RE: Salvage Value

["Buchholz, Steven" <Steven.Buchholz@kla-tencor.com>]

> me a check for $1250.  No title annotations 
> etc. unless they take actually transfer 
> possession of the vehicle.  I fixed the 
> damage for $100, although I haven't painted
> it yet. 
> 
> I am in MA, but these procedures usually have
> very little variations from state to state.
> 
... well, here again it may ... I am pretty sure that in California if an
insurance company makes a "total" payout, even if the owner retains the car,
they are obligated to report this fact to the DMV, which then attaches the
"salvage" stigma to the title.  That was what happened for us on an old '77
Toyota the wife had.  It still bugs the crap out of me that the law is
written for the insurance companies in that way.  If I am at fault in an
accident then I don't have a problem with the insurance company doing this
(although I might be willing to pay an extra premium to guarantee that they
would not even in this instance) ... but in my mind there is no way the
insurance company should be able to tell me the value of my car based on the
market and only be willing to pay that much to repair it if the accident was
not my fault!  If it wouldn't have been for the other twit that damaged the
car it would have been in an undamaged state.  I guess another acceptable
alternative would be for the insurance company to be required to replace the
totalled car with an undamaged car in similar state to the old car ...

Steve Buchholz
San Jose, CA (USA)
... thinking about Richard's QTC right now ... :-(