Another 68 charger totaled and question

My wife, daughter and I are a little sore but ok. Got rear ended by a girl and her dog in a ford ranger at about 55mph. She didn't brake at all. Anyway my question is even though the car is insured by a classic car company for an agreed value, my insurance shouldn't have anything to do with the accident since it wasn't my fault; right?

Really wish we were in a regular car as these cars don't grow on trees. Also am wondering if I get the car back if it's totaled as there are a lot of good parts on it.

Check your policy mine has a clause if I want to buy it back, she might try to sue you for being in her way. Glad you and your family are OK.

Glad you are all OK. You should all be checked out by a doctor. You will no doubt be more sore and stiff over the next few days.

Use your insurance company. You have agreed value coverage for a reason. Principle is no reason to insist upon using the other driver's insurance company, especially with this car.

As far as keeping the car, your insurer will deduct the projected value of the salvage from the settlement amount should you decide to keep it. This is another reason to use your own insurance.

Wow, glad you guys are alright. Her insurance is only going to pay for what the adjuster valuates your car. Your insurance is going to make up the rest of the agreed value. Dunno about buybacks.

This is not correct. You don't go through both insurance companies.

What does the "clause" in your policy say? I've never seen a policy that contains language to this effect.

Typically, this is not addressed specifically within a policy. If you own the car outright and want to keep it, you can keep it, and your insurer reduces the settlement amount by the projected salvage value amount. If you do not own the car outright, it is up to the leinholder whether or not you can keep the car, since they are actually the titled owner. They usually don't allow it. Not always, but usually.

glad you weren't seriously hurt. cars can be easily repaired or replaced, all it takes is $$$. people can't be easily repaired or replaced even if you have all the $$$ in the world. i would seek some follow up medical inspections in the near future just to be sure everything is OK.

if you file a claim thru HER insurance policy you will be restricted to the limits of her policy.
if you file a claim thru YOUR insurance policy you will be restricted to the limits of that policy.
i would assume the limits of your policy will be much higher than hers. so being reimbursed for damages will be easier if you file with yours.

if you file with your insurance they will pay out the the limits, if necessary, and no more than the limits in the policy no matter who your attorney is. and then seek reimbursement from her insurance co. you will probably be reimbursed your deductible after your insurance co is reimbursed from her insurance co.
if you file with her insurance co they will pay out to their limits, if necessary and no more than the limits, it won't matter who your attorney is. you won't have to pay any deductibles. your insurance co won't pay anything until you file a claim with them.
a good attorney might be able to find some other applicable insurance policy in to file claims against but all policies are restricted by their limits.

You are correct about the possible issue regarding her coverage limits. However, even if her limits are sufficient to cover the damage, he will have a far easier time using his own insurance here, especially since he has agreed value coverage. Most standard auto carriers don't have too many people that know much about older cars, and the nuances of handling claims involving older cars.

There are no limits on first party property coverage, only third party. The exception to this is if you carry Uninsured Motorist Property Damage coverage. He will get the agreed value amount, but unless he underinsured the car, that's not an issue. Also, many collector car/agreed value policies have $0 deductible. Even if he does have a deductible, it is possible his carrier would waive it in this situation. It happens regularly if liability is clear.

You are correct that his insurance company will pursue her insurance company for reimbursement. If her coverage is not sufficient to reimburse them in full, they will at least consider pursuing her directly for the amount above her coverage limit. If that happens, the process becomes really long and drawn out. If he has a deductible, and his insurer doesn't waive it, he will be reimbursed once his company collects from her company.

with availability of quality sheet metal today and high values of 2nd gen chargers. i can see that car being repaired these days if it has some desirable options.

i have repaired late model $$$ new cars with more damages than that car has.

I have no doubt that there are techs who can repair it (you being one of them), but I would be stunned if either insurance company didn't total it.

My $.02? Go through his own insurance company, take the total loss settlement, let the car go, buy another one, or buy something different, or put it in the bank. Between the reduction in the settlement amount for keeping the car, plus the cost of parts/labor/materials to fix it, I can't see how he would come out ahead. Let someone else buy it at the salvage auction and part it or fix it.

A friend of mine got hit in a similar way(stopped on the highway and hit at 60) in a B body. His car looked about like yours from what I understand it was repaired beautifully. He has had lots of super nice B bodies and I can't remember what car it was, maybe a Road Runner i can't recall.

i didn't say his insurance co will repair it.
i agree it will be easily totaled by the payout insurance co. what i was trying to say is, i wouldn't be surprised to see the person buying this car at a salvage auction repairs it to drive or re-sell. because of this salvage values will be much higher than what people might think they are. buying this can back might get more $$ than some people think it will be, depending on what the payout insurance co policy says and what their claims process rules allow.


i also agree that getting fully reimbursed for the damages will be MUCH easier if he files a claim thru his insurance co. i somewhat said this in my earlier post.

100% agree. Salvage auctions are full of "fix it and flip it" guys, and your comments earlier about sheet metal availability, plus the value of the car itself, will make this a prime candidate for some of those folks. You're also correct about the salvage value...it stands a good chance of being much higher than what many might guess it would be.

Glad you are OK. Dang that's a shame, pretty car. Hope all works out in your favor.

not_a_charger knows his way around these things and I'd go with what he says.

I'm not going to suggest that what follows is ethical or even legal: if it was me, I would have had it towed to my driveway rather than the local tow yard. When the hassle with the insurance company is concluded, they can come collect it. Maybe some merit in the idea in terms of valuable stuff disappearing while in the impound lot but my thought is entirely about some parts disappearing while it's parked outside my garage.

I really doubt they'd notice or care about stuff like rims, trim pieces, small interior bits. They'd probably notice and likely object to it missing bigger key components affecting the salvage value - front clip, motor / trans. Might be an opportunity to negotiate with your insurance company but really no clue if they'd be willing to play along. Reduce the agreed value pay out by the fair market salvage value of anything significant you remove. Could well be a better deal than buying back the wreck.

100% fine to do this.



Assuming the car was originally insured in its current state/with its current modifications, the insurance company is unlikely to agree to this, especially with an agreed value policy. Also, you can't start removing trim pieces, etc. You either take the full payout and give up the car, or you take the payout less salvage value and keep the car. They may be willing to do something regarding wheels/tires, but beyond that, it's very unlikely.

Oh crap. I 'm so sorry to see that. Damn. Glad you all are OK.

I think the car can be saved with reproduction metal, and/or if it is a base model
it may even be less expensive or worthwhile to modify it (back half/big tire) .

Damn, that's hit. Really sorry to see that & hope you're OK.
I'll back not-a-charger here, I had 40 years between collision repair & insurance claims and he's correct.
See a Doc & have your neck & spine checked. Either your, or the OP's, insurance will reimburse.
Use your agreed value, unless the OP's adjuster is both drunk and worships 2nd-Gen Chargers...neither being likely...
Salvage value (aka retention) will be kind of a guesstimate from either insurer, so figure out what the remains are worth to you.

glad you guys are ok !

my charger was hit similar to that when i bought it back in 1970. it got fixed, and i still own it today. i just wished i had the forethought to take pics of it in the as bought condition !
if your car were mine, i would definitely buy it back. whether to fix it or part it out would depend on a bunch of things, but only you can make that determination based on your skills and tool collection.
my one friend in new york state had a new challenger [with only 47 miles on it] broad side him in his 64 polara a few years back, and his policy allowed him to keep his car without a buy back.
i know all companies are different, this was just his experience.
Good Luck to you guys ! keep a close eye on how you feel in a few days, you might want to get checked out further.

My situation was a bit different as my car was totaled in a garage fire. I had my car towed to the tow company's impound lot and the next day retrieved it and brought it to my shop as I didn't want the insurance company to take possession and would not release the title to them. Two inspectors came by and appraised the car and I got what I thought was a fair offer after turning down the first one. I bought my car back for $1000. I can't believe the gas tank didn't rupture and the rear window blown out! Definitely get checked out as you WILL have issues from that bad a hit...

It's nice that happened for your friend, but it had nothing to do with his policy. There is no policy out there, anywhere, that says "You may keep your totaled vehicle without any reduction of your settlement amount."

His adjuster, and likely his adjuster's manager, chose to allow him to keep it without charging him for the salvage retention. They probably couldn't find any data to suggest what the salvage was worth, and also likely thought it was "just an old car," and made a business decision to pay out on the total and let him keep the car anyway.

He has an agreed value policy. If he goes through his insurance company, there's no offer, no negotiation. He gets the agreed value. If he goes through the at-fault driver's insurance company (assuming she has sufficient coverage), then he can attempt to negotiate a higher settlement if he feels their offer is too low.

Wow that really sucks. That's one of the reasons it's I don't like driving some of my cars much. There are a lot of moron drivers out there who don't even seem to care about themselves let alone others.

For insurance don't even talk to her company deal with your own. If there's any back and forth with the other drivers company it's their job to deal with it. You should be able to buy it back especially since you've got collector insurance on it.

When I had an accident with my newer truck with normal insurance I had to fight with them to get the chance to buy it back and at the end I didn't bother because the value they put on it was too high. Between that and what $$$$ was left I wouldn't have been able to buy it back and fix it without spending more and it wasn't worth it for parts. They did tell me that they had no problem with me taking the wheels off it as long as I put something back on and when I cleaned it out I took back the trailer brake controller and some other parts that weren't stock that they didn't include in the value. But if you are dealing with an actual collector insurance company they are usually better to deal with and it's a different situation because they are used to handling situations like this.

i think that's exactly what happened. they didn't want to be bothered with the effort to figure out what to do with the car, and it was in his driveway.

That has nothing to do with it. If he owns it outright, it's up to him. If he has a loan on it, it's up to the leinholder.

Thanks for all the insight on my options. Car was bought and paid for 11 years ago for my wife. Factory 383 buddy seat car. Since it had no A/C I installed a classic air system, firmfeel steering box, and also added front disc brakes. It had a junk 360 in it, so I had a member here build me a mild 360 stroker engine so it is not original by any means. It was nice driver with 2.94 gears but would still run pretty good down the track (13.28)the one time I took it there.

Will see what happens.
Thanks for the tips

That was a good lookin car I remember it from a pic you posted with your wife and daughter. Hope its a painless process for you. Seems like every year we see a Charger get in a bad one.

True, my wife had an agreed to value and that is what she got for her 78 Pontiac T/A. She didn't have to buy her car back, they just let us keep it.

As mentioned go get checked out by a doc. I've been rear ended 3 times and the hurt part may or may not show up later on. Insurance company will be in a hurry to get you to settle, but don't do it until you've been checked out first.

I don't get people who don't want to use their insurance when something like this happens. YOU'RE PAYING THEM to do this stuff, get your money's worth.

As for buyback, it's certainly an option but without a number to work with everything is speculation. If the buyback is $1000 great, if it's $10000 maybe not.

Yeah, I may get checked out if I don’t get any better. Right know I ‘m just sore.
My wife also used to have a 78 T/A. Cool car.

Her insurance company will screw you to death. Go through your own. No reason not to.

Happy for you that your are doing fine

Carsten

Sorry about you car.

It looks like the "Roadkill" sticker held up, maybe Freiburger and Finnegan will buy it for the next episode.

As far as I know a lot of this insurance questions may vary from state to state. In most cases that car should be a total. With the stated value if its high enough they just may want to fix it. Only reason I say this is if the stated value is 50K and the repair estimate is 30K will they want to have it fixed?

I don't know about collector car adjusters but with daily drivers it's cost to fix vs current value plus can the average shop lay hands on the parts required. I kinda doubt the average adjuster is gonna whip out an AMD catalog and say it's fixable. Ok, ya'll need a couple more catalogs but even less reason to believe they'd go through the effort. One look at the drivers side and it'll be straight to where should I send the check. see also: whatever collector car insurance company wrote the policy probably doesn't have an employee near by and will just sub out the leg work of a personal inspection.

As for what's supposed to legally happen according to the letter of the policy vs some of the anecdotal experiences shared here, I think the truth lies some where in between. We paid you for your loss, we now own as it was when it got smacked is the basic black and white reality. On the flip side, every thing in life is negotiable and you don't have anything to loose by trying to make a deal.

You are super lucky that you and your family are okay. That was a pretty hard hit and people have gotten hurt from a lot less. The only advice I have on what to do is to think about and talk it over with your family. It will take a ton of time and money to fix that car and when it is all back together you might not even want to drive it. I have a friend who has been working on putting his car back together after it got hit and it is really a difficult process. He works at a body shop and he still is having trouble getting the project done. It is just so hard these days to find all the right parts that even the pros have problems putting cars like that back together. If it was my car I'd take the payout and see what the remaining value was. If the insurance company put a low figure on it I'd buy it back for parts and then sell the parts but I don't think I'd have the energy to rebuild it. You might be in a different place and perhaps you want to take on a project. You'll just have to think it over.

Good lord! If your car looks like that, how bad is her vehicle?

Hope everything works out.

Based on what I've seen a couple of my friends go thru recently, even $50K would disappear pretty quickly if you hired a pro shop to fix that car. First you have to find someone who is willing to do that work and then you have to wait at least a year or two for the job to be finished up. If you took that car to a higher end Mopar shop the bill will most likely end up in the six figures by the time they were done with it. A buddy of mine is fixing a RoadRunner that got hit in the front. The damage looked pretty minor but so far to date he has billed the insurance company over $20,000. All of the front sheetmetal had to be replaced as well as the grille and bumper and core support and radiator. He also had to replace some of the front suspension, K frame, some engine parts, etc.

Rapom, I agree with most above, 'Not a Charger' more so.

But just a word of warning. Her insurance company may/will be searching social media and Forum pages so use caution on what you say.

Check the bottom right corner.

Really????

That's not part of your policy contract. That's essentially a FAQ document explaining to you how claims are handled.

It's just saying there is an option if you want it with my insurance!

I've seen cars like that back half and saved, not cheap or easy but it is doable

It's an option with any insurance, provided you own the vehicle outright. I'm trying to clarify for those who might read this that it's not specifically in your policy, which was what you originally said. There's a ton of misinformation given when it comes to this topic, almost all of it unintentional (as was the case here), but it still should be corrected.

Agreed!, soak the insurance for all it's worth come claim time, max vehicle payout, medical, rental, etc, etc, whatever your entitled to

It would be kinda cool to back half it with some serious tires and a 4-link

Gus

Get yourself and everyone else that was in the car at the time checked out to be sure there are no injuries that have not yet shown up.
Go through your insurance, and ask them what the buy back will be. They will give you a number, and then you get to decide if the value of the parts is worth the buy back. Once you buy it back, its pretty much up to you what you do with the car. I suspect the buy back on a 68 Charger with a good front clip wont be cheap. Gene

True: after waiting god knows the time to fix it; you'll be spending More time looking in the rear view mirror while driving it, then on the road ahead. Kinda like if your house is ever burglarized. You never feel "100% safe" in it again, no matter what. Cash out quick, go shop for another. Seems to be a good time for buyer these days.



Shouldn't surprise anyone in this day&age of that occurring

When I crashed my Suzuki scooter at 40-45 MPH into a pickup that took my right of way, I made a few comments on a Suzuki Burgman scooter forum. One of the comments was that I was doing 35 MPH in a 35 MPH zone and when I seen him coming at me I gunned it and got up to 40 MPH while changing lanes. (He crossed both traffic lanes and hit me in the Suicide lane)

His insurance Adjuster said
"If you had hit the brakes instead of gunning it to 40 MPH, maybe you would not have hit him. Don't ya think?"

That was verbatim of what another member had replied to my comment. I had not said that to anyone at the insurance companies, his or mine. I asked her where she heard I was doing 40 MPH and she said "I read it somewhere" She would not tell me where. I hired a lawyer right then.

I once found evidence on social media that led to the denial of a $85k claim on a rented Lamborghini Huracan. The person who rented the car and filed the bogus claim was fairly young, employed, and owned a home. All of that = collectible. Not a smart move. I'm sure they are still paying it off.

Nothing OP has posted here would cause him any problems.

You're only paranoid if it turns out that big brother isn't actually listening.

More often than not they probably aren't but it's generally safer to assume they are or least could be. Back in my corporate days if somebody asked me a question that I didn't want to answer I often replied with "this phone call may be subject to monitoring for the purpose of service quality observation". Hey, I busted more than a few reps because I was bored baby sitting new installs and killed a couple hours monitoring calls and running reports to document personal calls on company time.

I don't do it but I support the idea of randomly adding "May the peace, mercy, and blessings of Allah be upon you" to your emails just to keep them on their toes.

This car be ugly, no matter what country it is in
Shock extensions and all

Glad you guys are OK - well hopefully. You may all have whiplash & don't realize it yet. If so, it will probably plague you for the rest of your lives - like me. I was the second vehicle in a wreck in Chicago back in 1979 & started having headaches 2 days after the accident, & I still get my "car accident" headaches to this day.

As far as the Charger, that's going to be a very difficult one to fix - the roof is tweaked - you can see looking at the driver's door window alignment. A-pillars were probably both pushed forward & came back - the entire roof was pushed forward. If it is savable, it's going to be a LOT of work.

That's the point Cab I tried to find the most jacked up pic I could find to lighten this thread up a bit. We still have to remember it's just a car and everyone walked away

Gus

I agree! The car did what it was suppose to do, protect the occupants as best it could. Everybody involved is still with us, so I guess it did well. Weather it could or should get fixed is the topic of a different thread. Sometimes there are enough parts a guy might want to keep and use on a different project that would make the buy back worth while, and sometimes there are not. If he bought another 68 Charger, this one could be a goldmine worth of parts.

When my 50 Dodge 4x4 got totalled, the buy back was pretty low, there were parts I used a couple weeks later on the replacement truck that made the buy back worth while to me. About a year later I sold the good doors (and gave him the rest of the truck) for about 2x the original buy back price and both the buyer and I were happy. A 68 Charger is probably worth a lot more then my 50 Dodge truck was though. Gene

100% Agree!
Bid it 100% fair well.
Don't look back
Look Ahead.
And Move On (to another or different)..

Lawyers, man.

Would YOU trust a lawyer?


I admire your cool. If some stupid texting scag did that to my hotrod i'd put her in a [censored] hole. Jesus... i get hot just thinking about it...

Glad you all are ok and able to even write this post, that is a serious hit.
Curious, since you have a 68, did you have optional head restraints? Wondering how your neck is if you did not. I know my a-body seat backs are low enough on me that it would be an issue in a hit like this.
And if you don't want to answer these details, that's fine. It happened to be the first thing I thought of when I saw the photos.

My neck seems to be ok, but my seat was the only one where the seat back got bent back. My wife and daughter’s necks were a bit more sore, probably because their seat backs didn’t give. Wife went to the er today because this morning, one eye lid was a bit droopy and the pupil was smaller. Kept her all morning running tests. Doctor said some nerves in the neck control the eye lids. I will be taking her to a neurologist tomorrow.

Also got the charger back home today from impound, based on your advice. My insurance company suggested I get an appraisal from the girls company just in case they give me a higher appraisal than our agreed value.

Hopefully they will allow me to harvest the engine, and other parts if they want to take it.

Been getting a lot of lawyer calls also. Going to wait a couple of weeks to see if I am ok.

I installed frame connectors and torque boxes when I got the car. So I ‘m sure that helped limit the damage, but I’m afraid as others have suggested that we might have to move on as the damage is major.

I keep you guys posted on what happens next.

It's not up to them to "take" the car. It's up to you if you want to keep it or not. If you keep it, you keep it all. If you let them take it, they're taking it all, not less engine, interior, etc. It is challenging enough to gauge the salvage value of an older car as it is. Trying to do so without an engine, etc? They're probably not going to be inclined to invest any time in figuring what the car would be worth partially stripped. As I mentioned earlier, maybe they allow you to swap the wheels/tires out with other ones, but that's likely about it. You might end up getting lucky, but I wouldn't count on it.

There's no harm in having the other driver's company look at it and present an offer to you. Just remember, if their offer is less than what you would get from your insurance company, don't get mad, and don't stress about it. Just go back to your insurance company, and let them take over. Your Agreed Value coverage with your carrier is the perfect safety net.

I know an excellent personal injury attorney if you would like a no-string recommendation. You can PM me if you are interested. He was a litigation rep at a huge insurance company before moving into his own practice many years ago, so he knows the business inside and out.