Dear(s);

I was stopped at a red signal, when someone hit me from behind.
Obviously, being at no fault; I was expecting no effect in my insurance etc.
The insurance company called me after 3-4 days informing me that as the repair cost (about $ 6000) is more than the remainder value of car ($ 4500). So they will pay me $ 4500 instead of getting it repaired. I will have to put in money from my side to buy an equivalent one.

I feel punished for no fault of mine. Please advise.

Ben

Welcome to Canada !
Did you read the insurance rules of Ontario?
Feel lucky that at recession time, the $ 4500 can buy you a better car than your own.
You may choose to put your extra money for buying a better car.
As one OP had posted before, unless you feign back pain due to the rear ending and contact a lawyer, you have to be content with $ 4500.
Or you can put your consience in the back burner and hire a lawyer (who will get paid only upon you winning the case) to work for you. The lawyer will send a doctor (free) to your house and the doctor will fill in the necessary paper work and also coach you to lie. You can get a nice chiropractic / physio care for free which can sooth your muscles. Also for the time of bedrest, you will get free money from the insurance.
Decide !

Peace

-----------------------------------------------------------------
I am a Gents and not a Ladies.

I am also passing through the similar experience. Last week I got involved in 'no fault' accident while I was going straight and someone was turning left and hit my car. Fortunately nobody is injured but the car damaged very badly. Presently dealing with the troubles of 'insurance company' and 'body shop'. I will update on the case when I will get the final outcome.

Sorry to hear about your trouble ...
one suggestion I would give is to use the 4500 as down payment and buy a brand new Car...nothing like driving a new car ! Think this way that in few years you would have done that in any case..
ignore my advice if paying installments is out of your monthly budget ... I do not know nothing about your situation ....

phir bhee try to karo ek baar, convert this negative event into positive one with a thrill of new car..

All I know is there always a trigger event for you to move forward in life, Long ago, when I used to ride bicycle, once I tried to help a girl involved in road accident , in the mean time somebody picked my cycle... I love my country... Consequent to that, my dad was forced to buy a motorbike for me, which after 3-4 yrs of rides , once borrowed by my friend was crushed under a truck (friend unhurt) , the proceeds from insurance helped me buy my first car.
When I came to US , took a car on lease, but in years time shifted to Canada, breaking lease and fear of bad credit of my co-applicant friend, I had to buy out the car, paying full which I imported in Canada thus saved me 8k in total... that was my relations with vehicles which I felt like sharing.. you see every event has its own hidden meaning .. :-)

Hi OP,
I had to do some digging but I found a thread on RFD which relates to your situation. You dont always have to settle on the first offer the insurance company gives...its just an offer. You have options available. Please review the attached link and put a plan in place to negotiate with the claims department.

I dont have any first hand experience in this but I hope you can get something out of this.

http://forums.redflagdeals.com/non-fault-car-write-off-know-your-rights-get-more-money-430232/

Please dont go by one posters suggestion of going the unethical ways if you are not hurt.

Good luck.

My personal experience - insurance appraiser offered 9K for total loss. I researched and forwarded her some asking prices of comparable cars from sites like auto traders. The average price was around 10,500. After few email communications, she agreed and my claim settled for 10,500. BTW, for that extra week of negotiation, I was able to continue the rental car.

Regarding the other suggestion to go for bogus personal injury claim, I saw so many people trying it but at the end of the day, they were in the worst situation if not actually injured.

-----------------------------------------------------------------
A Delhite in Toronto

Hi ben,

I understand your pain of buying another car out of no fault accident. We had similar situation in our family in US. Our insurance didnt cover rental car so had to use public transit at no fault. We did two things, first research your car value in existing market through auto trader etc., if its higher than what insurance company is paying you, just negotiate with them with those proof. In our case, insurance company was offering higher than market price so we didnt fight on that.
Second thing is we simply wrote a letter to our insurance company that how we suffered from this no fault accident, loss of 1 or 2 working days, using public transit, pain of buying new car etc., which they transferred to other party insurance company, and we got other $1000 in addition to car value, after some strong follow ups.

Hope this helps.