Question on Buy Back from Insurance Total Loss

[CarpeDiem99]

My car was in an accident, insurance deemed it a total loss but salvageable.

As such I want to buy the car back form the insurance company and fix it. However they are saying that the standard discount applied in such situations is 45% of the cash value. Meaning if the car is worth $10,000 they take 45% off and only give me $5500. Has anyone actually heard of this percentage before? This sounds really high to me.

I have TD Insurance Meloche Monnex and I reside in Calgary. I am supposed to talk to them tomorrow so any info that can be provided would be very useful.

Thanks,
Carpe

[2BLUE]

What kinda car is it? I was at the auction today, could kinda give you an idea what it would cost to buy back from auction.

[CarpeDiem99]

I'm not letting it go to auction... probably would end up costing me more.

It's an Evo 8

[2BLUE]

Well if you know your not letting it go, then I guess your buying it back hahaha.

[CarpeDiem99]

The point of the post is to determine if the 45% is indeed "standard" or if it is arguable

[dirtysamwich]

I ended up buying one of my vehicles back from salvage, and I don't recall a 45% fee... I am also with TD but this happened a few years ago

[natty54]

When the insurance sends a car to auction the normally start at a reserved price and they know that exact price even when talking to you now. There is always going to be wiggle room.

In my experience they offer the car to you at or a little above that reserved price and if you choose to take it then it would be deducted from the pay out.

I dont know about the evo but I just saw a 06 lancer ralliart reserve @ 1000 and sold for 1300 and an 03 reserve @ 550 and sold for 770

[amear]

Yea i think its about right. My 98 prelude was wrote off by hail damage and my insurance company ( td insurance ) gave me an option to either sell the car to them for $5200 or to buy it back for $2600. I guess mines was 50%.

[Team_Mclaren]

I think every insurance company/case would be different. I was given the choice to keep my car for a very discount on buy back. But i ended up giving it up anyways cause it was beyond fix.

[CarpeDiem99]

Thank you to everyone who replied. Amear, I find yours particularly interesting. I am going to try and argue them down some on the percentage and see how it goes.

I spent literally years trying to find this car (first dream car) and it is easily reparable. The parts from Mitsubishi, though, are just stupidly expensive and brought the cost to repair too high. But if I go with aftermarket for some of them then the costs are kept down considerably and it isn't too bad.

Well I am off to argue my case. Wish me luck! Thanks again.

[4WARNED]

You located in Colorado or up here in canada? That may affect the replies....
Got a pic of your evo (pre-crash)?

[CarpeDiem99]

Thanks for catching that 4warned. I updated my profile

No pic on this comp, I might post one later.

[93VR6]

My car was totaled in a rear end collision, I recieved the cash value of the car and got to keep the car itself...

I was hit by a driver from Manitoba so I guess it was easier for them just to leave me with the car, I stripped it down sold parts for another 2g, and took the motor out, swapped it into a another car with a blown motor and made another 3g. That worked out pretty magically for me.

[vtec4life]

My Gsr was totalled a few years back, i was offered ~10 grand for it from insurance, and to buy the car back cost me $900 and I received the remaining $9100

State Farm is an awesome insurance company though. They may not be the cheapest but they are like a good neighbour to me lol.

[CarpeDiem99]

For information to everyone:

I contacted TD this morning and spoke to a couple different individuals. Turns out 45% is their standard discount for buybacks. Often times they do not even allow buybacks and instead force it to go to auction.

Thank you again to those that replied. It did help me realize quite a few of the differences between insurance companies that you never really see/hear about until situations like this.

[4WARNED]

What color is your GSR and by chance did you buy it from Jorge?

[Zero102]

Thanks for posting this, I always wondered how TD MM handled this. I had a car that was a total loss while I was with Dominion of Canada and they sold my car back to me for 10% of the value less GST (for some reason...) so it worked out like this:
Total value - $8000
Buyback amount - $800 - $56 ($744)
Payout - $7256

45% sounds crazy high to me, but if that is the new norm I guess I won't even be asking to buy back my current car if something happens.

[pfis300]

I just bought my car back from insurance this week, I haggled another 2500 outta the insurance company and got my buy-back percentage down to 10% of the return.

Don't take no for an answer.

(Calgary, Intact Insurance (Novex))

[CarpeDiem99]

Originally posted by 4WARNED
What color is your GSR and by chance did you buy it from Jorge?

It is blue. I bought it in the states (no idea who Jorge is).