[s-cars] INSURANCE ALERT: A call to arms

[Keith Maddock]

At 17:16 27.01.2004, you wrote:
>Dear S-Heads-
>The battle has begun... My insurance carrier has
>kindly offered me Blue book + $1000. Yes, that's
>roughly $12,000 for Edwin. I can hear the calculaters
>clicking... Most of you who have done any mods to your
>cars have a minimum of $2000 in brakes alone. They're
>hanging their hat on an endorsement that limits their
>liability to an additional $1000 over ACV. I ask you,
>what is ACV? Follow me here, I believe ACV is what a
>willing buyer and a willing seller agree on , not just
>what a '93 S4 is worth. So, you have car that has a
>new motor, new paint, all RS2 stuff, big brakes, new
>interior, bla, blah, blah, essentially a turn-key car,
>done. How much will the market bear? Ah, good
>question, certainly not how much $$ was put into it
>(cringing) but I believe certainly more than a stock
>'93 S4. That's what's going to be at issue here.
>I spoke to an appraiser and he brought up a good
>point, try to find similar cars that sold say within a
>year. I know that's a stretch but that's why I'm
>asking for help. If you guys know of any modified,
>different levels ok, S-Cars that have sold, please let
>me know or put me in contact with the sellers off
>list. Remember, THIS COULD HAPPEN TO YOU, so let's get
>some precedence setting stuff in place NOW!!!!
>I also welcome any comments, suggestions, insights,
>anything.
>
>Sincerely
>Brian Bilotti
>800-675-7559 x108 w PST
>925-989-8997

Brian,

I have felt your pain in the past when my heavily modified 200q was 
totalled and they offered me half of what I could have sold it for.

Getting data from actual sales WILL help.  Make sure you also collect 
regional information about the sale, as well as condition, mods.  It adds 
to the credibility of your data if you provide a phone number for each 
buyer - I doubt they would ever call, but at least that shows that you 
didn't make it up.

Then also ask yourself:
"What was my car insured as" ?

I'm guessing, it was insured as a 1993 S4, not a 1993 S4 with $10k of mods.
So you paid them an insurance premium that was based on the fact that they 
had a maximum amount they would have to pay out for comprehensive/collision 
damage.

As such, they're only liable to replace your car with a similar condition 
(maintance and mileage, etc), but not modifications for certain.  This 
sucks, but this is the risk we take  driving highly modified cars.

If you really want to be safe, you have to bite the bullet, find an 
insurance policy that will allow you to insure your car at your own stated 
(or appriased) value, and then pay the fair price for that coverage.

However, you do (depending on State, mine happend in Michigan) have the 
first right to buy your car as scrap back from them.  This protects the 
money that you have in your mods - you have to buy your car back (in 
Michigan this is fixed at 15% of their total-payout-value), and either sell 
it yourself as a modified fixer upper, fix it yourself with your total 
proceeds, or strip the parts and sell/re-install them etc.  At worst in 
this case you are eating uninstall/install labor and costs of storing the car.

in my case this worked out very well.  They initially offered $7k, but with 
6 months of work and finally getting a huge spreadsheet of sale data, I got 
them up to almost $10k.  I then bought my car back for $1.5k, sold $1.5k of 
parts off it and then sold the rolling wreck for $4.2k.  (and kept the $1k 
summer tire and wheel package)

If you need any extra help let me know, good luck with this very 
frustrating experience.


Cheers,
Keith

keith at maddock.com    http://keith.maddock.com/

91 200q20v  (totalled by a falling carport that was hit by a U-Haul truck)
93 S4 (mit RS2 + BR upgrades) Portland OR
95 968CS (Ring Tool + Daily Driver) Koblenz, DE
1/8 89 GTI  16V (Spare Ring Toy)  Nürburg, DE