Hopefully you don't have to haggle too much. The last adjuster I dealt with was from progressive and very easy to deal with. This was a snowmobile claim. I did not have a total loss, after they looked it over, I took a check (very fair offer), and repaired the damage myself. Once I dug into the damage I found additional damage that was not visible until disassembly. I emailed photographs, part numbers, cost, and estimated labor cost to the adjuster, he sent a second check. They were swamped, he was happy to have minimal work, not have to travel for a second assessment, and close my claim. I tell this story bc I never before knew about "supplemental claims" upon discovery of additional damages, after taking a check. This could be useful knowledge for you, if it isn't totaled.

 

I have learned a lot about supplemental recently. Dallas had a few hail storms in the last 6 months. Every roofer and body shop I talked to about my roof and truck hail claim all said the same. Dallas prices are way up on the labor side and even on material side if a roof. The roofing company had to get supplemental adjusted from like $100 a square to $135 and the hail repair place that fixed the dents in my truck ended up asking for $1500 more than what was originally adjusted for so they paid a claim of close to 5K on my 2012 to get all the hail damage fixed. I talked with my mom's lawyer friend this AM and he said Geico is the king of insurances to get hit by. They pay out decent and they do it quick.


I doubt they were going to fix this guy up and resell it. Only guys like us who appreciate these older fords would pay what I am going to ask them to settle for.

Appraiser called this morning. He knew it was a 1996 and when I told him it had 218K and asked he looked on the photos I uploaded to their website last night he agreed that it was a 99% chance it was a total loss. He comes out to look tomorrow AM only to verify mileage he said most likely no reason to take it to the shop and put it on the lift. I did already tell him I want to buy it back not sure if that was a mistake. Sent him a picture of my title already so I don't need to be here when he comes to determine value. About to upload a scanned copy of it to make it easy on him.

I guess if they give me the 5K I have in it and let me keep the truck I will be super happy and would probably take slightly less since I know I can reuse the tires, winch, motor, and possibly the winch bumper still (it looks worse then it really is, mainly the bumper mounts on the frame bent, the bumper mounts on the bumper look like they can be straightened out.

Quick math shows I am a little over 5K into it not including my time and labor. $1200 for the truck, $300 for TTL, $475 for new fuel pump and to fix one of the transmission leaks (replaced rear tail shaft seal), $800 to the ford house to fix other tranny leak, coolant flush, transmission flush, transfer case flushed. $750 for the parts truck I got the seat, alloy wheels, and other nick nack parts off of. $650 for the winch bumper + $60 for the herculiner I painted it with, $550 for the winch, 550 for the tires I uploaded a copy of the carfax to show it had -0- wrecks before this incident and a PDF of the NADA value showing average retail is just above 5K.

 

​​​​​​​No not fix and resell. Sell for parts to rebuilders and body shops. At auction and such.

 

I get what your saying. Makes sense. I was wondering how big the market is for salvage title vehicles.

I pulled the code today while home after lunch to see why the check engine light is on. Popped out code P0113 so IAT is giving a bad temp reading. When Geico asked about damage I mentioned the check engine light. I texted the info on the code I pulled from the adjuster coming tomorrow to appraise the truck.

Little doubt the truck will be written off as a total loss. I am making it easy on them. Uploaded photos, copy of the blue title, carfax showing no wrecks and that I was only the 3rd owner (the great state of Texas being the first). Keeping my invoices for parts in my back pocket.

I forgot about the new A/C compressor and R134A which was like $220 on that repair in parts, the new sag pump was only $50 but the bracket, van belt, high pressure hose, and core pump cost me an additional $85 - $90. The 3G 130 amp alternator was like $140 if I remember right but that was a year ago and had been on my bronco. So dang I am in that truck about 6K. Still will be happy with 5K if they let me keep the truck for parts.

 

Initial offer was a little over $3800. He found 3 good comps in the area but still a little short. Truck buy back is at $285. So really offer is like $3500. He said he could stretch it another $500 for a truck rental since I did not get a rental from them so would be right around 4K but would need to upload receipts and invoices I have; to help his manager to give an override for any more than that.

He said his manager that usually will sign off on that stuff is off all next week, the one covering for that manager is supposedly stingy, which I said was fine so I would have time to gather all the invoices I have on the truck.

Still they came at me with a lot better initial price then I thought they would. I wanted 5K ill take $4500 if they let me keep the truck.

He did say just for body work it came back at $6800 in repairs so yeah that truck is totaled considering they are only offering me $3800 for the truck.