Fighting with USAA
 

I thought a few of you may benefit from hearing this story as it may apply to some of your cars.

Our Hellcat Daytona was stolen from our house on 12/8, this car like most others we have was/is insured by USAA.

We were told we had to wait 19 days for it to be deemed a total loss. On 12/27 they sent over their valuation report.they were about 10k lower than expected- but honestly I knew that was going to happen.

So that car was a 50th Anniversary edition Daytona Hellcat widebody (quite the name…..). It was blue with every option including a sunroof. They made 501 of these as an anniversary to the 69/70 wing cars. 160 of those were Blue, the rest were white, black or silver. The blue car is what was used for marketing. I sent documentation, comparables and all the articles on the car providing details and the extra cost options. As well as sales of that exact car in 2023 (most were 90-110k and I am not asking for anywhere near that).

They come back with the same price. They expand the search and come back with the same price again. I tell them they are not using the correct comparables after looking up the vin #’s and sales of the cars they chose. They are comparing my car to a basic white hellcat with no options but again, that’s kind of expected. Some of the ones they are comparing to had been wrapped or modified.

I send in comparable cars- they tell me they cant use them because they are wide body cars. I then tell them my car IS a wide body car. Another week goes by. They offer an extra 2900 because of the Daytona package. I’m willing to come down a little and we are about 5k away.

They don’t want to discuss it-we are now into our 4th week of negotiations, almost 7 weeks after the car was stolen with no sign of a compromise. They are going to force me to take the offer or enlist a third party and drag this out.

I would expect this from a 2nd tier insurance company, but I have been with USAA for 32 years! They have had all of my banking and insurance business my entire life- and this is how I am valued as a customer. They will make much more than 5k on the loan I take out to replace this car!

USAA has insured most all of my vehicles and not once did they raise a concern of the value. They were happy to take payments every month on anything I bought.

My point is- if you have a collector vehicle or rare modern muscle car, sports car, etc you really need to look into how the cars are valued. I’m not even getting private party value on a car that continues to rise in value.

My dad’s collection is insured by USAA because it is easy and convenient. If his barn caught fire I feel certain he would get 3k per car.

If you have regular insurance on you collector cars I urge you to re-evaluate before something happens.

USAA has been the most difficult part of our car being stolen

Tell them that your next call is to the state insurance commissioner. That should get the ball rolling back onto your side of the court.

This story doesn't surprise me one bit. Insurance companies are all cute animal mascots, funny or extremely expensive commercials and super helpful as long as they are collecting premiums. Making you whole after an incident to which you have absolutely no control is the last line item on their list. USAA did not do well in a recent Consumer Reports survey of customer satisfaction. But my experience has been all insurance companies are basically the same. Settle the claim at the lowest possible cost. That's their job. Decades as a loyal customer with zero claims means absolutely nothing. When that 1 claim happens, your no different than the newby who just paid for his first month of coverage. They have nothing to lose by stringing you along for months or years. I wish you the best. Beautiful car. Sorry this happened to you.

Consulting an attorney may be worth it.

I've been with USAA for 30 years. Recently, I charged my USAA credit card for $1889 and never received any merchandise. The vendor would not reply to calls or email. I asked USAA to help and they credited my account the $1889. I thought great, that's solved. 30 days later they charged my account again for $1889. I called and got some bs answer so the vendor Acme trailer works dba Berrien Buggy stole almost 2k from me. USAA was no help. Its not the same company it used to be.

Have you used Hagerty's valuation tool to see what value it would place on the car?

What a sh*tty story...here you have to get a private appraisal on top of the government controlled insurance - even then you have to go to court and fite tooth n nail. Our lives are just a game to them yet insurance is manditory.

Good luck.

How did she get stole? Toe truck?

I was just went through this with my son's older Bronco (titled in my name) and Progressive. Ended up negotiating up to his limits of $25k.

Stick to your guns and keep plugging away with facts. Communicate you WILL proceed to the next step. A 3rd party arbitrator. Insurance does NOT want that. They will in turn end up spending more money; just like you. I did the same and they ended up settling after that. We cancelled with them after money cleared.

Good luck.

Sorry to hear you're going through it with your insurance company. It's not fun and even the companies that built a name on customer service and doing what's right have not been living up to that in the past decade or so. I'm not defending USAA as it's impossible to without knowing what you actually are seeking and what they are actually offering.

I do think you have to be honest in your situation though. While your car was a seriously awesome piece, it's not some collectible rarity. The Corvette guys do this same thing. "I have a Ron Fellows Z and they only made 500 of them and it's a special color." Or any of the other 30 different badge edition cars they created. While it makes the car somewhat unique and stand out from a normal car, it doesn't actually add any value or collectability to the cars. At the end of the day it's a Charger with a sticker on the back. Dodge made buckets of these cars for anyone that would pony up for one. They just aren't collectible cars. It's important to realize also that asking price is not indicative of value. Only selling price dictates that.

I went out and did some quick research and it appears the various "books" out there put the value on a low mile, excellent condition hellcat charger widebody, with every option between 68-73K at the median.

If you feel it warrants further escalation, there's always lawyers or arbitration. One should be careful though because there's no guarantees those work in your favor and they become binding at that point.

Just some food for thought. I hope you can get this resolved quickly.

I used to have USAA for everything. Only thing I have left with them is an AMEX.

It's been like this forever! They low ball you and you want top dollar. I hope they agree to your terms but don't be surprised if they drop you after...or maybe they just do this with home owner claims?

Progressive tried to not pay me after one of their clients hit me saying I ran the red light. I then told her I got 3 witnesses that saw the whole thing.

BTDT
 

It's been like this forever! They low ball you and you want top dollar. I hope they agree to your terms but don't be surprised if they drop you after...or maybe they just do this with home owner claims?

Progressive tried to not pay me after one of their clients hit me saying I ran the red light. I then told her I got 3 witnesses that saw the whole thing.

Unless you have an agreed value policy they will screw you.

UsAa is usually pretty good but times are getting tight corporations are cutting back on everything. Even aircraft maintenance. . Well likely start seeing crashes . That’s another story though.
I’d bring them
Mecum auction results that’s fair market value how can they argue it’s not. A lot of hellcats just went through and I remember a blue charger.
Sucks to have your car stolen. . Mine (hellcat) stays under lock and key inside and I rarely drive it. When I do I disable it so it can only be stolen by a tow truck . If they get it that way at least I know I did what I could.
That’s one more thing I like about my Tesla plaid it’s basically a big computer that’s easily trackable at all times. . Wish my hellcat was the same. .

It’s really a shame- I only moved my collector cars to Hagerty because a USAA rep told me I was severely underinsured and there was no way I would ever get $60k for a 1969 Dodge.

I asked for 82k for the car. In my market (Houston) you are hard pressed to get a Hellcat Charger that hasn’t been wrecked for less than 76-78k. Throw in the low miles, Daytona package, sunroof, nav and carbon package I felt $82k was fair market value

I would take less, but am now irritated that I have had to do all the work. I sent them auction results but they said they can’t use auction results because they aren’t market value???

Honestly it’s more that I just feel taken advantage of more than anything. My loyalty meant absolutely nothing. If I’m going to have to deal with sub par service I should just go with the cheapest option.

Unfortunately our garage is (very) full with the older cars so this car sits outside. They were able to start it up and drive off. I was out of town- my wife called the cops as soon as she heard it start and watched them drive off.

Here is the same car that sold at Barrett Jackson last year. I don’t think I am over valuing the car but would be interested to hear y’all’s thoughts on that.

I had a problem with accident coverage with USAA. I filed a complaint with: https://www.tdi.texas.gov/consumer/a...complaint.html After a few days USAA came around to my way of thinking. Your state may have a similiar complaint process.

Thank you- I am in TX so that’s perfect. I sent an e-mail to the CEO’s customer service team explaining the situation and asking if they can help salvage the relationship- but the state is probably a much more effective option.

Oh maybe they used one of those crazy antennas that mimics the fob signal.

Are you getting another one if it works out?

This is such BS!!!! Sorry to hear about your loss. I'm in Houston as well, and the thieves come out 24/7, day and night, literally! My brother's SS Camaro was stolen out of his driveway also, but the kicker is it was parked way up the driveway in front of his garage between his wife's 2005 and 2018 Corvettes. A month later they came back for the wheels off his GMC truck! Some may ask why these vehicles are outside anyway...... because he'd rather them sit out than his 69T/A.

On the flip side, I have my 2013 Camaro SS 1LE insured through Hagerty as a modern classic along with my 71 T/A. When either is outside I always keep my work truck parked behind it.

Sounds like you should have had either an agreed value policy or gap coverage.

I have never heard of an insurance company paying out KBB value and especially not auction prices….I think at best you usually get wholesale value. It is just a car to these companies and they see no extra value in the rarity of some of the models out there.

Sorry for your loss and hope you get a somewhat reasonable settlement.