quattro digest, Vol. 1 #4337 - Insurance heads-up!!

[Doug Johnson]

Mike,

Glad your wife did "well" in her encounter!

One note: Check with your State's insurance Commissioner's office before
accepting any settlement.  In Washington State, we are entitled to a second
appraisal, paid for by the insurance company.  I got lucky, and got a
"car-nut" for my second appraiser.  Showed him a complete service history,
including six years worth of Fram oil filter box flaps (yes, I've mended my
ways!) with dates and mileage on them.  I came away from that with an extra
$1.000 or so in appraised value.

HTH, and best of luck!  Let me know if it helps!

Regards,

 - Doug

> To: quattro at audifans.com
> From: Mike Arman <armanmik at n-jcenter.com>
> Subject: Insurance heads-up!!
>
>
> Here's an unpleasant heads-up for those of us who drive older cars .
> . .
>
> Wife crashed her 1991 M*zda 323 two weeks ago - real hard. She'll be
> OK,
> out of work until January, banged up, pissed off, broken rib,
> kneecap,
> maybe ankle (can't tell yet!), and completely black and blue all
> over. You
> can see where the belt and harness were at impact.
>
> She bought the car new in 1991, we put a new engine into it in
> August -
> $1,800 total - $300 for engine, balance was for everything else,
> sensors,
> hoses, this one was done right - plan was to keep the car to 300,000
> miles
> - and it would have made it . . . car ran like new, even looked OK
> (no rust).
>
>
> Similar cars (not as nice and with original engines) are going for
> $1,500
> to $2,000 in the local shopper rags, and we figured that this one
> ought to
> be worth $2,500 or so after all the work and parts went in.
>
> Insurance called today - ACV (actual cash value) of this vehicle,
> new
> engine taken into account, is all of $640, plus tax. $100 deductable
> gives
> a net check of $540. (She doesn't know yet - oh man is she EVER
> going to be
> mad . . . )
>
>
> "It's twelve years old and has almost 200,000 miles on it!"
>
>
> I asked how much *I* could buy it back for - answer $32.58.
>
>
>
>
> That should give us some idea of how much we might be looking at if
> someone
> crashes into our beloved Audis "1986 Audi 5000, ACV is $250, less
> deductable, we're paying you $150 for your car (or what's left of
> it).
> Turbo? Qwattrow? Whatzat?"
>
>
> Crashing sucks.
>
> Big time.
>
>
> Best Regards,
>
> Mike Arman
>