Leased car totaled, not my fault — walked away with almost nothing after settlement. Is this normal??
Still processing all of this honestly. A few months back someone blew a red light and T-boned me while I was in a leased SUV I'd only had for about eight months. Car got towed, went through the whole inspection process, and eventually the shop declared it a total loss. I was floored — it didn't look that bad from the outside.
Here's where I'm frustrated: the at-fault driver's insurance paid out the vehicle's value directly to the leasing company, which apparently got more than satisfied, and after everything settled out I'm being handed a check that barely covers two months of groceries. I genuinely thought I'd at least get enough to put toward a down payment on a replacement vehicle, but nope.
Nobody really explained the leased-vehicle math to me upfront. From what I can gather, when you lease, you don't actually own the car — so the payout goes to the lessor first, and whatever crumbs are left trickle down to you. Which, in my case, is almost nothing.
On top of all this I've got a neck strain and some lower back issues I'm still treating. Physical therapy twice a week, just got referred to a pain specialist. So the injury side of things is very much still open and ongoing.
I guess my questions are:
- Is it actually normal to get basically nothing on the property damage side when a leased car is totaled?
- Did I have any options I missed — like gap coverage or anything through the dealership?
- Does the injury claim get handled completely separately from this vehicle payout?
Any insight from people who've been through this would really help. I feel like I got crushed twice — once by the other driver and once by the whole process.