Quote:
Originally Posted by emti
Hey guys,
Not sure if this is the ideal thread for this. I did a search for Car Hail Damage but there was nothing specific so this seemed like this best place.
My brothers 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee got dinged up real nice driving home from Lethbridge last week and he just received his notice the car is a write off. The claim to fix the car was just under 23k and they have his car valued around 18k. Problem is, he still owes 22k on the vehicle. His Insurance broker has been no help whatsoever and her only 'suggestion' was, and i quote to "tell the insurance company the car is worth more"
My brother has made some not so smart financial moves in the past so money is extremely tight to say the least and doesn't exactly have around 4k lying around to pay out the bank after the write off check. Does anyone have any experience with this type of thing? I suggested he take it to get a secondary opinion on the costs to repair and go from there. Any other ideas?
Thanks guys
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A quick autotrader search shows a ton in the sub $20k range. Depending on trim level and what the km are, he may get more as there’s also lots pushing $30k. A Laredo with 180,000 km and an Overland with 75,000km will have a huge gap ($12-$15k) in price. it is up to him to provide the comparables to get more money. What is owed on the vehicle has no bearing on value, that’s what gap protection is for, something he would’ve declined when doing the paperwork on his Grand Cherokee. .
Backwards $4k isn’t too bad. Depending on his credit it shouldn’t be too hard to get that amount financed into his next vehicle (if he can’t come up with the money). This is not and uncommon situation at all, though surely not an easy one either if money is tight.
Given the circumstances he could also contact the lender and try to rewrite the loan at a lower payment over a longer period to drop his monthly payment given that the vehicle is out of service. I have seen this route taken before. Was it an accident or hail damage? There are typically pay out options for hail, but if you take the payout, you’re stuck driving that thing forever, and making payments on a worthless vehicle (I would not advise this route on this vehicle though).