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In Reply to: You've got to be kidding me! posted by Raj on February 11, 2002 at 03:30:58:
I won't feed you tales of sweetness and light and make you feel good. You're coming across like a woman asking "Does this make me look fat?" in a department store. You damn well know what the answer you want is, but it may not be the truth. What answer do you want? I can't feel for you and your emotional attachment to your ride, but I'll give you the facts as us flatlanders tend to see them:
Facts:
1. Your car is OLD by worldly standards
2. It is high miles
3. It wasn't concours from the get-go
4. Insurance companies do not allow for "enthusiast value" or "I was conceived in this car"
5. Unless you have receipts that go WELL beyond the book value of the car and have a sympathetic adjuster, you're probably going to get totalled.
The insurance company does NOT have an obligation to make it better than it was before the accident. They DO have a moral leg to stand on regarding USED parts. Were the crunched parts BRAND NEW when destroyed? No. If it had been an 85 Pontiac 6000 do you think Allstate would spring for brand new fenders? No. A roundel on the hood does not matter to the insurance industry. So repainted used fenders will not put you back any further than when you started. The paint won't match, right? Well did the paint match %100 before you started? Probably not. So make a deal with the body shop to repaint the rest of the car while they're at it. It's all about the $$ to all parties involved.
The only way you're going to profit off this situation is to take the $$$, fix it yourself, and use the labor $$ and parts-scrounging savings to finance something else.
So, deal with, compadre. You had an automobile accident. The car will NEVER be the same. This is a brutal fact of life. Nobody owes you perfection in an imperfect situation. Don't be a litigious dick, either. You had a traffic accident, you weren't badly hurt, and there's insurance money involved. Hearing you tales of driving, I'd count my blessings and car karma at this point. The roullete wheel of doom was going to land on your number in short order. Be philosophical and realize you didn't have your life on that bet.
I would personally take the $$$, buy a dead 528e automatic and get to work transplanting. You'd have enough scratch left for a good paint job. Yep, it'll take a lot of time. But them's the breaks.
Brandon
There is absolutely no reason for me to ditch my car! I can still have it fixed up at Allstate's expense, but I'm trying to get them to pay for new parts and replace a couple things they're trying to fix. Even a body shop said that they COULD fix the hood, but it would be a better idea to replace it because it's slightly bowed. Since it hasn't even been brought up even when I gave them the $3150 estimate, I'm no longer worried about them trying to total my car. I'm just hoping that some diamondschwarz parts will come along soon. Otherwise I will not be able to take any advantage of this unfortunate situation.
Raj
'85 535i (on vacation, but nowhere near retirement)
temporary '01 POS Dodge Stratus
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