I apologize for the delay in posting any updates. This past week has been a little frustrating on many fronts, not just with the car. So, here's what's going on:
We originally filed the claim on my vehicle through the other driver's insurance (All State) since it was totally her fault. The accident was on Wednesday, Sept. 17. My insurance (Geico) helped me open the claim with All State the same day. Geico told me that I always have the option of coming back and filing through them, and then they would seek reimbursement through the other company when all was said and done.
I took my Meepster in to the All State adjuster for inspection and repair estimate on Friday, Sept. 19. Unfortunately, the i-MiEV is not in their estimating software's database. So, he had to write up the estimate completely by hand. He came up with a repair estimate of about $5,200. He warned me that it was a total ballpark figure and that the costs would certainly increase once I took the car into a body shop and they started ordering the actual parts. He also told me that I had to wait until I got the okay from the All State claims rep before I could take it in to get repaired. The claims rep had to finish his accident investigation before giving the okay.
That same Friday afternoon, I got a call from a new claims rep at my Geico insurance. They had transferred my case to him. He did the standard recorded interview with me and went over all the facts of the accident. He told me that the other driver was apparently trying to provide a different narrative of what happened, but he did not know at the time what kind of story she was trying to tell. He just wanted to make sure he got my side of the story fully documented.
The next Monday, Sept. 22, I got another call from my Geico rep. He said that All State was making an offer to settle the case claiming 90% responsibility on the part of their customer, and put 10% responsibility on me. I was speechless. I was trying to figure out how any of this accident could be even remotely partially my responsibility. I was driving south on a straight road. She was driving north on the same road and was stopped waiting to turn left onto a side street. There are no stoplights or stop signs or yield signs or anything at this intersection. I had complete and total right of way to keep driving south on this road as I was doing. She turned left into my car. My Geico rep said that after reviewing the damage photos of my vehicle that I had uploaded to my claims file and reviewing the intersection where the accident occurred on Google Maps and hearing my narrative of what happened and having the police report that indicates the other driver failed to yield and was at fault, he had no idea how the other insurance company could possibly have a leg to stand on to accept anything less than 100% responsibility on their customer's part!
My Geico rep said that what is going on is the other insurance company is nit-picking every detail of the accident to find any way to push at least a small portion of the responsibility back onto me so they don't have to pay out 100%. What they are probably basing their 90% claim on is the recorded statement I had given to All State. They asked what the speed limit was where the accident happened and how fast was I going. I had said that I believe the speed limit was 35 mph, and I think I was going about 37 mph. So, my admitting to going 2 mph over the speed limit is what they are going to use to shirk some of their customer's responsibility in the accident. My Geico rep said they are going to counter All State's 90% offer and offer to settle at 95%. If All State doesn't accept the 95% offer, the case will go to arbitration where my Geico rep warned me that it would be totally up in the air as to how it would settle out. It would all depend on who hears the case in arbitration and what kind of mood they are in that day!
Anyway, in light of all this, my wife and I decided to go back and run the claim through our Geico insurance just so we could hurry up and get the repairs started sooner and hopefully have the Meepster back on the road sooner. So, we scheduled another vehicle inspection at a Geico Auto Repair Xpress shop. This was very convenient because all you have to do is drop off your vehicle, and you theoretically don't see it again until it is repaired and ready for you to pick up. It's a one-stop shop for the inspection, estimate, and repairs. We dropped it off the evening of Tuesday, Sept. 23. The next afternoon on Wednesday, I got a call from Jeff, the Geico adjuster at the shop. He said that normally they try to get the owners an estimate the same day of the vehicle inspection, but since the i-MiEV wasn't in their estimating database either, the estimate probably wouldn't be available until the next day.
The afternoon of Thursday, Sept. 25, I got another call from Jeff at the repair shop. He said that they had disassembled my Meepster in order to perform a complete inspection and estimate. The estimate was currently sitting at about $7,900. He said there are three parts that they are having a very difficult time locating: the driver's door, the driver's mirror, and the indicator light in the left front quarter-panel. With the rarity of my vehicle, he said these parts are not available at any salvage shop. There are trying to get in touch with the manufacturer to see about getting spares. It's probably going to take a long time to get the parts to repair my car. They will know more the next day.
Late in the morning on Friday, Sept. 26, I got a call back from Jeff at the shop. He said they were able to locate only ONE spare driver's door in the entire world. It is in Europe. He said it would probably take about 30 days to get it shipped overseas. And if anyone else has already ordered the same part, they would end up having dibs on this one driver's door. He said the other two parts are not available anywhere in the world. They have contacted the manufacturer, and they said they will be doing a new production run of the parts to make more spares. However, they don't know how many new spare parts they will produce or when exactly they plan to do this production run. It is possible that with the production time and the time it takes to get parts shipped from overseas, it could take up to six months to get these parts for my car. And, like the driver's door they located in Europe, if anyone else already has these parts on order, they get first dibs.
Jeff said that in light of all this, Geico is willing to make a settlement offer to write the vehicle off as a total loss. He said that normally they base the value of the vehicle off similar vehicles available for sale in the local market. Since there are no similar i-MiEVs available locally, they had to perform a nation-wide search to calculate the value. He said that Geico calculated the value of my i-MiEV at $13,216. With my $500 deductible, they are willing to cut me a check for $12,716. They will then try to get my deductible reimbursed from All State.
I ran a pay-off letter through my Mitsubishi Credit account, and I still owe $20,781 on my car. So, I would be left with $8,000 that I would still have to pay out of pocket for a vehicle that I know longer own. Unfortunately, I refused the GAP insurance that Mitsubishi offered me when I financed the i-MiEV. Geico doesn't even offer GAP insurance. And the other driver's All State insurance does not have GAP coverage. I printed the pay-off letter to PDF and uploaded it to my Geico claim file just to make sure they have it on record how much I still owe.
Over this past weekend, I got an email from Jeff at the repair shop. He apologized and said that he had forgotten to include all the options on my car when he submitted it for valuation. He re-ran the valuation with all the options, and it came back at $14,482. That still leaves a significant amount I owe out of pocket if I accept the settlement. He said I could try submitting a request for a settlement on a total loss through the other driver's All State insurance and see what kind of value they come back with.
This morning, I replied to Jeff's email saying that after discussing the situation with my wife, we just cannot afford to pay $7,000+ out of pocket for a vehicle we don't own. As painful and inconvenient as it will be to be without our beloved Meepster for six months or longer, we want to go ahead with the repairs. I told him that I was aware of another i-MiEV owner from this very forum who probably has the parts needed for my repairs. If this owner does, in fact, have all the parts they need, I told Jeff I could put him in touch with the owner if the Geico repair shop is willing/able to procure them from him and paint them to match my car.
I am still waiting to hear back from Jeff after telling him we want the Meepster repaired. I'm wondering if they will go ahead with placing the parts orders or if they will try to come back with a higher settlement offer so they don't have to be inconvenienced with the repair.
