Is Your Rig Lifted? Modified? Have You Informed Your Insurance Company

[old-chevy-dude]

one of the Admins on another forum I belong too is some type of higher up muckity muck in Leadland West Insurance Company..

 

 

we were having a discussion about highly modified motors and street legality vs track only off road use.

 

 

someone made some statement about how an insurance company cannot deny a claim based on mods.. So Matt rebutted with this, I found it rather interesting.

 

 

http://www.lelandwest.com/reporting-vehicl...nce-company.cfm

[cmackvr6]

I'm an insurance agent.

 

I have never heard of a claim being denied for mods.... but I have seen cases where claims adjusters have not allowed replacement parts that are not DOT approved.

 

So, if you have any "off road use" or "not street legal" parts, they may not be covered if you wreck your vehicle.

[old-chevy-dude]

I've never heard (or had issue) with it either.. But I've always told my agent, and when my last car got hit they covered several custom parts (hood, fasica, lights) and my custom paint..

 

but the article was interesting nearly 10 years later and they are still fighting over it in court.

[cmackvr6]

Yeah, the article is a good find. Moral of the story is; better safe than sorry!

[Hieneken49]

sounds like the moral of the story is dont use mercury insurance...

[Wingnut]

sounds like the moral of the story is dont use mercury insurance...

 

No kidding. What a bunch of douchebags. They rescind his policy due to mods that had NOTHING TO DO with the incident/claim. That shit should be illegal.

 

I specifically asked USAA about mods, and what was covered. They seemed pretty ambivalent about it. Said that if I had receipts, I'd be covered (for the most part). Just don't crash it while racing.

[grampadirt]

I also told my State Farm agent about my mods...she said no prob,they'd fix whatever is damaged

[Prokopchuk_9]

i told them about stereo and rims...because if they got stolen. they wanted receipts.i showed them, together worth over 7500 bucks...they took in into consideration.

[blackout07]

I called my Allstate agent a long time ago and they couldn't have cared less. They said they would fix/replace whatever.

[Carder09]

sounds like the moral of the story is dont use mercury insurance...

 

No kidding. What a bunch of douchebags. They rescind his policy due to mods that had NOTHING TO DO with the incident/claim. That shit should be illegal.

 

I specifically asked USAA about mods, and what was covered. They seemed pretty ambivalent about it. Said that if I had receipts, I'd be covered (for the most part). Just don't crash it while racing.

 

 

Yep, I have USAA also and personally have been the best insurance and cheapest insurance Ive ever had even me being under 25 having two vehicles its still cheaper than when I had insurance on my old 95 nissan pathfinder through Allstate.

[DJinCO]

I specifically asked USAA about mods, and what was covered. They seemed pretty ambivalent about it. Said that if I had receipts, I'd be covered (for the most part). Just don't crash it while racing.

 

Wingnut, I would recommend that you double check USAA on that. Ask how new does the modification need to be to get reimbursed.

 

My 2001 Tahoe was totaled by a kid when he blew through a stop sign. He was in a hurry. He impacted the front left of my Tahoe. The Ranch Hand bumpers were NOT covered by USAA because they were more than 6 months old. I provided USAA with 13 pages of receipts for every mod on my Tahoe.

 

They didn't reimburse for anything. Here's what they said: "A bumper is a bumper; a battery is a battery; tires are tires if you didn't have those items they would be deducted, but the mods replaced stock items."

 

 

 

To Recap:

 

Accident not my fault.

 

I was driving on a through street.

 

Kid hit me from a side street that had a stop sign.

 

I was driving 35MPH, posted limit.

 

USAA subrogated the claim against Farmers Ins.

 

2001 Tahoe with 104K miles Total Loss

 

 

The fact of having written documented proof of the excellent condition of the engine and transmission with oil analysis on both within the previous 3 months was not even considered when adjusting the total loss claim.

 

 

 

Kelly Blue book, Edmonds, NADA and Auto Trader are NOT used to consider the value by USAA.

 

USAA uses the advertised sale price and the lowest price the DEALERSHIP will accept for a vehicle of the same year and mileage in your local area.

 

 

USAA provided me with the paperwork used to provide the total loss value. I contacted several dealerships which had similar Tahoes for sale that were used in the USAA comparison and was laughed off the lot trying to buy the vehicle for the price the dealership quoted to USAA. I was told "there is NO WAY we will sell that truck for that price."

I showed the used car managers the papers; they saw their names on the paper as giving the quote to USAA. I was told that they "don't have time to deal with USAA on that stuff, so they just give them a number."

 

Moral of this story: Get it in writing that your insurance will cover the mods, today and next year, or the year after.

The insurance industry is a profit making business. They will charge you to insure a $40K truck and pay out a $10K value when it's a loss.

 

Insurance is necessary. It is one of those things that we pay into and never get anything back. I have just learned to accept getting screwed.

[Wingnut]

I specifically asked USAA about mods, and what was covered. They seemed pretty ambivalent about it. Said that if I had receipts, I'd be covered (for the most part). Just don't crash it while racing.

 

Wingnut, I would recommend that you double check USAA on that. Ask how new does the modification need to be to get reimbursed.

 

My 2001 Tahoe was totaled by a kid when he blew through a stop sign. He was in a hurry. He impacted the front left of my Tahoe. The Ranch Hand bumpers were NOT covered by USAA because they were more than 6 months old. I provided USAA with 13 pages of receipts for every mod on my Tahoe.

 

They didn't reimburse for anything. Here's what they said: "A bumper is a bumper; a battery is a battery; tires are tires if you didn't have those items they would be deducted, but the mods replaced stock items."

 

 

 

To Recap:

 

Accident not my fault.

 

I was driving on a through street.

 

Kid hit me from a side street that had a stop sign.

 

I was driving 35MPH, posted limit.

 

USAA subrogated the claim against Farmers Ins.

 

2001 Tahoe with 104K miles Total Loss

 

 

The fact of having written documented proof of the excellent condition of the engine and transmission with oil analysis on both within the previous 3 months was not even considered when adjusting the total loss claim.

 

 

 

Kelly Blue book, Edmonds, NADA and Auto Trader are NOT used to consider the value by USAA.

 

USAA uses the advertised sale price and the lowest price the DEALERSHIP will accept for a vehicle of the same year and mileage in your local area.

 

 

USAA provided me with the paperwork used to provide the total loss value. I contacted several dealerships which had similar Tahoes for sale that were used in the USAA comparison and was laughed off the lot trying to buy the vehicle for the price the dealership quoted to USAA. I was told "there is NO WAY we will sell that truck for that price."

I showed the used car managers the papers; they saw their names on the paper as giving the quote to USAA. I was told that they "don't have time to deal with USAA on that stuff, so they just give them a number."

 

Moral of this story: Get it in writing that your insurance will cover the mods, today and next year, or the year after.

The insurance industry is a profit making business. They will charge you to insure a $40K truck and pay out a $10K value when it's a loss.

 

Insurance is necessary. It is one of those things that we pay into and never get anything back. I have just learned to accept getting screwed.

 

 

I discussed all of this with them, as well as actually tried to add a rider to get the extra covered. I went as far as calling the homeowners policy folks and tried to get my mods covered...No dice.

 

My wife (being as anal as she is) read the entire policy, and I can be reimbursed for the mods, just like they said. But it wouldn't be the full amount.

 

I can see their point on the wheels/tires/bumpers...Sucks...But that's the name of the game. I was more concerned with the $6,000 supercharger

 

And you weren't insuring a 40k truck. You were insuring an older rig with over 100k miles on it. I wouldn't expect to get a mint for my GTO if it were totaled, despite the fact that the paint is pretty much flawless, as is the engine bay, it only has 25k miles on it, and I paid quite a bit more than what they'd pay me...Again...That's the name of the game

[DJinCO]

Wingnut,

 

I don't want to start a war, because my point was that the insurance industry is not 100% behind the insured and it is a business which the insurance company is in to make money.

 

My major complaint is and always was, I was the one hit, and I wanted to be put back to the same position I was before the crash. My insurance company (USAA) did NOT represent me to the "at fault driver's" insurance company (Farmers) and require Farmers to make me whole.

 

I was not, nor ever, intending that the insured should provide me with a 2011 Tahoe; My request was put me back into a 2001 Tahoe with 104K miles, with the added mods that I have receipts for.

 

That did not happen. One should not expect a "for profit" company (yes, I get a subscriber benefit check each December) to represent the insured.

 

That's all. No bad feelings between us OK?

[Wingnut]

I've come out of a couple of accidents smelling like a rose, and at least one where I took a complete bath on my loss...Sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes you're the bug.

 

My wife works for one of the biggest insurance companies around...And she's a claims adjuster. The stories she tells me are asinine in all sorts of ways. Even internally, they're incredibly inconsistent. Did you know that, even if the other party's insurance is paying, you can still hit a hard cap on rental car reimbursement and be out of pocket a TON of money? Yup. Let it take a shop two months to fix your car and you'll learn that one. Also, did you know that even if you were straight up NOT AT FAULT in an accident to the point where the other driver gets a couple of tickets and full blame on the police report...The insurance companies can override that and split the liability between them...Thereby registering a claim against YOU? But only on Tuesdays in Oregon and Maine when the moon is a waxing gibbous, and the adjuster had three cups of coffee.

 

 

 

Oh...And there's very little you could say on a forum that would actually upset me or generate bad feelings.

[mbaee]

I've come out of a couple of accidents smelling like a rose, and at least one where I took a complete bath on my loss...Sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes you're the bug.

 

My wife works for one of the biggest insurance companies around...And she's a claims adjuster. The stories she tells me are asinine in all sorts of ways. Even internally, they're incredibly inconsistent. Did you know that, even if the other party's insurance is paying, you can still hit a hard cap on rental car reimbursement and be out of pocket a TON of money? Yup. Let it take a shop two months to fix your car and you'll learn that one. Also, did you know that even if you were straight up NOT AT FAULT in an accident to the point where the other driver gets a couple of tickets and full blame on the police report...The insurance companies can override that and split the liability between them...Thereby registering a claim against YOU? But only on Tuesdays in Oregon and Maine when the moon is a waxing gibbous, and the adjuster had three cups of coffee.

 

 

 

Oh...And there's very little you could say on a forum that would actually upset me or generate bad feelings.

 

He's right. A few years ago, I was in a minor fender bender where a woman turned in front of me and I clipped her rear bumper. The police report sited me in the clear. It was a Geico vs Geico insurance claim and they still found me 20% liable for the accident because I had the radio on and other people were in my car. They claimed they were "distractions" and without them I could have paid better attention and avoided the accident. After paying my $500 deductible to get the repairs started, they only refunded $400.