Question: I have a question that a friend of mine suggested this group could help with. I recently had a car accident and was written a check from my insurance company for repairs (comprehensive, so no deductible — just a full check to cover the cost of all repairs they included in their estimate). This is my first accident, so I’m not sure how things work. Is it true that if there are things on my car that I don’t care about fixing, I can just not have them fixed and keep the extra money?

For example, I do need a new left tail light, which I will replace, but the plastic on the other tail light is only a bit chipped. They incloded the cost of a new plastic cover for that other tail light — costs $45, but the chip is small enough that I don’t really care about fixing it, I’d rather have the 45 bucks. Am I doing anything wrong if I do this? I am not trying to intentionally rip off the insurance company; I just don’t feel like the part needs replacing, for my needs (it’s a pretty old car). Plus I am environmentally minded about recycling; why should I send a piece of plastic to the landfill when I don’t feel it needs to be there? Does the mechanic have to send anything to the insurer to prove the work was done? The company didn’t tell me I had to send them any proof.

Thanks for your advice; I really appreciate it.

Answer: First, be aware that even if the car is “paid for”, if you have used it as collateral for a personal loan or something like that and part of the loan hasn’t been paid off yet, the lender may require that you get the car fixed. (So, just don’t tell them about the accident?? Depends on your personal sense of ethics.)

Second, check with your car-insurance company. Mine seemed only too happy to pay about my damaged car, BUT:

they would only pay up to a maximum of the book value of such a car, disregarding that *our* car is still in better shape by far than most of its year and model, and we/they couldn’t find us a comparable car for that book value they were using

their estimate of the costs of repairs are always based on restoring the car to *brand new car* condition, even if the car is old and the rest of the car isn’t likely to last as long as the repaired parts. If it’s a Toyota, they estimate on Toyota factory parts and installation/labor at a Toyota dealer or a shop that specializes in Toyota vehicles only. So, because of their way of doing things, they figured the repairs would cost over twice as much as the book value of the car. They wanted to pay only the book value, considering the car “totalled” because by their estimates it would cost more to fix than to replace. But almost all of our car was still in great shape.

if we went ahead with our claim with the insurance company, the accident would be included on our insurance record for years, and as long as it’s on our record the insurance premiums would be drastically higher than before the claim.

SO, here’s what we did. Checked around and found the parts that were needed for the repair, based on advice from and with the help of a couple of very good car repair places *that do Toyota work quite a bit but are not Toyota-exclusive shops or Toyota dealer shops*.

Some of these parts were used Toyota parts, some were comparable parts that would work in our case but not made by Toyota. They are certainly as “good” as the parts that were damaged in the accident–those parts were already “used”, by us!!

Once we knew that we could have the car repaired to our satisfaction for far less than the insurance estimate–actually just about the “book value” of the car that was all the insurance company wanted to pay–we decided *not* to proceed with the insurance claim. That way we saved what would have been the increase in insurance premiums, which over time would have added up to far more than what we paid for the car repairs.

We had the car repaired ourselves, but properly by professionals so that our car stays reliable and will last us as long as possible. Note that our repair costs could have been even lower if my DH weren’t so concerned about having a *nice-looking* car, but we wanted to bring the car up to the condition it was in before the accident.

This is even a tip for people who haven’t had a vehicle accident: insurance companies and many car-repair places have it in their heads that it makes sense to do repairs that bring the vehicle up to *brand-new-car condition* in respect to the repaired parts, even if the car as a whole is not likely to last anywhere near as long as the repaired parts of the car. You can save *bundles* of money in such cases by finding a good repair shop that will co-operate when you tell them you don’t need brand-new-car-condition. I’ve found you have to tell the repair place each time you go there that you don’t need new-car-condition, and that dealers and brand-exlusive repair shops are the least likely to cooperate.

Whew! Hope this helps someone,

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