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67 Camaro Stolen-Insurance barely wanting to pay

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K

kratos

Junior Member
(In California)

What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state?My 67 camaro was stolen. It was recovered with the rims and tires missing, window busted, ignition removed, and trunk lock and glove box damaged. The body has a few dings but nothing major.
The insurance says they are going to count it as totalled and pay out only about $1700. Because they said the car is old.
Everyone knows a 67 camaro is a classic. Mine had some work that needed to be on it as far as the interior and the paint was getting a little off, but I would expect much more than that. They are suppose to mail me a proposal I think they call it.
The car is right now in a tow yard, and they are only going to allow it to be there until Jan 19th, Which they will then stop paying for it to be there. I dont want to accept that amount, but not sure what steps I must do. I dont have much on reciepts to show the value. But you can look in any auto ad magazine and see that that year is valued at much higher.
The tow company says If I want it out I must pay all the storage fees, unless I release it to the auto insurance then they will charge them. I dont want to release it to them, but I dont want to get stuck with the bill after the 19th either.
Please help me in as what I need to do to get the true value of the vehicle. What do I do? I really am getting jerked around I think.
Heres a pic, a little old but still looks decent.
http://www.sidnak.net/camaro.jpg
 
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T

teflon_jones

Senior Member
Go to www.nada.com and price the car out. I just checked on a low retail base 67 Camaro (no options at all) and the value was $5,475. Insurance companies will tend to offer you low retail unless you can prove the car was in show car shape, and then you'll be lucky to get average retail.
 
K

kratos

Junior Member
teflon_jones said:
Go to www.nada.com and price the car out. I just checked on a low retail base 67 Camaro (no options at all) and the value was $5,475. Insurance companies will tend to offer you low retail unless you can prove the car was in show car shape, and then you'll be lucky to get average retail.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the link. Ill print that up and fax it to the insurance.
 
K

kratos

Junior Member
JETX said:
Pretty simple.... just tell them you want to buy the vehicle back for the 'salvage' value.
Click to expand...
Thank you for responding. Any idea how much salvage value is? How does the buy back at salvage value work?
 
J

JETX

Senior Member
kratos said:
Any idea how much salvage value is?
Click to expand...
Nope. Salvage value is whatever the local 'salvage dealer' bids on the car.

How does the buy back at salvage value work?
Click to expand...
The insurance company gets a 'salvage value' from a local dealer. At the same time, they are supposed to be determining the FMV (Fair Market Value) of your car. They then 'buy' the car from you for the FMV, and then sell it to the salvage dealer. The situation you have is the same.... except you agree to buy it instead of the salvage dealer.
Example:
Car FMV = $2000.00
Salvage value = $500.00
They cut you a check for $1500, and you keep the vehicle.
 
K

kratos

Junior Member
Thanks for the explanation.

The insurance stated that they will pay for the car to be at the towing yard until the 19th. After that they will not cover the storage fees.
The offer of only $1600 they offered me for the car, Im not going to accept because I feel its much too low. What kind of documentation do I need to submit to help show that a 67 Camaro is worth more than what they offered? I am told to fax reciepts, which I dont have a lot of. Would used car ads from people selling the same type of vehicle help?
Im also worried about the 19th. Do I lose my rental car coverage on that date? I need another car badly while Im getting this worked out.

Thank you all for all the help. I didnt know where to turn to and stumbled across this forum. Its been so helpful.
 
T

teflon_jones

Senior Member
Normally rental and storage coverage for an accident vehicle only covers 30 days. After that, you're responsible for charges regardless of whether the vehicle is fixed or not. If you want to fight this, it will probably be cheaper to have the car towed to your home and put in your driveway. You may be able to arrange for whatever shop that fixes it to tow it back for free.

The selling prices that are advertised will not help you. You need prices on what the vehicle actually is worth, either from an independent appraiser or from the records of vehicles that have actually sold (very hard to get).
 
J

JETX

Senior Member
teflon_jones said:
The selling prices that are advertised will not help you. You need prices on what the vehicle actually is worth, either from an independent appraiser or from the records of vehicles that have actually sold (very hard to get).
Click to expand...
And of course, that is only partly correct. Since it is virtually impossible to get actual sale prices, especially for a car of this type, the OP needs to get as many 'fair, equivalent' prices from any source he/she can. This includes the following:
www.nada.com
www.edmunds.com
www.kbb.com
internet ads and local newspapers.

Be sure to try to get the same model, mileage, equipment as much as possible. What you are trying to do is to support your claim for your higher value. And if the paint on your vehicle was bad or primer, be sure to consider that also.
 
H

Happy Trails

Senior Member
Did they send out an insurance adjuster to look at your vehicle? Or are they handling this totally over the phone?

We had a '67 charger that ended up receiving $2700 in damage; they sent out an adjuster to check it out. Once they seen the condition of the car, they had no problem writing the check.
 
K

kratos

Junior Member
Happy Trails said:
Did they send out an insurance adjuster to look at your vehicle? Or are they handling this totally over the phone?

We had a '67 charger that ended up receiving $2700 in damage; they sent out an adjuster to check it out. Once they seen the condition of the car, they had no problem writing the check.
Click to expand...
They sent an insurance adjuster out to look at it. And his estimate was around $4000 dollars to repair.

Also, I called the tow yard and they said if I came down and paid all the fees for it sitting there I could get it out, but if the car is released to the insurance company then they will bill them directly. Is this true? Can I just go down and pick it up and then bill the insurance?
 
J

JETX

Senior Member
kratos said:
Also, I called the tow yard and they said if I came down and paid all the fees for it sitting there I could get it out, but if the car is released to the insurance company then they will bill them directly. Is this true?
Click to expand...
Yep. If you want the car out now, you will have to pay the amount owed and try to recover from the insurance company.
If you want to wait on their schedule, the insurance company (since they do a LOT of these) has an account with the storage.... and will bill them on THEIR release.
 
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