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Despite State Farm Mutual Insurance Co.’s mea culpa disclosure that it failed to obtain salvage titles for vehicles it had previously declared a “total loss” and it’s agreement with forty-nine
States’ Attorneys General releasing State Farm from AG’s claims for consumer protection violations, the insurer is looking down the barrel of a loaded lawsuit. Pittsburgh Consumer Sues State Farm Insurance for Selling Salvage Cars Without Disclosure.

According to the Complaint, Plaintiff, Robert Beaves, paid $14,026.43 for a 2001 Honda Civic LX with 11,063 miles. Not only was Beaves told by the dealership that the vehicle had never been “salvaged, flooded, altered or otherwise damaged”, but Beaves’ attorney, Craig Thor Kimmel of Kimmel & Silverman P.C., says it was also “represented as a Honda certified pre-owned” Civic.

If the vehicle was sold as a “Honda certified pre-owned” car, then this is another black eye for the manufacturer certification programs. However, if this vehicle was sold to Beaves as a “certified pre-owned Honda” that may be a Civic of another color. Capitalizing on the CPO market for used cars, some enterprising companies offer certification programs that are advertised as enabling dealers to certify every car on their lots — irrespective of whether they meet the manufacturers’ certification standard. The key to these things is to know who is doing the certifying and what the criteria are for a passing grade.

Despite the dealer’s representations, the 2001 Civic had been previously declared a total loss by State Farm but was never issued a salvage title. Until now. Beaves unexpectedly received notification that the car had been wrecked and extensively damaged.

25. On or about September 15th, 2005, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, through the Attorney General’s office, advised Plaintiff that his vehicle had been the subject of an insurance claim before his purchase, and the damage so extensive, that it was supposed to be classified as “salvage” on the Title.

Now the State of Pennsylvania is going to oblige and turn Beaves’ clean title (representing something of real value) into a virtually worthless piece of paper. State Farm’s offer to make it right? $2,700 — not even remotely close to the retail value of a 2001 Honda Civic LX. In an interesting twist, Beaves had insured the vehicle through, you guessed it, State Farm. Kimmel’s firm has set up a website for others who may be in the same situation and wonders aloud whether State Farm is really acting like a “good neighbor”. What I want to know is if State Farm is going to refund part of the premiums Beaves paid, as the Civic was insured at a higher premium with its clean title than it would have cost to insure it as a salvage car.

While the various Attorneys General have marveled at State Farm’s unprecedented voluntary disclosure, it appears that what motivated State Farm was an earlier lawsuit alleging that the insurer’s failure to have these vehicles properly titled was deliberate. I will be discussing that issue and others with host Mike Harber and fellow guest Tony Lombardozzi on KVI 570’s Crash Talk Saturday, November 19, 2005 at 5:00p.m. Pacific Time. KVI 570 has streaming content, so log on and join us.

Late yesterday afternoon, National City Bank (NCB) faxed car dealers and motorsport businesses the shocking news that NCB is dumping the business of financing consumer car loans. Dealers will no longer be able to help their customers obtain financing through NCB.

This looks like the beginning of the banking industry’s flight from traditional areas of business. As NCB’s fax tells dealers, the bank will still be around to help them buy cars to put on their lots and to manage the oodles of money they will hopefully make once those are sold, but NCB won’t be a “partner” in the activity of helping dealers’ customers buy the cars. Go figure.

National City Bank’s official statement on the issue can be read in its press release.

Calling all car bloggers (and the people who love people who love cars who love people who write about them)!

Bill, a graduate student at the University of Baltimore, is studying blogging and is asking car bloggers to visit his blog and participate in a survey about autoblogging. Having read some of the posts and comments, I am certain Bill would appreciate information from those who read car blogs as well.

Car-Blogs…A Research Project ~ idia-620 information culture

No, not the skirt, the car. Remember, this is an autoblog.

With the return to standard time, when I leave the office, it is already dark. That’s not usually a big deal, but for the last few work nights, it has caused me some consternation.

The other night, I walked out of the office and hopped into my current driver – a manual transmission 2002 Mini Cooper in candy-apple red with a white top. I turned the key in the ignition and put the car in what I though was reverse. Instead of moving backward, I rolled forward.

So that I could see the shift pattern on the knob, I tried to put on the interior light. Good luck. I eventually had to open the driver’s door to get lighting so that I could find the 1) interior light; and 2) reverse. Ah, reverse is over and down, and the interior light is on the roof well behind the front seats. Ok, now I’m good to go.

Two nights later, I walked out of the office and jumped in my new driver – a manual 2004 Mini Cooper S in yellow with a black roof and racing strips over its face. I turned the key and put the car in what I thought was reverse. Instead of moving forward, my Mini shuddered and stalled. I didn’t bother trying to find the light, I just opened the driver’s door and looked down at my shift pattern. Some joker at Mini had moved reverse. Now it was toward me and up. It probably would have helped if I had remembered that the Cooper S is a super-charged 6-speed and, therefore, 6th gear supplanted reverse.

Next installment of ménage of Minis, I’ll give you the specifics on each of these drivers. Let me just leave you with this delightful thought: Minis make the world go round.

No, not the skirt, the car. Remember, this is an autoblog.

With the return to standard time, when I leave the office, it is already dark. That’s not usually a big deal, but for the last few work nights, it has caused me some consternation.

The other night, I walked out of the office and hopped into my current driver – a manual transmission 2002 Mini Cooper in candy-apple red with a white top. I turned the key in the ignition and put the car in what I though was reverse. Instead of moving backward, I rolled forward.

So that I could see the shift pattern on the knob, I tried to put on the interior light. Good luck. I eventually had to open the driver’s door to get lighting so that I could find the 1) interior light; and 2) reverse. Ah, reverse is over and down, and the interior light is on the roof well behind the front seats. Ok, now I’m good to go.

Two nights later, I walked out of the office and jumped in my new driver – a manual 2004 Mini Cooper S in yellow with a black roof and racing strips over its face. I turned the key and put the car in what I thought was reverse. Instead of moving forward, my Mini shuddered and stalled. I didn’t bother trying to find the light, I just opened the driver’s door and looked down at my shift pattern. Some joker at Mini had moved reverse. Now it was toward me and up. It probably would have helped if I had remembered that the Cooper S is a super-charged 6-speed and, therefore, 6th gear supplanted reverse.

Next installment of ménage of Minis, I’ll give you the specifics on each of these drivers. Let me just leave you with this delightful thought: Minis make the world go round.

In yet another high profile story about when a member of the judiciary should not be permitted to sit in judgment, former House Majority leader Tom DeLay got his wish for a new judge. Why? Because the judge assigned to hear his criminal matter was a long-term democrat and had contributed $5,000 since the year 2000 to democratic candidates and organizations. Judge removed from DeLay’s criminal case - Boston.com

$5,000 over five years and a history of being a democrat? Yes, that’s all it took in Texas. Contrast that with allegations made by the Avery Plaintiffs in their dispute with State Farm over vehicle repairs made with aftermarket parts that Illinois Supreme Court Justice Lloyd Karmeier took well over $1 Million from State Farm and associates for his election campaign to claim a spot on the Illinois high court, yet he flatly rejected Plaintiffs’ request that he recuse himself from participating in the decision that blanketly reversed the $1 Billion+ judgment against his benefactor.

Something’s rotten in Denmark — er, make that, Illinois.

It seems quite clear that if contributions on average of $1,000 per year to your fellow party candidates and organizations and a long-term affiliation with a political party is enough to have a judge plucked from the bench for one case, then shouldn’t $1 Million+ in election funding traceable (as alleged by Plaintiffs) directly to a party that has over $1 Billion at stake in a single case be sufficient to have a judge sidelined? The disparate results in these two matters, particularly when significantly more damning allegations were made in the matter in which the judge was not removed, bring issues with our state justice systems clearly into focus.

There is a strong argument that our state court judges should be appointed rather than elected. As I have noted elsewhere, a majority of justices on the U.S. Supreme Court (as constituted prior to the recent resignation of Justice O’Connor and death of Chief Justice Rehnquist) had serious doubts as to whether any judge facing reelection can fairly decide a high-profile case. Throw in the fact that the barest hint of a lack of impartiality requires a judge’s automatic withdrawal from a case under Illinois’ Code of Judicial Conduct, Cannon 3 (Illinois Supreme Court Rule 63) into the mix, and there can be little doubt that the Avery Plaintiffs were denied Due Process.

Let’s hope the U.S. Supreme Court takes the Avery v. State Farm appeal. Otherwise, it may seem like politics and money are only seen as issues on matters in the south.
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Thank heavens for eco-responsible-intellectual-political-legal-hybrid bloggers! Glenn Reynolds, the noted Instapundit has settled down with a Toyota Highlander hybrid SUV and tells us he is happy with the match. Instapundit.com - (Man, Toyota’s got to love that! You just can’t buy that kind of advertising. Contrast this sort of press with recent camara shots of indicted Libby disappearing into a luxurious BMW 7 Series — ouch.)

Others, of course, find Toyota’s “tree-hugging” representations just a little fatuous. Business Week wonders about Toyota’s Hit and Myth Marketing. This can’t come as a surprise to anyone who has read HYBRIDBUZZ over the last two years. Happy to be part of the hybrid movement, but deeply disappointed with the actual gas mileage he gets, Pete Blackshaw has chronicled his personal experience with a hybrid Honda Civic.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I have a certain horror of dedicatedly writing down my trip miles traveled divided by the number of gallons I just put in the car, so I can determine my gas mileage. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing to do, quite the contrary, but my obsessive-compulsive family has been doing this religiously for thirty years, so figuring actual gas mileage has really lost any sense of novelty for me.

HT Ed.-n-Chief Blawg Review

The Indiana Supreme Court ruled last Thursday that a policy issued by Meridian Security Insurance Company did not require payment to its insured (first party) under the collision coverage provision for diminished value in addition to the cost of repairing the vehicle. In Allgood v. Meridian Security Insurance Company, 2005 Ind. LEXIS 976, the Indiana Supreme Court held that the insurance contract at issue was not ambiguous and did not require compensation that restored the insured’s vehicle’s value as well as performance and function.

Nonethless, the Indiana high court makes plain that third parties are invariably entitled to the payment of diminished value as part of the compensation necessary for them to be “made whole”.

Allgood is correct that under common law tort doctrines, the measure of damages recoverable from a tortfeasor is generally adequate compensation for the loss sustained. She is also correct that under Indiana law that measure of damages includes diminution in value.

Allgood at *4.

While insurers must be satisfied that companies issuing policies written like Meridian’s are relieved from paying diminished value to first parties under the collision provision, they can’t be thrilled with the Indiana Supreme Court’s unequivocal statement that victims of negligence are entitled to diminshed value as part of the necessary compensation to make those victims whole. This means that anyone who is not at-fault in a two or more vehicle collision in Indiana should make certain they demand complete compensation (repair cost and diminished value) from the at-fault driver and his/her insurer.