92gli

Get the check from insurance ASAP. While there is a chance the mechanic might sue you, I highly doubt he will.

Conedodger

1) You owe the mechanic something. He did do work for you. ($8K seems extreme, but hard to argue when you don't have an estimate.)
2) You paid $15K for the car with an engine in it. Insurance is paying out $14K without an engine. How is that undervalued?

AsadDK

***UPDATE****

To clear up some misconception first from some of the comments above. I paid $7,500 for the car. The valuation they gave me was for $14k but, now they have lowered it to the price I purchased the car at - $7.500. Insurance (Geico) is stating I cannot make a profit off of a insurance claim. From my understanding, totaling a car is done by paying out the market value of the car before the incident.

Also, I have hired an attorney and went through the process of filing a lawsuit. If I did not hire an attorney I would literally loose even my initial investment of $7,500 if I am liable to pay the shop for the engine. The attorney advised that the shop is negligent because they left the car door open. The police reports show no sign of forced entry whatsoever. The night after I got the call, I went to the shop to take some pictures of my own and discovered the car was still left unlocked - even after the police came to the shop the mechanic didn't lock the door - which I have video of. He is also being sued for consumer and commercial fraud for not providing a written estimate and not requiring a 50% upfront payment which indicated a possible end price to a consumer. And a charge for Breach of Contract for not delivering me what I intended to bring the car there for - a running driving vehicle.

He will be served his papers in the coming weeks.

WHAT A HEADACHE

TVPincDoc

Sorry to hear about your headache, and while I'm not a lawyer I'd agree that the mechanic is acting rather entitled if he isn't accepting at least some responsibility for your car being damaged while under his care. I don't really see how he can just expect you to get the insurance payment for the initial price AND then pay him for work on the engine when the car isn't even available to you any more-due to his shop not securing the vehicle. There should have been at least some attempt to meet you in the middle somewhere.

Good luck with the lawyer. If the lawyer is good, you should eventually get this taken care of in a manner that is at least somewhat acceptable.

AsadDK

The fact that he still has my Engine AND TRANSMISSION and expects me to pay him when my car is totaled due to his negligence is why I feel like I should not be liable for anything. If the work was completed it would make more sense to pay him for at least the labor but, the fact that after 3 months and his failure to secure a customers car shows his inability to run a business in my opinion and he should be held liable for that. For all I know, the work might not even be done or the work is not of quality - there is no way to tell and paying any amount wouldn't make any sense if it isn't an actual running engine.

unvmys2k

Wow. What a terrible situation to be in. Good luck. Question for you. How do they know how much you paid for the vehicle? I'm assuming it would be based off how much taxes you paid when the car was registered? Makes me worry about my S2K. I got an amazing deal, but I've invested a good amount of money in it. If something ever happened to it, I'll be damned if they tried to tell me I could only get what I paid for it.

AsadDK

Since the car was registered and insured only 3-4 months ago and this all happened, insurance wanted to verify the purchase and ownership as part of there investigation process. I had to send them the Bill of Sale which had the amount paid on there.

unvmys2k

That sucks man. I was wondering how in the hell that happened. I just don't see how that's fair. What if it needed work and what not? Good luck to you man. Hope it all works out for you.

Hfreak

Why was the car deemed a total loss in the first place? Were the seats and interior parts stolen? If so, you have other options that would include saving this car and getting it road worthy again. Good luck.

AsadDK

The seats, steering wheel, gauge cluster were stolen and wiring harness were cut. I have an option to retain the car and deduct $3,000 from the settlement amount ($7,500). This would be without an engine and with no seats.