A4 totaled from hail in MN

Insurance adjuster came out to the house yesterday.

Both the jetta and my wifes pontiac grand prix are totaled!! due to hail damage.

I own both outright and had full comp coverage on them. THey said I can keep the cars and buy them back but I haven't gotten any numbers from them yet.

Has anyone gone thru this before and should I expect a low ball offer from Farmers or will they take care of me?

its generally fair market value, go on autotrader/craiglist and compare your trim package and mileage to others and that is around what you should get.

We had a totaled beetle from a tbone. They wanted 1300 to buy it back. And it was twisted up pretty good


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see i'm confused now.

Do I get the fair market value - my $500 deductible.

NADA has it at $3,000. So would that mean I get 2500 and then I would have to buy it back from them for say $1,000 so I would net $1500?

That's basically how it works. The buyback is their best guess on salvage value of the vehicle. If you like their estimate (you think they're UNDERstating the salvage value) then you buy it back.

Basically the jetta is priceless in my mind.

I just rebuilt the engine, stage 2 clutch kit, new susponsion all around and tires and the AC and heat work awesome.

I got the car for free and drive it for work so I will for sure be buying it back just don't want to get hosed.

Don't accept their first offer and don't be in a hurry to settle. They want to get it off their plate so drag it out.

When they arrive at a figure you like then negotiate a price for keeping the thing.

10-4, I'll just keep declining their offer. Thats what a guy at work said to keep doing.

KLXD said:

Don't accept their first offer and don't be in a hurry to settle. They want to get it off their plate so drag it out.

When they arrive at a figure you like then negotiate a price for keeping the thing.

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See I tend to think this is bad advice sometimes. When I totaled my motorcycle, they gave me $18,500 for a bike that I bought for $13,500 one year prior. I say if they offer you what you feel it's worth, you need to take it because they could just keep stringing you along also.

I can't argue with that. If they make a decent offer he should take it but how often does the insurance company do that? Especially on a TDI.

I've had this issue twice, though both were thefts not damage. Both times I had to fight with them to get a decent settlement.

One was my '85 Mitsubishi Diesel. The problem was finding another one for a comp.

I guess my point is he needs to do some homework to show what his cars are worth and not just take what they offer.

When my 2003 Jetta was totaled out by being rear ended while parked (parked, as in legally parallel parked on the street at the curb while I was at work) I negotiated reimbursment for the recent repairs and maintainence that went into it. It took a while and a lot of offers/counteroffers, but got close to what I originally expected. My insurance company was never involved, only that of the other vehicles owner.
The buy back price was worked out after the reimbursment figure was settled. At first they wanted $1000 for me to keep it. It would have been picked up by a salvage yard company about 175 miles away (I'm very far north of Mpls/St. Paul). An explanation of the amount of expense incurred by the salvage yard to come get the thing quickly brought the buy back amount down under $500.
The engine and transaxle now reside in a "new" 2003 Jetta chassis that was formerly a 1.8T car (engine had been driven until TB broke) which cost about $600.
Get your receipts and records together before you talk to them and lay out on paper what you reasonably expect vs what they offer. All the offers presented were not NADA or "local market value". Insurance companies use their own valuation system based on sold vehicles all,over the place and few/none will be very "comparable" to the vehicle actually in question. Although depending on your vehicles actual condition may/may not be an advantage (or not).

The hard part on their end is there isn't much for diesel sales to compare to. So do some homework and prepare some for sale even if you have to search the whole country in comparable condition and year. I got a lot more due to that but wasn't worth fighting forever and would hate to get a bad rap with insurance over a couple hundred at the end of the day. Depending on how many days old the tires are you may get money for that. They go by days and not miles. And most other things are considered "maintenance" items and rarely get money for.

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I agree with coal.
They probably won't give you a whole lot, so if you didn't buy it back, would you be able to find another mk4 that is the way you like it and that you could trust the condition of??

I would dance with who brung ya... and on that note, turn up the sound..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_4NN4eRM5Q

I may be way wrong on this, but if if car does not have much or any rust, TDI's from the West Coast can sometimes be worth buying for a flip to the other Coast. You might get some estimates that value your vehicle very highly.

If both cars function to your liking & the hail damage isn't so severe it prohibits using them, I'd accept the claims, retain the cars and continue to drive them. I did something similar with an older Lexus about 6-7 years ago & set the payout to the side for when time to replace it unexpected repairs.

In almost all cases, the 1st offer from the insurance co is the lowest amount they think you will accept. Oddly enough, I'd guess the offer on the Pontiac might be acceptable, but the offer on the Jetta will be based off the GL 2.0 AT trim and be nearly insultingly low.

Good luck

RexNICO said:

If both cars function to your liking & the hail damage isn't so severe it prohibits using them, I'd accept the claims, retain the cars and continue to drive them. I did something similar with an older Lexus about 6-7 years ago & set the payout to the side for when time to replace it unexpected repairs.

In almost all cases, the 1st offer from the insurance co is the lowest amount they think you will accept. Oddly enough, I'd guess the offer on the Pontiac might be acceptable, but the offer on the Jetta will be based off the GL 2.0 AT trim and be nearly insultingly low.

Good luck

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I agree.
An advantage you have is dealing with your own ins co vs negotiating with one that you are not (and after dealing with them probably never will be) a customer. So there may (or may not) be some desire to keep a customer happy.
Do your research, prepare to be disappointed.