need advice
hello all, any advice appreciated
i was recently involved in an accident on the interstate, my very first accident. Both cars were in the left lane, I switched over to the right lane, then he tried to switch before I passed him. His right rear corner hit my left front corner which caused me to swerve and his same corner also hit my left side passenger door and rear quarter-panel.
Highway patrol came and determined that it was his fault and gave us accident reports (showing that he contributed to the accident and I didn't) and left. No tickets or citations were given. I reported claims to both insurance companies.
his insurance, nationwide, sends an appraiser and determines that the damage is more than the car's worth. He said that it stops him from inputting more parts into the computer after 80% of the worth is reached. It stopped him around $4800. When he left, he said that the adjuster would get back to me on the final decision.
Meanwhile, my insurance, Progressive, also sent their appraiser, and he came out with the same conclusion: my car was a total loss. He also gave me my settlement offers, should I decide to go through them. Because my car was in very good condition, the settlement offer came out to be around $5100 minus the $1000 deductible. However, if I were to keep the car and salvage it, I would only get $2800 after the deductible. It would cost me $2000 to get it fixed at the paint and body shop, and I would still have to get the alignment fixed somewhere else. I don't even know what else might be wrong with it.
I called Nationwide and they told me that the other party was disputing who was at fault, and so there would be an investigation, but we had to wait on the official report from highway patrol. I called highway patrol and they said that the report would be sent out around July 6 or 7, 2 weeks from now.
Because my car was not drivable, I've had to rent a car (out of my own pocket) because I didn't want to go through Progressive -- They've told me that I can go through them, then wait on reimbursement from Nationwide, but what if Nationwide determined that my car was worth more?? It could be possible that I would be able to get another $1000 from them (I came to that conclusion because $4800 is 80% of $6000). But I'd still have to wait, broken car and all, for another 2 weeks, at least!
I'm so confused. Should I wait on Nationwide, or should I go ahead and go through Progressive?? Should I spend the money to get my car fixed, or should I just take the money and put a down payment on a new car?? Please help.
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