Human Posted December 18, 2019 Report Share Posted December 18, 2019 Sunday around noon, I was coming home from church when a drunk driver rear-ended a Jeep behind me, propelling it into the back of my Impala. It tore off the rear bumper and mashed in the trunk lid and trunk tub. After I pulled over, I found my license plate under the front wheel of the pickup truck that had caused the accident. Thankfully, no one was hurt, not even the drunk. Amazingly, my car was the only one involved that left the scene under its own power. There was no damage to the suspension and it drove and handled just as it had before the accident, albeit with a few more rattles. Nonetheless, it's teetering on the bubble of being totaled. My insurance company is calling in a third-party appraiser to make the final call. With that in mind, I started looking at used cars on Edmunds.com last night, just to see what was available in my area and at what price points. I started out looking at Malibus and Impalas and was disappointed to find that everything with an affordable price had a ton of miles on it and lower mileage cars were priced considerably higher than I was comfortable paying. I was about to close up my laptop and call it a night when I decided to look at Buicks, in particular the Buick LaCrosse. Imagine my surprise when the first listing was for a 2013 model that Edmunds identified as a "Great Deal" at $2,300 below market. It was the only "Great Deal" I looked at all night. The car looked pristine as the CarFAX report and while eating breakfast this morning, I gave the dealer (an independent in a small town about an hour north of me) a call and decided it warranted a visit, even though I didn't have the final word from my insurance company. Seeing, as they say, was believing and although I didn't intend to do it, I ended up buying the car. It was a bird in the hand that I didn't want to let go of. If the Impala is totaled, which my gut tells me it is, I'm a step of the game, having already replaced it. If not, the insurance company can pay to get it fixed and I'll sell it. Either way, it's a win for me, moving up two model years and back 30,000 miles from the Impala. The ironic thing is my mother has a 2013 LaCrosse also. Hers only has 6,800 miles on it. oldmangrimes, primergray, tornado_735 and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cutlass350 Posted December 18, 2019 Report Share Posted December 18, 2019 I'm glad that you, and everyone else in the car, are okay. I'm sorry to hear about your Impala. It sounds like you got a good deal on the Buick. Good luck with the Impala and the Buick. digitaloutsider 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Human Posted December 18, 2019 Author Report Share Posted December 18, 2019 Thanks. It could have been a whole lot worse. The fact that the Impala protected us that well and was still drivable after the accident is a testament to the quality of its engineering. It will be missed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
runt Posted December 18, 2019 Report Share Posted December 18, 2019 The car did it jobs and protected you in the accident. While it sucks it might be totaled I think in the long run you'll be better off. It seems many of these cars are never the same after a big hit. Enjoy the new Buick! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schurkey Posted December 20, 2019 Report Share Posted December 20, 2019 You might as well expect to sue the drunk. My experiences have been that the Insurance Industry will utterly lowball you into submission, or you can stand them in front of a judge and get a fair settlement. I've sued twice in small-claims court, won both times. Got about five times the original offer for the first car, and about double for the second. Both collisions were the fault of the other driver. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Human Posted December 27, 2019 Author Report Share Posted December 27, 2019 So it's official. The Impala is a total loss. The claim has been turned over to their "Total Loss Dept.," which will be contacting me with a settlement offer in the next day or two. We'll see what they have to say for themselves. I'll go over to the body shop tomorrow to clear out the car before they haul it off to Copart. I definitely made the right call by going ahead and buying the Buick. I'm very pleased with that car, even if it doesn't have the Impala's trunk room. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Human Posted December 28, 2019 Author Report Share Posted December 28, 2019 I spoke with my insurance company's Total Loss Dept. late yesterday and I was quite shocked at their offer--in a very good way. When all is said and done, I will have gotten an amount slightly greater than what Edmunds.com shows as full dealer retail for the Impala. In the end, I will have upgraded to the Lacrosse (two years newer and almost 30,000 fewer miles) for just over $2,000. In my experience, In my experience, Edmunds tends to be a bit conservative on their valuations, compared to say, Kelly Blue Book. But most of all, I'm impressed that my insurance company stepped up and did the right thing without trying to lowball me--and without having to go to court. They'll be going after the drunk's insurance company for reimbursement and if they're fully compensated, I'll get my $500 deductible back. Given the circumstances spelled out in the police report--the drunk's blood alcohol was three times the legal limit and he admitted to the investigating officer that he was looking down at his cell phone at the moment of the accident--I don't think his insurance company is in a position to put up much of a fight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tornado_735 Posted December 29, 2019 Report Share Posted December 29, 2019 That's crazy. Be prepared for every ambulance chaser in the city to be calling and mailing you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Human Posted December 29, 2019 Author Report Share Posted December 29, 2019 31 minutes ago, tornado_735 said: That's crazy. Be prepared for every ambulance chaser in the city to be calling and mailing you. They already have been. That's how I got a copy of the police report without even trying. Several copies, actually. The odd part is the report is four pages long and each lawyer who sent me a copy included two or three pages of it and none of them sent the same pages. I'm just thankful their services won't be needed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Human Posted January 11, 2020 Author Report Share Posted January 11, 2020 The Impala is now officially gone. I had mailed them the title and spare key a week ago, turned in the license plate earlier this week and received the final checks from my insurance company today. The lady at DMV even told me how to apply for a partial refund of the property tax I paid when I renewed the Impala's registration in November. While I do miss the Impala, I'm very happy with the Lacrosse and thankful everything fell into place as easily as it did. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Human Posted February 14, 2020 Author Report Share Posted February 14, 2020 Well, I thought this saga was ended but it had one (hopefully) last bit of weirdness today. I got a letter in the mail from NCDMV, stating that they had been informed by my insurance company that coverage on my Buick had been terminated on 17 December, which was actually the day I bought the car in Virginia and added it to my policy and the day before I registered the car in North Carolina. How weird is that? Fortunately, the error was easily resolved with a phone call to my insurance company to request they send the necessary proof of coverage document to DMV and then a follow-up call to DMV about an hour later to confirm they had indeed received it. Interestingly, all of this comes after a series of back-dated and out-of-sequence amendment letters from my insurance company in the past few weeks, showing the various changes to my policy resulting from the accident, the subsequent acquisition of the Buick and disposition of the Impala. While it was, all in all, a fairly painless process, I really don't want to have to go through it again any time soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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