My baby returned home - the long soap opera

Well I woke up to do a little light reading, hoping it would help me fall back asleep for another hour... After reading this thread I'm afraid i will be up for the day now. I will not risk a nightmare and I amcalling to confirm coverage limits in a few hours.

I'm impressed with the level of detail and navigation of this ultra complex situation. I'm sure several people here have not faired as well. At the end of the day the insurance is there for a reason and I'm glad you were able to use it. After all you pay your premiums every month!.

 

Agreed on the detail of navigation. I still wonder about the ramifications for the woman who ran into the 458. Due to her 250k limitation and earlier comments regarding the ability of the insurance company to come after her personally for the difference, what liability does she actually have. Reason for asking: We have a daughter and a son who do not have excessive liability limits (over 500k); we live in an area where there are some multi-million dollar cars on the road periodically; the risk may be small of an encounter with said cars but to see either child (though they are adults now) end up with a finanically devastating burdern would be more than disheartening.

 

OK, but are you still stating that the insurance company paid out something like $295K to you for LOU and IDV ?

and also paid for the repair at about $46K

and rather than declaring the car a total loss and taking the title so that they could recover some of these losses - also let you keep the car ?

which then left them to attempt recovery for the $300K+ from the other driver and her insurance?

Is there something special in your policy that provides for claims of LOU and IDV that we should be looking for ? Based on your investigation, are these claims somehow considered separate insurable events that don't specifically go into the determination of a total loss w.r.t. the covered vehicle?

And for those worried about coverage against an accident with a Ferrari or Bugatti - how about an accident with a commercial vehicle - much more common and even higher value in many cases - with potentially huge LOU factors.

Sorry for the questions, but it requires some discussion to understand how this case worked out when our uneducated expectations would have expected something else.

I want to understand this sufficiently to be able to verify that even an umbrella policy would cover such claims if required.

THX

 

Ok after this cautionary tale I called my agent and checked my coverage which was

100/300/50

I upped it to

250/500/500 which is an extra $34.20 every 6 months.

Good for piece of mind.

Now I can total a 458 with impunity

(unless there were some REALLY expensive aftermarkets loaded on it)

 

>>Is there something special in your policy that provides for claims of LOU and IDV that we should be looking for ? Based on your investigation, are these claims somehow considered separate insurable events that don't specifically go into the determination of a total loss w.r.t. the covered vehicle?


I had a similiar thought/question. I don't think any auto policy anywhere allows for LOU or IDV claims for the policyholder (i.e., I cannot make a claim for LOU or IDV against the comprehensive component of my own policy), but if he pursued a claim for LOU and/or IDV against the OTHER driver's policy, then that may have won the day. Some clarification would be helpful. If so, then the only question becomes whether or not such claim would fall under the liability component or the property damage component of the other driver's policy, since typically motorist's have much more liability coverage than property damage coverage (for losses incurred by others).

My insurance agent is a good friend of mine. I'm going to call him later today and ask a few questions about this, and for the same reason as you -- because I'd like to understand what my rights are, not because I'm trying to argue with the OP (or anyone else). This thread probably wouldn't have gone on for 100+ posts if we all understood it a little better from the outset but the OP has to be careful with what he says as well (which is why I'm a little surprised this thread even got started at all).

 

This story reminds me of the reason one member here gave as to why he does not participate in local Ferrari drives. His example involved a doctor, an Enzo and a million dollar claim for a similar situation. At the time I thought that he was being over the top with his example, but not anymore!
To the OP, I am not blaming you for any wrongdoing instead I would like to thank you for sharing the hard facts, a real eye opener!

 

David, I'm not sure if I am one of the guys/one of the reasons why you were ready to fire off a completely different message but you have to appreciate the position of people other than yourself who are reading this thread -- we are understandably curious about the specifics of how the LOU and IDV claim was handled because that is a big part of the thread and something many of us have never encountered. In fact, i know more about insurance than most people and even I am still a little confused about how the LOU and IDV claim was processed, ESPECIALLY if you didn't have a lawyer involved. It seems very unlikely to me (and perhaps others) that an insurance company would hand over $100+k for claims related to items which are often explicitly excluded from the verbage of most insurance policies (which often no one bothers to read).

I for one am NOT asking you to divulge the specifics in terms of dollars, settlements, what you and the dealer have worked out, etc. All I and perhaps others are curious about is how you went about getting the LOU and IDV claims honored, whether it came from your policy or hers (and if so if was handled under 'liability' or 'property damage' -- since IDV and LOU seems to fall under neither, etc.), if you had to file a suit to get either insurance company to take you seriously, etc.

I'm not sure if you are getting mad but if you are understand that we are just trying to understand what really happened. If this whole thing revolved around a few grand no one would give a **** but what you offered up in this thread is something of far greater signficance which is why I and others are so surprised and so curious. Its also not like we are asking these questions out of the clear blue sky either since you started the thread and offered up the whole IDV / LOU discussion. We're just trying to understand it better. Honestly. At least, that's where I'm coming from. No confrontationalism implied or intended!

 

Understandably, the OP is tight lipped about the details. Consider a PM. He has offered that option.

 

I get that but I'm thinking about the others who have viewed this thread (which is now in the thousands) and the benefit of this knowledge should be shared with everyone, not just one person.

I did just get off the phone with someone in my insurance agent's office. Even she was unaware of how IDV claims work (in PA) but said she would get back to me. She DID however, teach me something I did not know:

She said State Farm (in PA) has filed for "split limit coverage" with the PA Dept of Ins. That means that under the liability portion of my policy, they 'split' the coverage limits into amounts: 1) per person [a single other party's bodily injury claim] 2) per accident [all other parties' bodily injury claim] and 3) property damage [to others' property]. She said that insurance companies can, if they so choose, file with the state to provide what is called "combined single limit coverage" in which case (as an example) a policy that provides 15/30/5 in liability actually will payout a total of $35k to another party, irrespective of how or where that money is going. Put differently, if I got rear-ended and had no bodily injury but had $32k in damage to my car and the person who hit me had insurance from a company that filed as "combined single limit coverage" and that person had 15/30/5 then that party would have paid my insurance company for the full $32k to fix my car, including my deductible.

I thought that was very interesting. Taking that example further, if I claimed another $50k in IDV (and pretending that the other party had 50/100/25 in coverage) then I may have been able to recover another $50k in IDV on top of the $32k from the other party's insurance. However, the exact mechanism of this claim and what component of coverage it would fall under (if the other policy holder's company did "split limit coverage") is something I still don't know, but the person in my agent's office said she would investigate and get back to me. In fact, she became curious about this as well and said she was giong to be talking to Claims later today for another loss and would ask about whether or not IDV claims can be pursued as described, at least in PA.

Very interesting thread.

 

Thanks for clearing up the IDV issue - can you also clarify if indeed the LOU potential coverage was paid at all? (no numbers needed)

Anything you may know about how the insurance processed this part or special coverages your policy may have had would be good to know ? (to FTVs points)

I don't really see how enlightening us a bit on the issues around LOU coverages should expose you in any way.

and thanks for volunteering to educate us by sharing your experience.

 

Please PM details.... I am in a similar spot.
Thanks

 

HOLY CRAP what a story....

 

when my 348 got hit, the best shop in town left the factory stickers on the panels to prove they were using factory parts. I did not want a blended paint job so planned on getting that work done at a shop that worked on lots of F cars. After inspecting the work, the bent nose was found and first shop tried to compress the rubber bumper mounts to get the panel gaps smaller. Of course they also ripped the mounts out of the fiberglass bumper.
when I showed the first shop pictures of the damage done to the new $4k bumper, they explained that I had been in an accident in route and was blaming them! It took all summer and only $2k from me and more insurance money to get the repairs done correctly.
I kept the original wrecked bumper in the shop as a conversational piece. FWIW


Jeff Pintler
89 348tb, 86tr, 99 360 3-pedal

 

FYI...I asked my State Farm agent (I live in Colorado) about diminished value. He said that it would in fact be covered, but only if the car was subsequently sold within a short period after the repair was performed. He couldn't tell me exactly what that period was, but I came away thinking that if I have an accident which requires a claim, then I will be selling the car shortly thereafter.

 

How could your car need a repair/respary on the bumper on week, and an entire new exhaust sytem and new fasteners the next?

Regardless of your final numbers, this does not pass the smell test.

 

I just wanted to bump this thread to say thanks for posting your story. It saved me a lot of headache by contacting your appraiser, Lance Coren (TheAutoAppraiser.com), immediately when one of my cars (exotic) was rear ended at low speed. I was educated about the system, what to expect, and what needed to be done, without a fee needing to be paid. I eventually did request a report through Lance and after 2 months of hoops from the other parties insurance (eSurance), the incident was "righted" with the claim being approved after being passed up to higher committees. Whenever your Ferrari or other vehicle is involved in an accident, immediately file a loss of use/diminished value claim and contact Lance for any questions.

 

Did this car recently sell at a dealer in ca? Was it listed as damaged and repaired? would be interesting to see if there was any actual DV at retail (meaning it sold for a discount to an undamaged comparable car) or if it just became "additional profit" somewhere in the trade-in to retail chain? (I think this is what the OP was concerned about in some posts)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

This is excellent advice here. I recommend even higher limits with a wrap around excess policy over whatever maximum limits your carrier will offer. In Ca multi-million dollar auto case verdicts are common. This thread should be a wake up call to all of us. And you can be sure I'll be watching my rear view camera when I back up more than ever.i got so used to it on my DD that I didn't even think twice about getting it on my 458.