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Here we go again...

When 3/1000 runs again, sorry dude but you are not riding in it evar. J/K, I hope the process of sorting this out is as painless as possible. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif Maybe the insurance company will write you a check for 6500. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif You could buy that car that needs a new subframe and rack. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/dunno.gif
 

Did you have any mod's? If so, I'm not sure of the laws there, but insurance here will acount for them when totaling a vehical.
+1 on seeing a doctor. Somebody hits you in the ass, there insurance are looking at damages to the vehicle, all medical and related expenses, pain and suffering, and lost wages. Here we call that "The auto lotto". I'd take the dishonest asshole to the cleaners. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/devil.gif
Good luck, hope all works out for you.
 

DR1665

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 19, 2005
Messages
4,642
Location
Iowa City, IA
LOL @ "Auto Lotto."

I was just thinking it's like a forced title loan. I show them a salvage title, they give me cash. Once I've fixed the car up, I get a restored title. Got a lot of additional info to share and plenty of research to do, but kinda busy this morning at work. There is unibody damage underneath. Floor in the trunk is lightly buckled. Estimator said it will require straightening.

Waiting on valuation from some "third party" company called Autosource (or Auto Source) that does valuation for insurance carriers. If anyone could find some info on this, I'd appreciate it. Also might be good to know how many GVR4s have sold on Ebay, Craigslist, Autotrader, etc. in the last 90 days if anyone felt like doing a little research for me. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 

Struc

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 24, 2008
Messages
764
Location
Oconomowoc, WI
My insurance company just paid for $2k worth of repairs on my GVR4 w/185k miles, and never even mentioned "total loss." It's worth seeing what they will do for you.
 

Rausch

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 21, 2004
Messages
12,049
Location
Cleveland, OH
Quoting Muskrat:
Damn, man. That sucks.

Quote:
he hit me because I stopped too fast.


This is never a valid excuse. It's the driver's responsibility to leave enough room between car's so if anything unexpected happens (like the brake being jammed on) they can remain in control and not cause an accident. It's the #1 rule of defensive driving. If anything goes to court, and that's his excuse, he'll get torn a new one I'm sure.

+1 Failure to maintain assured clear distance or something.
 

DR1665

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 19, 2005
Messages
4,642
Location
Iowa City, IA
Some rapid fire research I thought I'd share...

Pulled up the Cars for Sale section. Opened a spreadsheet. Started typing.
YEAR, ASKING PRICE, STATE, NOTES

TOTAL LISTINGS HERE SINCE JANUARY 1, 2010: 54
NUMBER OF SHELLS/PART-OUTs: 8
NUMBER SHOWING SOLD (that still showed price): 5

Average selling price (again, from those I could find which still had a price in them): $3330
Average listing price of rollers, shells, broken dreams: $937.50
Average listing price otherwise: $4493.88 (including outliers)

Outliers*: 6 with an average listing price of $8033.33
Average listing price without outliers*: $3887.11

*If the average listing price, without the premium-priced specimens, was almost $4000, I weighted any listing greater than 150% of that figure as an outlier. This meant that I included $6000 listings, but did NOT include the 6 cars listed in the range of $6500-$11,000.

How am I going to use this information? (Bookmarked this thread yet?)

1. When the insurance comes back and says my car is only worth $1000, I'll advise them that $1000 will barely cover the price of a gutted, rolling shell being sold for parts. My car is 100% complete and I will be continuing to drive it until the time I pull it into the garage to do the repairs.

2. I'm going to fight for $4500 replacement cost and expect to negotiate down to $4000.

I do not accept their NADA, KBB, Edmunds, Autosource valuations, as they are incapable of accurately determining the value of specialty vehicles in numbers less than 2000 units which are, perhaps 99% of the time, sold between private parties through listings on enthusiast sites. They can track dealership sales, Autotrader listings, whatever they want. I'm not buying it and it will cost them more, the longer they drag this out.

The law provides property owners who incur a loss, through no fault of their own, to be reimbursed the lesser of the cost of repairs or replacement (cash) value. We'll see about that...
 
Last edited:

Rausch

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 21, 2004
Messages
12,049
Location
Cleveland, OH
Quote:
The law provides property owners who incur a loss, through no fault of their own, to be reimbursed the lesser of the cost of repairs or replacement (cash) value. We'll see about that...

That's it right there.
 

belize1334

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 18, 2003
Messages
3,316
Location
Bozeman, MT
There was somebody a few years ago who got a letter from Mitsu stating that his GVR4 was a limited edition collectors item. I can't remember who it was but if you search you may find it. At a minimum you could show a copy of his letter and claim that your car is of the same vintage. At best you might be able to contact mitsu yourself and get one for your own vehicle.

Here's the letter. click
 
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Myles

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 8, 2006
Messages
5,264
Location
Skokie, IL
That would be the guy posting above you.
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
 

AWDnoobie

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 13, 2010
Messages
112
Location
Alberta, Canada
Damn that sucks to hear another one gone... Not sure if this has bin done, but have the police/insurance company looked at the cell phone of the guy who hit you(see if there was a conversation at the time) If he says you stopped to fast he wasnt paying attention and could have bin doing something else.
 

steve

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Joined
Sep 11, 2003
Messages
18,897
Location
NJ
Who's the guy keeping sales records?
 

DR1665

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 19, 2005
Messages
4,642
Location
Iowa City, IA
Steve, that was me, but I got so few responses, I dropped the project. A better idea would be if people who sell a Galant on this board edit the original post (where the description and pictures should be) to show the final selling price when they mark the car sold. If these posts stayed around for 12 months, we'd have a comprehensive resource right here with only minimal effort.
 

jogalant

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 28, 2005
Messages
1,180
Location
Central FL
Years ago, when i lived in CA, I and three other cars were stopped at a railroad crossing. I'm working on the road, driving my pristine 1975 Opel Sportwagon, behind a MB 300TE wagon, and in front of a 1975 Thunderbird "tank". Here comes this ditzy woman barreling in a huge Pontiac admiring the architecture around her (she was a realtor), oblivious to what was in front her, slamming into the T-bird who then slammed in to me and thrust me to the Mercedes Benz's ass... I got the worst of it. My poor Opel looked like an accordion. My neck hurt big time but I was really pissed my car went from beauty to beast in a split second. Plus the fact i was using it for my livelihood back then. Fortunately my cousin's body shop was in nearby Burlingame and I had the car towed to his shop. My cousin gave me the best advice. He gave me a lawyer's calling card, telling me "You're not gonna get sh*t for your car. You're lucky if they offer you $200 bucks for it." He went on to advise me to ignore the phone calls from the offending driver's insurance company because they're going to want to settle with you. Sure enough they started calling me days later, offering me $1000 and sign a quit claim. I told them they would hear from my lawyer. I sounded like a tycoon saying that!

I followed the lawyer's advice. After interviewing me, he said he would take care of dealing with the insurance company and take 33% of whatever the damages they could collect. He told me to calculate my potential business losses because i had no car. He then told me to get neck massage therapy, put a neck brace on, and relax. 1 month later I got a check in the mail for $7,000. This was in 1988. I then proceeded to buy a nice Alfa GTV6.

I hope that woman learned her lesson. Her premiums went up for sure.
 
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steve

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 11, 2003
Messages
18,897
Location
NJ
Quoting DR1665:
Steve, that was me



I thought so! So sorry to hear of your crummy luck. I wish you luck with the insurance company.
 

solidviper89

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 19, 2004
Messages
759
Location
Mission/ San Antonio, Texas
Quoting Struc:
My insurance company just paid for $2k worth of repairs on my GVR4 w/185k miles, and never even mentioned "total loss." It's worth seeing what they will do for you.



I got $2k, no questions asked for a door ding on my galant. WOOT WOOT for state farms insurance /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 

Ted Andkilde

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Joined
Aug 21, 2003
Messages
1,181
Location
Windsor, Canada
+1 on getting yourself checked out medically, physio is expensive, time consuming, boring and not really 100% effective.

I've got aches and pains from a couple of old accidents, 15-20 years, you don't know what the long term stuff is, whiplash never really goes away.

FWIW, that'd still be fine as a rally shell.

Cheers, Ted
 

656of1000

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Joined
Jan 18, 2005
Messages
292
Location
Phoenixville, PA
I got $1700 from Allstate for my stupid POS Talon, after a 17 year old girl turned left INTO me in daddy's GMC Envoy. If that car wasn't totalled, I can't imagine yours would be. Good luck to you! BTW, the car didn't look too bad in those pictures!
 

boostedinaz

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Joined
Apr 20, 2006
Messages
4,085
Location
Scottsdale, AZ
Mike told me about this yesterday. That really sucks man, but you'll find a way man you always do.
 

DR1665

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 19, 2005
Messages
4,642
Location
Iowa City, IA
Quoting Ted Andkilde:
+1 on getting yourself checked out medically, physio is expensive, time consuming, boring and not really 100% effective.

I've got aches and pains from a couple of old accidents, 15-20 years, you don't know what the long term stuff is, whiplash never really goes away.

FWIW, that'd still be fine as a rally shell.

Cheers, Ted



That's what I've been told. As such, I've got a 7AM appointment for a check up tomorrow morning.

Both myself and the guy who hit me have Allstate. We'll see how good those hands are. I have no trouble lawyering up if need be.

On a related note, the driver's door seems to sound different. At first, I chalked it up to my mind playing tricks on me because of the accident. Did the driveline always sound like that? Is the car pulling to the left? Am I losing my freaking mind?

I took these this morning.

PASSENGER SIDE. Both doors level, even gap, needs moar paintz.


DRIVER SIDE. Rear quarter pushed the back door so hard that it's now crooked on the hinges at the B-pillar?


I also recall not hearing ANY screaching tires when this happened. This bad boy straight wasn't looking at anything but a cell phone and railed me at 45+. Would be interesting...
 

DR1665

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 19, 2005
Messages
4,642
Location
Iowa City, IA
Just got the call from the estimator.

ACV of 464/1000 was $1,039.08 (including tax, title, and license)
Lowest salvage bid he could find was $150
Estimated cost of repairs (not including disassembly/reassembly) was $1,525.82

Car is considered a total loss. As soon as the other guy files a claim, they will contact me to make this settlement offer. I'm going to call them this afternoon to press the issue, advise that I'm highly considering retaining an attorney and switching to Progressive.

Updates to come...
 
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