[ba] help! need a little salvage title advice, if anyone knows..

[Motor Sport Visions Photography]

In a message dated 5/28/2002 "j fizz" <iin10ded at hotmail.com> writes:

> hey all...
>
> so as if it werent bad enuff that the 5000's headgasket blow'd up, the
> insurance co is trying  to salvage the car after the acident it was in. i
> dont understand this because the car was hit very lightly in the pass rear
> door. the accident was determined to be my fault. fine. they now want to
> salvage the car, bc the cost of repairs would be more than the value of the
> car. whatever. its still totally driveable.
>
> the thing is, i didnt have comp or collision on the car, and now they want
> to kill what little value the car has by salvaging it?!? i could fix it for
> a few hundred bucks with a junkyard door and the car would be FINE! i dont
> understand how they can just deem the car salvage now, when they had no
> interest in it to begin with since i had no comp/coll coverage? it just
> seems grossly unfair.
>
> so i dont understand how this thing works, if they will reimburse me for the
> loss, or have i just fallen into yet another institutional, systematic
> penalty on the poor?
>
> god.. i HATE insurance companies. i cant beleive they're real....
>
> thanx,
> jim

This strikes me as really, really, odd. Assuming you have title to the
car, and nobody is paying out any claims to get your car fixed/replaced,
then there is no way it could be turned into a "salvage title" AFAIK.
For starters, they would have to obtain your signed off title. There's a
pretty darned nice looking '86 5ktq here in Santa Cruz for only 900 bux
that needs a right strut, subframe, and a little bodywork--if had the
space and extra $$$ I would be jumping on it. Given that, a plain
vanilla 5000 with blown head gasket and dented in door is pretty close
to zero value anyway, but the insurance company can't just simply
declare your car "salvage" on title unless they buy it from you as
salvage on a totaled car payout. With no comp and collision this just
does not seem possible. My 02 cents worth...

Mike Veglia
Motor Sport Visions Photography
http://www.motorsportvisions.com