Re: Insurance claim problems. Advice needed!

[Daun Yeagley <vwdaun@yahoo.com>]

--- Elias Glavinas <eg1@cec.wustl.edu> wrote:
> 
> Ok, I just got a letter from State Farm, and the amount
> they are giving me
> for my totaled 85 is in my opinion not enough. 
> 
> Story:
> 19th of June, I am rear-ended horribly. Rear is
> thrashed/bent up until the
> middle of the rear tires. Hatch is bent, glass is broken.
> Clearly a ton of
> work is needed to fix the car (weld new rear clip,
> possibly from the back
> seats and backwards, not an easy task). 
> 
> State Farm rents me a car (which I am still driving).
> 
> I insist that someone knowledgable takes a look at the
> engine bay to
> realize that the car is in unbelievable shape
> mechanically and should be
> treated as such. A guy does look at it and agrees that I
> am right.
> Promises me he will do his best so that I will get
> something in the
> 2000-2500 range. The way state farm works is that they
> enlist an
> "independent" company to appraise the car's value.
> Supposdeldy they look
> at identical cars sold around the area recently.
> 
> About two months pass. I call up the guy again, he
> returns my phone call
> in a week, and tells me that all the info coming back
> from the appraisers
> shows ads from local papers, with my type of car selling
> for about
> $1000-$1500. I knew the paper ads by heart at that point
> and I express my
> surprise to him, as to why the appraiser chooses to list
> only the
> sub-$1500 8V's, and not the $1800-2500 8Vs (there were
> about 4-5 in the
> same paper). He goes "yeah, let me feed them that
> information". 
> 
> Another 3 weeks pass. Today I got this letter saying that
> the fair value
> for the car is $1550 and that the appraisers were given
> the info about the
> 1800-2500 range 8V's for sale, but did not change their
> mind. 
> 
> I am basically screwed because they will probably ask me
> for $400 or so if
> I want to keep the car (there are some great parts in
> there, including a
> 55,000 mile 4k tranny and a 2.25" stainless steel TT
> exhaust). Not a good
> deal for me. 
> 
> My questions are: 
> 
> **What can I do at this point? Obviously these guys would
> love it if I
> just accepted what they give, but they must be expecting
> a fight also.

Fight them.  Just make sure you have receipts for all this
stuff.  Without them, it's gonna be a lot more difficult.

When I wrecked my '87 8v three years ago I wound up ahead. 
I bought the car for $1600, did a lot of cleanup work etc
to it (no mods really) and a few months later got spun
around an intersection.  Adjuster looked at the car and
evaluated *this* car as to it's condition, not an average
of others.  I would insist that your company do the same. 
(This was Allstate)  I wound up with a check for $2400
*plus* I kept the car.

HTH!


=====
Daun Yeagley
'79 Scirocco
'81 Rabbit Pickup 
'85 Scirocco 8v
'88 Scirocco 16v
There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness."  - Dave Barry
__________________________________________________
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