Help Replace Greg's Car During The SAG-AFTRA Strike

My name's Greg Vinciguerra, and I'm a video game voice actor whose car got unexpectedly totaled while I was out picketing during the ongoing SAG-AFTRA interactive strike.

I parked on the street to picket at Warner Bros. on March 5th of this year, and when I walked back over to go home after several hours of walking around with a picket sign in the rain, I discovered the entire back end of my 2008 Toyota Yaris had been completely destroyed.

There were a couple of fire trucks at the scene and a '25 BMW on the grass nearby with a couple of side scrapes and the airbags deployed.

I was distraught, to say the least. At least one witness and I could both tell right away that the car would be a total loss just looking at the structural damage. It couldn't have come at a worse time, either. We've been on strike for eight months now trying to get the major studios to agree to even minimal AI protections. We want to live in a future where voice acting still exists as a career.

Everybody at the scene assured me that since I wasn't in or even anywhere near my car when the accident happened, the other party would be liable, and his insurance would cover a rental to get me to and from my day job. That would have been fantastic, because that car was the only car in my entire household.

Unfortunately, the other guy seems to have ghosted his insurance carrier over the last month. My insurance rep hasn't been able to prove liability with only one party providing testimony to the insurance carrier. That's left me relying on friends and family to give me rides to my day job and any recording sessions* that have popped up. I certainly can't afford a rideshare while we're on strike for the voiceover genre I book the most often, and I really don't have very many local friends who drive. I feel like a massive burden right now, and I feel really ripped off that despite what I pay for car insurance on my end, it still didn't cover a rental on its own. I even walked to the collision center where they were keeping the car as soon as they declared it a total loss so I could get what was left of my belongings and avoid administration fees, because I didn't have the money for a rideshare. It was almost an hour one way. At least I'm in pretty good shape...?

I've spent this entire time on the phone with my insurance carrier, his insurance carrier, and I even had to struggle to get the admin fee from the collision center waived. I've been researching comparable cars almost nonstop. When the Total Loss Department reached out with a quote that was roughly $2000 short of what the 2nd gen Yaris sedans in my area were being listed for on average, it felt like I was being kicked while I was down. I got more from the insurance carrier when my Corolla was stolen a few years ago. On Christmas, actually. That car was old enough to run for public office, had windows you had to crank, and often left pieces of ceiling in my hair after long trips. But since it had an absurdly low odometer reading for what it was, it's apparently worth more than this one, even if the Yaris was a noticeable upgrade from where I was sitting.

The prices I found online were just sticker prices, too. Oftentimes at a dealership, they will try to slip in other charges on top of that for completely unnecessary services and add-ons, and I'm absolutely operating at a disadvantage not having a trade-in. To further complicate the matter, if you've met me, you know I'm noticeably autistic, and if you haven't, you might be able to guess just from reading this story on its own. And finally, I sound about fourteen years old on a good day; it's what got me into voice acting. All those phone calls alone wore me out, dealing with anyone in the auto sales industry is going to be a really bad time.

Even now, the Total Loss Department's trying to fight for a second opinion, just because this situation is so messed up. They've honestly been great, it's just that the policy covers just the true market value of the car, which seems to be mostly odometer-based. It doesn't seem fair to put so much stock in the odometer when this car has been one of the hardiest and most reliable cars I've ever driven, and I put in the effort to keep it in the best shape I possibly could. It only had one previous owner, who was just as good with it as I was. It got fantastic gas mileage, it was easy to park and fit almost anywhere I wanted to park it, and if a total stranger hadn't made the choice to drive a brand-new BMW unsafely in the rain that day last month, I'm confident that car would've kept on going for another 100,000 miles.

I'm not confident that whatever offer they come back with, it's not going to make up for the sacrifices I've had to make this past month. Driving's always been one of the few things in this world that makes me feel normal. Like I have value. I like it, and I'm good at it. I don't have a lot of other drivers in my social circle, so a bunch of people are counting on me to be the friend with the car.

The last thing I ever wanted to do was have to make a GoFundMe for this, but I'm just not being fairly compensated for the magnitude of the loss, considering my current life circumstances. I'm too new to entertainment on paper to qualify for any of the industry mutual aid organizations (which are also strained from 2023's TV/Theatrical strike and the recent fires), small claims court wouldn't be able to cover anything insurance isn't since I wasn't in the car when it was hit, and not being able to freely drive around is really making it hard to network in person, which is a lot of what entertainment entails.

Cost Breakdown:

I think $5,000 to supplement what insurance decides to pay out should be sufficient to get me a used car in the same relative ballpark as the car I lost.

I wouldn't turn down more, just because this past month has been basically a living hell. I feel like I deserve an upgrade just because of how bizarre and inconvenient this situation is. It'd be nice to be able to have options and wiggle room and walk away with something that makes me feel happy instead of something that makes me feel relieved to be back on the road, but feeling ripped off that the car I really loved having was totaled while I was out fighting for my career. None of this was my fault. If I wind up with more, I'd still stick with another compact economy car that gets great mileage, but I'd really try to make sure I'm getting a car that hasn't changed hands very often and has been very well taken care of. Who knows, if this blows up, I might even be able to get a reasonable car that was built within the last ten years!

Thank you for stopping by and taking the time to read through everything. Any little bit helps get me one step closer to getting back behind the wheel and getting my life back on track so I can focus on building my acting career.

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*Since this is strictly an interactive strike, any project that doesn't fall under SAG-AFTRA's Interactive Media Agreement (video game contract) is still good to go. Companies and indie developers can also sign an Interim Agreement that provides the AI protections we're fighting for, and then we can record for those.