Wrecked

[fondo]

I was driving through an intersection the other day (having the right away) when all of the sudden here comes this olds mini-van to my left barrelin' through a stop sign traveling at about 35mph. I slammed on my brakes, which was pretty much useless on a day like that due to a freak show rainstorm that nearly dumped 2-3 inches of rain in about an hour. By the time the van slammed into me I was pretty much stopped and it crushed in my front drivers side fender, pushed the bumber up, destroyed the blinker,(headlight mangaged to survive somehow though), pushed up the hood and pushed in my tire/rim/hub/control arm so now the top of the tire is tilted inward a considerable amount. I ended up in a 1-1/2' deep puddle that totally surrounded my pathy. No injuries though other than a little whip lash in my neck and I bumped my left elbow when we collided. I was wearing my seat belt of course. The driver of the van was fine other than being a little shook up. So now I'm wondering how much I can expect to get from the insurance company. She has farm bureau. Has anyone dealt with this agency. I'm not sure what I want to do with the pathy right now. I think I might just have to take the money and walk... so to speak. Lately I have been puttin a lot of money and my own time into replacing worn out parts so I'm kinda pissed about that even though it still needed alot of minor things done and the manual tranny was on its last legs, I'm sure of. It has about 192,000 miles on it so I kinda think its time to say goodbye. What should I do... Do I collect $ and try to recover it @ auction and part it out. I was also wondering if I could give the insurance adjuster all the receipts I have for all the work I've had done and if that would effect how much money I might get back, any one know. I really need some good advice so please respond. Sorry for no pics. Thanks

[denisb]

Sorry about your luck, glad to see everyone is OK.

 

Personaly I think insurance companies should take recent repairs into consideration, although they'll probably chock it up to regular maintenance that is needed on an older vehicle. See what they give you for either repairing or replacing it and check your local used car magazines before accepting a money transfer. If it's less than the average Pathy of same shape, age, mileage is going for, then fight with them to get more. Who knows, they might offer better than you'd expect right from the start. Good luck and let us know how you make out!

 

Denis

[Vsicks Pathy]

:worthless:

[solid snake]

I would try to milk the most you can from the insurance and get another pathy that doesn't need alot of work. Keep the current, just in case some parts are starting to go and you can quickly replace.

[k9sar]

Sounds like they may try to total it. In my experiences, the insurance company will total the vehicel if the estimate is greater than 70% of the fair market value. Sometimes less. Since repairs ALWAYS cost more than the estimate (by design), the add-on adjustment that the insurance company ends up paying needs to keep the total less than the FMV or they will be losing money. Sucks for the vehicle owner but it's true. I dod some research, determined FMV for my pathy then worked with the adjuster to write it up with aftermarket or salvage parts, leave certain things out (like my bull-bar) etc to keep it barely under the 'total' amount. I also told him that I planned to get up to FMV in the repairs by having the shop fix everything and use new parts etc as long as the adjustment + the estimate did not exceed the FMV. Any adjustment by the shop needs to be approved by the adjustment agency so it's good if they're aware of what's going on.

 

Depending on how comfortable you are with doing repairs, you can always let them total it, buy it as salvage from them and do the repairs yourself (junkyard parts etc). For things that you may not be able to handle, like a new inner fender wall being welded on, you could probably find a body shop that will do 'some' repairs for you while leaving most of the busy work (disassemble/assemble) to you and saving you money. If you plan on keeping the pathy until it's dead, you shouldn't care about having a salvage title or not. I'm also not sure what that would do for your rates.

 

Hope some of this helps.

 

Good luck

[Vsicks Pathy]

Someone lend poondo a camera so he can post a pic!

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Edited August 21, 2007 by Vsicks Pathy