Accident Update

It's been an up and down couple of weeks. Dealing with two insurance companies and two repair shops in Japanese has been a bit taxing, and I'm still not sure how it's going to turn out, but hopefully I can get my car back on the road soon. Things started out great, I got a call from my insurance company, saying the truck driver's insurance was accepting 100% of the blame for the accident. I was relieved to somehow avoid the "if your car is moving, you're partly to blame" rule in the insurance system here. All that was left to do was talk to the trucker's insurance and get my car fixed.

At first, when I talked to the other driver's insurance company, I was ecstatic. The first words out of their mouth were "700,000 yen" ($7,000) of damage, and I immediately thought of all the carbon fiber I could buy with that. But something seemed a little off. How on earth did they come up with that number? The next sentence brought me back down. "Yes, and unfortunately since your car is only worth 200,000 yen, we won't be able to pay for repairs of that level..."

What?

Granted, I was a little worried from the start about my car being undervalued. You just won't find any Tourer-Vs in a normal Toyota dealer's used lot anymore. The only X90 Mark IIs around at a normal dealership are bargain bin base models, which are worth next to nothing. Still, my buddy Kevin paid more than 200,000 for his base model Mark II when he got to Japan. When you look at a Tourer-V, and a manual, the price goes way up, not even considering all the new parts on my car. So, it was obvious that the insurance company was fucking with me, both by undervaluing my car and overestimating the repair costs. I tried explaining that my car was worth much more than that, but the lady at the insurance company wasn't having it, and kept talking about the red book value. Argh.

I panicked, hard, imagining the trucker's insurance company basically stealing my car from me. I was also thinking about all the money I'd put into it (hell, I literally paid more than half of what they were offering me for the car only a couple weeks earlier for the shaken inspection!) disappearing with nothing to show for it. After worrying about it for way too long, I got some relief the next day when I called up Kazama, the guy who doesn't know if Bryan is spelled with a B or a V, also known as the owner of Kazama Auto, the store I bought my car from. After telling him the basics of my problem, his first words were, "Let me talk to them."

After that conversation, things felt a bit better, but it's still not over. Even after talking to Kazama the insurance company wasn't changing their stance. Last weekend, though, I went to the shop in Hitachi my car was towed to in order to get a better look at the damage. And 700,000 yen is completely just them fucking with me. The only damage was cosmetic, and the only body panels damaged enough to need replacement were the front bumper, bonnet, side skirts, and one headlight lens. Even getting name brand stuff, a front bumper is about 60,000, bonnet 70,000, side skirts 40,000, and headlights can be picked up for about 3,000 on yahoo auctions. The other 527,000 yen was completely just them fucking with me, quoting ridiculous labor costs so I would get scared and take their lowball offer on the car's total value. There is absolutely NO damage to the car's drivetrain or suspension. I got in the car last weekend and drove it down to Kazama's shop, almost 100 miles away, with no problems.

Things are looking a little better. Kazama's guys looked at the car, confirmed that the insurance company was full of shit, and the insurance company then called me up to say yes, we were full of shit. But, it's not over yet. They said they need to reevaluate, and I am still waiting for them to give me a new offer. So yeah, frustration all around with the car.