I have bought several cars that were declared "totals" by the Ins. Co.

In EVERY case, the owner on record held the title, took the offer from the Ins. Co., less salvage, and the title was never branded.

Later on, if you look at a CarFax or similar vehicle history report, you will likely see that it was noted that the vehicle was in an accident, but the entry will be very sparse on details. This may well be the report to the state that your Ins. rep was thinking about.

I do not live in HI., and state laws may vary, but it does not seem logical for the car to be totaled when you retain ownership of the car.

Jim

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14 E250 BlueTEC black. 45k miles
95 E320 Cabriolet Emerald green 66k miles
94 E320 Cabriolet Emerald green 152k miles
85 300TD 4 spd man, euro bumpers and lights, 15" Pentas dark blue 274k miles

Jeez... yes, you're reading *way* more into this than is there, making wrong assumptions, and frankly, not contributing to the point of the post what with the driver's-ed sermonizing. No cel-phones involved, we're a no-fault state, no ticket was involved, and it was at my option that I tentatively requested inspection of my car in the event that I might later decide to pursue the claim.

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'83 300SD - daily driver
'97 Dodge Cummins
'60 & '64 Minis
...etc...

It may not be "logical" but in TN for example, 50% of the value in damage totals the vehicle and it is reported to the state by the insurance company. A new title will arrive in the mail noting that the vehicle was totaled.

This can be changed back to non-totaled with repair and inspection.

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85SD 240K & stopped counting painted, putting bac together. 84SD 180,000. sold to a neighbor and member here but I forget his handle. The 84 is much improved from when I had it. 85TD beginning to repair to DD status. Lots of stuff to do.

Did the Hyndai driver file a claim on their insurance for any damages?

Yes.

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'83 300SD - daily driver
'97 Dodge Cummins
'60 & '64 Minis
...etc...

JimFreeh - yeah, I think I see what you're saying. The "totaled" vehicle might or might not be branded with a salvage title, but regardless, I think it's always offered for buyback to the customer first. Calling it "totaled" is misleading, in my view, but I suppose it's easier than saying "beyond economical repair." I've spent far too many hours in my life repairing things that are beyond economical repair, and I don't seem to be about to stop...

A couple of decades back, I bought two pickups from an insurance salvage lot - one with, one without salvage title - I had no clue what that even meant at the time. I still own the one that was much more badly damaged (frame was clearly bent), yet it was the other one (with 'bolt on body panels' level of damage) that had been tarred as "salvage." Paid a guy $150 to sign off the paperwork for that one; he never left his office to do it, while he ranted endlessly about how the State was going after him...different days, lower-level corruption than now.

I spoke with my agent today; she is completely on my side on this, and has made her own inquiries on my behalf. She, too, is surprised not to have heard anything back just yet from home office, and concurs in wanting to see the "State Law" that's been claimed as the basis for this railroading into Salvage-hell.

Per her explanation, it's much worse than I'd thought in that realm: there are now only TWO licensed shops that do this here, and though she's a polite and professional woman, she told me in very descriptive terms that one of the two shops is... utterly out of the question. The other? They're a monopoly, as she said, thus they charge whatever they want, and take however long they want doing the work, because...they can, and they'd never consider signing off on anything without getting a big piece of the action. It's way more rotten than I'd even feared.

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'83 300SD - daily driver
'97 Dodge Cummins
'60 & '64 Minis
...etc...

I think it is time to contact your state Representative ( the elected person that represents your district at the state level.) they might be able to intercede. In addition to this, some states have an insurance arbitration board that might offer some relief.

Also, did you look on your states web site to see the _actual_ laws ? If not you are wasting time and effort.

You local TV News might be interested in a Story.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

In Nevada it's 65%. My '83 was totaled last year. It got rearended and the repair estimate was approximately the market value of the car. Since you can't just go and buy a 123 turbo 4 speed, I kept it. I threw in a paint job which it needed and spent $4200 to fix a $2500 car. Renewing the registration required some paperwork, which is normally accompanied by a $25-50 inspection. However, the shop owner knew me and the car already and didn't even charge.

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Whoever said there's nothing more expensive than a cheap Mercedes never had a cheap Jaguar.

83 300D Turbo with manual conversion, early W126 vented front rotors and H4 headlights 400,xxx miles
08 Suzuki GSX-R600 M4 Slip-on 22,xxx miles
88 Jaguar XJS V12 94,xxx miles. Work in progress.

Amazingly, no one from claims/adjustment got back to me with answers: recapping, I'd asked them to show me the "law" they like to cite that says it's a "salvage" automatically when a radiator core-support bracket gets bent, and questioned why they'd backed me into a corner - again supposedly mandated by that old State Law thing again - by not having informed me that doing even the initial claim estimate, with no commitment from me to follow through, dooming me to have to deal with the salvage-branded title and reversing that so as to be able to register it.

My agent dug into this. Turns out the senior-level claims adjuster has been wrong about this for years, perhaps; some other states (Oregon, for one) does indeed require the title to be redesignated "salvage" based on ANY claims-adjustment report - even one that never gets processed fully. Not so Hawaii. He claimed expertise here since he'd run some portion of the company's operations here for two years, and apparently wasn't willing to question his beliefs. So anyway, if I withdraw the claim, State Farm doesn't have to poison my title this way. That's one option.

The other, more financially attractive option, is to go ahead with the claim - assuming that in itself doesn't have a huge impact on my premiums. Can't say about that until the other party's claim is finalized, and that might take months. Yes, this will mean I have to deal with the salvage title problems.

But again, my agent did a lot of digging, and through multiple calls to DMV to reach someone who gave a $hit and actually knew what they were talking about, was eventually able to get the one worthwhile salvage-inspection shop owner's phone number - his cel phone, even. I talked to him, and he couldn't have been easier to deal with. I can indeed do the spot-weld repairs myself and bring the car back to driveable condition, then go see him, and he says that as long as it's reasonably clear to inspect the corrected locations (subtext: my work can't look like crap) he will charge me $150-$200 to complete the affidavit that's required to restore the title to "salvage-repaired" or whatever it's called once it's returned from Death Row.

Interestingly, this guy told me that it's an unwritten and unspoken rule amongst local claims adjusters that if it's over ten years old, or if it's got more than 100K miles on it, it's gonna be totaled, and likely salvage-branded, by the time they're done with their paperwork (the new car dealers' cheers reverberate while their lobbyists count their cash...)

So now, it's on with far-reaching repairs - going far beyond the relatively simple accident-repair fixes, to take advantage of the disassembled state...

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'83 300SD - daily driver
'97 Dodge Cummins
'60 & '64 Minis
...etc...

Ga just recently passed salvage title laws with our fabulous leader, Gov "Deal". He likes his backroom deals (like the one where he gave his brother a no bid contract to be the only state inpsector for salvage rebuilds). He also happens to be an owner in several junkyards (no conflict of interest at all).

At any rate, I had my 91 300d processed as a salvage title under the new changes and I forget the % but once you reach that point the salvage it. My bad for taking it to the Mercedes dealership to get an estimate. Ended up having a less than thrilling time with the shop that I used. The salvage title bit was easy though. I have a feeling those guys are pretty easy on the specs, as long as you show you did your work and they can validate it...

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http://superturbodiesel.com/images/sig.04.10.jpg
1995 E420 Schwarz
1995 E300 Weiss
#1987 300D Sturmmachine
#1991 300D Nearly Perfect
#1994 E320 Cabriolet
#1995 E320 Touring
#1985 300D Sedan
OBK #42

Brah, glad you found one uncle. Haha. That whole place is corrupt. It's like clientism. It's who you know, not what you know. Glad you found some rationality though.

I was on BI and doing some farming. That damn hamakua ditch was interesting. I didn't want to grow anywhere because people were just taking water. No one wants to ask cause they aren't sure who actually owns it. I didn't want to get deep into it and all the sudden someone claims its there's and cuts us off.

I ended up down the hill from waimea. Are water charge was 75% for pumping, but we were downhill.

They say over 50% of the water is stolen. Everyone taps in their own lines.

I think this has been approached now, but I'm back on the mainland.


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Both my Jettas were in accidents that weren't my fault and now have salvage titles. The simple act of the car passing safety/emissions is enough for the DMV to validate the car was restored to operation, at least that's how it is in Utah.

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- Johnny

1990 300D 2.5L - 135k
1998 Jetta TDI - 257k
2005 E500 - 117k