My son and I spent the last 4 years restoring a 1971 Malibu that belonged to my Great-Grandfather. It isn't a show car but it is a very, very respectible driver. The problem we have is this last Tuesday my son was in a head-on collision. Nobody was hurt, { he had his seat belts on} but the Malibu is a mess. It was the other drivers fault, { my son was stopped at a stop sign and the other driver turned straight into his lane} but I am fairly sure his insurance co. will want to total out my car. The front cap and frame are toast, but nothing I can't fix. What is the best way to deal with the adjuster when I meet with him next week. Sorry this has to be the topic of my first post, but any ideas will be appreciated. Thanks,,,,,,,, Mingoman

I hope you kept reciepts and took lots of pictures, If you had it appraised, all the better. The people here will be able to help too.

Yes, we have all our reciepts and we took pictures before,during, and after we restored the car. I just feel like it's going to get ugly. My insurance co. said for me not to worry, I could buy it back for scrap after the other co. totals it out. Idiots!

Originally posted by mingoman:
Yes, we have all our reciepts and we took pictures before,during, and after we restored the car. I just feel like it's going to get ugly. My insurance co. said for me not to worry, I could buy it back for scrap after the other co. totals it out. Idiots! Don't know what kind of insurance you have, hope it's collector car insurance. Insured for an agreed value. If not, I'm sorry but a heads up to others. Get collector car insurance, get an agreed upon value between you and the insurer.
mingoman, good luck.

My insurance dosn't want to pay since its the other drivers fault. He was driving a '73 ford truck that minght be worth $200. With the number it did on the Malibu its probably a good thing my son wasn't in a newer car though.

You might want to read this post for some ideas on how to deal with the insurance company http://www.chevelles.com/forum/ultimatebb.php/topic/2/27494.html . And YOUR insiurance should be going out of their way to help you. What kind of agent do you have?? You pay him/them yearly, they shouldn't have a problem with fixing your car and then going after the other company. Deal with your agent not the adjuster. You need to be an @$$ sometimes. Good Luck

Originally posted by mingoman:
My son and I spent the last 4 years restoring a 1971 Malibu that belonged to my Great-Grandfather. Dang, I feel old all of a sudden.

Did you have full coverage? an agreed value? Need some more info on what ins. you have in order to help!

Thanks for the info Rick. I had to go back to work the day after this happened so my wife has got to deal with most of this. I'm off all next week and trust me, I don't have a problem being an @#$ when I have to. I will let the adjuster come and look at my car then tell him anything he has to say needs to be to my agent or lawyer. When my son shows me how to post pictures {he's the one going to college} I'll try and put up some before and after the wreck pics. Thanks again for the help.

Do not agree to anything less than repairing it back to pre-accident condition. Tell me what your coverage is? I will try to help.Try honey first, if you are prepared and educated you can and will get much much more out of an adjuster than being a meatball!

No agreed value. I think they will be just as much fun as the other ins. co.

Do you have full coverage and are other vehicles insured on this policy or with this ins.co? Are they full coverage or just liability?

My ins. would pay if the other driver didn't have ins. but as soon as they found out they did they want me to deal with them. What will help is I can do everything to fix the car except paint.{I have got to learn how to do that!} Just my short list I made out at work the other day was alittle over 5 grand without any labor added in.If I could find any of this good in a salvage yard it would be less but you just can't find it around here, at least any you would want to use.

Other ones have full coverage, but this one is liability with uninsured motorist.

Sounds like you may have an uphill battle ahead of you. I'm no insurance expert but I think that your insurance company will go after the other driver since you only have liability and uninsured motorist. If he had no insurance, then they will probably pay. The problem being that without collector car insurance or no previous agreed value, they will total the car and pay based on the book value(depreciated value) of the car, which I'm afraid won't be much. You should then be able to buy the car back as salvage. As said above, make your insurance agent earn his commissions, he should represent you and keep you informed as to what's going on. Be firm and negotiate with the insurance company. Good luck.
Steve

Mingo,
First of all .. do not agree on any type of settlement at this time. Dont agree to any settlement you are not happy with !
Next ... find an appraiser local to you that does collector cars, pay him come out and apprais e the car. He should be able to get a good idea of its condition before the accident and give you a pretty close value. That should be your starting point. Do some looking on E-bay, in Hemmings etc and see what cars in your's condition are selling for. Document what you find. The other guys insurance company is going to look at it like any 33 year old car and value it accordingly, probably less than $100.
Forget about the fact that you can fix the car yourself. Deal with it as though you will have to pay someone to repair it to the condition it was in before the accident. If you have to, hire an independent adjuster to represent you.
We went through this same deal when a guy hit my Wife's 84 Riviera a few years ago. It did not do much damage at all, but the value of the car was only $500 even though it was in "like new" condition. They wanted to total it and if we were to buy it back it would have a salvage title. All this for a small dent in the rear quarter ! By the time we were done, they paid to fix it and do an overall paint job on the car. Don't back down, especially where it was his fault.
Just my opinion,

I would also PM Sweetshot. Or better yet make a post in bench racing regarding her (like attn. sweetshot or something) so you can get some ideas on what to do. This way we can all see how to deal with these people.

She is going through the same thing and I would be very intrested, (as im sure we all are) on how you and her get through this dealing with the insurance company.

However given the info on the accident. It sounds like its not good and you may just end up buying it from the insurance company after they total it.

Chris.

Me too John.

Mingoman, give your attorney a heads up. If you don't have one, start asking around your area to find out who is a good one (I know, it's an oxymoron).

Sorry your son has come down with back and a neck injury from the accident. I am sure your doctor will tell you he will be better after awhile.

Oh by the way, funny how nice the insurance agent is to you now. You said he wants to make you happy and settle right away?

Almost forgot, make sure you tell him you are going to wait the one year (entitled to you by law) to make sure there are no medical complication with your son's neck due to the accident.

Thanks for all the ideas everyone. Here's a quick update. My ins. agent has basically told me just to be patient and he'll take care of it. { I did mention to him I was going to consult an attorney. He go alot more interested then.} The other ins. co. sent a letter to me saying they had to do their own investigation and that in the event they were liable I should keep my expenses down. They said it was my resposibility to move the car to a "free storage area".

I'm assuming the car is at a towing agency's yard right now. They want to get it away from "storage fees" because those will add to the total repair bill and could make it easier for them to declare it a total. I would get it to my garage or somewhere there are no such fees accumulating...'in the spirit of cooperation'. Maybe that'll help them treat you right.

When I got clipped in my 72 Camino, the appraiser said he would take care of acquiring parts, even though I told him I had catalogs he could check out. Well, he ended up calling me and asking for prices on a bunch of parts that could be had through Year One, OPG, etc. Later, the body shop requested more money because they had to paint more than expected in order to blend the paint. Insurance company didn't even whimper about it. Stay with it mingoman!

I just got rearended a month ago. I had basic coverage only. They said it was 100% the other guys fault. My truck was a 1986 K-5 Blazer I had paid close to 6000.00 for two year earlier, It was in great shape. They totaled it. They gave me 2200.00 for the truck. And, if I wanted to keep the truck I had to fork over 700.00 of that!!! I kept the truck and got a 1500.00 check. I asked the insurance company "whose truck did you look at when you decided what is was worth?" But, unfortunatly they could care less. They gave me "MARKET VALUE" I lost on that one. BIG TIME!! I hope you get treated better than I did.

DaDon, when the tow truck driver told me he had to take it to their yard if it was an ins. tow I paid him myself to take it to my garage. While were on the subject I need to get a tow truck myself. $150 to tow the Malibu about 3 miles.

Best thing you did was to take it home. Don't release it to anyone for appraisals. Make them come to you if they want to look it over. Once out of your garage, parts start disappearing. Told a guy at work the same thing after he got rear ended. His car was drivable. He took it in for an appraisal and left the car. Someone gutted the A/C out of it when it was there. Nobody knew nothing but his car was then damaged far enough they forced a total out of it.

Originally posted by John_Muha:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by mingoman:
My son and I spent the last 4 years restoring a 1971 Malibu that belonged to my Great-Grandfather. Dang, I feel old all of a sudden. </font>[/QUOTE]That is exactly what I was thinking. Hell, I bought a 72 chevelle new and my great grandad fought in the civil war.

Sorry to hear about your car. I hate insurance companies, never have dealt with one that didn't have one hand in your pocket and 50 ways of getting out of paying a claim. Don't trust his or your insurance company.