thankfully everyone is fine.....and gladly I wasn't in the GS ....But my '94 Roadmaster wagon has about $4500 estimated damage to it. The whole right side below the belt line - from the front bumper, fender, both doors, rear quarter, and even the rear bumper got sliced open lke a can opener At a four way stop sign, I stopped, looked, saw a car approaching from the right and saw it was slowing, so I went - They never stopped !!" She admitted to me she didnt see the stop sign, and then when i pointed to it, she said "I must have stopped 1000 times at it...." What dhe didn't do is admit fault to the officer taking the report !!!! I reported it to my insurance and have collision, and when i went to their recoomended repair shop the owner told me the Ins.. co. would probably total it and confisscate it.....and that i should go after her insurance Co. instead. Can anyone offer advice ?? The car drives fine.....but its a mess. A Real shame as its a sweeeet ride
Hey Alan, I dont know how it works in the States , but could you get a settlment from the insurance and then buy back the car and then get it fixed yourself? I've done that once. worked out o.k. I know how you feel , I love my Roadmaster too. Glad everyone is O.K. Adam.
insurance options Alan, the insurance company may total it out, but you can have them deduct the amount they would have gotten at the salvage yard for the vehicle and your deductible amount, get the difference in a check and keep the car and get it repaired. Do it this way and you will not have a salvage title and you get to keep the Roadmaster. I did this with my Suburban, except that I never got it fixed. Just used a little duct tape to hold it together. I am not kidding about the duct tape either. Ask my bro, Eric. He's on the board.
Alan, So sorry to hear about "shamoo"...those are getting harder to replace. You need to get a copy of the police report. They should have on there a "contributing factor" and also any tickets issued. This will help you establish her as the cause of the accident and make her responsible for you damages (the insurance company just pays $$ in her behalf). Get the report and let me know what it says, or fax it to me @ 937-642-1860 and I'll look it over for you. I'm an insurance agent and deal with these things all day long. As far as the total loss, I don't know about your state, but here in Ohio if a car is considered a total loss and the damaged party wishes to keep the car, the insurance company by law must obtain a salvage title for the car. You then get the title marked salvage and the value of the car is now much less than before. Make sure you figure that in your settlement with the insurance company. Let me know if I can help.
Sorry for you loss Alan...the same thing happend to me with my cutlass.....here is my advise:Smarty: Being that my dad sold insurance for Prudential for 13 years I know a few tricks or 2 :Brow: . Here are some options you can do....if they total your car out, at the end you have the option to buy back the car and get it fixed at your own descression. Also what i would do is notify her insurance company as well, she could tell them a bill of goods that screws you in the end. Also try to change the report stating that you stopped and she ran through the sign. What happend to me was like this...i was driving on a 4 lane road, some lady ran the stop sign while i was driving through the intersection. I was T-boned going about 35mph...my car was totaled but i bought it back for 100 bucks. I did get 3,000 for my 84 Cutlass....took that money and added a bit more to get the whole thing fixed. Well needless to say the whole thing is fixed and in mint condition, and i dont drive it everyday anymore...just a little paranoid that if it happens again ill loose a lot more than just the car (more like the money i put into it). I hope this helps! Larry
Alan, In most states, you're allowed to keep the car if so desired but a "salvage value" will be deducted from the settlement. Every state has a deemed total loss percentage. In Louisiana, it's 75% of the retail value of the car. We settle totals based on 70% knowing that there is a strong chance of a supplement that would exceed the 75% mark. That's when the state marks the title "reconstructed vehicle" or "salvage certificate". As long as your car's damage doesn't exceed 75% then you won't have to worry about that. Even if it's over 75%, we don't take the title and have it stamped we usually leave that up to the owner. It depends on the age of the car and what value it could bring at auction. But in most owner retention cases we don't go thru the formallity of title stamping. Too much cost and headache for nothing. Check NADA retail in your area and you'll have a good idea what the company will base your value on. Then multiply by 75% to see what the damage value needs to be.
Sorry to hear that Alan... at least there were no injuries. I have a 4-way stop just 3 houses away from my house, and any evening I can sit on my front steps, and probably see at least 1 car per hour drive right thru at 35mph, or more, in a 25 zone. YES, I am just a little bit cautious backing the GS out of the driveway... man, I can't wait to move out of town in a couple years or so... but then I'll have to crawl along on some gravel most likely, until I hit a paved road. I would like to have a good 1/4 mile long driveway off a main road. Hmmmm, I wonder what I could do with that???
No problem, Alan. I'll be out of the office from about 1:30pm until about 5:00pm. Back in the office from 5 until 6pm. I'll (if you fax the stuff) look things over and let you know what I see. Take Care,
Man I'm sorry! Alan - been there, done that, in Virginia. It's not fun. but you can keep the car. The fight may come over value unless you had a stated value policy. You may have to show why you think an 8 year old car is worth XXXX. You can show reciepts, ads, appraisals, etc to get them to pay you a fair value. Don't be afraid to fight it, and remember you can use your "state insurance/corporation commissioner" as a friend, each insurance company is licensed to do business in a state by the state. Good luck and keep us posted! :ball: - Bill
Geez Alan, that stinks! I got hit by a Suburban and I was in my '86 T-type Designer Package, one of 463 on GM property, the insurance company(AAA) wanted it towed to the Chevy dealership, it was in February and had been below 0 temp for a couple of days and was harder than hell to find a tow truck to take the car 60 miles to the dealer.I called a friend's body shop and they found me a wrecker going to Port Huron, and he put the car on the back of the truck as he already had a car on the flat bed, dropped me off in the street and I put the car in my driveway and made the AAA adjuster come to look at it, As I told AAA it's my car, paid for I want it where I want it, I ended up buying it back after they totalled it for around $900 and got the totalled money too, then we went to the junkyards and got a door, inner fender, upper control arm, fender and some other stuff for around $300 the car was back together, and driven for another couple of months, never had a title change as salvage, it ended up going to Finland! So if you think you can find parts and someone to help you get it fixed right, I would buy it back and keep it! My .02!
