Javypro, I posted about your predicament on a varmint hunting board I frequent, as there are a few insurance agents and investigators on the board. Here are their various responses, hope some of it helps you.

Aches and pains. imagined or real carry a lot of weight with an insurance adjuster. When you consider that your friend is the injured party in this accident he doesn't have to roll over and play dead. It would be in his favor to get his own insurance company involved.

Chuck

a car with that mileage is clearly at the end of its live. there are issues wit hmetal fatigue to key parts that may be latent. check what someone would pay at an auction. no dealer would tocuh it. it is a fact of life.

not knowing anything other than the vehicle would you buy anything wit hthat many miles.

he might be able to cash out the damage and repair as best he can, most states will limit the loss to the ACV of the vehicle when it cimes to third poarty claims. There might be some added for the newer parts but not much.

depending on the tort laws of the state he may or may not have a claim for personal injurty. if it is a so called no fault state there is a threshold to meet before you can collect.

I just re read my post. I didn;t mean to sound so negative. The issue with older vehicles has long been a problem. Most major companies will make a reasonable effort to try and resolve th issue. Here in PA if it is declared a total and you want to keep the vehicle you have to surrender the title and it will be reissued as a salvage or reconstructed vehicle ( once it is inspected by a Insp station and a Pa state trooper) . That keeps clean titles out of the flow for stolen vehicles.
If I offended anyone with my first post , I am sorry and apologize.


I am not sure but if he doen't want to total it out then he doesn't have to. I would have him see a laywer and get his own INS company involved.


He can call the Ins Co and settle then do an "owner retain"..basically if the trucks worth a 1000 bucks, say salvage value(what the Ins co gets when they get ris of it) is 100 dollars. He can keep the truck and get a check for 900.00 Make sense? Should not be a problem. Every Inso co I know also has interpreters avail of thats a problem at all. The Ins co does NOT have to fix the truck , no way to force them to spend 3000 on a 1000 dollar truck or whatever the value is. If he has receipts and can prove all the improvements etc he can substantially raise the amount he gets when it is totaled. Depending on who HE has for Ins he might be better off going thru his own carrier for better service.