Thank you for all the nice comment. Some people lead this topic to different way. Just simply answer the question. 5k loose is bad for all people. But it is not my choice put that much down. It is dealer push me do that. So shut the xx up and leave.
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You absolutely have a choice. The dealer didn’t force you to put $5k down. You agreed to it.
It’s important to learn to control the conversation when you’re trying to negotiate a deal rather than let them steamroll you.
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I understand that it feels like some are piling on but getting mad & flipping them off is not going to help the thread.
Hopefully there is some useful clause in your contract.
Good Luck!
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Was it 5k drive off or 5k cap reduction ?
That was my point.
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Also my point. 
So happy he does this so we don’t have to!
Wait, you were serious that you do a $250 deductible? Is that a good idea vs a $500 or even a $1000 deductible? Some people would never report anything under $1000 unless it involved a third party and they insisted regardless of who was at fault but to each his own, I know some who would. How many claims do you put in a year? If you put more than a couple of claims in over 5 year your insurance will go through the roof unless it is 100% not your fault in which case the deductible does not matter because you will presumably get it back from the person who is at fault. How much extra does it cost per car on the deductible? We also do not do rental car reimbursement on our insurance because we usually have an extra car although it came to bite us one winter when a car was damaged right before the kids came home
My kids’ last car had two major accidents, one was 7k and one was 9k on an accord lx. Neither time was it declared totalled. The first one car was about 2 months old, he was rear ended and was 100% not at fault, their insurance paid for everything including a rent a car. Next one was 100% my other kids fault two weeks after he got his license. Car drove fine the rest of the lease (almost 2 years) but I was not going to keep it
Finish high school and learn to negotiate
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Insurance companies normally follow state laws in declaring a car totaled. Some states have percentage law i.e. total if repair cost is >80% of car value, Texas has full value repair cost law, while CA has repair cost + scrap value >= car value law. So it depends a lot on the repair estimate and the state law.
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So I totally understand the idea of not using insurance for claims sub $1k, so I do the cost/benefit just on claims over that amount. So basically if I had a claim of $5k, a $500 deductible would save me $500 vs $1000 deductible, but how many extra would that cost and what would be the payback period?
With my last insurance carrier, it made sense to go from $1k down to $500, as 1 claim in 8 years would have made it worth it, but going from $500 to $250, I’d end up paying the extra $250 in 18-months.
Generally speaking $250 for comprehensive makes sense all day since comp is pretty cheap. Collision, not as often but my current insurance is pretty cheap, so for 1 of my cars, it made sense to go $250, the others are at $500.
In terms of how many claims I make, I have to be honest, the last time I made an insurance claim was 2008… any damage I’ve had since then I paid out of pocket, so I know I know, I just made an argument against going low deductible.
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Yep. While my kids have had some accidents recently and more are learning to drive (all new drivers hit something in my experience, if you are lucky it is tapping the fence post at CVS, if you are not it is the 9K my son did two weeks after getting his license but everyone walked away which is all the matters, insurance covered it and my rates did not go up.) That was the only time I paid the deductible. I have often thought of raising it to $1000 but you are right, I need to calculate the cost benefit. Perhaps I will wait until my next two tap the post at CVS
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Your deductible should be the most you can stomach without expenses being catastrophic. If you can stomach 1000, you should have a deductible of 1000.
Not exactly. Even if one can stomach a $2500 deductible, it doesn’t mean you should have it that high. As others have said, a cost analysis should be performed.
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10 years ago, my 5 year old scratched this guys bumper learning to ride her bike, I offered to pay half of the damage since he’s a neighbor but only half because his car was protruding to the sidewalk. He was not happy and sue me in small claims for $2700 and it was dismissed like in 10 minutes. Dude is like a CFO but has a $2500 deductible.
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if he’s got time to do all that, might not be a good CFO or just say it might just be a title lol
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Sorry for getting off topic, but his itemized damage is such a joke, but all that time watching People’s court taught me a thing or two lol. He acts more like a bean counter than a CFO.
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I would counter sue him for wasting your time. have an average $$/per hour, diminished value for the time unable to be spent with your family.
Why is the hourly rate different when getting an estimate v picking & dropping off?
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Wow Diminished value…you did say your daughters Bicycle hit him right? It’s not like you tore off a fender or caused frame damage right?
And I assume he’s now out the $650 AND $200+ Filing fees right + The time he took off to file / appear in court?
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