Hit by Uninsured, Drunk Driver in my New Bmw M5

[todd02]

Friday night I got hit by a drunk driver who was driving a car not registered in his name and he was arrested for DUI and assaulting police.

My problem is my car was the only one of its kind in the US with the color and custom accessories. I had enough Uim pd and pip coverage, however I'm concerned the car will be a total loss. I didn't have gap insurance.

Has anyone had to deal with a very expensive car that was considered a total loss and had a huge gap or diminished value loss, and how do you fight that?

 

[insurance1822]

You're probably not going to be made financially whole. Your best bet will be putting together as much documentation as you can. Pull cars.com/edmunds.com & various other sources showing what cars closest to that are being listed for (albeit a listed price isn't a market value BUT it helps...) Put together documentation on the pricing/worth of all the accessories.

Your best option here is for a claim rep to say "OK this dude is REALLY pushing the issue here & he's backing it with substantial documentation" and that may help them come to an above average price just to get you to go away. It will be a back & forth and they'll most likely making a few offers getting higher & higher. Depending how much money you're talking you could even throw around the whole "insurance department" and "fair claims practice." But again...the bottom line is you're most likely effed. The best you can do hit the claim rep w/ what's essentially an educated/substantiated version of "b*tching" so they offer more to get you to go away.

poor Todd02..

 

[indienoise]

Hindsight is 20/20 but, shouldve had gap. Also, most auto policies are actual cash value, meaning theyre paying you the value for a used car. You arent likely to be made good, unfortunately. For something like an m5, if you were to buy one again, look for agreed value insurance. Meaning collector car insurance. Most don't allow daily drivers. I am not sure about other carriers, but if i remember properly hagerty has recently expanded their guidelines to insure a new car less than either 3 or 5 years old, i forget which. Downside being no installments, you pay 6 months in full.

 

[djs]

Question: Why did you mention UM/UIM and PIP? Was someone injured in your car? This is not related to fixing your car.

You will be dealing with your own insurance company here, so a lot of it will be determined by what type of policy you have. You mention a unique color, but did you insure the custom paint job? If not, it will be rated as a regular paint job (still not cheap, but custom paint requires a special coverage in most cases).

Accessories: Where they insured, or did you have a regular policy?

If the other driver borrowed a car that has decent coverages on it and he borrowed it with permission, you can chase the insurance company that insures the car to have them fix/replace your car. In these cases, it is usually easier to have your insurance company chase them for you by filing a claim with your carrier.

What year was the car?

Dan

 

[todd02]

Question: Why did you mention UM/UIM and PIP? Was someone injured in your car? This is not related to fixing your car.

You will be dealing with your own insurance company here, so a lot of it will be determined by what type of policy you have. You mention a unique color, but did you insure the custom paint job? If not, it will be rated as a regular paint job (still not cheap, but custom paint requires a special coverage in most cases).

Accessories: Where they insured, or did you have a regular policy?

If the other driver borrowed a car that has decent coverages on it and he borrowed it with permission, you can chase the insurance company that insures the car to have them fix/replace your car. In these cases, it is usually easier to have your insurance company chase them for you by filing a claim with your carrier.

What year was the car?

Dan

Actually it was a 2013, alpine white, every option available M5, with custom rims and interior... the cost of agreed value was about 5 times the cost of acv, so I weighed the risk and obviously regret thay decision.

My hand was fractured from the air bag which is why Uim is Paying out.

The vehicle was registered to someone else but had no insurance. Although it still had the dealer plates on it... Mind you I think it was a $1000 1990 Lincoln.

I'm getting told its near impossible for me to claim loss wages from PIP being self employed. They want to see my tax return. I told claims that this year I grossed 100k more and they said they don't calculate gross. I tried to explain that they should because I pay all the overhead!? Any help with this from someone experienced with PIP.

 

[Josh]

Gross isn't what you make though. I see your point about paying the overhead, but they need to pay for income, not a business overhead claim (different type of insurance, I might be slightly off on the name).

Even if the other person had insurance, you would probably be staring at the same problem. Gap insurance is fairly inexpensive relative to value and obviously you see why it's a shame you didn't get it.

Never risk more than you can afford to (or want to) lose. As much as it's not the answer you like, it sounds like you're going to get hurt on the income as well as the replacement because you didn't get the right type of coverages. The best thing you can do is work with an agent (not a call center rep) that does personal lines AND business insurance (not one that just sells them, but has a lot of experience with both) to work with you and get the right policies in case something like this happens again.

Back to the lost wages, it's doable, but them playing the card that the'll pay on net, not gross is the way the policy should be paying out.

 

[indienoise]

Gross isn't what you make though. I see your point about paying the overhead, but they need to pay for income, not a business overhead claim (different type of insurance, I might be slightly off on the name).

Even if the other person had insurance, you would probably be staring at the same problem. Gap insurance is fairly inexpensive relative to value and obviously you see why it's a shame you didn't get it.

Never risk more than you can afford to (or want to) lose. As much as it's not the answer you like, it sounds like you're going to get hurt on the income as well as the replacement because you didn't get the right type of coverages. The best thing you can do is work with an agent (not a call center rep) that does personal lines AND business insurance (not one that just sells them, but has a lot of experience with both) to work with you and get the right policies in case something like this happens again.

Back to the lost wages, it's doable, but them playing the card that the'll pay on net, not gross is the way the policy should be paying out.

The type of coverage you're talking about would be on a BOP or CPP but i doubt they would consider this a covered loss for lost income.

 

[Josh]

The type of coverage you're talking about would be on a BAP but i doubt they would consider this a covered loss for lost income.

That's not what I'm talking about. I'll look it up.

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Business overhead expense disability insurance - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Continuum]

Todd
Sorry to hear about you and the car. Not sure if documentation is going help, but it's worth a try, that and constant pressure on your claims adjuster/carrier. (I hope you write alot with them) Good luck and Keep us posted on the progress.

 

[gogostar]

be careful, bmw insurance costs and the rates so high.

i hope you can solve the problem.