April wrecked The Clam

I think you're both right. The guy with the Olds I was talking about apparently was not given the opportunity to buy his car back from the insurance company. They wanted to go to auction with it to see what the market would bring, and it paid off for them as the high bidder offered more than the guy whose car it was was willing to pay for it.

Once the car is totaled and you agree to that, it belongs to the insurance company, and they can do whatever they want with it, including not selling it immediately back to you if they think they can get a higher price for it elsewhere. There is no sentiment here, and they couldn't care less that it's a collector car and that you spent many hours lovingly and painstakingly restoring it. All they know is that they paid out on a loss, and they want to recover as much of that loss as possible.

 

They knew there was no way in he!! they were taking my car.
The adjuster also was under over and everywhere on the car, he looked at me and said " wow you have a lot of work/money in this car". I said yes I do. He asked me if I had receipts. I said possibly BUT why would I keep them? I mean really I built the car to WHAT I wanted, not to sell so a record of anything was totally insignificant. Besides who the he!! wants the wife seeing stuff like that?
He found that humorous lol

 

Laws vary from place to place. In Ontario, Canada, the stamdard is that is you want to keep the car, the lay out is decreased by 10%, and the car remains yours. It does not become the property of the insurance company at all. When the 89 Grand Marquis was written off, I wanted to keep it for the engine, so that is precisely what happened. No muss, no fuss. I was not about to fix the car, as the structural damage was too great for it to be safe again without very major surgery, including a new frame.

 

The insurance company isn't In control of what happens to the car, only how much they are willing to pay for the claim. If they decide to total the car, that is their choice, however, they have to give you a salvage value that will be deducted from the total settlement. If you agree, then you get to keep the car, and they pay you the lesser amount. If they feel that the salvage is more valuable than the car itself and want to take it to auction, you have a better argument for fixing the car. The insurance company isn't supposed to make a profit on the salvage, over what they paid to the customer. You have to be skilled in negotiation with the insurance company, and most times they are in control because the owner doesn't know how to play the game by their rules. In these cases, you need to hire a public adjuster to negotiate for you. The policy usually says that they will pay "actual cash value", but unless you can substantiate the actual cash value, you are forced to accept what they believe the actual cash value is. You have to prove them wrong, which isn't difficult if you do the research.
If you are going to own an old car, and use it as a daily driver, then expect the insurance company to consider it the way that it was used. It is not a common practice to drive a collector car every day in all types of weather. You can't have it both ways, calling it a collector car, and using it as you work vehicle. It that case of being your daily driver / work vehicle, it is just a good condition old car, and you usually can't collect collector car value as a result.

 

They're in control if they total it. Until then, no, it's not their car. But if they call it totaled, and you agree, then you have sold them the car for the value they total it at, and it is their car to dispose of as they see fit.

I'm sure the laws do vary from state to state as far as what rights you might have to try to buy it back, but as I cited in the case above with the guy with the '66 Olds, the insurance company did NOT want to sell it back to him, and they didn't have to. Once he agreed with their assessment that the car was totaled and took their money, it was the insurance company's car.

Who enforces this? I'm sure insurance companies go by the "book" in establishing value and don't expect to make back what they paid out, let alone a profit, when they dispose of it, but that doesn't mean that, at the subsequent auction, two guys might not want the car badly enough to bid up the price. That's what the insurance company is hoping for. (That's what anyone selling a car at auction hopes for.) In the case of the Olds, it was a restored car that took a hit on the back end. But everything in front was fine, and anyone restoring one of these might have found this car to be a gold mine for parts in restoring their own car.

That's apparently what happened. The buyer was willing to pay top dollar for the car because, not only did it have the parts he needed, but they were already in good shape with no repair other than a likely repaint needed. I don't know, though, that the buyer paid more than the insurance company paid out. I only know that the owner said he didn't want to pay as much as the final bid price as he felt that that, plus what he would have to pay to find replacement parts, make any repairs, repaint, and so forth, was more than he wanted to spend. He thought he could do better taking the insurance money and looking for another car.

 

OK guys. This has been a crazy month. Since I kind of have two threads going at once, I'll link to the other thread where I posted the blog post that sums up a lot of the wreck.

Thank you to everyone for the concern and I apologize for not getting back sooner. As mentioned before, I had the stomach flu, then April wrecked The Clam, then I had to deal with all the insurance and getting a new vehicle, then April got a bacterial infection ending up with her being admitted to the hospital and Rose got a stomach bug as well, all while working 10 1/2 - 12 hour days. By the time I got home and took care of the house and Rose and April I would literally go straight to bed and do it again. I ended up having to take off during lunch and take April to doctors appointments and pick her up after work and go between the insurance office and picking up the kid and going to the store, etc. It ended up taking its toll and I became overly exhausted. This weekend as April began to recover I feared I was had caught her bacterial infection. We didn't go to Church this morning and fortunately I woke up today and I don't seem to be worse, but instead better, so hopefully I have escaped a second round. The first time I had the stomach flu it lasted for five days. On the coldest morning we had The Caprice wouldn't start. I believe it to be a starter because it has a new battery and I've tried taking the battery out but I haven't had time to take the starter off.

April drove our four door Caprice and since my parents are in Florida I was able to borrow their vehicle since The Caprice would no longer start. The wagon was April's daily driver so with it out of commission and with The Caprice not starting it left us with only one vehicle.

I have to say I did have to consider letting them total the vehicle so I could get the full amount of their evaluation which would allow us to get a new vehicle immediately. I'm sure someone would have bought it and fixed it. That, of course, would have been a difficult decision to make, but one I was forced to consider. This car was built right. It was intended to be our family vehicle for years to come. I always try to do things the right way anyway, but this should be evidence that each step was done with the intent to do last a long time and be finished the best way.

There's so much to update, I'm sure forgetting something.

My plan is to get a full parts car rather than just the pieces to fix. One reason is that the price for just a front clip and parts I need is equal to or greater than the cost of an entire parts car with a good front clip. Also, my father has a '71 Catalina convertible, so having extra parts to help with his car in case of another future accident would be a benefit, combined with the ability to sell extra parts to cover the potential of unforeseen costs that would exceed the insurance money make it the best choice.

I'm not asking anyone to look on my behalf, however if anyone runs across a '71 Pontiac (it must be a '71 Catalina or Safari, not a Bonneville or Grand Ville) please keep me in mind and pass along the information. I would greatly appreciate it. I would prefer finding a 71 Safari wagon due to having the extra rear end parts plus if I could find one with the woodgrain it would give me the trim I need and the holes would already be drilled in the fender.

One issue I'm not happy with is that the insurance adjuster, who seems to have an short tone of voice, at first told me, and April in a separate conversation, that he would total the car if the cost was over $8,000. Later, I explained to him that he valued the car at $15,000 and that a total was 75% of 15,000. That means the car wouldn't be totaled unless the cost of the damage was $11,250. He then suddenly changed his tone and said he wouldn't total it at $8,000.

Here is the link to my other thread, where I have filled in some more information:
http://www.stationwagonforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19936&page=69

 

I know a guy whose boss is in the derby crowd, so I asked him to keep his eye open for either of these cars for you.

 

Thanks, I appreciate it.