My Camaro was totaled – now I’m struggling to find a way to get back to college

A Reddit user is facing a major problem after his vehicle was totaled.

He had a 2012 Camaro with 45,000 miles on it that was sitting in his apartment’s parking lot. Unfortunately, it was totaled by a hit-and-run driver who the original poster (OP) believes was drunk.  The person who hit his car left the hit-and-run vehicle behind, but unfortunately, police believe the car was stolen. 

The Camaro is not yet paid off, the original poster (OP) said he has no money for another car, and he needs a vehicle to get himself to college. So, what are his options? 

What to do after a car is totaled by a hit-and-run driver?

Unfortunately, when your vehicle is totaled by a hit-and-run driver, it puts you in a tough spot. If police can track down the driver, you could pursue a legal claim against them. However, given that they were potentially driving around in a stolen car, they may not have insurance or assets to cover your bills. 

Now, the first thing the OP should do here — and the first thing anyone involved in a hit-and-run should do — is to determine if they have uninsured motorist coverage on their own auto insurance policy. Many states require insurers to offer this, and/or allow people to avoid buying it only if they opt out in writing. So, there’s a very real chance that the OP may have this coverage. If so, hopefully it will pay him enough money to cover the cost of the outstanding loan balance on his Camaro.

If that happens, the OP may be able to get the old car paid off and buy an affordable used car with a car loan that has similar payments to the ones he was making on the Camaro. The challenge here is, it’s sometimes not as easy to find a cheap used car like the one you had, especially since the OP’s car was a 2012, and there may not be many of those out there. He’ll also have to be able to qualify for a car loan.

If that’s not possible, several other Redditors suggested looking into public transportation options to get to college. Taking this approach may be better anyway, unless the OP really needs a car immediately. He could save up for a new vehicle by putting his “car payments” into a bank account and waiting until he has enough cash to buy the new car outright. 

What if the OP doesn’t have uninsured motorist coverage?

If the OP does not have uninsured motorist coverage, he is in a much worse position. Other Redditors suggested checking the police report and following up with law enforcement to try to find the other driver — but there’s no guarantee that will work or even be helpful if the other driver doesn’t have money to pay him. 

In this case, he’ll need to reach out to the creditors that he owes money to and explain what happened.

They aren’t going to forgive the debt, but they may be willing to work out some kind of payment plan with him. The sad reality is, he’s going to have to pay off the loan, though, to avoid damaging his credit. In this case, he may want to try to start a GoFundMe and even potentially reach out to local media to get the story out. If he gets publicity about what happened to him with the hit-and-run, others may be willing to help him get the loan paid off and perhaps even get a new vehicle to help him get where he needs to go. 

The OP’s tough situation underscores the importance of having good insurance coverage — and perhaps even getting advice from a financial advisor about how to make sure you are protected against financial disasters like this one.

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