FIRE

[mjguermj]

Last spring I purchased a 2013 Ram 1500 4WD Hemi 5.7 with less than 100k miles .
While my grandson was driving it in October the engine suddenly faltered - upon returning home it was parked & turned off while he briefly went inside .
When he returned outside smoke was coming from under the hood - he backed away from his house & opened the hood to discover the engine in flames . He tried to extinguish the fire but was unsuccessful . The truck burned & was a total loss . Insurance was $6k short of covering the amount financed for the truck - no gap insurance was offered at the time of purchase .What are my options for recouping the difference ?
HELP

 

[mtofell]

Fighting the insurance company is really the only option... or negotiating with the bank I suppose. But the latter will likely impact your credit.

 

[Mlaw1990]

Owing more on a vehicle then its worth without a gap policy you are sorta stuck. You are still responsible for paying the rest to the bank. As the other user said all you can do is try to fight insurance on the value, but if you are truly top heavy there is not much you can do.

 

[aszumilo]

Gap insurance sucks. Better to get it thru your insurance company. It is cheaper and less hassles.

 

[diymirage]

Man up and pay your losses is really the only option


That, or try to convince the insurance thier first offer (which is never their final offer) was low

 

[jawzs2]

Man up and pay your losses is really the only option


That, or try to convince the insurance thier first offer (which is never their final offer) was low

I'm not an expert, nor have I slept in a Holiday Inn Express in years, but I agree, the only realistic option is to do a little bit of research and see what comparable trucks are selling for in your area, see how close the ins co's offer is to the market value. They don't need to match it, (they'll go by Blue Book value), but it will give you an idea how far off their offer is.

 

[diymirage]

I'm not an expert, nor have I slept in a Holiday Inn Express in years, but I agree, the only realistic option is to do a little bit of research and see what comparable trucks are selling for in your area, see how close the ins co's offer is to the market value. They don't need to match it, (they'll go by Blue Book value), but it will give you an idea how far off their offer is.

Some of it will depend on his insurance company, but last time I had a total loss claim I turned it down

I asked for thier comps report and was able to pick it apart quite easily and explain to them why I was entitled to more money to be made whole

Some things to look for, mileage, trim level, accessories and overall shape


I believe they ended up coming up about 4 thousand, but it took a little legroom on my part

Of course, that was a 15 year old charger that was paid off, but I keep full coverage on everything because I'm not worried about paying off loans, I'm worried about replacing what I lost

Now, remember, the insurance company works for you, but thier main commitment is their stockholders

So even though they have a responsibility to you, to honor the contract you have, they are always going to try and make a buck doing it

 

[Bigskyroadglide]

In addition, I would ask for anything else. Like sales tax, registration. State Inspection . Anything you might have to pay $$s out on.

I had a car stolen one time, got sales tax, registration, state inspection fees, and some other minor fees I paid during purchase. I was amazed they accepted the argument

 

[04fxdwgi]

Also try to get any moneys spent on the truck in last 6 months....

 

[White six four]

I keep full coverage on everything

Depending on the vehicle a guy could be wasting a lot of money doing this.

13 years ago (might be 14 now I'd have to check) I bought my pontiac. Full coverage was $12x a month. As soon as I paid it off I dropped it down to liability $3x a month. If I would still be paying the $12x a month (granted that could have went up or down, but insurance companies rarely drop rates from my experience) I would have paid close to $19k just on insurance. More then likely more then what the car was even brand new. So yeah I'll stick to liability if the numbers work out. Each case is different though.

 

[zrock]

ouch never get insurance coverage that does not cover the full amount of the loan. When i update my pollicy every year they ask if i want to keep my loan coverage and what is the truck worth now. I usually keep my insurance at the full amount i took the loan out for to make sure im covered. A extra few $$ in insurance is better than paying a loan for something you do not own..

 

[turkeybird56]

ouch never get insurance coverage that does not cover the full amount of the loan. When i update my pollicy every year they ask if i want to keep my loan coverage and what is the truck worth now. I usually keep my insurance at the full amount i took the loan out for to make sure im covered. A extra few $$ in insurance is better than paying a loan for something you do not own..

OP: U can try to bargain and cajole and demand, but good luck on all that. Unless you have certain insurance companies that talk/advertise how they pay full replacement value, without gap insurance you got a serious fight.

Why I maintain full coverage (Comp/Collision), etc on my paid off vehicles. And I know, it sucks buying GAP when purchase, but in TX, the price of GAP is regulated by State Insurance Commission by Law. May be different in other states.

Again, good luck on yer challenge.

 

[62Blazer]

As mentioned above, you can work with the insurance company and try to up the offering on the truck. However don't expect to recoup the entire $6k figure. Also start out reasonable and polite with the agent....if you go in yelling and cussing them out you will hit more walls trying to negotiate. Do a little research and gather reports of equivalent trucks selling locally and what they are going for.

Regarding the loan, from my experience a lot of banks and such won't even give you a loan unless you have gap insurance to cover the difference between the financed amount and vehicle value. Banks are taking a risk if they don't do this because they are the ones out of money if the lender doesn't pay the loan back.

For the full versus liability insurance it just depends on the person's financial situation. It should come down to if the person can afford to replace the vehicle if something happens to it or not. So if you have a $20,000 vehicle and it gets totaled, can you afford to go out and buy another $20k vehicle to replace it. Keep in mind if you still owe $10k on that vehicle you are still obligated to pay the bank $10k on top of buying a new $20k vehicle. Sure, you pay more each month for full coverage but would you rather pay an extra $100-$200 a month over a period of time or be stuck shelling out $10k for a totaled vehicle and then having to buy something else on top of it.

 

[RamDiver]

I believe insurance companies are cut-throat businesses and have pretty low ethics if any at all. As such, more often than not, the first offer on a full loss is always a low-ball offer, to see if they can save a buck.

In the mid-'90s, I stopped off-roading my '87 Toyota extended cab truck because of excessive frame wrought and/or rust. I still drove it during the winter because it was a blast, especially in deep snow just no back-country fun.

It was April, winter had 1 more blast, enough to have me pull off the highway and park on the shoulder with 4 ways on. It was a complete white-out to get me off the road. After a minute, the visibility was still very low so, I drove further off the road.

I was only there a few more minutes when a buddy in his fancy a$$ed car tried to insert himself under the rear step-bumper. The truck was lifted with large BFG Mud-Terrain tires.

The impact bent the bumper a wee bit so I asked my insurance to cover the repair estimate of $1200. Well... the insurance company insisted that the truck was too old and wanted to write it off entirely.

They offered me $1400, basically the cost of the tires. FHs!

I shopped hard for like vehicles on Truck Trader and handed my broker a stack of 5 similar trucks that were all priced over $3K.

The next offer came back at $3200 plus, I bought the truck as scrap for $50 and then sold it for $1200 after removing the wheels and a few other add-ons.

.

 

[diymirage]

Depending on the vehicle a guy could be wasting a lot of money doing this.

13 years ago (might be 14 now I'd have to check) I bought my pontiac. Full coverage was $12x a month. As soon as I paid it off I dropped it down to liability $3x a month. If I would still be paying the $12x a month (granted that could have went up or down, but insurance companies rarely drop rates from my experience) I would have paid close to $19k just on insurance. More then likely more then what the car was even brand new. So yeah I'll stick to liability if the numbers work out. Each case is different though.

the car in question was an 08 charger, bought in 09 (and when i say bought, that means it is paid for)

at the time, the difference between full coverege and PLPD was 12 dollars a month
thats 144 dollars per year
we totalled it in february '22, thats 13 years of paying an extra 144 dollars...$1872.00

when we were done arguing over the proper value of that charger they cut me a check for $8000.00

so if i were to look at that 144 dollars per year i paid extra as an investment, i netted a 427% return

 

[rzr6-4]

Obviously with the insurance part, it depends on the value of the vehicle. As you cut the value of the car in half, the cost of the ins doesn't go down by that same proportion. On my ram, the price difference with full coverage vs liability was such that it would take a decade of no claims for the lower cost of the liability to actually start to save me money compared to full coverage on a totaled vehicle.

My sierra on the other hand, its worth a small fraction of the ram but the insurance was only about half. In that case the lower cost of liability would start to pay for itself in 2 or 3 years compared to replacement cost. To further that, the thing already looks like crap so I wouldn't even bother fixing a lot of things, and if I did get it fixed I would just do it myself for 1/3 the cost of a shop, so full coverage didn't make sense on it no matter how you looked at it with a low value beater. Obviously with a 70K of the lot vehicle, that's not going to be the case.

 

[Hagar1]

Last spring I purchased a 2013 Ram 1500 4WD Hemi 5.7 with less than 100k miles .
While my grandson was driving it in October the engine suddenly faltered - upon returning home it was parked & turned off while he briefly went inside .
When he returned outside smoke was coming from under the hood - he backed away from his house & opened the hood to discover the engine in flames . He tried to extinguish the fire but was unsuccessful . The truck burned & was a total loss . Insurance was $6k short of covering the amount financed for the truck - no gap insurance was offered at the time of purchase .What are my options for recouping the difference ?
HELP

Dealing with insurance is always nasty, they are always in the driver's seat when it comes to payout.
Nobody has asked yet so I will, was a cause of the fire ever determined? Anything we should be checking or watching for?

 

[White six four]

so if i were to look at that 144 dollars per year i paid extra as an investment, i netted a 427% return

Nice!

Working in construction a lot of guys I work with have beater cars like myself and some still have full coverage even though their car is maybe a $2-4k car. Hell one guy was paying $300 a month full coverage on an early 10's impala. He totaled it last year and only got a $4k payout from insurance. They made a good chunk of money off him for the years he had that car. So I always tell people to check the difference and see what works out in your favor.

 

[commander]

Do your Homework, get a "real value" Trader paper, Blue Book, on-line and best of all, contact a dealer, and be honest about condition and options, (they can run the vin for options) get the dealer to put it in writing! (if they will) Go to 3 dealers if you can. add all the values together then divide by the number of values. That will give you an "honest value" of what it's worth. Did you buy from a dealer? if so, use that paperwork.
If you get a super low value or a super high value do not use them. The only way they will budge, is if YOU do your homework. Case in point, my Father's mini van was deemed a total loss by the other guys insurance, they made him an offer that was stupid low, I did the above and he received a bunch more. Don't let them tell you they found one 100 miles away, as that is not consistent with where you live!
Main thing, do your homework!

Jim

 

[Randy45]

Last spring I purchased a 2013 Ram 1500 4WD Hemi 5.7 with less than 100k miles .
While my grandson was driving it in October the engine suddenly faltered - upon returning home it was parked & turned off while he briefly went inside .
When he returned outside smoke was coming from under the hood - he backed away from his house & opened the hood to discover the engine in flames . He tried to extinguish the fire but was unsuccessful . The truck burned & was a total loss . Insurance was $6k short of covering the amount financed for the truck - no gap insurance was offered at the time of purchase .What are my options for recouping the difference ?
HELP

What caused the fire?I have a 2012 Ram.