[V8] re: Tis the season.....

Tue Jan 4 22:11:22 EST 2005

Why did allstate crush your car? Those things bring top dollar at salvage
auctions, even today.

Scott DeWitt
Advanced Automotion
817-939-6761
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <z1sales at z1auto.com>
To: <v8 at audifans.com>
Sent: Tuesday, January 04, 2005 7:51 PM
Subject: FW: Re: [V8] re: Tis the season.....

> Adam
> Z1 Performance
> www.z1auto.com
> 631-863-3820
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: z1sales at z1auto.com
> To:  ekellock at gmail.com
> Sent: Tue, 4 Jan 2005 20:50:14 -0500
> Subject: Re: [V8] re:  Tis the season.....
>
> Problem is though, unless you have a stated value or agreed to value of
the car before hand, you
> are largely at their mercy to determine what the car is worth.  Sometimes
you'll find this works to
> your advantage, other times it doesn't.
>
> Case in point - back in 2001 I had an 00 S2000 that I rolled when I
swerved to avoid running over 2
> girls who ran across the street.  I ran up on a tree bed in the front of
someones yard and over and
> over she went.  Car was about 6 months old at this point and had maybe
3500 miles on it.  At first,
> I figured I'd get hurt a bit as I had paid ~$5k over sticker in the first
place.  That, coupled
> with that whole "new car" depreciation thing, as well as the aftermarket
parts I had on the car at
> the time of the accident (very expensive stereo and some other stuff, none
of which I had a rider
> for in my policy should have meant a healthy loss right off the bat.
>
> In discussions with Allstate after the accident, I mentioned the stereo
stuff I had, and asked if
> anything could be done.  They did some pow-wowing and came back to me and
said fax them receipts.
> I obliged, and got a call back later the same day to say they would cover
up to $2500 (I had about
> 4 times that into the system, the bul of which was labor costs, but I was
thrilled they agreed to
> cover any of it).  I was also told that since it was stereo stuff, even
though they would add this
> $2500 to my total claim amount, I was welcome to remove whatever I wanted
from the car, since they
> were going to crush it anyway.  I took everything :)
>
> It gets better: imagine my surprise when they came back initially to me (2
days after declaring it
> a loss) with a payment offer of sticker.  They said that even though it
had been 6-7 months since I
> bought the car, there was no depreciated value yet calculated for the car.
I immediately said I'd
> take it (duh), and was set to collect my check the following day.
>
> About 20 minutes before I was set to leave my office to pick the check up
from Allstate's claims
> office, I get a call from the Allstate rep from the day before.  She said
they had done one more
> round of research on the car and my claim amount was actually going to be
an additional $3000.00.
> Apparantly they had not taken "market conditions: into effect, and found
that on a national
> average, the cars were selling for $3k more than sticker price according
to their research.
>
> Granted, I was a very good customer of Allstate's at the time with 5 cars
all under full coverage
> by them at the time.  Nevertheless they did not owe me what they ended up
paying (though I was
> grateful).
>
> Adam
> Z1 Performance
> www.z1auto.com
> 631-863-3820
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Ed Kellock
> To:  <v8 at audifans.com>
> Sent: Tue, 4 Jan 2005 18:25:22 -0700
> Subject: Re: [V8] re:  Tis the season.....
>
> When I have documented proof that several cars in nearly the exact
> same condition sold for 12-14 thousand dollars and there are less than
> 150 such cars in the country, how can a value of 10 thousand dollars
> be considerd "more realistic".  Because they have their own special
> book?  ACV, whatever.. call it what you will, it's just bs that they
> use to screw people out of money.  I didn't total it at an event.
> They were clearly not interested in making my loss whole.  At the
> time, I could not have replaced it for their initial offer.
>
> I greatly appreciate your wisdom as a previous insider in the
> insurance industry and find it very valuable, but your explanation
> does not wash with my experience in this case.
>
> Ed
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Roger M. Woodbury" <rmwoodbury at downeast.net>
> To: <sfevold at wwdb.org>
> Cc: <v8 at audifans.com>
> Sent: Tuesday, January 04, 2005 5:49 PM
> Subject: [V8] re: Tis the season.....
>
>
> > There are a couple of things that people need to know about
> insurance
> > companies and the adjustment process.
> >
> > First of all, ALL cars are JUST cars to the insurance company.
> Generally,
> > unless the car is on the insurance company's no-no list, all cars
> are
> > acceptable, assuming the driver's record and financial circumstances
> are
> > stable.  At time of loss, ALL cars are JUST cars, and ALL Audi's are
> treated
> > equally:  old Audis are OLD Audis, period, and if it is only one of
> 27 for
> > that year (such as a '94 V8) it is JUST an OLD Audi, and the rarity
> makes no
> > difference in its valuation.
> >
> > Insurance companies do not use the same NADA or Kelly Blue Book that
> the
> > average person has available.  Their data is MUCH more detailed and
> from a
> > whole lot of different sources. They rely on what sometimes is
> referred to
> > as "The Black Book", which is a more detailed reference for
> automobiles.
> > What we get at the book store or on line is useful information, but
> an
> > insurance company's data is going to be much stricter and probably
> more
> > realistic, just as a dealer's wholesale figure is much different
> from the
> > NADA Guide or the KBB values.
> >
> > An insurance company is going to try to merely make whole the loss.
> The car
> > might have been worth a lot to the insured, but the actual cash
> value of the
> > car is probably much different.  Sometimes insurance adjustment
> people have
> > a true "hard on" for difficulty.  I had a very hard time getting a
> cash
> > settlement for my BMW motorcycle which I totalled.  The bike was
> repairable,
> > but the adjuster for USAA (a contract adjuster, and not a USAA
> employee)
> > thought he was a Private Investigator like Magnum.  He tried to
> bully the
> > motorcycle shop into straightening the rear suspension frame and
> calling it
> > good, despite the fact that the factory manual said that the part
> was NOT
> > repairable and straightening it would weaken the entire frame and
> make the
> > bike unstable.  I finally got hold of the Northeast REgion claims
> supervisor
> > and asked them if they wanted me to ride a bike that was documented
> as being
> > improperly repaired, and would they welcome the liability from that
> > exposure, since it would have been caused directly by their
> employee.  In
> > the end, they paid me for the bike and totalled it.  But the fact
> was that
> > had I not spent about twenty years in the commercial insurance
> business I
> > might not have had the same result.
> >
> > And another thing that is very important to remember:  coverage is
> NOT
> > determined by the funny tv ads, the insurance agent selling a
> policy, or
> > wishful thinking.  Coverage is actually determined AFTER the loss by
> the
> > claims department.  For any of you hotshots who are rallying, club
> racing,
> > autocrossing, gymkhana-ing, or going on those "wink-wink" so called,
> > "drivers ed" weekends, if you prang your ride you will probably find
> that
> > your insurance company won't cover the loss and then they will
> cancel your
> > coverage.
> >
> > Roger
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Audifans V8 mailing list
> > Send posts to: mailto:V8 at audifans.com
> > Manage your list connection:
> http://www.audifans.com/mailman/listinfo/v8
> > Have an Audi V8 question?  Check the Audifans Knowledgebase!
> > http://www.audi-quattro.org/cgi-bin/twiki/view/Audi/V8
> > Have a V8 answer? ... Please help others by adding to the KB ... all
> contributions welcome!
>
> _______________________________________________
> Audifans V8 mailing list
> Send posts to: mailto:V8 at audifans.com
> Manage your list connection: http://www.audifans.com/mailman/listinfo/v8
> Have an Audi V8 question?  Check the Audifans Knowledgebase!
> http://www.audi-quattro.org/cgi-bin/twiki/view/Audi/V8
> Have a V8 answer? ... Please help others by adding to the KB ... all
contributions welcome!
>
>

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----

> _______________________________________________
> Audifans V8 mailing list
> Send posts to: mailto:V8 at audifans.com
> Manage your list connection: http://www.audifans.com/mailman/listinfo/v8
> Have an Audi V8 question?  Check the Audifans Knowledgebase!
> http://www.audi-quattro.org/cgi-bin/twiki/view/Audi/V8
> Have a V8 answer? ... Please help others by adding to the KB ... all
contributions welcome!
>