Raves, Rants & Roses

RANT: Sixty-six days after purchasing a new 2008 automobile, my husband was involved in an accident which totaled the car. The accident occurred through no fault of his. The other driver ran a red light while driving his pick up truck and hit my husband's car, spinning him around and then hitting him again.

There is no question whatsoever that the accident was not my husband's fault. There was even a witness, and the other driver of the other vehicle was cited for running a red light.

Why then must we suffer a loss on this because the other driver's insurance company refuses to compensate us for the amount the car was actually worth before the accident?

They will only agree to pay off the note on the car, plus tax, title and license. This will not put us into another vehicle, with a down payment, keeping our monthly payments approximately where they were on the vehicle.

We had put a sizable down payment on the wrecked automobile and had made only two payments on it. Why must we take a loss on this vehicle when my husband was not at fault?

The car is so new that there isn't even a blue book used car price listing for it yet, so why won't the insurance company compensate us for our loss?

With what insurance companies feel they owe us, we will not have a down payment on another vehicle and therefore will have to make larger monthly payments than what we had originally.

The insurance company claims, according to Texas law, they are not required to pay replacement value for the vehicle, even though it was only 66 days old. According to them, they only have to pay what they deem the value of the vehicle is/was. Something is very unfair here. Someone, other than us, since my husband was not at fault, should be made accountable for our losses.

On another note, we'd like to extend a hearty rave to all the folks at Tyler Ford for being so helpful to us through this entire ordeal. They worked above and beyond what was required by any car dealership to get us back into another vehicle at a price we could afford.

Unfortunately, we had to settle for something less than what we had. It is a sad state of affairs when Texas cannot see fit to take care of its citizens when insurance companies refuse to "do the right thing."

Will and Donna Bryant
Red Springs