Just as I was gearing up to go to the garage to spend some quality time on the 67, my wife was leaving for the store I hear some commotion outside, soI of course go look. The Durango is bellowing smoke from inside and under the hood. The smell in unmistakeable...electrical fire. My wife calls 911, and she moves our other two cars from the area while I am hosing it down with water. Yes, this is basically useless in an electrical fire, but I wasn't going to stand and do nothing. The fire department shows up, disconnects the battery and hoses the entire inside down. Fire is out.

I think my inverter wires (been in the thing for over 5 years) were rubbing under the hood on an edge, and shorted out, causing everthing around it to smolder/burn. Fire was pouring from under the dash, and a lot of the plastic is melted, plus the windshield is cracked from one side to the other. The engine compartment looks fine, but the interior is a mess.

Anyone ever have a fire like this, and is the car fixable? By fixable, I mean can the plastic pieces, windshield and wiring be fixed, or do they write these things off as a loss normally? It is a 99, and I owe more than it is worth. Does that play into it, or do they fix it based on the value without consideration for what I owe on it? I have a $500.00 deductable. What a wild half hour that was. Just had to tell my story. I also found out my glucose was 266 today. How much time do I have.

Total and complete bummer!

I toasted a car once, and it wasn't pretty. The insurance company totalled the car, which was leased with 6 months to go. They paid current value less deductible, gmac first to satisfy the lease, I got a small check cause I wasn't upside down.

They will most likely total it.

They and only they will decide what it is worth.

They will pay the leinholder that amount less your deductible.

If that leaves a balance, that will continue to be your problem.

You might want to get that inverter outa there before the insurance adjuster see's it.

sometimes "life's a beech"

Bummer! My (old)69 Camaro had an electrical short that caught fire a couple of years ago. Power wire to the coil overheated while the car was parked and the ignition off! Melted the wiring under the dash and melted all the plastic, headliner burned; that thing gave off a lot of flame!. Not much visible paint or body damage.The whole event lasted less than 10 minutes. Fire dept did a good response.
I figured $3k-5k to fix.

Turned out the heat took all the primer off the places you couldn't see. A lot of hidden damage. The car would have to be torn apart and rebuilt from scratch.
$30K estimate to fix it. Thirty thousand dollars!

Fortunately, I had just had the car appraised after nI finished it. Valued at $36k. Insurance co wrote the check and did not total the car.
Unsusual but I was lucky.

Make sure the fire dept report says the cause was electrical. Those insurance co's tend to think of fires as insurance jobs. I had to sign several notorized papers stating the facts. Also, they were very interested in any electrical mods on the car. I got the impression they were looking for something so that they could say I caused it, and deny the claim.

From my experience, I'd say the car is totalled. Sorry.

joe

My neighbors Durango burned to the ground about a year ago. His wife was turning into the neighborhood and the car stalled and started to burn. It was also an electrical fire.

You might want to get that inverter outa there before the insurance adjuster see's it.

sometimes "life's a beech"[/QUOTE]

I called the insurance company earlier today, and they know about it already. They said it made no difference in how the claim would be treated because I have full coverage. They can do a lot of things to my rates and such, but they cannot deny the claim even if this entire thing was my fault...hence the term full coverage.

I wish my wifes Durango would follow suit and suddenly burst into flames. Of course I'd have a strong preference toward her and the kids not being in it at the time.

My wife wrecked her 00 Grand Am GT about two years ago. State Farm came back and said it was worth about 10K and was to be repaired. I told them that NADA was more like 12.5K at the time. The adjuster asked what she owed and said well do you want it fixed or totalled? She said total if the value will cover the payoff. He said done deal.They totalled the car. Valued it at closer to 13K,enough to payoff the loan and she ended up getting a check for the difference that was almost 1k.Althought the extra paid for the rental because she didnt have rental on her policy. :clonk: So some times they will work with you.

Yes, like the above post, they WILL work with you. You have to force them into it.

My truck was stolen this easter, and was totalled. They low-balled me on the first claim offer, and I said "No way!". After about a week of negotiating, they finally gave me a claim that I liked (which was actually more than what I paid for the thing). You just have to bargain.