our own to get the settlement we knew we deserved while being respectful and appreciate all the people we had to deal with along the way.
We’re thinking we can help all those people out there who get into accidents get a good value on their totaled vehicle –without us having to be public adjusters or go to law school and charge an arm and a leg.
We’re hoping someone out there who’s just been in an accident might find what we’ve done useful to getting what they deserve out of a cold insurance process system that can work with you if you know which buttons to press and how to get people to help you.
Let us know what you think!
Vanessa & Leigha
Topics: car accident | 5 Comments »