What Irked You Today?

[slusher]

I am getting better. It knocked me out for a few minutes….

[Ace-Garageguy]

55 minutes ago, slusher said:

I am getting better. 

Really glad to hear that, Carl.

[Engine 51]

Glad to hear that Carl. Those type injuries are no joke. 

[crazyjim]

Get better quickly Carl.

[Tom Geiger]

On 5/21/2022 at 7:42 AM, Mark said:

I have heard and read about vehicles being totaled by insurance companies, instead of providing a rental while waiting for parts.  Insurance company saves the cost of the rental, meanwhile they auction the wreck for (probably) more money than they'd get for it in "normal" times...

It’s a profit center for them. I regularly see trailer loads of barely damaged cars heading who knows where..

An example.. my wife got hit by a driver who stop signs don’t mean anything.  We bought this 27,000 mile, garage kept and perfect in every way 2000 Jaguar S in 2011 for $12,000.  We didn’t have it but a few months when this happened.

We didn’t have collision so we are relying on the guilty party’s insurance, Liberty Mutual. They decided to play hardball. They totaled the car and wanted to give us $4000… and they wanted the car.

I got local estimates around $2500. Gave them the original purchase info for $12000 a few months prior. No reasoning with them, four grand and where can they pick up the car? So sue us they said. 
 

 

 

[Ace-Garageguy]

45 minutes ago, Tom Geiger said:

...An example.. my wife got hit by a driver who stop signs don’t mean anything.  We bought this 27,000 mile, garage kept and perfect in every way 2000 Jaguar S in 2011 for $12,000.  We didn’t have it but a few months when this happened.

We didn’t have collision so we are relying on the guilty party’s insurance, Liberty Mutual. They decided to play hardball. They totaled the car and wanted to give us $4000… and they wanted the car.

I got local estimates around $2500. Gave them the original purchase info for $12000 a few months prior. No reasoning with them, four grand and where can they pick up the car? So sue us they said. 

An example of why people with older "perfect" cars need to look at stated-value insurance from somebody like Hagerty. Some of the "special interest" insurers have annual mileage limits, but some do not. 

And in MY current state, the insurer can NOT arbitrarily take a car under the "totalled" scenario. It can be kinda a PITA to retain a "totalled" car, but it's doable if you have some nads.

I'm still in the biz, and we frequently have insurers trying to flout laws, so KNOWING the law is the first step to prevent abuses like this.

Edited May 22, 2022 by Ace-Garageguy

[NYLIBUD]

90 degree weather.On LI we go from winter right to summer.???

[espo]

6 hours ago, Tom Geiger said:

It’s a profit center for them. I regularly see trailer loads of barely damaged cars heading who knows where..

An example.. my wife got hit by a driver who stop signs don’t mean anything.  We bought this 27,000 mile, garage kept and perfect in every way 2000 Jaguar S in 2011 for $12,000.  We didn’t have it but a few months when this happened.

We didn’t have collision so we are relying on the guilty party’s insurance, Liberty Mutual. They decided to play hardball. They totaled the car and wanted to give us $4000… and they wanted the car.

I got local estimates around $2500. Gave them the original purchase info for $12000 a few months prior. No reasoning with them, four grand and where can they pick up the car? So sue us they said. 
 

 

 

You might consider contacting your states Insurance Commissioner's office. They often will look into complaints where the insurance companies are trying to take advantage of people in your position.  Since the other driver was at fault there may be a Lawyer or two in your area that would represent your interests and take the case on a contingent of their winning a case against the insurance company and the other driver. Your Jag looks like it is still drivable, are there any certified appraisers  in your area that can certify the actual cash value of the Jag? 

[Ace-Garageguy]

34 minutes ago, espo said:

You might consider contacting your states Insurance Commissioner's office. They often will look into complaints where the insurance companies are trying to take advantage of people in your position...

Depending on the appraised value of the car, often all that's required is to tell the insurance company "WE'RE KEEPING THE CAR. Give us the top dollar you'll pay towards fixing it, and we'll out-of-pocket the rest".

I saved a friendamine's bought-new '95 Miata from totalling by doing just that. Then I fixed it for him for cost, and he ended up making money on the deal.

Basically the same way I got a gen one MR2 and another friend's Geo Metro convertible, both saved from "economic total losses", though both still perfectly drivable and cheap fixes. Now they both have "salvage" titles. But who cares?

Of course, if you just lay down, roll over, and whine about it, they'll steamroller you.

 

[89AKurt]

Not so much an irk for today, but for awhile now.  I live near the main highway into town (AZ69), so I hear every loud vehicle.   So it's a trend now, to have your foreign car be tuned so it backfires.  At least two morons drive full on acceleration, then deceleration just to backfire, then full acceleration, then boom bang.  I haven't spotted what cars yet, but will be on the lookout.  The jacked up diesel pickup drivers are bad enough, I hear them too, the "rolling coal" is one of the dumbest things to do but I haven't seen that here.  Yet.

[Ace-Garageguy]

1 hour ago, 89AKurt said:

...So it's a trend now, to have your foreign car be tuned so it backfires...

Yeah, we got loads of idiots doing that here too. Smoking, tire-burning donuts in the parking lots and office parks at 03:00 is popular too.

The other thing...twinks with raucous raggedy sounding exhausts on their late-model American V8s their mumsies and dadsies probably bought them, trying to make as much noise as possible. Sometimes it seems like they're all frustrated trombone players the way they make the poor things moan...and of course they're many-speed slushboxes. Mumsie's gonna be mad when she finds out the widdle baby-boy's widdle twanny is donna tost $7000 to wepwace... 'cause the moron full-throttled every shift for 15,000 miles and burned those tiny little clutch-pack and band linings to ashes.

And you can tell they're dwerbles who've never heard a real fast car at a drag race or road race, but think somehow making prolonged farting noises with their cars...I guess...will grow some hair on their sunken chests.

Old man shouting at noisy clouds? 

Nah. Sometimes I'll hear something running really well, with a nicely tuned loud exhaust hammering away in the distance, the driver working a manual gearbox like he knows what he's doing...and THAT, boys and girls, always makes me smile.   

Edited May 23, 2022 by Ace-Garageguy
TYPO

[Tom Geiger]

I live in a nice development. Everything was fine until a few months ago. There is a cul-de-sac across the street from my property. Somebody there got a new red Hemi Charger. All I hear is this damn thing coming and going all the time.  I don’t know if it’s the homeowner or a kid because it’s got dark glass.  What I do know is that this clown leaves for work at 6:15am. He comes around the corner and floors the damn thing. Then the next stop sign is two houses down.. he does it again!  I can hear him all the way to the highway!

I don’t have to get up until 7am so this idiot wakes me up nearly every morning!

Edited May 23, 2022 by Tom Geiger

[GRiN]

The less than intelligent drivers(can't call them morons because it will hurt their feelings) who think it's ok to merge onto the freeway at 40 mph instead of 70. Makes me want to slap them in the back of head. Gary

 

[89AKurt]

1 hour ago, GRiN said:

The less than intelligent drivers(can't call them morons because it will hurt their feelings) who think it's ok to merge onto the freeway at 40 mph instead of 70. Makes me want to slap them in the back of head. Gary

I could elaborate about the elderly drivers in my area, it's predominated by retired folks.  My favorite, long line in the left turn lane, when it turns green, each one has about 6 car lengths between cars, so those in the back have to run the red light.

[peteski]

43 minutes ago, 89AKurt said:

My favorite, long line in the left turn lane, when it turns green, each one has about 6 car lengths between cars, so those in the back have to run the red light.

My mother (when she was still driving) used to do the same thing while stopped at traffic lights (not just in the left turn lane).  When I asked, her reasoning was that she was just being extra cautious: if she got rear-ended, she did not want to hit the car in front of her.  How's that for logic? 

[Tom Geiger]

5 hours ago, 89AKurt said:

I could elaborate about the elderly drivers in my area, it's predominated by retired folks.  My favorite, long line in the left turn lane, when it turns green, each one has about 6 car lengths between cars, so those in the back have to run the red light.

Do they have to stay six car lengths apart because of Covid??  ?

[Rob Hall]

My neighbor across the street was annoying for a few years w/ his late model Mustang--turbo 4 with an aftermarket exhaust that went BRRAAAAWWWPPPP down the street weekday mornings around 5:30.  He traded it a couple months ago on a quiet late model BMW 3-series.  No exhaust mods that I've heard yet....

Alas, though this spring has been full of home improvement project noise on my street--one neighbor getting a new fence, another running a Bobcat through their backyard on a big landscaping project, tree trimming/removal up and down the street, roofs being replaced, etc.     I've missed a lot of the noise, esp. on the weekends as I go down to my inherited mud farm to cleanup and clean out 4-5 times a week (90 miles each way)...

[slusher]

On 5/21/2022 at 6:18 PM, Engine 51 said:

Glad to hear that Carl. Those type injuries are no joke. 

Thank you Joe!

 

On 5/22/2022 at 7:52 AM, crazyjim said:

Get better quickly Carl.

 

Thank you! Jim!

[slusher]

12 hours ago, Tom Geiger said:

I live in a nice development. Everything was fine until a few months ago. There is a cul-de-sac across the street from my property. Somebody there got a new red Hemi Charger. All I hear is this damn thing coming and going all the time.  I don’t know if it’s the homeowner or a kid because it’s got dark glass.  What I do know is that this clown leaves for work at 6:15am. He comes around the corner and floors the damn thing. Then the next stop sign is two houses down.. he does it again!  I can hear him all the way to the highway!

I don’t have to get up until 7am so this idiot wakes me up nearly every morning!

i wish know bad luck on anyone, but driving like that is a matter of time before he wrecks it. I just

hope he doent hurt or kill someone…

[Tom Geiger]

On 5/22/2022 at 10:30 AM, Tom Geiger said:

It’s a profit center for them. I regularly see trailer loads of barely damaged cars heading who knows where..

An example.. my wife got hit by a driver who stop signs don’t mean anything.  We bought this 27,000 mile, garage kept and perfect in every way 2000 Jaguar S in 2011 for $12,000.  We didn’t have it but a few months when this happened.

We didn’t have collision so we are relying on the guilty party’s insurance, Liberty Mutual. They decided to play hardball. They totaled the car and wanted to give us $4000… and they wanted the car.

I got local estimates around $2500. Gave them the original purchase info for $12000 a few months prior. No reasoning with them, four grand and where can they pick up the car? So sue us they said. 
 

Just wanted to answer some of the comments on my post above...

First, this ship has sailed, the accident was 11 years ago. The Jag is long gone too.  I did wind up not settling with the insurance company so they won. I never did fix the dent, but we drove the car that way until we sold it.   This was during a rather complicated time in my life... I had just accepted a new job in Pennsylvania and had lived there a few months.  I had a new job that was eating 50-60 hrs a week.  I had two houses under renovation in New Jersey at the time... then kaboom!  I got laid off.  There I was paying three mortgages and no job!   I didn't have the time or brain space to do anything in this matter.

It's easy to say "so sue them".  Quite another thing to actually do so.  Attorneys do not accept small jobs like this "on contingency".  What am I suing for? Less than $10 grand.  I had one attorney call me back.  He wanted a minimum payment (win or lose) of $10,000 payable up front as long as there was no court appearance.

We had another potential law suit a few years ago.  My daughter bought a house and had the septic system certified. It failed shortly after move in.  Had another septic service look at it and they said the first company could not have possibly even looked it it, as it was crumbling.. complete malpractice.

Contacted septic certification company.  They offered us $2000 off a new septic system.  When we threatened them, they pretty much brazenly  said good luck finding an attorney who will take a $25000 case!   And they were right.  We couldn't find anyone willing to work with us.  The winning were too slim for them to be bothered.

Which is why insurance companies screw with people. Because they can.

 

[Mark]

Insurance companies don't make money by paying on claims.  They make money by NOT paying on claims.

That said, I have kept collision coverage on the last couple of daily driver vehicles, as long as I owned them.  The line item for collision coverage isn't very much in the scheme of things.  I won't drop glass coverage either, and don't understand the reasoning behind trying to save money by not having it.  One cracked windshield puts you ahead, even if you keep the car ten years.  I did pay for a windshield for an older car out of pocket (had a wiper scratch from before I bought the car); most glass shops will charge you less if they know you are paying for it yourself...still, it ain't cheap.

[Jantrix]

If I ever meet the lunatic who designed a vehicle that required an engine pull to replace the control arm bushings, ya'll will have to send correspondence to me, c/o Idaho State Corrections, Inmate 18721097. 

[Ace-Garageguy]

43 minutes ago, Jantrix said:

If I ever meet the lunatic who designed a vehicle that required an engine pull to replace the control arm bushings, ya'll will have to send correspondence to me, c/o Idaho State Corrections, Inmate 18721097. 

Welcome to my world.

[peteski]

1 hour ago, Jantrix said:

If I ever meet the lunatic who designed a vehicle that required an engine pull to replace the control arm bushings, ya'll will have to send correspondence to me, c/o Idaho State Corrections, Inmate 18721097. 

How much that simple replacement will cost (in labor cost), and who in their right mind will pay for that repair?  Plus, what are the chances that everything will still work correctly after reconnecting hundreds of electrical, vacuum, and fluid connections contemporary engines have?

[Ace-Garageguy]

10 minutes ago, peteski said:

...what are the chances that everything will still work correctly after reconnecting hundreds of electrical, vacuum, and fluid connections contemporary engines have?

100% if the work is performed by a competent mechanic.

Not so good if it's done by the average contemporary "tech".