Hypothetical situation with insurance company

[fleabag]

You get into an accident, your car is labeled "total loss" and you get a pay out of $5000, that's generally what happens, right? (assuming you have collision protection and everything else is fine) Then the insurance company takes the car from you and can then offer to sell it to you for $500 (always this price?) with a salvage title. Now I was wondering, how long does it take from the time you get into the accident, the time you get the payout and the time the insurance company takes your car?

Say you have car speakers in there and stereo deck, subwoofer, etc. etc. After the accident, is there a period of time where the car is still in your posession? Can you or are you allowed to take the parts out of the car before the insurance company takes it and give it a salvage title? Is there a way to get into an accident, have the insurance company pay you out w/o giving it a salvage title?

 

[shocksyde]

Haha, this makes it sound like you're planning some sort of insurance fraud.

 

[Demon-Xanth]

I yanked the stereo out of my 1980 Plymouth Champ. The insurance company dinged me $100 for not having a radio.

 

[Zenmervolt]

If a car is totaled by an insurance company, it will have a salvage title. Period. Only way to avoid that is to refuse their payout and keep the car yourself to fix with your own money.

ZV

 

[crosshairs]

Once the insurance company pays you , the car is theirs...also the amount of the payout is usually determined by the equipment in the car....

so removing anything after the estimate is fraud.......some company's might not care and might even give you what you want......others might no be so nice.

They should pay within 10-15 days, but all company's are different
My Girlfriend is an estimator for Gieco....so I speak the truth..🙂

 

[Aharami]

insurance companies will pay pennies on the dollar for aftermarket stereo equip. so its almost always better to take those things out and take the reduction in what the ins company will pay out than leaving those in there.

speaking from experience. I didnt know all of this and other dude's ins company offered me $20 extra for a $200 head unit...and so on. I had to fight with the insurance company to let me take the stuff out of the car and have it revalued

 

[thomsbrain]

Originally posted by: Aharami
insurance companies will pay pennies on the dollar for aftermarket stereo equip. so its almost always better to take those things out and take the reduction in what the ins company will pay out than leaving those in there.

speaking from experience. I didnt know all of this and other dude's ins company offered me $20 extra for a $200 head unit...and so on. I had to fight with the insurance company to let me take the stuff out of the car and have it revalued

On the other hand, when my mom totaled her Volvo, State Farm gave her $400 extra for the nearly-new set of tires and $2000 extra for the recently replaced transmission. All in all, they received nearly $5000 for a car with a $2000 KBB value. YMMV.

OP: It really sounds like you're considering fraud. I knew of a few shady people in high school that tried similar stuff with their Preludes and they got caught. If you need money, just sell your car and drive a $500 beater for a while. 😉

 

[bruceb]

That happened on my 1999 Grand Prix .. No salvage title
as that only applies in NJ if the car is under 7 years old.
And they "did not" take the car. It was simply -$200 buyback
and -$500 (my deductible, which I should be getting back as
my car was rear ended while stopped) from the total loss value.
Net to me as $5500 (less my cost to have it fixed)

 

[jagec]

Originally posted by: bruceb
That happened on my 1999 Grand Prix .. No salvage title
as that only applies in NJ if the car is under 7 years old.
And they "did not" take the car. It was simply -$200 buyback
and -$500 (my deductible, which I should be getting back as
my car was rear ended while stopped) from the total loss value.
Net to me as $5500 (less my cost to have it fixed)

Yes, but you bought it back. It sounds like the OP isn't going to, he just wants to remove the radio before they take it.

The question is whether the insurance company knows about the aftermarket sound system. If you have fancy speakers, deck, and subwoofer but don't have it insured, then the insurance company won't pay you jack if someone breaks in and steals it. As such, you are A-OK to remove them (and put in a cheapo deck as a replacement) to put in your next vehicle. If you told them about the system and that factored into the check they're going to cut you...it would be fraud to yank it out.

Your best bet is, as the others hinted, to take out the custom stuff, restore the sound system to OEM standards (working speakers, deck), and let the insurance company run an estimate on that.

 

[bruceb]

Quite true. Only because, even though it is old, it was in top shape before the
crash & I had just changed the tranny for a new GM Rebuild with a 100K / 3 year warranty.
So I had it fixed & after the body work, was able to do all new struts & mounts and still
have a few hundred left over. So I profited a bit on it.

 

[Jugernot]

Doesn't sound like fraud to me.... sounds more like OP is curious to see if he can remove the aftermarket accessories before his insurance company takes the car and totals it. If you put $4k worth of stereo equipment in a vehicle only worth $3k, there is no way your insurance company is going to give you $7 for it. Hell yes, I'd remove the stuff, then let the insurance company give your the $3k rather than the $4k they probably offer.

 

[fleabag]

Originally posted by: Jugernot
Doesn't sound like fraud to me.... sounds more like OP is curious to see if he can remove the aftermarket accessories before his insurance company takes the car and totals it. If you put $4k worth of stereo equipment in a vehicle only worth $3k, there is no way your insurance company is going to give you $7 for it. Hell yes, I'd remove the stuff, then let the insurance company give your the $3k rather than the $4k they probably offer.

That was exactly what I was thinking.

 

[Gibson486]

That is not fraud. Until you get the pay off from the insurance company, you are free to go to the yard where your car is take whatever you need to get (provided it is not something the car came with....ie steering wheel).

 

[piasabird]

It is not fraud to reclaim your own property. When you purchase insurance if the car is totaled first the insurance copany will offer you what they considered to be the cost of the vehicle or the replacement cost of what it was worth maybe subtracting the deductable. If you then ask to buy back the scrap under a salvage title and fix, repair or use the spare parts that do still work that is perfectly legal. What happens is the insurace company takes possession of your vehicle and they sell it to a salvage yard that then sells your car for parts. You are just doing the work of the salvage yard. When a car is totalled all that means is it costs more for the insurance company to fix the car than the car is worth. However, it may be more cost effective to fix the car than it is to go out and purchase a new car.

 

[lurk3r]

Originally posted by: Jugernot
Doesn't sound like fraud to me.... sounds more like OP is curious to see if he can remove the aftermarket accessories before his insurance company takes the car and totals it. If you put $4k worth of stereo equipment in a vehicle only worth $3k, there is no way your insurance company is going to give you $7 for it. Hell yes, I'd remove the stuff, then let the insurance company give your the $3k rather than the $4k they probably offer.

+1 unless the insurance company gives you extra money for your custom stereo you should be able to reclaim it. You will have to replace the radio with the stock one though, even if its inoperable, there has to be something there. Grab a stock radio from a junkyard and do a halfway reasonable job of reinstalling it and you should be fine.