A Redditor’s story about their keyed Jeep is going viral after an unexpected silver lining.
In a post to the r/personalfinance subreddit, Steph (@stephwili) recounted the incident. She explained that her car was keyed recently. She also said she had no idea why she was targeted, as she doesn’t “have beef with anyone” and parked “totally legally.”
The damage, however, was severe enough that she decided to file an insurance claim. When her insurer responded, she was surprised to receive better news than expected. As of Wednesday, her post detailing the situation had received over 500 upvotes.
What happened to her Jeep?
While Steph didn’t share photos of the damage, she clarified that the vandal hit “every panel” of her 2017 vehicle.
After submitting a claim and taking her car to a mechanic, she learned that her insurance company declared it totaled. This was even though it was still completely drivable, Steph said.
“It only needed a paint job!” she wrote.
Confused, Steph wondered if she would still be responsible for the $15,000 remaining on her Jeep loan. This confusion persisted even though her insurance company offered her a payout. She wasn’t looking to buy a new car, though. She just wanted to know if she could continue driving her Jeep without legal issues.
“Since it is completely drivable and the damage is just to the paint, will I be able to keep it and continue driving legally?” she asked.
She continued, explaining, “I’m completely shocked and don’t want to give up my car that drives fine! I also don’t have the money to pay off what I owe AND put a down payment on a new or used car.”
What does it mean when your car gets totaled?
Insurance companies assess the value of your car vs. the cost of repairing it. If the cost to fix the car is about the same as more of the car’s value, insurance companies will generally consider it totaled.
That said, it’s unclear why Steph’s insurance declared her car totaled. Given that it shouldn’t cost more than $2,000 to repair a keyed car. According to ValuePenguin, if a scratch exposes bare metal or your car’s white primer, the repair might cost $1,500.
That’s on the high end, though. The website says that if a scratch hasn’t broken through the clear coat, the damage should cost less than $300 to repair.
Steph says she drives a 2017 Jeep, which can cost several thousand dollars depending on factors like mileage and overall wear.
Commenters share similar experiences
In a follow-up post, Steph said that to keep her car, her insurance offered to pay $9,000 of the $15,000 left on her car. That means the Redditor would still owe $6,000 to the bank.
“I may take the deal and use the money in my savings to pay off the rest to the bank, and then build my savings back up since I will not have a monthly car payment,” Steph said. “Although it sucks to take a chunk out of my savings, no car payment and a clean title seems worth it to me. Maybe the vandal gave me a blessing in disguise!”
As it turns out, the Redditor isn’t the only content creator to get lucky.
“You would be surprised, I have had Geico and Progressive in the past and didn’t have any issues getting full coverage for my salvage cars,” one user shared. “Didn’t pay anything crazy either.”
“This happened to me with hail damage once and the damaged value was very low. So, we kept the car and took the lower payout minus the scrap value,” another added. “Still have that car today.”
“I went through [this] when my old car was backed into in a parking lot. Car was totaled due to its age and low value at the time. I collected a $3,300 check and fixed it with a junkyard headlight and hood for $150,” a third commenter wrote.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Steph via Reddit direct message and to Jeep through email.
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