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A comment on Why car insurance in America is too cheap. Parent comment

Re:Why car insurance in America is too cheap by swozey on Saturday February 03, 2024 @01:52PM (#39243445)
There was absolutely no way I could walk into anything but the most decrepit used car dealer and walk out with a car anywhere near what I previously owned for what they gave me, completely unrelated to whether or not I had a loan. The KBB was around 20k dealer. They gave me the crumb not fully loaded non F-sport (a $5k package) private party low end. $15k was shockingly low. Mine had like, 15k miles and the 15k range had over 100k. Their criteria seemed to be "Lexus I of some sort, cheapest." I don't think the IS250 was even normally that low.

Maybe it's what they all do, but it sucks. And it's not what a lot of people expect.

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Re:Why car insurance in America is too cheap by jrmg on Saturday February 03, 2024 @02:15PM (#39243705)
FWIW our car (2014 RAV4 EV) was totaled in California in 2018, and the insurance payout pretty much exactly covered replacing it with a near-identical new model (actually a bit lower mileage!) from a local used car dealer. I think we actually came out a few hundred dollars ahead.

We were insured with Travelers.

I’ve wondered since then if that’s how it usually works out, or if we were a lucky fluke.

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Re:Why car insurance in America is too cheap by FireBeyond on Saturday February 03, 2024 @06:27PM (#39245835)
Travelers does well with that. I switched after I was in a not at fault accident (other side was a commercial vehicle, fully insured, 100% admitted liability) and got screwed over by my own insurer (low ball offer on the value, stalling on giving me access to the comps until the night before the offer expired, reneging on rental coverage, threatening to not cover something with PIP...)

I have two "new" cars (2019 and 2021 model years) that I've had since they were less than a year old, and have new car replacement on both.

Travelers is relatively unique in that their new car replacement is up to 5 years, not 1 as most are (some go to 2 or 3). NCR also integrates gap coverage.

If my 2021 RS 5 gets totaled two years from now, I get a check for 110% of the MSRP for a 2026 RS 5.

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Re:Why car insurance in America is too cheap by magicalhippo on Saturday February 03, 2024 @02:00PM (#39243545)
We had our i3 totalled a few years ago. Insurance company guy was transparent and said he'd gone to our version of Craigslist here in Norway, found i3's of same age and similar milage, and took the average.

As such I could definitely buy a replacement with the payout.

While I'd much rather be without the experience, I was almost pleasantly surprised by the insurance company.

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Re:Why car insurance in America is too cheap by bombcar on Saturday February 03, 2024 @04:57PM (#39245168)
That’s what progressive did when our older car was totaled by hail. It wasn’t just Craigslist but it was some similar ones available- and averaged. They’d go buy one for us, or give us the cash, or (what we did) is give us back the car and most of the cash.
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Re:Why car insurance in America is too cheap by brendoelfrendo on Saturday February 03, 2024 @02:09PM (#39243644)
You may have been able to push for a better settlement if you saw their comps and noticed they were not actually comparable, but at the end of the day, no insurance company will give you more than local market value. If you're underwater on the loan and the value doesn't cover it, that's om you. I never buy GAP; if you need to buy GAP, you should be buying less car.
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Re:Why car insurance in America is too cheap by swozey on Saturday February 03, 2024 @02:14PM (#39243694)
Yeah I really had no idea what powers/options I had in the situation. The way they treated me made me seriously want to somehow get them to recover a LOT of money I had to spend (around $4-6k in impound lot fees they wouldn't pay). They pretty much went out of their way to make me feel like I should be grateful they helped at all.

I was maybe 23 and definitely didn't have money for legal help. I hate how I let myself get treated.

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Re:Why car insurance in America is too cheap by mint2 on Sunday February 04, 2024 @09:10AM (#39250308)
Don’t beat yourself up over it. But also, post the learnings not just the mistake without the context only for both of them to come out later after people point them out.
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Re:Why car insurance in America is too cheap by selimthegrim on Saturday February 03, 2024 @04:41PM (#39245031)
GAP comes on leases too pretty standard these days.
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Re:Why car insurance in America is too cheap by mint2 on Sunday February 04, 2024 @09:08AM (#39250296)
You may have done some, but you can negotiate with the insurance company and either seek legal help or file a protest with the department of insurance if they are not in good faith servicing your claim.
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