lamentations on good old toyotas and bad old insurance companies

A week ago Thursday I told you the story of an automobile accident. No one was seriously hurt, but as a result a car belonging to Jimbo’s girlfriend was destroyed. It was being driven by her son and he, like any of us who have been in an accident, was trying to rationalize how he could have avoided the wreck, when Jimbo and his girlfriend arrived on the scene. You know, if he would have left home earlier or later; if he would have taken a different route, or if he would have gone to work by hot-air balloon that day, he could have avoided the collision. That last one was an exaggeration, if you hadn’t guessed, but that is the way we all think when we have been involved in an automobile accident. The bottom line was he was driving down a street and someone in a pickup truck pulled out from a side street in front of him and the accident couldn’t have been avoided, at that point. Although he is a capable young adult, in this case he was as blameless as an innocent child. As I said in that earlier blog, the man in the pickup truck was as polite as you could ever imagine, apologized several times and was quick to admit he had made an error. There were no hard feelings on either side. Lord knows the man made a mistake any of us are capable of making. He had insurance coverage, as is required in our state, and he probably paid a pretty penny for it, if he is anything like the rest of us. So, aside for a momentary lapse of caution, he had done everything legally, morally and personally he should have done. I hate to repeat some of what I said in that earlier blog, but he was a good man, and probably a man any of us would like to call a friend.

So far, his insurance company has not been as much a pleasure to deal with as he was.

Granted the 1989 Toyota Celica was not the car most of us go to bed at night and dream about. It had some miles on it and it’s days of elegance had passed it by. Like an aging starlet, it no longer had the beauty to stir men’s passions, but it still had it’s charm. It was, however, a one-owner car whose history was all in the family and it was safe and reliable transportation with which one would send one’s only son out into the wilds of modern traffic with peace of mind. It was as one of the family. The insurance company made a settlement offer that didn’t come anywhere near allowing Jimbo’s girlfriend to put her son in equally reliable and equally safe transportation. She wrote them a letter detailing why the offer was insufficient and the insurance company, after an unresponsive six days, finally came back and said their offer was final.

My son and I watched South Park for a number of years and Eric Cartman was never one of my favorite characters, but a line he used frequently on the program seems apropos right now. His line was:

“That’s a bunch of crap.”

Now, in defense of the insurance company, they have probably heard the story before that the car they are going to have to replace was a much better car than it really was. I remember my father had an old Chevrolet that he used to complain about all the time. A couple of days after it was stolen, I remember his telling the insurance adjuster that it was a very good car. But that car was a piece of crap when he bought it and he lived with its problems until it was “ripped untimely from his” possession.

Jimbo’s girlfriend’s car was documented to be a one owner and its history was as well known to her as was the backside of her attractive hand, and, in truth, it is probably not even close to replaceable at the counter-offer amount for which Jimbo‘s girlfriend requested. As counsel, I suggested she ask for more than she did, but she wanted “to be fair.”

The truth is that when something is lost or taken away, the insurance rarely mitigates the entire loss, and Jimbo’s girlfriend approached this situation from the very beginning that, through no fault of her own, or her progeny, the loss of this car was going to cause inconvenience and some degree of a lifestyle change. She was aware that no matter what the insurance settlement was, it would require her taking on additional debt and living with inconvenience for a while. If life were fair, the insurance company would stand behind their name and do what was right, but in this case it appears that providing for the aggrieved is not as important as saving money.

We have reported this incident to the state insurance commissioner and initially they seem to be very cooperative. With any luck, perhaps they can help right the wrong. I’ll continue to keep you abreast of this continuing saga, and perhaps, if the insurance company fails to do what is right, I may give you their name so you can stay away from them.

Because in Jimbo’s world we want to insure your safety.