In March 2006 the car was involved in a very small accident. I was driving on a small rural road in north Georgia when a large dog darted out of the woods, and started to run out in front of my car. I swerved to miss the dog, but ended up hitting the dog with the left front of the car. I lost control of the car and ran into a small tree. The dog ran off in the other direction. I looked for the dog but it was gone. I never knew if it was hurt, or if it lived or died.
The damages to the car were very minimal. There was only slight front end damage with a little leftward side sway. Easily fixed with a few parts from the local Pull-A-Part, and because I work at a body shop and have 14 year experience in the collision industry, I knew it could be fixed in a few hours (which it was). Even though the damage was minimal, and it would cost next to nothing to fix, I decided to turn in a claim to my insurance company. I knew it would be a comprehensive claim, because I hit an animal, which doesn't count against you and will not raise your rates. In my case had a $0 deductible, so it would cost me nothing to turn in a claim, and get more money. This turned out to be a bad idea.
When the insurance came out and looked and the vehicle, and wrote an estimate, they said it was a borderline total loss. They said the vehicle wasn’t worth very much, and the cost of repairs may exceed the value. So I presented them with $7k+ worth of receipts for all the performance upgrades that I had done to the car. They said that didn’t effect the value in anyway to have these parts on the car. So they gave me 2 options, total out the vehicle and they take it, or total out the vehicle and I keep it for a lesser pay out. Well needless to say I battled, and battled, and battled with them for a month over what the car was worth. I didn’t want to total the car because I new it was worth a lot more than they were saying. I just wanted them to fix the damn thing. I even tried to cancel the claim, but apparently once a claim is turned in it can’t be undone. They did finally get the value up on the car but they still wanted to total it. I gave up and finally settled on a $4k pay out and I would keep the car, but it would still be a total loss and have a salvage title.
I would have to repair the vehicle, and then have it inspected by the state, so I could get a clean title with a salvage history. I got the parts needed to fix it from my local pull-a-part and fixed it one night after work. The parts consisted of two hood hinges, front lower valance, and a front bumper cover. It only took a couple of hours to fix it. I had it inspected by the state and it pasted, no problem, and received a clean, salvage-repaired title. Most of the payout money that I received went back into the car in the form of performance parts and only benefited the car in the long run. It now has a new clear title issued, but has a salvage history, which means nothing. It can still be tagged just like before, and the title can be transfered just like before. I understand why they do it to protect the consumer, but it just doesn't apply in this case.
I recently did a carfax on the car to find out what it said about the title history. It said that the car is now worth $490 less since it has a salvage title history. I can’t roll my eyes hard enough to that.