Stupid lady with a suspended license hit my SI! Her insurance is going to pay for it, but they're trying to cheap out on me. Is there anything I can do from a legal standpoint (in CA) to prevent her insurance from salvaging my SI? There is no damage to the unibody, it's all radiator support etc, but they say the car is old (1990). expletive that. This car was clean and I was going to restore it to like new. I'm definately going to buy it back and fix it. I doubt they'll give me enough money based on their calculation of it's value. Yeah, its primer, and needed minor bodywork, but the motor is around 70k (JDM SOHC ZC), the suspension is new, I pieced together flawless interior trim from the junkyard. Bottom line is this car was getting 35mpg on the street and has plenty of power to get around. New cars may look nice but they can't compete with this. Why should I lose out because of some stupid lady's mistake? They should put the car back to the state it would be in if the accident had never happened. The car is worth a lot more than what it is on paper. I'll never find another SI as clean as this one.

Ha hah I fucked up her 94 Ranger!

expletive it, I'm getting a lawyer. Sorry for the rant, but I know you people have been through this. Advice?

 

that sucks hope it works out. you got something against rangers mines a 5 speed 97 slow as hell but i bought it and im proud of it.

 

Shaun;

If you have too, get a lawyer.

Don't take any form of payment until it's for an amount you feel comfortable with.

Contact Ryan of Rywire and ask him how he did so well with his insurance claim.

Make it real clear with the insurance company that even if you get enough money to fix the car after "buying it back", a salvage title lowers the worth of the car!!!

Get an price quote from a shop for the work required to make a replacement car similar to how yours currently is (prior to the oops). In other words, I've got a Quaife differential. I should be paid for not only the quaife but also for the cost to have it installed. It doesn't matter that I did the initial install.

I know that you have done a lot of alarm install stuff. Get a price to have a shop do a similar install.

Add up and document everything!!

Good luck

Wes

 

When my first prelude got rear-ended they salvaged it. They of course low-balled the value of the car so I brought several forms of proof from various want ads etc. that showed what similar cars were going for. I got an additional $1500 out of them because of it & of course bought it back to strip it of the good parts then sold it to a junkyard.
Basically if they want to salvage it because the repair costs are 70% or more of the cars value they will. You just need to do what you can to up the value of your car to either get it repaired (show that the repair costs are less than 70% of the value) or get a fair sized check in your hands.

 

hey man this is kinda shady but i did it. Go to anyshop that knows you. Tell them you need those things to get fixed (whatevers messed up) and that they can charge you up the *** get a written or printed estimate and when you meet with the insurance people be very clear that the shopYOU have chosen wants this much and hope that they finnaly give in thats what idid with my old civic. I explaned that the graphics were one offs and they can only be repoduced by the designer becouse they were copie writed and they gave me 2300 for a dent in my quarter panel.

 

That's some good advice. I wrote down what you guys said.