I noticed similar things to what manxman mentions in his story, when I was first looking for cars. I found most used Fits to be more than new ones, and that was when the new ones had markups.

It's very important to insure your car for what it's worth and/or what you owe. With my old VW, after checking it's value online, I dropped most of the insurance. Because the value was so low that any accident would total the car. It was an old car in not the best of shape.

I didn't know about gap insurance until recently, in some links that I posted somewhere on this site.

I sincerely hope that there is a way to somehow deal with the insurance company. I know I had a few arguments with my old insurance company over who should fix my car. And about the costs of the repairs. So there might be a bit of leeway in there somewhere.

And they are getting your premiums on your other cars, and it's not like you roll a car weekly. They will get plenty of money from you over time via insurance payments that will easily add up to the additional amount owed on your car. You might want to point this out to them.

And unless they pressed you on the gap insurance, you might want to bring up that they neglected (ha!) to mention the necessity of gap insurance. Nobody expects to total their car. But insurance agents ought to know that accidents HAPPEN, whether or not your car is paid for.

I would say that they should have really pushed the gap insurance, or even required it. I don't know if they can require it. You wouldn't be paying gap insurance forever. Just until the car value and the remaining amount owed are equal. Then you can drop the gap insurance.

 

Every time I've purchased a car, the dealer pushed the gap insurance on me. It's generally a one-time premium.

 

Thank God you are OK! I'm so happy for you.

 

In some cases you can negotiate a total loss in such a way that you end up with some cash and the vehicle. I don't think it will happen in your case.

They will have to pay you tax on whatever value they attach to the car, but the lack of gap insurance will probably cost you upwards of $3,000, if not more. Basically, you're eating the depreciation on the car.

The windshield ring and the roof held up admirably, the door latch not so admirably. Probably the striker just snapped off, flapping the door open. Even so, I bet there are full size suv's out there that would not have held up as well as your GE Fit.

Glad there were no serious injuries.

 

Wow... glad your OK!!!

 

Sometimes people will buy a vehicle back from the insurance company after the settlement. I don't know how that works exactly and I don't think they like to do that very often.

 

Here's some first-hand experience with dealing on a totalled fit recently...
last month, a kid blasted through a yield sign on snowy roads, and nailed my daughter and son driving our '08 Fit Sport. My daughter realized the kid wasn't planning on yielding at the last moment, and she applied the brakes... she ended up hitting the other car in the intersection towards the front-right of the offending car. The force was huge (the other car was going ~45mph, my daughter only ~25) and destroyed the front of our car. Front airbags deployed (no sides though), they spun around, and the other car was deflected off to the side of the road... Nobody hurt. Amazing. I had just installed Blizzak ws-60 snow tires on the car 3 weeks earlier. I credit that for my daughter being able to slow slightly and not get t-boned and seriously injured...

Anyways...

Our '08 Fit Sport AT, 20K miles, absolutely mint. Totalled. Insurance company called and offered $13.8K. I said no. I used autotrader, cars.com, etc... and found used cars within 100 miles of my area listing for $15.5 - $16.5 K. There is even an '07 locally at a dealer with 20K miles asking $16k ! I ended up settling for $15K + $900 tax reimbursement, so $15,900 for our '08. You should get at least another $1500 for your '09.
Don't settle for less... the Fits are still generally selling for over sticker pricing in most of the country. This is the one car you really don't need GAP insurance for...

Hope that helps -- feel free to PM me if you'd like more info on my experience...

 

Bigfoot, Crazy crash! It is very good that no one was hurt. Thanks for the comments. They make me feel a bit better. My wife is freaking out about the money part of it. We did not get gap insurance.

I just got a copy of estimate. Here is summary:
$ 7,694 - parts and materials (35 parts)
$ 5,888 - labor (111 total hours)
$ 887 - tax, etc.
$14,469 - total

They have down 29 hours of refinishing. That seems crazy to me.

 

Flip -- you don't want that car back... it is totalled... and will never be the same... I hope you get a good cash settlement... you should come out OK. FWIW, I was so pleased with how the '08 protected the kids, that I bought the '09 the day we got the settlement.

 

Fliptwister, I'm going to use Honda's online site (and others) and post links for you to take to your insurance company. People here by now ought to know I love the links and love to look things up.

These will be used FITs, in your area, and obviously your NEW car should be worth more than a used older model. Like Bigfoot says, there is some room to negotiate. I negotiated before with my insurance company on a repair. I'm looking for the higher priced examples. Of course.

2007 Fit, $14,035, 24,459 mi:
Bergstrom Honda Oshkosh WI Wisconsin dealer new cars used cars trucks SUVs CR-V Pilot Element auto repair auto parts

Craigslist, 2007 Fit, $15,500, 13,000 mi:
2007 Honda Fit

Madison Craigslist has two Fits, but both are the base models. And both are sticks. Prices around $11,000

That's it for your state on Craigslist. Let's go next door to Minnesota, and in Minneapolis there are quite a few:

Jan 12 - 2008 Honda Fit Sport Loaded with lots extra! - $15990 - (Hopkins/Minnentoka) pic <<cars & trucks - by owner
Jan 6 - 2008 Honda Fit--26 mileage - $16987 - (Mpls/St.Paul) pic <<cars & trucks - by dealer
Jan 6 - 2008 Honda Fit--7,926 mileage - $17987 - (Mpls/St.Paul) pic <<cars & trucks - by dealer
Jan 5 - 2008 Honda Fit--33 mileage - $16987 - (Mpls/St.Paul) pic <<cars & trucks - by dealer
Jan 5 - 2007 Honda Fit--21,225 mileage - $15587 - (Mpls/St.Paul) pic <<cars & trucks - by dealer
Dec 27 - 2008 Honda Fit--26 mileage - $16987 - (Mpls/St.Paul) pic <<cars & trucks - by dealer
Dec 27 - 2008 Honda Fit--7,926 mileage - $17987 - (Mpls/St.Paul) pic <<cars & trucks - by dealer
Dec 26 - 2009 Honda Fit Sport * 2k, silver, iPod, 16" wheels, cc, 30-40mpg - $18100 - (saint paul) pic <<cars & trucks - by owner
Dec 18 - 2007 Honda Fit--22,941 mileage - $16987 - (Mpls/St.Paul) pic <<cars & trucks - by dealer
Dec 18 - 2008 Honda Fit--26 mileage - $17987 - (Mpls/St.Paul) pic <<cars & trucks - by dealer
Dec 18 - 2008 Honda Fit--7,926 mileage - $17987 - (Mpls/St.Paul) pic <<cars & trucks - by dealer


Hey, even the links work when pasting in the Craigslist stuff. You take printouts of those pages, to your insurance company, and show them that there's no way that your car is only worth what you posted.

How much do you owe in total, if you don't mind me asking? When you submit these kinds of comparisons to your insurance company, it's to help them see that what you are asking is not unreasonable. That the car holds it's value much better than they think. You want them to feel "good" about giving you more. That they aren't being ripped off by paying out too much, and that if they don't pay out as much as the car is worth, that they are basically ripping YOU off.

Nobody wants to be taken advantage of. Nobody.

Remind your insurance agent that you probably will be getting another vehicle, that you will for sure get the gap insurance so there is no need to prove what cars are going for, and that the sooner you get into your new car, the sooner they can start collecting premiums.

If you have to wait awhile to pay off the remainder of the old car, the insurance company won't be getting any premiums on any new car.

If indeed they are not willing to negotiate, it may also be a good time to start checking around for other companies.

An FYI, for those always looking, there is a Taffeta White Nav m/t here:
2009 Honda Fit Sport w/Navi 4dr Car | H90240 | JHMGE87619S017348 | New Inventory Homepage

 

Wow! Quite the accident. And yet again, I'm feeling kind of good about having the FIT. Thanks for offering up the images and your story, Bigfoot!

 

Wow! Looks like those blizzaks may have even saved your kids lives.

 

ouch. glad to hear you guys are ok. once that a-pillar takes such impact
it's best to have the car totalled. i will most-likely not have the rigidity it
once had.

 

TaffetaWhite, thank you sooo much for your help. That information is very helpful. I appreciate very much you spending the time looking for the cars and your post. I'm not sure what we owe on car, my wife handles that. I know that we have made 3 or 4 payments on it. If I can get 17.5k we are going to be in good shape. By looking at your post and the 08 Fits with low mileage it looks like this may be doable.

Thanks for everyone elses help and comments as well.

 

You're certainly welcome. I have another place for you to look, over on Kelley Blue:
http://www.kbb.com/KBB/UsedCars/PricingReport.aspx?YearId=2008&Mileage=1500&Vehicl eClass=UsedCar&ManufacturerId=18&ModelId=920&Price Type=Private+Party&VehicleId=197273&SelectionHisto ry=197273|29789|94132|0|0|2126994|true&Condition=E xcellent&QuizConditions=

I don't know how many miles you have on your car, or what your zip code is, but you can enter all that over there, for the 2008. They don't have a 2009 option.

Obviously, your car is not in "excellent" condition, but it probably WAS before it rolled.

Plus, there are classified ads there that you could also print out.

I just got the Honda newsletter, and they mention things about the FIT in it. Like best resale value:
2009 Honda Fit - Awards and Accolades - Official Honda Web site

Even things like the Car and Driver article could be good. And the Safety Ratings. Those things add value to the car. I mean, I read most of the older reviews, and they were part of the reason why I bought a FIT.

Honda is rated the Best Brand:
Kelley Blue Book - 2009 Best Resale Value Awards - Official Kelley Blue Book Site

Honda FIT, in the top ten best resale:
Kelley Blue Book - 2009 Best Resale Value Awards - Official Kelley Blue Book Site

The prices shown there are for the base manual.

 

Glad to hear you were both okay. It's hard to tell you rolled it. AMAZING!! Seeing both your fit and the one above, it looks like honda has done their research on the keeping the fit safe.

 

Well they submitted the settlement and it was only $14,700 (+$735 for tax). Huge bummer. I just can not believe it. I got very angry when they called. They have CCC figuring out value. I called CCC and they explained that it was based on one used 2009 at a dealer down in IL (129 miles away):
Cars For Sale: Car Details - AutoTrader.com
This car was reduced from $16,990 to $15,870. It has 909 miles and they factored in my mileage (7,265) and came up with the $14,700 value.

Apparently they did not include other used 2009 cars because they were not close to where I live. When I asked why they did not look at 2008 Fits they said it was not applicable. Autotrader has 19 2009 Fit Sports listed and that car is the 2nd cheapest. There are 2009 Fit (not Sport) that are selling higher than that. In looking at ones listed at Autotrader I would say the average is $16,900. There are only 4 of the 19 that are listed for less than $16,500. 7 of the 19 are listed for more than $17,500.

I'm going to fight this...

 

You might try calling the dealer about that car as a potential buyer, ask them why it's so cheap (;-) Maybe there is something about it that you can use. Maybe demo car, maybe a returned car. Spray in bed line and the a/c power supply aren't standard are they?? Good luck.

 

From what Tafettawhite mentioned about the ins co not bringing up gap insurance to you: unfortunately, ignorance is not an arguing point. You cant blame anybody about not knowing about something like gap insurance. Additionally, gap comes when the car is bought, not when its insured. Similar to to knowing about your checking account's overdraft protection so you don't bounce checks & affect your credit. I didn't read from the beginning but gap ins almost always comes into play in leases only. Its in leases due to lease rates being subsidized by carmarkers to lower the rates, rates that wouldn't cover the full value of a depreciating car. If you bought the car, I'm not surprised that no one had mentioned it before.

As far as insuring for what you owe and not the value of the car: Ins co usually do not insure one's credit or financial/buying decisions. They cannot insure any buyers decision to buy @ what price or insure the owner from what financing they chose to do. Car insurance policies can only insure the value of the car, not the circumstances of the car purchase, there are too many variables in that.

Onward re: CCC. Their valuating is flawed. Check to see if the model is the same. Call that local place & ask if it actually sold for that amount. If it sold for that amount, ask if it had, to their knowledge, any damage or repairs to it. I find it hard to believe, with today's demand for the Fit, that anybody would sell a pristine (which an 09 should be) Fit for that amount.

Your total loss valuation should contain a conditions report showing what condition they valued your car at. CCC has been sued in the past for incorrectly valuating a car's conditioning, lowering the value. If your car was in like-new condition, make sure they value your car with that condition rating. You might want to ask your ins co's if the other cars CCC used to compare were in similar condition. I would think most 09s would be in like new condition.

CCC reports are run using samples based on geographic areas. If only one is found in your area, that is not a good sample based study. 08s are a different body and wouldn't help much. Ask how a sample based study be used when there is only one to chose from? In these cases, I'd ask that they compare it to new Fits (since its the current model yr), then deduct for miles driven if they cannot find a representative number of used 09 fits to survey. Here you can use NADA, KBB, or Edmunds to show new ones are being sold @ MSRP. This is where you can use the comparables others have given you to demand a higher sample set for them to average.

Chances are, your insurance rep will be dumbfounded if they chose to actually listen these specific questions. They may not even know CCC (re: valuating) was even sued & their insurance co still chooses to use them. I've been on both sides of this total loss battle, have had first hand meeting w/CCC in the past & seen many of these total loss valuations. If it seems your valuation is low, and it sounds a bit fishy to me, there's something in the valuation making it so. You can PM me for any specifics.

 

If they're going to use Auto Trader, and since this is a new car (2009), doing a search for a USED Fit brings up only 24 listings at ANY distance from a zip code of a nearby Honda dealer. TWENTY FOUR. Out of maybe 3 million listings.

Find Your Car: Used Honda Fit Listings Near Oshkosh, WI - AutoTrader.com

What's it say at the bottom?:
Range of prices within this search:
Highest Price:
Lowest Price:
Average Price:

$18,988
$14,998
$17,163


Next, let's try to find cars with similar mileage that are Sports on that above page:


Private seller:$17,800
Mileage:6,900



Nissan dealer: $18,988 Mileage: 6,884



Nissan/Toyota dealer: $17,900
Mileage: 8,791



There IS NO VALUE on Kelley Blue Book for a USED 2009 car of any kind. Searching around other sites is just as hard to find a used Fit Sport 2009.

Here's a fourth one (in the whole US) that has miles close to yours, and is a sport:
Gray 2009 Honda Fit Sport For Sale in Winter Haven, Florida ? Buy This Used Car Today


Here is one more site, that I don't necessarily want you to HIRE them, but look at their consumer links:
Diminished Value Auto Appraisal Experts | Insurance Claims | Wrecked Car Value


It says on their site "You are ALWAYS entitled to your own independent appraisal when negotiating a settlement with your insurance company."


Maybe that is what you will need. And print out all those pages that show the similar car with similar miles. There are not very many in the U.S. Take those with you to the appraiser, or give a copy of them to the appraiser if they come out to you.