Request for Advice - Totalled '91 200 20V TQ

[Mike Miller]

Unfortunately I have totaled two 91 200q's. The biggest issue has been to establish a mutually agreeable value. I have no idea who you are insured through but it seems to me that the industry standard is to total a vehicle when damage excedes 70% of the vehicle worth.

The first one I totaled was stock and pretty pristine with 150k on the clock - I got $6k for that one in June 2003. It took quite a bit of fighting the insurance company with me sending in 5 comparables that I copied from Audifans that had a favorable asking price. Their initial offer was about 4700. Damage to the vehilce was in excess of $13k so there was no question of it being a total.

The 2nd one (June 2005) I totaled was in decent shape with a lot of new parts and had less than 300 miles on $2700 worth of repairs. It had aftermarket wheels/new tires, $1k aftermarket stereo, Euros and 208k on the clock. Initial damage quote was ~$2700 and the ins valued the car at $3200 so they wanted to total it. We fought for close to 3 months over the vehicle value, during which time they upped their estimate to $3800 as I recall, which still left it totaled. They finally paid for an appraiser to come to the house and appraise the car - which came in at slightly over $5k so now the  car wasn't a total. They ins had already paid  $250 to get the car towed to my house to avoid storage charges and it would seem obvious it would take at least that much to get it back to a body shop for repairs. They balked at paying more than $150 for towing charges to get it to the shop. After a particularily nasty arguement, the adjuster gave me the options of 1) paying the additional towing out of pocket or 2) totalling the car and buying the salvage for ~$450 which left them paying me a settlement amount of $4500 with me keeping the salvage. I took option 2 which made no sense to me as the insurance co. would have paid out less than an additional $3k to have the car towed and fixed. Both my totals are front end and I have both of them sitting here for parts while I am currently enjoying my 3rd 200q. 

My advice if you want to continue to drive a 91 200q is to buy the salvage and transfer parts as needed. If not, buy the salvage and try to find a lister who would want it for parts. You could always be nice and allow a lister to buy it for whatever the ins. co. wants f or it ;-)

mike
nothing like -20F, dry roads and a chipped 91 200q :-)


----- Original Message ----- 
From: Michael Palatas 
Can anyone give me some advice, preferably some BTDT.  TIA

Mike in Burbank, CA