hey mar3, I noticed your sig and wondered about the appraisal you make mention of. How did rb (chris) give you an appraisal?? Is he close to you and if not, he gave you an appraisal over the phone or by pictures? How did he come up with what I think you said was $5000.00? I really should get an appraisal my self as I bet if my car was stolen, they would not give me what I feel it is worth. I have a 84 gsl-se ,mint , 80,000 miles and I would not take less than $5000.00 for it but the insurance company might say only 2500.00.......and boy would I be pissed....cjf

 

im the fourth owner.....although its an 85 there are no records of it till 88 i think...or 87 cant remember which....the last owner had it the longest...from like 95 till i bought it.....

 

cjf,

I doubt an insurance company would give you close to $2500 for an 18 year old car. Most companies will not even provide collision/ theft coverage for a car over 10 years old. They have had too much experience with fraud. My rex has no theft due to the need to get an appraisal and a special policy with increased premiums for that coverage which isn't worth it for such a low value car. That is the reason that I remove both coil wires every time it is parked.

pmartin

 

well, two things here, I was able to get comp coverage on the car and could get collision if I wanted. The insurance companys will give it to you if you want it. I never had a problem there. The problem is getting a fair value for the car . Heck they, will taken your collision premium, but if or when it is time to pay up, watch out, cause they will say old car, not worth a lot , here is 1000.00. I know cause I am inthe insurance business, specifically "claims". I will say this. If you have proof of the before condition of the car, have an appraisal, and can show other cars of similiar condition and make value, and can over all "prove " this , you can get the company to pay its proper value. The insurance companys have to pay the "actual cash value" and as owner, you better be prepared or they will low ball you.

 

cjf,

You are exactly CORRECT. I am also in the insurance business. The broker side. When my car was stolen and recovered. The insurance company did write it off. I was prepared though. I had all the photos (date stamped) of the car's prior condition AND letter from my mechanic stating NO work was EVER necessary. It was in such good condition. I was able to show there were cars like mine in good condition and their value in a specialty market ........therefore book value did not apply. I was paid $9,000. and I bought the car back for $450.

 

Insurance recovery experience from forum members would probably make an interesting thread topic. My concern results from 2 things: a) discussions with my insurance company relative to the theft loss of my Mercedes 560SL which is almost 15 years old and has only 39K miles, and b) the disasterous experiences of two individuals that I know who had thefts of low-mileage older cars.

pmartin

 

staceygslse, the second part of your comment is well taken. owning a finer example of an rx7, we are faced with value discrepencies and it has to be taken notice of or disasterous experiences such as what happened to your friends will happen. Our cars are now on the upswing (in my opinion) regarding value (especially "se's" and very early "7's") but insurance companies don't recognize these values. Therefore , it is so important to arm yourself such as you did and what I need to get on the stick with. (ie: good photos, appraials from a rx7 club guru etc...) I tried to also get classic insurance on the car but....not yet.....they say it has to be 25 yrs old. anyway, the point is...arm yourself or you willbe sorry should you ever have a theft or a total loss collision. Also, my guess is most "7" owners are younger than you and I ( I would guess avg. age 22) , drive their cars daily -vs- occassional because it is there only car, and they are higher mileage cars and in less than avg. condition. Others however (like you and I maybe) have low mileage cars, think of them as classics, in excellent shape and drive them occassionally....thus..... we need the higher value protection. Just my guess and a lot of people may shoot me down but that just seems to be my observation. Have a good one.....cjf................................

 

I think it is great advice to well document your car for future insurance reasons. Good Advice. However, I disagree completely that early , clean RX-7's have bottomed out in price and are now rising. Trust me, no one is willing to pay a decent price for a super clean early RX-7. It has been a real eye opener for me. Very sad situation.

 

I bought my GSL-SE in May 1984. It has fairly high mileage, compared to some of you though: 225,000 km (135,000miles). I drove it a lot in the first 10 years.
I've had to repaint the hood and front fender's as a result of stone chips, before they caused rust, but the rest is original. It's not a "garage queen" by any means, but I've enjoyed putting the miles on.

I would like to see pics of the other original owner's cars also. Post them!
Send me a PM and I'll reduce them and describe how to post pics, or I'll post them for you. I'm not on the forum often, so be patient...

Here is a pic I took a couple of weeks ago: (engine bay in next post, as I have to attach them.) I had just driven a couple of miles on a dirt road, so it's rather filthy...


Stacey: It seems you are the Stacey I read about last Nov. at:
http://www.monmouth.com/~rothe/stacey-rx7-2.html

If so, I'm very glad to hear you have kept the car. That experience must have been painful though, after all these years. Are you putting it back together yet, or just holding on to the car for now? I'm also glad that you received a good settlement. It hurt to read your story last year.

Mine was stolen when it was about 3 years old, from in front of the apartment I was in at the time; there was no indoor parking available. Lucky for me, it was recovered after 3 weeks. In my case, there was not much damage at all. It was a kid who wanted to keep it, not trash it as happened to you. It now sleeps in the house garage, and I sleep better as a result.
At any rate, I'm glad to hear you still have it and look forward to seeing pictures, once you have it back together.

-John.

 

Hope to see other original owner pics.

The engine bay...

 

Well, I can put it this way. I love the rx7, love it. It thnk it is a great car and I think there are others out there like me. I my case ( and I think there are others) ,If I wanted a rx7 badly, I would look for the best one I can. That means low miles, pristine condition and the rest of it. "I" personally have no problem in paying top dollar for what I feel is the finest example of the car. Now ,the Joe average , run of the mill condition "se" , high miles (ie: 140,000 plus) and no substantial replacement of shocks,struts etc., is not going to bring 4000-5000. You are looking at maybe 1600-2300.But if you have the fine example and that person wants the "finer example" , I think he would pay for it. I would!! I paid 4000.00 for my 80,000 miles "se" in excellent condition. I think I got a good deal. I had a lesser condition "se" that I sold for $4200.00. And....if I saw a "SE" out there with the low miles , excellent condition with all new shocks, struts, all new RB exhaust with headers, brand new tires, all kinds of receipts for maintenence, awesome paint, HECK, I'd pay 5000.00 for a car like that, or maybe more depending on how bad I liked and wanted that car. So, there are a lot of variables that determine what people ask for the car and what someone would be willing to pay for it. But in general,if you have a finer example of a desirable auto, you can get a decent price for it.....in my opinion.....

 

I am the second owner of my 85 gsl, my dad is the original owner of his 79. He got it in new york, supposivly 3rd one off the boat way back when.