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zebra25 posted 6/5/2014 12:44 PM

We have an 05 Toyota with about 100,000 miles in very good condition that was damaged in a hail storm. No broken glass, just dents. The dents are not all that noticeable but we decided to call our insurance company and have it looked at to see if it is worth fixing.

We have heard that because the suv is an 05 they will just total it and take possession of it at the appointment and just give us a check. I have no idea if that is actually true. If that were the case than we would opt to just keep it the way it is. We have had it since it was new and have taken really good care of it and we are sure we would not be able to replace it for what they would give us in compensation.

Does anyone have any idea how this works? Words of advice?

Thanks in advance!

hurtbs posted 6/5/2014 12:54 PM

They will only total it out and take it if you ask them to. Small dents? I doubt they would total that out.

zebra25 posted 6/5/2014 12:58 PM

Some small and few good sized dents. Some of the hail was the size of tennis balls.

Dreamboat posted 6/5/2014 13:36 PM

I had hail damage on one of my cars 15-20 years ago, but it was a newer car. I can't recall how old the car was at the time, probably 3-5 years and 50-75K miles The dents were not bad but you could definitely see them and they were all over the car. The insurance came and took a look and gave us a check.

They will only total the car if the cost to repair is greater than the blue book value of the car. You can look up the blue book value online and you could take your car to a body shop and ask for an estimate to repair.

64fleet posted 6/5/2014 15:10 PM

I had one totaled about 4 yrs ago due to a hailstorm, it was between base- and soft-ball size hail. Bought the car back for 10% of the total and drove it another 4 yrs or so, traded it off last August.

zebra25 posted 6/5/2014 15:30 PM

Our insurance agent just told us that they take the blue book value minus 20% and if costs more than that to fix it then they total it. If that happens they take possession of the car and we can buy it back but we can no longer carry collision or comprehensive on it.

So, if they total it and we buy it back and then a deer hits it (very likely given where we live) we are screwed.

Why does this have to be so complicated?