End of my Land Rover days...

[seanmcd]

Yup, the picture tells it all. Daughter lost focus and rear ended a Jeep Grand Cherokee pretty hard. Insurance adjuster tried to make it work to repair the front end but the parts were just too expensive. End result, Disco totaled and insurance check on its way.

No one was injured, thankfully.

Sigh.....

 

[NickAdams]

Sometimes the insurance company will let you keep it, for salvage value. In other words, decrease check by $300 (?) and keep truck

 

[robertf]

I've fixed way worse than that

 

[seanmcd]

Sometimes the insurance company will let you keep it, for salvage value. In other words, decrease check by $300 (?) and keep truck

I tried and tried and tried to keep the truck. I was told several times by several people that Florida law prohibits buying the car back from the insurance company if it has been totalled because you can not register it or insure it.

Not sure that is 100% true but that's what they said and I asked multiple times.

 

[seanmcd]

I have some parts new in box I am selling now that the Disco is gone.

Crank sensor, water pump and thermostat. If interested here is that thread.

http://www.discoweb.org/forums/showthread.php?t=82772&referrerid=5712

 

[primussucks]

Glad everyone is ok... How much for the wheels? Not the tires, just the wheels? I've been looking all over for some of those.

 

[seanmcd]

Glad everyone is ok... How much for the wheels? Not the tires, just the wheels? I've been looking all over for some of those.

Sorry man, I DO NOT have the vehicle anymore. It was towed to a yard where the insurance adjuster looked at it the next day and it was gone later that evening. I never had a chance to buy it or do anything but get my kids personal stuff from inside.

I DO have a like new 2003 Disco HSE7 manual that happened to be on my workshop table when it was crashed. I can sell that if anyone is interested.

It has all manuals to include the Navigation manual and Nav CD.

Other than that, I can't sell anything cause I don't have it.

 

[Agent]

I tried and tried and tried to keep the truck. I was told several times by several people that Florida law prohibits buying the car back from the insurance company if it has been totalled because you can not register it or insure it.

Not sure that is 100% true but that's what they said and I asked multiple times.

Serious question. That being the case, who owns it now? Just seems like horse shit to me that the insurance company can total it and it gets carted off to oblivion. Doesn't look that bad to me...

 

[seanmcd]

Serious question. That being the case, who owns it now? Just seems like horse shit to me that the insurance company can total it and it gets carted off to oblivion. Doesn't look that bad to me...

Yeah I agree, I was a little pissed but really I didn't know what to do about it. The insurance company owns it and I was told they will most likely auction it off and it will be sent to another State or overseas. Not sure why, it was something about Florida not insuring salvaged cars.

I got a decent settlement for it so to be honest I wasn't in the mood to fight too hard.

The car had 150k miles, I had done the head gasket about 2 years ago, it still had several oil/fluid leaks and a slow electrical drain that I could never trace. It was a good truck but as we all know, Discos are repair intensive vehicles and with kid going to college soon I was ok with her getting something other than a Rover since I can't drive to fix the damn thing every time it craps out.

 

[DiscoPhoto]

Serious question. That being the case, who owns it now? Just seems like horse shit to me that the insurance company can total it and it gets carted off to oblivion. Doesn't look that bad to me...

If they're paying out for it, why don't they deserve to do with it what they want? They usually do auctions that only certain dealers and such have access to. Seems pretty fair.

 

[Corprin]

Glad to hear everyone is okay.

Sorry man, I DO NOT have the vehicle anymore. It was towed to a yard where the insurance adjuster looked at it the next day and it was gone later that evening. I never had a chance to buy it or do anything but get my kids personal stuff from inside.

Wow... Progressive or GEICO?

I have seen insurance companies do it before. The truck is worth more at auction/parts than what the buy-back price is. By not selling to the customer the insurance company stands to recover more of its money.

If they're paying out for it, why don't they deserve to do with it what they want? They usually do auctions that only certain dealers and such have access to. Seems pretty fair.

The insurance company is NOT paying for it, the customers are... that is how insurance works. Since you are insuring your property, you have the right and option to purchase back the damaged property in addition to the item's pay-out amount. Sadly, some of the "better" insurance companies you see on TV make it a point to get every single dollar out of their customers without returning the favor when they are supposed to. The last time USAA totaled out one of my cars, they met me at the storage yard, I went over the car with the adjuster, and we talked about any mods/value adders were on the car. After a couple days I got a call from them letting me know the car was totaled, and I had the choice to junk or buy-back. He then came to my house and I signed a form releasing the car to them.

Maybe that's MN law, but it also happened while living in WA and to my sister in CA.

 

[listerdiesel]

We have insurance codes for various degrees of damage in the UK:

Cat A is for burn outs and gutted vehicles.

Cat B is where the vehicle is no longer safe to put back on the road and must be broken or crushed.

Cat C is where the car is repairable but is not economic to do so.

Cat D is where the vehicle is repairable and would be economic to do so, but insurers decide to write off.

Once a car registration is tagged (we keep car registrations for the life of the vehicle) with a CAT label, it is very difficult to get around it as a normal user/driver.

CAT C is the most popular, last year we bought a 1991 200TDi Defender 110 County Station Wagon with front corner damage as a CAT C, put a new galvanised chassis under it and then had to have it inspected by the DVLA/VOSA Govt inspectors before it could be put back on the road.

CAT A and B are not accessible to the guy on the street.

Most insurers over here will sell you the salvage on your damaged vehicle if it is being written off as CAT C or D.

Peter

 

[rrc.swb]

The vehicle can be replaced... Glad everyone is fine.

From that picture. The damage doesn't look that bad.

Did it bend the frame?

The part of not getting your personal belongings, is shady on part of the IC.

 

[seanmcd]

The vehicle can be replaced... Glad everyone is fine.

From that picture. The damage doesn't look that bad.

Did it bend the frame?

The part of not getting your personal belongings, is shady on part of the IC.

Yeah I agree, it can easliy be repaired. It just couldn't be repaired for less than the vehicle was worth, or some percentage of worth that the Insurance company uses to total a car.

The frame was not bent, it was all front end stuff, grill, lights, radiator, condensor, radiator support, the hood and whatever else. Not major damage at all, just more to fix than it was worth according to my insurer.

As far as my kids personal stuff, I WAS ABLE to get it out, but that was all I could do and I had a retarded tow truck driver to chaperone me so I didn't remove anything other than personal items.

Hope that clarifies a little.

 

[Tugela]

Sorry to hear about your accident, but why does this have to be the end of your Land Rover days?

Perhaps this could be the opportunity you were waiting for to pick up a 2006+ LR3.

And a 1992 Volvo station wagon for your daughter.

 

[seanmcd]

Sorry to hear about your accident, but why does this have to be the end of your Land Rover days?.

That's a really good question worthy of a good answer. I really don't like the styling of the LR3 or LR4, to me they look nondescript and bland. Add to that the cost of buying a LR3 compared to an equivilant SUV and it is really not that interesting to me.

Personally I think Land Rover's are good vehicles but very expensive to repair and service. I like the older Discos and if they made them today I would buy one in a second. The problem is I can only afford to own a Land Rover as long as I can repair it myself.

Add to that the fact that my daughter will be going away to college soon and as easy as it is to fix the Disco in my garage every few weeks it is not so easy to fix it when it is 200 miles away in the campus parking lot. My choices then are what? Take it the local stealer? Find a local 'expert'? Yeah, not so much.

Just imagine if the crankshaft Position Sensor goes out and I have to have it towed to the dealer for diagnostic and repair? Or if the central locking goes into short curcuit mode and goes super lock on my kid? It is just too much to think about if I can't put it in my garage, log onto D-web and spend hours searching for the answers to the secret of Land Rover Life....

I personally think that Land Rover has really hurt their brand by making their product so damn expensive to repair and maintain. I don't trust ANY of the 4 Rover dealers I have ever dealt with, in my opinion they are not honest and interested in seperating me from my wallet.

If I could find a super clean 04 Disco I would buy it but I looked and looked and could only find a 03 with 40k for $19,000! WTF!

SO that's my long rambling answer, I love Rovers but if I can't fix them myself they are no good to me.

This is the new rig, 2007 Jeep Rubicon 4 door. 37k miles, roll up windows, no power locks, 6 speed tranny, and V6 that can serviced at the local Mopar stealer. I paid $15,900 for it with a aftermarket warranty.

I hope that answered your question. atriot:
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[primussucks]

I don't trust ANY of the 4 Rover dealers I have ever dealt with, in my opinion they are not honest and interested in seperating me from my wallet.

+1
learned my lesson(s)... 1st time ignorance, 2nd time stupidity
never again.

 

[mbs13]

Am I missing the technical question?

 

[Spike555]

Dude, your insurance company raped you.

http://www.ehow.com/info_8751768_florida-coverage-total-car-loss.html

Google is your friend, you could have fixed that yourself for $2,000.

 

[seanmcd]

Dude, your insurance company raped you.

http://www.ehow.com/info_8751768_florida-coverage-total-car-loss.html

Google is your friend, you could have fixed that yourself for $2,000.

Exactly how did they rape me? Perhaps I am not in a position to fix it myself? Maybe I just didn't feel like dumping any more money into a truck that has served me well but had some issues that would have caused me considerable repair costs in the future?

Do you know how much they settled for, what they paid me for the loss?

Without knowing that figure, I find it a little ridiculous for you to say they raped me.

But hey, this is Dweb, land of knowitalls with strong opinions based on speculation and a quick "google search". Don't change man.