I was in line at a stop sign and the impatient driver of the Suburban in front of me decided to back up to get out of line. Trailer hitch right in the front license plate. Filed a claim on them, should hear from the adjuster tomorrow....I don't see this going well at all. Looks like a new lid and bumper alone are $2700.00 at AA. That doesn't count what damage is hiding underneath, all the little parts, labor and painting....I'm afraid they will just try to total it. DAMMIT!

Calling Area 51 for a little "Adjuster Advice"

oooooooooooooooch

sorry about that, I know how u feel

Hey Loco914,

Damn, sorry for your Grief! The car looked to be PERFECT before. I really like your color. A Suburban in Texas, what a surprise!

Other than being a smart-ass, I had an idea: While the hood is bent, the paint still looks untouched: So how about looking at bending the hood back into shape, carefully and spending the $$ on a new bumper and pulling the panels out.

As good as the car looks, I think you can support a value of $5000 and more. Regardless, you could always "Negotiate" with the adjuster to keep the $$ BELOW the "Totalled" mark.

If you done bodywork before, it can be purely amazing how PULLING on the pushed-in areas can bring things right back into shape. My bottom line: you might be able to get the car repaired cheaply and put some $$ in your pocket!!

Best of luck regardless,
Terry

There's no way they should total that.

Force them to fix your car. They have to regardless of cost.

No horn? I test mine from time to time.

That sucks man! Don't let them total it. They are responsible to fix it. There are quite a few people here who have been where you are at. They should be able to give you the help you need. You can get it fixed & they will pay for it. Just stick to your guns. Good luck

Dammit. These cars are so small compared with the huge SUVs people can't see them at all.

Time to do your homework. Chances are a present day insurance adjuster may not know where to start on your classic sports car.

You need to do some, all, or more of the following:

Get current valuations on the 914 from Excellence mag to show these guys are worth $4K to $16K+.

Get For Sale ads from here, PP showing cars selling for $4K, $8K, $16K for ok, good, and concourse cars.

Get all your receipts including purchase price to show your investment.

Find a local classic Porsche garage who would be willing to give an assessment of what it would take to properly repair the car and give a good valuation of the car. Have the insurance adjuster view the car with the Porsche mechanic.

Good luck.

I will have to keep the do it myself option open, but that is a last ditch option mainly due to work and little room at the hacienda to have a project like that going.

Horn works well, had both hands on it. Top off screaming at the top of my lungs too.

Will spend the morning trying to dig up places to get estimates. Anyone in DFW have a suggestion?

sorry about that... been there too many times.

i'm probably not telling you anything you don't already know but get abunch of comp.s for the adjuster. i found if you do that work for them they really go to bat for you. don't roll over, that car looks way to nice

Hummmm, doesn't your head hurt now and isn't your vision blurry........

And if they start giving you problems, then just mention to them your neck and back are starting to hurt.

Go see Richard Fisher at Crest Cadillac, he's got lots of 914 experience.

Tell them you just want your 914 back the way it was before THEIR customer hurt it. Also a good time to mention all the head pains (not headaches) you've had since the incident, can't sleep, been loosing focus in the right eye etc.

That made my belly hurt. Sorry that happend.

Bad News
But
Richard's 914 won the photo award (another post here) at MUSR. He's a paint genius and I imagine he'll know what to do for sure. I don't have his phone but PM me with your info, I live in Bedford, and I'll forward it onto some other DFW people.


NOW FOR THE BAD NEWS! YOUR TEXAS RANGERS PLATE WILL BE TOTALED!

had simualr damage to mine. totaled was the best thing! they paid me about 6 grand (pluds me keeping the 'wreck") a couplke grand to fix teh dents and i am good to go.


get several high bids (take the car to some high end shops) then make an insurance demand. get teh cash for the high bid (or total value of car) make sure you keep the car.
then get it fixed at a lower cost shop, find a used bumper and hood in the want ads 9and you get to pocket the differenace!(consider it pay for your trouble)

you can come out ahead if you do it rght (well not really a head if you count the time spent and heart ache of dealing with it, but at least you wont feel screwed by the insurance and left with a raped car.) hopefully you can end up with a reapired car, and some cash.

remember many insurance will have to pay you fgor a rental car and otehr expensises like lost work time while hunting for a replacement an such, so add that to the value if they deside to total it. tell them it is a reare car and hard to replace and it would require many hours and travel to find a like replacement. that can bump up the price if they do want to total it, it is not like a 2 year old toyota where you can pick up an equivelent car at near any used car lot.


good luck go get them and remeber the insurance game is to make low ball offer hoping you will bite. stick to you guns and get informed (info speaks truth) get used car data, get estimates of how much time / travel it will take to find an equivcelent 914, get several high end bids to fix the car right (including full repaint cuase they can near NEVER match the colors perfect). once you get the bids then let us know how it pans out. PS never accept the other giuys insurance telling you that they dont cover full repaints or color match, that is a BS thing, they may not cover that on their policy holders car, but they are totally liable for a for color match (or full repaint if it cant be matched) if that what it takes to make your damages whole again when they are covering their insureds liability, which is the case here.


good luck

get a copy of Excellence magazine, the one with the market report about 914 values. share it with the inspector/adjuster. they are typically glad you have something abuot the cars because after estimating only modern cars, most dont have a clue about our cars nor do they know where to look.


NADA
November 04, 2010

PRICING

Original MSRP: $4,649 Low
Retail Average
Retail High
Retail
Base Price $12,600 $14,300 $19,100
TOTAL PRICE $12,600 $14,300 $19,100

it has not been difficult in teh past to help 914world members get an established value north of $14k

I was able to easily find comps in the $18K range. Porsche Club of America has a 'valuation' service that established the value in the $11K - $18K range. I found a number of cars for sale in the $18K - $23K range. Combine this with the fact that the body shop owner - Scott Yeaman when asked by the adjuster 'what are these things worth?' told the adjuster that if you can find one in this shape you would be luck to get it for less than $10K. I never had to produce my comps. I also had either a Kelly or NADA "Classic" car book value quite a bit higher than what Sean is quoting.

Your car appears to be in very good condition. Just don't back down.

On a lighter note for me (not for you Texas guys though), are you sure that Suburban wasn't the SF Giants Team Bus? It seems to have kicked the crap out of your Texas Ranger license plate!

"Your car appears to be in very good condition. Just don't back down.!!!

the first offer is just that, an offer.

Hang in there. Just do what it takes to fix it. At least nobody was hurt.

Ouch...

Richard is not at Crest Cadillac any more. He is on here, but he is a newbie. If you send me your contact info, I will call him and give it to him.

Bummer.
I had somebody back into me about two months ago. My dual horns were blaring the entire time. The first thing I said to him was "What did you do that for?
He said "I'm not from around here." WTF!!
I had him sign a statement of responsibility on the spot. The last thing I wanted was for him to claim I hit him.
When I talked with his insurance adjuster the first thing she said was "What did he do that for? My thoughts exactly.
His insurance paid.
Good luck with working out your claim.
Marty

Did you get a police report? I had the same thing happen years back, van started to pull out, I was behind him, realized he was not going to make it, backed up to wait for another opening, you guessed it left it in reverse, I was waving arms honking horn, but no avail, he went to pull out again, and backed right into the Jeep.

We exchanged info ect, but did not have a officer come out, it was rush hour thought they had better things to do...

Well, I called his insurance the next morning and they said he claimed I rear ended him! I went right down and filed a police report asap to the contrary in person, and was lucky I did, according to my insurance it saved my hide.

Ferg

First, beware. I am an insurance agent.

Did you get witness statements?
Do you have a police report?
Do you have an admission of guilt from the other driver? (even verbal?)
Have you written down every detail of the incident?
Did you take pictures, at the scene showing which lane you are in, car stopped in front of SUV, etc.

Call YOUR Insurance agent and check your underinsured policy. And, get your agent fighting for you.

If you haven't already, get an "agreed value" policy on your car.

Ouch! I'm late to the party. What is going on here? Are you fighting with insurance yet? Someone give the short version. I'm working 7 days a week and can't even take time to speed read through this one. The car is very repairable.

Send a PM to jmill (John Miller) I gave him a front panel that I removed off of a parts car. The parts car had the front panel changed but it was only tacked in about 6 places so it's pretty nice. If he didnt' use it I'm sure he will work something out with you.

On the insurance thing. Get your comps and valuations in order before you meet with the adjuster. This wil save you a headache later.

PM sent, not happy about the Rangers plates either, just got them 2 weeks ago.

OK, first round with the insurance company went about as I expected. Got a call from their claims rep today:

"given the vehicle's age, should the repairs exceed it's value, do we have your permission to haul it to a salvage yard?"

ABSOLUTELY NOT! This is a classic car, there are not that many left and it will not be totalled! So just go ahead and write that down. This is not my fault, this is not my problem. You WILL fix the car.

She didn't like that response very much, but I wanted leave no doubt.

The adjuster will come out on Monday, so lots to do to get ready.

Sent your info onto some locals to see if they can help out. Good luck. If the adjuster isn't happy, send them back and ask for another one or the supervisor.

There are several clean 914's on evilbay right now at $9-10K and parts cars for $3k

[quote name='RFoulds' date='Nov 4 2010, 03:32 PM' post='1390717']
First, beware. I am an insurance agent.

Did you get witness statements?
No written statment, but verbal and contact info.
Do you have a police report?
No injuries, so they never showed up.
Do you have an admission of guilt from the other driver? (even verbal?)
Yes - verbal
Have you written down every detail of the incident?
Yes
Did you take pictures, at the scene showing which lane you are in, car stopped in front of SUV, etc.
Do have pics, but car in front was gone by the time I got them.

Call YOUR Insurance agent and check your underinsured policy. And, get your agent fighting for you.
Did it at the scene.

If you haven't already, get an "agreed value" policy on your car.
Need to do.

Loco,

PM sent.

I don't know or remember much of anything......including laws applicable to this subject, but do recall around my neck of the woods:

Law states if it isn't your fault, they have to fix your rig if it's what you want. Not replace, but fix (Using this thread as an example for damage).

Never let the car out of your sight. If it winds up in a "yard" while being "estimated", I've heard stories of cars being sent to salvage yards. "Oh, we figured it was a total, so we just moved ahead on getting it out of the yard. Saves on that daily storage fee."

Insurance Co's have incentives to remove older cars from the road.

I had a 65' Type1 that got munched years back by a stupid person. Totally their fault etc. They tried to total it, I learned a lot from that whole thing. Never let anyone take my bug and if they did, it was trailered, I was there the whole time and then it was trailered back to my house after. Adjuster came to my house or we met at the body shop.

Tried to total my bug for $400.....back in 1990 or 1989 I think? It was a NICE bug. I said "No, fix it"

Went back and fort a number of times.

"I don't want money, fix my car, she hurt it, now fix it."

They fixed it, I refused to sign off on ANYTHING until I was 100% happy with the repairs.

$2250+ if I remember correctly plus a rental car while it was being fixed.

I still have all the pictures somewhere.

It's your property, not your fault, if you want your car back, you have the right to get it back.

[quote name='loco914' date='Nov 4 2010, 07:01 PM' post='1390861']
[quote name='RFoulds' date='Nov 4 2010, 03:32 PM' post='1390717']
First, beware. I am an insurance agent.

Did you get witness statements?
No written statment, but verbal and contact info.
Do you have a police report?
No injuries, so they never showed up.
Do you have an admission of guilt from the other driver? (even verbal?)
Yes - verbal
Have you written down every detail of the incident?
Yes
Did you take pictures, at the scene showing which lane you are in, car stopped in front of SUV, etc.
Do have pics, but car in front was gone by the time I got them.

Call YOUR Insurance agent and check your underinsured policy. And, get your agent fighting for you.
Did it at the scene.

If you haven't already, get an "agreed value" policy on your car.
Need to do.
[/quote]


Awesome. sounds like you are on it. Hagerty, AAA, and Grundy are my top 3 recommendations for agreed value coverage. You can get direct quotes from the website. You will have done the comp values for the insurance claim anyway.

Here's the latest. Had it trailered to a shop today that has done 914's and does the work for the high end dealers in town. Saw them in the local PCA mag and gave them a call. So far they have been very helpful. They are tracking some parts, will do some teardown and shoot me some numbers. Will try not to think about it too much over the weekend, but the weather is supposed to be purfect for driving... On a semi- related note, the past 14 days without a cigarette have been easy compared to the 2 without driving my car and watching it leave on a damn trailer....

Finally getting back here to update on my ordeal. Went by the shop yesterday to check things out. (got to see an AMAZING 356C while I was there )They got the damaged areas stripped down and it wasn't too bad. The front tub does not have to be replaced, so new hood, bumper and front valence are the major parts that have to be sourced. The adjuster, as suspected, didn't know anything about these cars. To his credit, he agreed to everything that my shop said needed to be done and it did not even come close to toatlling it out. Check is cut, and work has started. Ordered the valence last night, the hood should be here today, and new bumper will go to get chromed. Looking forward to getting her back soon.

This makes me sick. After all of these years another 914 has an accident. Seems that it happens too much to the club members. DON"T let the insurance company total it! It REALLY has minor damage and there are some GREAT used parts available to repair this car.

Good for you, We have to fight for these great little cars

I got hit by someone that ran a red light as I was making a left turn. Luckily a CHP was turning left next to me and saw the whole thing. She hit the passenger front fender and luckily didn't damage teh rim.
I had to show to the insurance company pictures of my car before the accident. The funny thing is I took the car to work that day to get a quote to get some body work done.

Don't let the insurance company total the car.

I wish you luck,

Ravi