I had Hagerty insure my 914, which i filed a claim with. They said I could keep the car but the needed to put it up for bid to establish the cost for me to retain it. The bid came in yesterday $2600 . It is going to cost me $2600 to retain the car, who the hell would bid 2600 for a 914 1.7 the has been completely under sea (salt) water!!!!!

Trying to figure out if this is a real bid or a ploy by the ins company to reduce the claim payout!!!!!

Let it go....that 914 will be powder in a couple of years

it went completely Under?? if so it can be saved, take it apart and start cleaning.

If it has been under salt water it is junk. There are plenty of nice ones to be found to replace your car. Take the money and run and whoever bid $2600 good luck to them.

Please post your vin so that I don't bid on it and end up with a piece of junk thanks!

Everything is negotiable - usually. Counter the bid with a bid of your own.

What was the payoff? A lot of times they base it on the percentage of the payoff.

Having lived right on the water on the coast since I was a teenager, I can tell you with some authority that you do NOT want any car that has been submerged in salt water. Fresh water is bad enough. Salt water has destroyed that car.

This makes me think of a time our Navy squadron did an acceptance inspection of a jet from a sister squadron. We found some corrosion that looked highly unusual and called in the experts from the Navy rework depot for an opinion. After 30 minutes with the jet they came back and told us to start strike damage paperwork for the bird (strike = never fly again). We said WTF and they said aircraft probably took a wave at sea while on the carrier elevator at the hanger deck level in the past and once that happens its only a matter of time before the jet is toast no matter how much reclamation you do to the aircraft immediately after salt water immersion. They said you are simply never able to get all the salt out of the frame and that's that.

The first thing to check is your policy terms. It was my understanding that Hagerty's policies were "Agreed Value" - which means you & H agree on the insured value, then any total loss claim pays you the full agreed value that you have been paying for over the years. However, you may have a "Stated Value" or other policy terms which allows them to discount that payment.

I was able to keep mine + the full amount of estimated repairs (which was about 80% of est. value then as rolling restored just prior), & not have a salvage title, when it got whacked back in 85. However, that was a long time ago & things change over time & are different by state, and by situation.

A bid of $2800 probably indicates a less than scrupulous buyer who will clean it up & resell it as a non-disclosed water damaged vehicle at a huge profit to the unsuspecting. You could impress upon them that fact & that the parts are mostly/all unusable, but you want to keep it for now for "personal reasons" & maybe they'll reduce it to a minor $200-500 cost/deduction.

So even if you were to keep it for some parts - although I agree that salt/brackish water will have compromised everything in there - they would be of little value & hope not to see them end up on your future ride to give you problems, or if you want to fix it up you'll end up with a salvage title in all likelihood - which won't help post repair value, let alone future tin worm problems as others have said above.

IMHO - take their money & go buy the best running 914 you can afford - there are some good ones out there!

Good Luck!
Tom
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Thank You all for your input, I have agreed value insurance. I just thought the bid price was way to high I figured I could hold on to it for $500 to $1000 and get the balance of the agreed value.

My VIN is listed in the VIN data base the car is apparently going to be picked up by copart

So I am going to let it go, It was a northeast barn find mostly rust free all original 1.7 early (1969) production with the oil bath air filter.

The price definitely seems high for a car that was under salt water. We bought back a totalled car that had a blue book value of 5k, and it only had minor rear fender damage for $150. That was the supposed auction price.

I don't know the value of your 914 before the water damage, but the estimated bid auction value I would think should be a lot lower thatn $2800 given what's happened to it.

It would never fetch more than $500.00 at an auction, and that is if anyone knew what it was.
Good luck.

Looks like I will be lurking in the classifieds for a replacement.

I'm so sorry about loosing your car
that sucks...
I hope that the next one is even better than the last

these silly cars have a way of eliciting an emotional attatchment