Bad faith efforts to declare "total loss" are a nightmare. And forget about state insurance commissions coming to your rescue. Leading consumer advocate Fight Bad Faith Insurance Companies has yet to hear of a single case where a state insurance commission directed an insurance company to do the right thing.
State Farm's agent called me an idiot and admitted to grabbing my sign. The police initially told me I would have to get a permit to picket, but finally agreed that it was my constitutional right to stand on public property and hold up a sign. Passing motorists started giving "thumbs up" signals along with friendly beeps and waves.
...my car is readily repairable with no lingering safety issues. Mechanical repairs (close to half of the entire bill) have been completed, and my car handles as well as it ever did. Legitimate repair costs do not equal or exceed 75% of the "actual cash value" eventually set by State Farm, even with the extra expense of the new OEM parts. There's no justifiable reason for State Farm to refuse to complete the repairs.
Nobody can be faulted for speculating as to why State Farm exhibits such a keen interest in taking possession of my car. Companies bullying owners into turning over their vehicles by threatening to ruin the title is hardly unheard of. After taking possession of a vehicle they've "totalled," companies have been known to "forget" that the law requires them to record "salvage" on the title. Then they sell the "clean titled" vehicle for more money than they could have gotten if "salvage" had been disclosed. Not long ago, State Farm was fined for not stamping "salvage" onto the titles of thousands of vehicles they had "totalled." The "good neighbor" sold the vehicles with clean titles, raking in enormous, illegal profits.
My car is a bright
red 2000 MR2 Spyder, sporting a nice, clean title. It's been
meticulously maintained, has always been housed in a garage, and it's been parked in the
shade when I'm out and about. It's loaded with desirable options including a
beautiful, black leather interior (smells like new 'cause I'm a non-smoker), and
has been driven only about 63,000 miles. At 30,000 miles, the engine was
completely rebuilt and a new exhaust system was installed (both items via a
Toyota manufacturing defect, which took $8,500 outta my pocket). This makes my
car exceptionally desirable, because there's reason to believe that the defect
in my engine was permanently corrected (Toyota continues to stonewall). Not many
MR2 Spyders were produced, and they were no longer manufactured in the U.S.
after 2005. The cars have become collectibles, values have increased, and
it's very difficult to find an MR2 Spyder for sale that's in top notch condition
like mine.
Is anyone surprised that State Farm wants my
car?
