Posted by Keith in Washington on Tuesday, May 22, 2001 at 3:38PM :
In Reply to: Steve. USAA Question posted by Mike in Indiana on Tuesday, May 22, 2001 at 1:34PM :
The real question is, What will they pay you if it is destroyed. Two key point to remember when buying insurance.
A) The insurance company will pay you as little as they can. To them your truck is close to scrap metal in value unless you educate them otherwise.
B) The insurance company will pay stated or assesed value with documentation.
You need to establish a value for the vehicle prior to any accident. This can be done in one of several ways.
1) Buy a stated value policy which says they will pay that value if it is destroyed. Be careful here. I have my Dodge tucks insured as "Classic" with State Farm with a stated value. I had my Willys insured with them as a daily driver with a stated value. Guess what? When we rolled the Willys they offered to pay only 1/2 the "stated value". For State Farm, 'stated value' is only guarenteed under the "Classic" insurance classification (my Dodges are covered). Most insurance companies will require either a vehicle evaluation and price from a recognized vehicle evaluation service or lots of pictures to help them to be willing to take on the risk with the "stated price".
The other choice is to buy an unstated value policy that pays replacement value. This is your normal insurance. In this case you need to have clear documentation of the value of the vehicle. This is where you need to have a recognized evaluation service set a replacement value for your vehicle. Insurance companies will honor their price.
When we rolled the Willys, they offered us 1/2 of the stated value and would not budge from that price. When we finally found the evaluators price estimate, which was several years old, they immediatly offered $50 below the evaluator's stated value. It so happens that our evaluation was done by an independent evaluator that is used by State Farm to do evaluations for them in the Pacific Northwest.
Bottom line is document the value of the truck before anything happens otherwise they will pay you the fair market price of a like vehicle. The fair market price is what the average person will pay or has payed for a like vehicle (Usually low NAPDA Blue Book price). You need to be able to tell and document the replacement cost and hold firm even if it takes a little while to settle the claim.
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