Lease car maybe written off what next?

Sorry for potentially some stupid questions here. New to leasing in the USA - British expat.

My wife an myself were driving merrily along when a old foogy in a as you would imagine a Honda Accord decided to turn left right in front of us.

Hard to tell if our 2017 Edge Sport is a write off, but it didnt look fantastic and we had the knee airbag only go off.

The driver admitted it was his fault to both us and the police officer. The officer wrote him a ticket, we are all good.

We are insured with Progressive but dont have rental car cover. Want to know how the process works, how long it may take and how badly this is going to hurt my wallet.

We are just under 12 months into the lease and I know the car is worth about $6000 less than the money I would have to pay Ford to buy the car.

Who will make the call here on if the car is a write off ?
If it is what could the financial implications be for me ?
I guess i should be ok to hire a car and then it will get claimed back ?

Any advise appreciated. Only sold our GTI to Carvana this week, so no spare at home !!

Progressive will decide whether or not it is written off. Ford isn’t involved at all. The car must be repaired using OEM parts though. If it is, you will lose any downpayment and drive offs you made and will stop making payments.

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The other driver’s insurance should (and will) pay for everything, including your rental.

To add…within reason. The insurance isn’t going to pick up the tab on a Navigator.

LOL, I was at an enterprise local location a couple weeks back. Some lady totaled her GLS. She goes into the rental car place in front of me and my grandmother (who got into an accident), and they tried to put her into a Fiesta. She kicked and screamed the whole way. She was like “I drive a nice luxury suv, what is this?” “how am I supposed to fit my kids in here? They won’t fit in the trunk”. On one hand, she had a huge sense of entitlement, on the other hand, she should be driving a 7 passenger vehicle. I think she ended up with a highlander or santafe can’t remember, but she had to pay for the upgrade.

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Thanks for the replies.

On the rental car, through all my travels I am President Circle with Hertz, so i could just hire an intermediate car and they would probably upgrade me. The rental fees here in NJ seem bloody high, so worry the other drivers insurance might complain.

Am hoping the car gets written off, even thoughj we lose our drive off’s. Hopefully my new leashackr skills can be put to the rest :slight_smile:

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Looking at my policy I see it states this:

Loan/Lease Payoff Coverage = 25% ACTUAL CASH VALUE $0 DEDUCTIBLE

Doesnt this mean that if $35,000 is required to pay off the lease and the actual cash value is $25,000 for example that i would need to pay $35,000 * .75 = $26,250. In this case i would be liable for the $26,250 - $25000 = $1,250 ?

You’ll have GAP insurance through Ford. You won’t have to pay anything if it is totalled

The rental reimbursement is usually $30/day so don’t expect much from it. Just enough to get you a subcompact. YMMV

Insurance adjuster will tell you if your car is a total loss. Usually it is a % base on the repair cost vs replacement value of the car.

Is GAP mandatory or could I have turned it down when we leased the car ? I’ve always refused GAP so I know if was offered I would of said no

It is included with all Ford leases. You can’t turn it down

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Why would you want to refuse GAP on a lease? I tell my friends and family to buy it on Toyota leases since TMCC doesn’t include it with their acq fee.

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Coming from the U.K. and changing cars at least once a year my insurance would have old for new as std in the first year. Must of owned I guess 60 plus cars between wife, kids and me, I’ve never needed to GAP. At $400 a time in U.K. it wouldn’t of been worth it :sunglasses:

I will be looking more closely in the future here

While this is technically true, the decision is based on estimated repair costs. Which come from the body shop.

OP, try to find the most OCD, fastidious, absolutely cut-no-corners kinda body shop owner you can. Not the insurer’s preferred body shop, which is only preferred because they’re cheaper for the insurer.

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I’m from the U.K. too and yeah gap insurance is very different here. Almost all brands carry gap insurance as standard here, basically to cover the finance company from losses.

In the U.K. on my last vehicle lease I spoke to my lease broker about gap insurance. While he couldn’t say much due to the strict financial consulting laws (he was a lease broker not an insurance broker), he did recommend I read up on the news that gap insurance might be investigated by the financial watchdog.

So long story short, in the U.S. say yes, and the U.K. say no.

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Thanks for all the useful feedback. My Progressive guy doesnt have a clue. Told us we may get a difference for how much the FMV of the car is and how much the Ford payoff is.

Two days ago he was 100% certain they would repair if, even with an airbag deploying and me telling him the dash was out of alignment. So last night it was declared a total !

So now it off to use my Leashachr skills to obtain a new car :slight_smile: I obviously put some driveoffs into the Edge and not having any real US based lease knowledge put down about $3000. I now have to find some money for the new car drive offs. The other driver is at fault, so the simple question is can i go after him for some money to help reduce my loss ? I am expecting a No and I can afford the new drive offs, but dont see why i should be find $2k this week or close to get a car.

No you can’t go after the driver to recover your down payment, that’s why it’s rule #1 here not to put much money down. Whatever the insurance pays out, that case is closed. Of course, you’re in America and everyone supposedly has equal access to courts, so if you feel very strongly about it, you can file a small claims court against the driver. Though, usually this is used to recover the diminished value and the deductible, if insurance did not.

:point_up_2: this.
having been involved in many insurance claims (sadly), that will save your bacon every time, given that they have a good working relationship with your local insurance adjuster. some dealerships also run a body shop, you might want to try that.

Goodluck filing a small claims court at a “no fault state” which i think the OP is. I believe you at SOL as we say here in america unless you are badly injured.
Next time, dont put a lot of money down.

You don’t have to find a penny. You can do a sign and drive or first payment DAS. No need to have thousands out of pocket