Accident with another driver with very low liability payout.

That's what under insured / un insured motorist coverage is designed to cover. Surprised the lender didn't require it.

 

If the guy doesn’t own the pickup, who does and why not go after them?

 

That's what the OP friend's insurance will do try to collect money for their losses..

 

Ask questions when you are shopping insurance, after I built my truck and was doing the start up I pretty much told them the value I wanted the truck set at whether it was my fault or not, it was a little bit extra but I didn’t want to be left without a truck after taking almost 2 years to build the thing. Could of went liability only and saved myself about 6k, but then I’d be in this position if something happened

 

I realize that is not an option for many. I guess it was MY solution . Insurance , according to Ned Flanders, really is a form of gambling, and I paid my share with little or no return over the years, but just try and be without it. I made a living out of trying to anticipate what people were going to do in their vehicles, but once I could no longer do that, I got out. It's not that I don't think about youse guys still diddling with it, I do, and a tip of the hat to ya'll.

 

Your friend's insurance is the company that should be paying for replacing his rig, that is unless he didn't have collision and/or uninsured motorist coverage on his own equipment. There are literally millions of drivers on the road with very small liability policies on their vehicles, and if you get hit by one of them, the most they will pay you for damages on damages they caused to your vehicle is the amount of the policy limit. That's why everybody driving a valuable vehicle like a commercial truck carries uninsured motorist coverage so they aren't left with nothing in cases like this.

 

Tidbit on Physical Damage coverage.

When you buy a new truck the lender insists on PD coverage in the amount of the loan to cover their money.

However, they will only pay ACV [actual cash value] and sit back letting you pay, every year, the amount to cover the insured value of the new truck.

So every year your shiny new horse is worth less. Every year you need to research the ACV and change the insured amount to match so you are only paying to cover close to what you will receive if totaled.

The amount charged is usually a percentage of the insured value so you can reduce your insurance costs every year by adjusting the insured value.

Insurance companies make their money by paying out as little as possible.

ASSuming the cost is 10% and just pulling numbers from the air

$135,000.00 truck @10% is $13,500.00 yet in 5 years it is worth $40,000.00 but if you failed to adjust your insured amount you would still be paying $13.5K a year only to recover [in the 5th year] $40,000.00...

Insurance is required but you need to be aware that they will gladly let you pay the amount to insure a new truck knowing their payout could be a lot less. In the above example, over 5 years you would pay $67,500.00 over 5 years and would be $27,500.00 in the hole in year 5 if it was totaled.

 

Lol this is why the gov doesn’t want crypto backed insurance. Especially if a crypto has a hard cap like Bitcoin. There can only be 21 million Bitcoin created in existence because of its original source coding. It’s hard to explain the math here but they don’t want something that appreciates value overtime. I think Wine and alcohol is the only things that gains value as it ages.

You guys gotta be careful with the banks and insurance you choose. Look at what asset is backing their reserves. Gold backed reserves are extremely expensive but from my experience, they have been true to their word. When I totaled my old Ford because of a deer, my insurance had no problem giving me a Corvette to drive for 2 weeks, yes sir, a Corvette, and they paid for the renting fee. I ended up getting a Corolla for good deal .

 

Bottom line is that the insurance company will only pay what they deem the truck is worth, usually by having one of their inhouse "experts" estimate the value of the truck. If you have a truck that is financed you can purchase "gap" insurance that will pay the difference between the estimated value of the truck and what you still owe on it. You still end up getting screwed, but you won't owe the bank any money. You can also, as noted above, insure the truck for a set value if it's a total loss. That insurance will cost more in most cases so you need to decide if it's worth it. It happened to me where the payout was $4K less than I owed on the truck. The insurance company took "mercy" on me and let me buy it back from them for a grand. I parted it out for way more than $4K and I just had to go by another truck. I have really good credit, so I didn't need much down. I now insure my payed off trucks for the value they are worth to me, and make sure I have gap insurance on the one that is being financed currently.