[s-cars] NAC-dealing with insurance company re: total

[manuelsanchez at starpower.net]

Fellow S-heads,

I followed some of the recent threads about dealing with insurance, but I was looking for more specific info on buy back options. No Audi content but was hoping someone might be able to help with some useful info:

Short Story: Wife was T-boned, her car will probably be totaled. Not her fault. Everyone OK.

I just spent a ton of money fixing it up not long ago and it kills me to have it totaled. it's old, so I figure they won't offer me much. It's a classic case of it was worth more to me than it would ever be in the marketplace.

I'd like to know the best way of approaching the other persons insurance company knowing the following options, which might not be exclusive of one another:

1. Get the most I can out of them.
I presume I would need to show receipts on how I just spend thousands replacing items (actually, would they care about this or just quoye book rates?)

2. Take whatever they give me and they buy the thing back. I could then either try and have it fixed or part the thing out (I'm not excited about parting as I don't have a garage and winter is coming)

If I really pushed to have them appraise it high so that I could get the most out of them, presumabley this would mean that I would be hurting myself if I wanted to buy it back, yes or not necessarily?

Victim is a '89 BMW E30 325iX. Wife and kids are OK fortunately, but now I've got to deal with the Insurance Co. These cars are rare, and I just spent about 3K in repairs/replacements for some unique AWD parts.

Thanks in Advance, please feel free to mail off list if you choose.

-manny