I really need you help on this one.

I was hit by an 18wheeler while he was trying to make a left turn (the middle of his trailer ran over the front left side of the car).
my drivers side mirror was shattered and theres deep cut like scratches and regular scratches all over the drivers side.
My electrical system went nuts after the accident (The dash keeps flashing on and off).
I have liabilty insurance.
The truck drivers insurance is paying for the damages.
The car has no damage to the engine and still drives.
The estimates to repair the car is higher than the value of the car (51% of the value). This is not including the electrical sys.
The truck drivers insurance will pay for the scratches but says the electrical problem is not related when it went after I drove off the accident scene.

My question is, do I have the right to ask for the his insurance company to total my car or is the choice only up to them? Will I have a problem getting my car totaled since its got liability insurance? (I want to change it now because of the damn electrical system going crazy.. and I dont know how to prove it was their fault).

If theres any other options you guys can think of, please help me out. Thank you so very much.

 

look up your state laws, many states have laws that say if a certain % of the cars value is damaged it is automatically totaled, next take it to a professional and have them look over the car and blame the electrical problem on the accident. if your electrical went because of the accident, it is thier fault.

the best thing you can do is take it to a professional body shop. you have the right to take it anywhere you want to get fixed, dont let the insurance company try and screw you, because they will! if they dont total the car, you will lose out on the deprection of the car because it is in an accident.

if the accident is someone elses fault it does not matter what kind of insurance you have. it is on thier insurance. the insurance company will try like he** to not total your car. they will pay someone to do a halfa** fix and send you on your way. take it to a reputable shop and get it done right.

 

Thanks my NY brother.

 

You can't ask for his insurance to total your car. It's up to them to decide if they total it or not.

 

What if I took it to get an estimate and they said it was totaled (a body shop told me it was totaled).

 

the insurance company has to make that decision. i was crossing my fingers when my first car was in an accident. however its value was only around $2500.

 

the insurance company will low ball the repair bill so they do not have to total it. however, if you get multiple repair shops saying it cost $xxxxx to fix the car(over the totaling value) they have little choice other than to total the car. you have to strong arm the insurance company, unfortunantly they do not want to give you what you deserve.... they want to throw you a small check and send you out the door. if they give you a hard time threaten them with court, no insurance company wants to goto court over a few thousand dollar difference. it cost them more to send a lawyer to court over a case they know you will win.

 

Sorry to hear about your loss dude. This is the way our fked up society is, even tho it's their fault completely, but they gonna try to d!ck you over and not pay you what you deserve. Goodluck with this.

 

it's not up to the repair shop to total the car. basicaly you bring the car to the shop of your choice then the adjustor comes from the insurance company and looks at the car with your shop. they come up with a price of how much it would cost to fix it. if that price is more than 80% of the value of the car the insurance company will likely total it. this is because once the shop begins repair of the car they will likely find other things that need to be replaced/fixed which may drive the value of the repair beyond what it costs to total the car. as far as i know there are no state laws that say when an insurance company has to total a car. so you can ask them to total it but they dont have to if they dont want to. if they're not paying to fix your electrical system what you need to do is sue.

 

i never said it was up to the repair shop, what i said was, it is really hard for the insurance company to screw you when you have repair shops backing you up.

 

Gosh, sorry if I misread you . Ive been running around all day today. I am just humbled by everones posts. Thank you for all the advice you guys gave me...