Another cool accident story, bro.

[FLG]

With a car that old worth that much the best way to go is classic insurance, they actually know what their looking at.

Sorry to hear about the wrecks :(

[Big Unit]

Just wanted to throw my 2cents in, sorry don't mean to hijack your thread but this worked out for me even though I lost my first car. Anyway saved up and searched for ages to find my first BMW it was a 1990 e34 535is, brilliant red beige leather 5spd LSD m-tec etc only 200 deliverd to australia.Anyway got rear ended and sandwiched between another car I was able to drive home but the guy that hit me was front end was destroyed I had a tow bar and he had a daihatsu. As soon as I got home a contacted his insurance company and got a valuation in writing as if I was looking to insure my car. The valued it at aus$12,000 so when they came to assess it I could prove what they thought it was worth incase they tried to offer me less. Anyway I got payed out $11200 salvage was $800 sold the wreck on eBay for $2900. I only payed $6500 for it.but doesn't make up for losing one of the best cars ever made.

[nebulous123]

My insurance company flat out hung me out to dry. I had the car appraised at $18500. There were no similar cars for sale in the country at the time and the closest comparable car in the state did sell to the first person to show up with $ for the full asking price of $25400. The insurance company found some low life (who my appraiser trained) to appraise the car, he said it was worth $7200 and was in very poor condition before the accident. To make matters worse, the guy who signed his name to the appraisal never even looked at the car personally. He had someone else do the appraisal and just signed his name to it. The appraisal was so far off base you would think he was talking about another car. There were obvious errors all through the thing. He made a fantastic case for the car being in a #3 "good condition" and then turned around and called it a "#4 poor condition car" to make matters worse, he low balled his own sources on the value. You cant even tell me that this car was in "Overall poor condition and shows poorly"


Incediently they made a total of 640 US Spec Alfa Romeo 1750 GTVs in 1969, there are less than 200 left. I have documentation from Alfa on those production #s. It was a rust free, 3 owner car with 85000 miles on it. Mostly original. The real fair market value on the car was $17500 to $32000 depending on where you look. I had all the documentation, I proved it was worth at least what my appraiser (who works for Goodings, RM Auctions, Sothebys ect) said it was. I flat out got screwed. My mistake was opening a claim with my own insurance company. AAA will never get another cent of my money ever again. I have since switched to Farmers, they have an agreed value policy that allows me to drive the car.

Will

First off! Beautiful car!! Rare indeed. Here is the thing. I feel like we are missing some details. The only reason your insurance company would be involved at all is if they were subrogating. And the only reason that would happen is if the other insurance company (the guy that hit you) could not cover the cost to fix your car. Then you would have the option to get your insurance company involved to get you some money. As I stated before, your insurance company is only gonna give you what they think they can get out of the other insurance company. You are not "required" to take that offer, you could have rejected the offer and then taken the other insurance company and insured to court to get your money's worth. Granted that offer sounds like shit but you do have that option.

I learned this similar lesson a while back. I had a 2000 Civic SI with under 100k on the odo, Mugen Showa race suspension, mugen cat back exhaust, full component audio setup with amped speakers and (3) JL 10W6s. Catch was...it was a salvage title. It had been stolen before, about 3 years before in fact. I never knew that you can reverse the title with proof and my insurance company never informed me of that. They charged me the same rate as someone without a salvage title. But when it came to payout time, they marked it down 40% due to the title. We tried to reason with them on the price and even threatened to leave if they didn't make this right. They metaphorically told us to take a hike, so we did. Took our business with us.

Insurance companies are out to screw everyone they can. They will do everything they can to benefit from your loss, and will not do the right thing unless you are injured. Even then they will do as little as possible. To make sure your car gets fixed and not totaled for an absurdly low amount, get it appraised. Who cares if its not done, and only looks half decent. If you have done any real work to the car it is the only way to cover your ass. Even so, it might not be enough.

Will

I semi-disagree with your wording, not the statement. Insurance companies are not out to SCREW everyone, they are out to make money. Unfortunately "the right thing" is a subjective phrase that has different meanings depending on the side you are on. According to them, they DID do the right thing, and according to the law, they DID do the "legal / right" thing as well.

If they didn't have boundaries, or rules, they wouldn't make enough money to stay in business. Therefore wouldn't be able to provide you coverage.

I agree with your last statement. If you have any receipts for stuff you have purchased for your car, SAVE IT!! That's your proof of stuff that might be in your car. Take up-to-date pictures and email them to yourself as much as you can. That way you have time-stamped proof of your car and the condition it was in and/or stuff in/installed.

Note to everyone. When getting paid out, most companies dont care about the brand/quality of aftermarket stuff. For example, during the payout with my insurance company, the would not pay me anything extra for the stereo system I had. It was listed as premium and thats it. Their argument was that the car has to have a stereo, they can so a separate payout. To better explain, the total price of the car INCLUDED the stereo, can't pay me out twice for it. It was bullshit, but legal.

[smooth]

He asked for two quotes...why didn't you just leave it at 1200 and 1300?

When he offered to pay half you could have told him you're fine with half the lower estimate, taken the $600, and had your friend do it for the price of the third estimate.

Now you're going to go through small claims to fight for...what? The principle of the thing? Ask for the $600 and move on.

[Rsully70sev]

I was trying to help the guy out, and figured he'd be more willing to pay the lower amount in cash. He admitted guilt, seemed like a good guy so I was trying to cut him a break. As everyone said, trust no one.

He's agreeing to pay for half- with a check made out to the auto body, not me.

[smooth]

That's an unfortunate situation and I hope everything works out for you.
If you haven't yet, make sure to get a dealer quote for the judge, as well.

[Rsully70sev]

Judge brought the hammer down finally. Went to small claims, OWNED as expected and had a $960 judgement placed against him. I got the check in the mail several days later. Fuck insurance, when you're right- you're right. I'd rather have someone take their time and review the situation from a 3rd party perspective, than two douche bag insurance agents trying to pinch pennies.

I guarantee if it went through insurance it would have been 50/50, a strike against my record with them- increasing rates, etc. This was the way to do it for those who doubted.

[cabriodster87]

One time a Garbage truck creamed my car that was unmanned and parked in my designated spot, after all the B.S. i was offered $147.00. Well this was like 25 years ago. It was a decent older car. Blah blah blah, we cant see any value in your "junk" Arrg!

Sorry to hear of your car wreck, hope you will have better luck.


EDIT: just read ^ post, cool beans.

[Stanley Rockafella]

way to go OP!

[McGyver]

from my bike accident i know that cops can write incident reports for the accident and gives a copy to each driver. basically it describes what it looked like when he arrived and who he thought was at fault. it wont do anything in court cuz he didnt witness it, but i guess it adds some credibility to your story.

[xxx-Lost-Soul-xxx]

Thats great congrats!

[Rsully70sev]

Cops will not respond to accidents on private property (specifically parking lots) in California. Believe me, I ALWAYS call the police in the event of an accident, (first thing I did with my Zinno) however they refused to come out to this scene.

[Pl3wA]

wtf. i cant wait till i get in an accident. fuck me

this movie has some pretty good ideas

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ul4CZrnEFxU