You are not a customer of that insurance company so they will do everything they legally can to give you as little money as possible. It's their job to screw you. They have teams of people doing research to figure out how to pay out as little as possible. I went through the same thing a few years ago when my Talon was wrecked.

You might be able to scare the insurance company a bit if you make a call to your states Insurance Commission and talk to some one, then do a little name dropping when you call them back. The buy back amount is pretty silly, but unfortunately they are probably legally in the right otherwise. If insurance companies don't screw people over they can't be competitive with the other insurance companies.

Sorry to hear of your troubles. Good luck!

 

I had a simular issue with insurance a few years back and i can tell you that they are a PAIN!

Here is what i would do. The value of cars is done by the currant selling price in your area. I had to spend a long time looking at all the other cars like mine for sale in the paper, and even ebay to see what my car would have sold for then i too in severl hundred pages of these cars that sold for XXX amount and showed them that they were about half what the car was worth. Well this at least got them to think about it but they still tryed to strongarm me so i just said i will take it to small clai.... Hold on i will check with my supervisor. Small claims court is a simple and cheap way to get them to listen to you as the judge now decides what the value of the car is (and you are right in more ways that one because you have spent the time to research it and have the proof from both KBB and local sales). Also if they are not local they have to send down someone to show up or they lose automatically. This will usually cost them more than just paying up and they will listen much better.

Oh, i ended up getting what my car was worth out of it. they tried a few more tricks o screw me but i was so fed up (and they knew it) that i was THIS close to goign to court.

 

The kid caused the damages. Get his personal information and take his A$$ to small claims court if his insurance drags their feet or worse. DEMAND a rental car from his insurance. Keep track of everything including lost time at work, personal time invested in the goat rodeo, etc.. Sit down now and write a letter to yourself about the incident with all details. Put all your communications with his insurance in writing with dates you expect key things to happen and send the letter registered mail that requires a signature upon delivery. I don't see any liability on the part of the car wash. Calling the insurance idiots and eating their A$$'s out will do little good...they just work there.

My $0.02

 

The kid did not have a drivers liscencs and doubt he has any insurance?
I questioned the owner if he was legal and he said he was a documented worker.

 

it was still illegal for him to be driving anything unless he had a license. dont let the insurance screw you, hold up strong

 

If he was driving an employers vehicle then the employer should have insurance to cover that...

 

Sorry to hear about your rig. Tuff to find in up side but............Sounds like it's time to upgrade????

 

Market value has allotted to do with a vehicles worth. But when a company is to blaim, that's what lawsuits and settlements are for. Your vehicle insurance should have nothing to do with it. My first questions is where was he driving it that he had the peddle all the way to the floor to get it stuck? Second, whether the driver had a license or not, the car wash is liable for his actions. That was there choice to keep him working and responsibility to verify legality. I work in the body shop field and hear about stuff like this all the time.

 

Any Updates ?????