Major body repair

[WoodlandHills]

Regardless of what you do, I think you'll find having a salvage title in the vehicle's history, no matter how well (if even possible) it is repaired, means come time to sell it, the value will be significantly diminished.

Very true: my F-250 was a theft recovery with a salvage title on eBay. Salvage titled vehicles are a sweet deal for a smart buyer as long as you know they will be a hard sell when you decide to move them along. Having a good strong beater truck with an insurance value of essentially zero is not such a bad thing, but perhaps an i3 would not be as well suited for the same game. Maybe in a decade or two we will see true beater EVs......... I doubt that a 35 year old Tesla will be in as good shape as today's 1980's S-class barges!

 

[psquare]

What we tend to see here is people that have had issues...not people that have had their repairs done in an expedited fashion...people here tend to be the ones with complaints and looking for sympathy (whether justified or not) - it's just the nature of forums like this.

Some on here might remember my front screen replacement saga, which took over 4 weeks, mainly down to the insurer not playing ball. The BMW i dealer, on the other hand, was able to source a new front screen for my i3 in 3 days and fit it in a day. A new (unpainted) front side panel took about 5 working days to deliver, if I remember correctly.

 

[ScottinOregon]

This is Scott again, he with the tree on top of his car.

The insurance adjuster was out to see the car and says it's a total loss. Not only that, but last Saturday morning before the tree hit it it has supposedly depreciated an astonishing and farcical (in my opinion) 40% in the 13 months I've owned it, so they want to pay me 31,700 for a car I spent 52k for and is still in perfect condition (I estimate I've driven 500 miles only on the REx, no milkshakes spilled in the back seat, etc.). I've put 22,000 miles, but even in their calcs that only takes $2000 off its value.

Another way to look at it is if I wanted to buy the same car I'd have to chip in about $12,000. Almost $1000 a month to drive that car the last year is a little steep (especially when I see billboards saying I can lease one for $219/month). I'm trying to breathe deeply, and have escalated it to the regional office in Denver, and will take it higher when (probably not if) they don't act on my demand to either fix it or pay me $44,000. I don't know what power I have -- basically I own a wrecked car they really don't want anything to do with and have this faint obligation to make me whole using their numbers. I had great rapport with the adjuster, which didn't help much with the pricing but now that I think about it she was giving me hint after hint that the company, though her, was going to try to totally jack me and these were the steps I needed to take to argue it.

So my request of you, fellow i3ers, is some way to find comparable cars that have changed hands and their prices.

 

[alohart]

Not only that, but last Saturday morning before the tree hit it it has supposedly depreciated an astonishing and farcical (in my opinion) 40% in the 13 months I've owned it, so they want to pay me 31,700 for a car I spent 52k for and is still in perfect condition (I estimate I've driven 500 miles only on the REx, no milkshakes spilled in the back seat, etc.).

Used prices are decreased due to the tax credits and other financial incentives that were available when the car was purchased new.

Another way to look at it is if I wanted to buy the same car I'd have to chip in about $12,000.

Insurance covers the current value of your car, not the cost of a new equivalent car.

Look at 2014 i3 REx's on your favorite used car Website (e.g., autotrader.com). I see a pretty fully-loaded 2014 i3 REx Tera ($54795 MSRP) with only 12,554 miles being offered for $29,998. That would be an upgrade from your car and one with 10k fewer miles driven. You could take the insurance company's offer, pay to have the used car shipped to you, and probably still have some money left over. That's just one of several available examples.

 

[i3Alan]

The insurance adjuster was out to see the car and says it's a total loss. Not only that, but last Saturday morning before the tree hit it it has supposedly depreciated an astonishing and farcical (in my opinion) 40% in the 13 months I've owned it, so they want to pay me 31,700 for a car I spent 52k for and is still in perfect condition (I estimate I've driven 500 miles only on the REx, no milkshakes spilled in the back seat, etc.). I've put 22,000 miles, but even in their calcs that only takes $2000 off its value.

Laws and insurance policy rules vary, but this may apply to you. I had a 1.5 year old car totaled with about 20K miles on it. The insurance company offered me too low of a price, so I told them to just replace the car with another car having 1) same year or newer, 2) same make and model, 3) same or higher trim level, 4) any color other than black, and 5) a max of 120% of the miles. I knew that this was a rare car (but less rare than the i3!). After three weeks doing a nationwide search for the car, they gave up and bought me a brand new one, charging me only for the milage I put on the totaled car of about $2K. No depreciation charge, and no charge for the nicer standard features of the new model.

 

[ScottinOregon]

Oooo, I like the idea of putting the insurance company on the hot seat in finding me a car as good as mine. I don't know if they'll take the bait, but it's worth a try.

Otherwise, I've basically made the mistake in my utter indignation with their offer to me of confusing value with price. The federal tax credit just adds $7500 to the fabled 20% drop in PRICE when you drive a car off the new-car lot, even though the value is still there. If I'd been able to keep the car for the duration (my current Volvo has 403,000 miles on it although my VW Jetta before that only made it to 360k) then taking that off-the-lot price hit is fine. But when the car is taken away from me with this tree incident then I'm forced to realize the hit of the market price being way below its value to me. That's the bummer.

One course of action would definitely be to buy a used car from someone else who took this price hit ... likely because they bought an i3 thinking they were going to save the world and then complain about "having to plug the thing in all the time." A lot of people don't go for those sorts of inconveniences. As a matter of fact, given how few miles I've actually used my REx, I think I'll go for a BEV next time (and I think the price hit on those suckers is even greater in the first year!).

 

[Schnort]

Yeah, you didn't spend $53K, you spent $53K - $7.5K - whatever local incentives.

It's still a pretty large depreciation down to $32K, but that's cars...