Does your insurance cover your mods?
06-17-03, 03:04 PM
#27
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I wrecked my car and produce $25k in receipts of mods over the last year. It took some haggling but I got
$17k+ for my FD after they totalled it and bought the car back for $3887.
I have allstate. The key to it was to argue that much of the work I did was not only add ons but restoration of original parts such as the engine itself, transmission, exhaust (they bought that), the shocks and other suspensions mods, also the paint and body work. By pitching these as simply restoration with OEM like or better parts I convinced them to up me with at least the credit for having the OEM version at replacement cost (which sometimes was more than my aftermarket). I got about $6k more for what they originally offered. I also nagged them to death and sent a booklet of 75+ pages I assembled with web sites of parts, sales of comparable RX-7, and photos.
As a safety cushion, I raided the car before they picked it up from the towing company and put back all the stock stuff I could like PowerFC for Stock ECU, the HKS ignition, intercooler swap out,ges and electronics, etc. I wasn't sure I'd be buying the car back and didn't trust them with it.
Lucky I did that even though I bought the car back because it got raided by someone else 2 days later sitting at a shop and fortunatley all I lost were some speakers I forgot about and the scoot hood on it which was damaged. All else that was viable to take I already had stripped out.
$17k+ for my FD after they totalled it and bought the car back for $3887.
I have allstate. The key to it was to argue that much of the work I did was not only add ons but restoration of original parts such as the engine itself, transmission, exhaust (they bought that), the shocks and other suspensions mods, also the paint and body work. By pitching these as simply restoration with OEM like or better parts I convinced them to up me with at least the credit for having the OEM version at replacement cost (which sometimes was more than my aftermarket). I got about $6k more for what they originally offered. I also nagged them to death and sent a booklet of 75+ pages I assembled with web sites of parts, sales of comparable RX-7, and photos.
As a safety cushion, I raided the car before they picked it up from the towing company and put back all the stock stuff I could like PowerFC for Stock ECU, the HKS ignition, intercooler swap out,ges and electronics, etc. I wasn't sure I'd be buying the car back and didn't trust them with it.
Lucky I did that even though I bought the car back because it got raided by someone else 2 days later sitting at a shop and fortunatley all I lost were some speakers I forgot about and the scoot hood on it which was damaged. All else that was viable to take I already had stripped out.
06-17-03, 05:42 PM
#28
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PEOPLE, It's very easy how to take care of the value of your car AND your mods. This can be done with any insurance co. which has a "stated value" plan. I got F'ked by allstate on a softly modded Z (300 not 28, thank you). In trying to figure out how to have the same not happen again I discussed many options with my adjustor.
I can get a declared value on my RX of say $25k and in the event of a total loss I will get $25k, no questions asked. This changed my rates from like $150mo to $180mo. They may require an apprasial but $50 at any dealership and you can get a geo metro valued at $50grand!
I'm not sure how this would cover loss of specific parts. Say an aftermarket deck got stolen but the car was ok? I'll have to get this clairified and find out.
I can get a declared value on my RX of say $25k and in the event of a total loss I will get $25k, no questions asked. This changed my rates from like $150mo to $180mo. They may require an apprasial but $50 at any dealership and you can get a geo metro valued at $50grand!
I'm not sure how this would cover loss of specific parts. Say an aftermarket deck got stolen but the car was ok? I'll have to get this clairified and find out.
06-17-03, 10:41 PM
#29
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Originally posted by memmi
I can get a declared value on my RX of say $25k and in the event of a total loss I will get $25k, no questions asked. This changed my rates from like $150mo to $180mo. They may require an apprasial but $50 at any dealership and you can get a geo metro valued at $50grand!
.
I can get a declared value on my RX of say $25k and in the event of a total loss I will get $25k, no questions asked. This changed my rates from like $150mo to $180mo. They may require an apprasial but $50 at any dealership and you can get a geo metro valued at $50grand!
.
(had I still been able to buy the car back at the same price I did anyway).
06-17-03, 11:53 PM
#31
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Premiums are just throwing money down the toilet if you're not an accident-prone person.
That's complete bullshit. I mean seriously, how the hell can you say something that dumb? How does one become accident prone? Please, think about it, accidents are gonna happen weather or not one is accident prone. ****, I don't go out looking to get killed or have my car killed. It doesn't matter how carefull you are, or how anti accident prone you are, you CANNOT control what others are gonna do to YOU and YOUR CAR. So, accident proneness or whatever, has nothing to do with insurence rates.
That's complete bullshit. I mean seriously, how the hell can you say something that dumb? How does one become accident prone? Please, think about it, accidents are gonna happen weather or not one is accident prone. ****, I don't go out looking to get killed or have my car killed. It doesn't matter how carefull you are, or how anti accident prone you are, you CANNOT control what others are gonna do to YOU and YOUR CAR. So, accident proneness or whatever, has nothing to do with insurence rates.
06-17-03, 11:54 PM
#32
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Originally posted by TailHappy
Premiums are just throwing money down the toilet if you're not an accident-prone person.
Premiums are just throwing money down the toilet if you're not an accident-prone person.
That's complete bullshit. I mean seriously, how the hell can you say something that dumb? How does one become accident prone? Please, think about it, accidents are gonna happen weather or not one is accident prone. ****, I don't go out looking to get killed or have my car killed. It doesn't matter how carefull you are, or how anti accident prone you are, you CANNOT control what others are gonna do to YOU and YOUR CAR. So, accident proneness or whatever, has nothing to do with insurence rates.
06-18-03, 01:10 AM
#33
Senior Member
My empty parked 93 low mileage stock Rx7 was hit and totaled by an uninsured hit and run driver. With an estimated repair of 15 to 17K, Nationwide totaled it and paid me on my uninsured motorist coverage. However, they outsourced the appraisal of what it was worth. They low-balled the price, ignoring condition and mileage. They reduced the estimate because it did not have an automatic transmission and used automatic transmission cars as comparables. Don't take such bushit. I hassled and hassled with them. I did a regression study off autotrader.com showing how price actually varies with mileage on a collectable car. I showed that automatic transmissions with the same mileage sold for $3500 less. I got credit for the Michelins. They reluctantly inched up $4500 from the original offer. Then they tried to screw me on buying back my salvage by stating a phoney invalid high salvage value that I investigated and got a real bid. They finaly sold it to me for the bid I got because I showed theirs was fraudulent. Get a consumer advocate, get an attorney, or get nasty. The insurance company (mine) can be greedy corporate crooks. Enron is not an anomoly... I hope your experiences are better.
