On the way home tonight, got taken out by an uninsured Hispanic lady, who tried to leave the scene - I ran her down and yelled to get attention of others in the area. It really sucks, never had any body damage - now I have to get new rear bumper, rr taillight lens, body work on both rr and lr quarters, as well as new bumper mount tubes. I will try to post pictures tomorrow if I can. Anybody have access to aluminum commando bumpers and associated hardware cheap?

Jeff

Jeff

You should go to Wrench and Go in Pleasant Hill. I went there today and they had 6 240 (2 sedans and 4 wagons--my favorite being a 1977 245 with a frame totally rusted out), a 760 turbo wagon (with an engine that caught on fire), and a 740. They always have at least 5 Volvos. They are the cheapest in the city.

But they never had a 940 yet... :(

Jeff

I'm going today, in fact. If you want, I can take some pictures of the sedans they have if they are worthy donors. If you need help, it would be no problem either.


Jeff

Now that REALLY sucks... the same thing happened to me in a parking garage in Seattle lately. Some idiot in an old caravan whipped up a ramp and into the next level and forced me to swipe a pillar and they never stopped. Thing is, Im a legal citizen and even I cant afford the bloody insurance they want to try requiring me to pay. The cheapest insurance I could find, and I have an immaculate record, would require me to pay $90 a month for just liability. No extras. Now, $90 may not be much to some, but thats a significant portion of my income and I simply cannot pay it. I'd have to pay for insurance instead of food. We also have no form of public transit in my area so thats out. Oh well. Atleast if something happened I wouldnt try to run. Just stay at take it.

You are lucky. Last night 12/27/07, my Daughter and 3 of my Grandchildren were hit head-on by a woman driving an old junker of a Thunderbird. The woman had no insurance, her drivers license had been suspended for multiple D.U.I. convictions. Now we have a Daughter that is very banged-up, 3 of our Grandchildren are slightly injured, and a totaled-our new Yukon Denali XL. We are very fortunate that no one was killed, or seriously injured. This woman missed her entrance to a controlled access highway, and decided in her drug-induced state to continue on the the next on ramp IN THE WRONG DIRECTION!!!!!
She also deduced that she should go really fast to hurry and get out of the oncoming lanes. She, thankfully is a guest of the County, where hopefully, she will remain until she is cleaned-up from the painkillers that she used to medicate her misery. She owns nothing, and has no prospects of ever having anything. God only knows how much out of pocket we will wind up.

Sorry for your loss and I feel your pain. A few years ago I was driving my other car (a Caprice) and it took a good deal of damage caused by uninsured illegal aliens. I don't know about the whole allowing everyone to have a driver's license thing (uninsured or not), because that policy toward illegal aliens was adopted in my area and the motorists in question still didn't have insurance or a driver's license. I don't think it was an isolated case, since I called the police who questioned the parties responsible after the accident, returned to me, stated the other driver was definitely responsible, and said they see this all the time but can't do anything about it. I'd simply have to eat the cost of the repair. They did offer some advice: Drive a beater that you don't care about because it will likely happen again. Funny things for public servants to say to taxpayers, but local politicians are really to blame.

Fortunately, my insurance covered a percentage of my repair bill and said they would go after the offending party (almost certainly a futile gesture). I've had professional (and expensive) body work and paint in the area twice, and presently rust from the damaged area is coming back again.

My parents car got nailed almost 10 years ago by a "legal" uninsured driver. My parents insurance company created an "agreement" with the driver so that he would pay off the expense of the accident over time. After 10 years, the driver finally paid off the debt and my parents finally got their deductible back, a miracle if you ask me! One problem though the value of 1996 Dollars vs. those of 2007!

jorrell
--
92 245 250K miles, IPD'd to the hilt, 06 XC70, 00 Eclipse custom Turbo setup...currently taking names and kicking reputations!

Here is a link (hopefully) to pictures of the damage.

Jeff

Greetings:
Not trying to start a flame here, but this is one arguement for letting everyone (legally here or not) get a driver's license. If you don't have or can't get a license then you can't get insurance, even if you are still motivated to. Politically your opinion may vary but this IS a practical side effect.

BMWJohn in Indy/Avon

In Oklahoma you can't buy or register a car without a driver's license....
Likewise you have to show insurance coverage at the time.
I would not let an unlicensed driver drive my car. Among other things, unless
you can prove the car was stolen you are liable for any problems the car or its
operator may cause. I'm not sure how these unlicensed drivers get by.....
Better enforcement of existing laws is probably a large part of the answer.
--
George Downs, Bartlesville, Heart of the USA!

That really sucks!!!

I recently fixed a 1981 Volkswagen Rabbit Diesel for my uncle. It needed a head gasket. Anyway, I put a new one and a radiator, it cost a fair amount and he paid me $500 for the work and parts. He was on top of the world. His ride was cherry again, it had been parked for years.

I got a call from the hospital not more then a week later, a uninsured woman had pulled into him on the highway. it broke his leg, his foot, his toes, and he had to have sixty stiches in his face. The lady was tring to pull across the highway into the parking lot of the bar, She was driving a late model pickup, and she sat unharmed on the steps of the bar as the helicoper airlifted my uncle to the emergency room.

She told the police that it wasn't her fault.

In all it cost my uncle about $30,000. He was insured, but did not have uninsured motorist coverage.

So much for having a cherry ride.

I would try to work it out with the lady if you can O, even if she can only pay $20 a month, that is better then nothing. Make a police report if you have not already. If you don't make a claim with your insurance then your rates will not be affected.

Try to have a happy new year though!!!
Best Wishes,
Goatman

I will be pursuing a lawsuit in small claims court. Since I was still in the process of restoring the interior, etc., I made a reasoned judgment that the cost of full coverage on a 25+ year old car would not be justified, as it would be totalled by the insurance company for almost any reason. I suppose that is coming back to bite me now, but that's how the ball bounces. She did get two tickets for failure to yield and not carrying car insurance (recently raised in Iowa to $400). It would be nice if the payments of those fines went to the victims instead of the state general fund.

Jeff

First off, please deal with the uninsured driver. If your insurance has uninsured/underinsured coverage (included in many basic liability insurance policies) report it to them and let them go after her. If not be sure to let the authorities know what happened, if she ran this may not be her first accident.

For parts check your local craigslist and boneyards. Show us pics.
--
Lee 75 244 (80k original miles) 79 242 65 220 project

Lee,

A common misconception about insurance - underinsured/uninsured motorist coverage does not pay for damage to your car. The only way to get physical damage covered to your own car is through collision coverage. Pictures were just posted. No local Craigslist in DSM, only one boneyard that allows pick 'n pull, and they don't have any old 240s. In fact, finding old 240s in DSM is harder than I would have imagined.

Jeff

I carry only liability,medical, and uninsured motorist. My vehicles are always too old to justify comp. Ten years ago my wife had head-on with uninsured and my company sent me three grand for loss of my toyota van. feeling very lucky that my darling wife was still with me, I immediately went out and bought a Volvo wagon. I do carry the most amount on L,M,UM. that ins co allows
Michael
82 245,68 220,89 745, 71 145,78 242GT, 72 1800

Hi Jeff -

What do you mean there's no craigslist in Des Moines? http://desmoines.craigslist.org/search/sss?query=volvo&minAsk=min&maxAsk=max

There's also ames.craigslist.org (not much here), iowacity.craigslist.org, quadcities, omaha, KC, mpls, Cedar Rapids, Dubuque - granted, they get a bit further afield, but also check here - car-part.com search.

As far as people to talk to about commando bumpers, it'll be a bit tricky, but you might try East University Import Service - whom you probably know about - they're the local volvo specialist shop. Some of the boneyards down off SW30th had older volvos a year or three back as I recall, though they may all be up and crushed now, for all I know.

Besides the illegals not having insurance they also seem to be lowering wages in the construction field, stealing more than legals in way of construction tools and causing all sorts of hell everywhere. If this happens to me and its a dude who runs I think there may be some ass kicking involved.

Insurance requirements are a joke,once you get the registration you cancel insurance and drive without it. The DMV never knows the difference and local police can't or don't do anything about it. It has happened to me and you can't squeeze blood from a turnip!. Dan

Hmmm, I've been reading some of these with some curiousity.

Here in NJ, insurance companies notify the DMV of any dropping of insurance (cancellation by the insurer, or by the car owner to, e.g., change policy) -- it happened to me once a long time ago when I simply changed companies, and had to bring my new insurance papers to show I had new coverage (I had not lapsed for any time at all -- in fact, I overlapped, starting my new policy a week before terminating my old one).

Also, here our policies include "uninsured motorist" insurance, where our own company (here we have "no fault", for better or worse) pays us if we're hit by an uninsured car.

So, how different is it in other states???

I forgot to add, the company here that runs CT's online reg system and insurance reporting, also provides those services for many other states. They were handling NY dealers, Calif dealers, and parts of the system for I believe Wisconsin and South Carolina.

Each state wanted different products or specific services, so exactly what your state does is up to them. Some states, like Maine and Florida, seem to do very little to follow up on registrations and insurance issues. Others are very bureaucratic about this stuff, CT probably being the worst.

I'd expect that all states now do have minimum liability insurance laws in any case.
--
::: Rob Bareiss, New London CT ::: 92 244 ::: 90 745GL ::: 90 745T ::: 84 242DL ::: 90 745T Parts ::: Used to have : 86 244DL, 87 244DL, 91 244, 88 244GL, 88 744GLE, 82 245T, 86 244DL, 87 244DL, 88 245DL, 89 244DL!

I agree that is a possibility - however, it wouldn't be that difficult for the insurance companies to notify the DMV and local police departments if insurance was cancelled by the policy owner. Then government could initiate action to claim property until properly insured.

One thing I have noticed in this thread is some mention of "illegals". I do not know if these people are legal residents or not. That is really outside of the scope of the problem - uninsured motorists are from every segment of society.

I felt bad after posting that last one. Your right its not an issue about illegals. Plenty of white trash out there causing more problems than one wants to know about.

Wait I said white because I'm almost white depending on the season. I'm white, but the % of uninsured drivers is up due to the illegal population boom.

A company I worked for briefly, now called "TRI-VIN", here in CT, does exactly that. They help the state run the "on-line" portion of the motor vehicle registration program- in fact, the DMV offices are using their software too when you reg a car.

Connecticut of course requires insurance when you register, even if they haven't increased the pathetically low 20K/40K/10K damage limits in the last 20 years. I carry more since it's easily possible for one accident to exceed these limits, but that's another story.

In any case, once insurance lapses or is cancelled, within 30 days (usually it takes less than 2 weeks) the DMV has that info, you get a notice, and your reg is suspended within 30 days. You have to bring in proof of ins to get off the list.

When the police run a plate, they are informed that a car is suspended for no ins, I hear it on my police scanner all the time, like 10 times a day just in my little town. Many times the penalty or fine is avoided by the people getting ins again and presenting the card when they go to court, but on that day, they get their car towed.

It does suck though to deal with your own ins company trying to make a claim against someone with no ins. It's easiest to file a claim with your company, when it's not your fault as in this case, and let them go after the person, but it's no guarantee that they'll get any money out of them. And like it or not, it ends up as a claim history on your record.

That said, we do have a 79 242 that's getting parted in Connecticut... not sure what area the wrecked car is in but perhaps some parts can be used? Email me, myvwsgotme@snet.net.

--
--
::: Rob Bareiss, New London CT ::: 92 244 ::: 90 745GL ::: 90 745T ::: 84 242DL ::: 90 745T Parts ::: Used to have : 86 244DL, 87 244DL, 91 244, 88 244GL, 88 744GLE, 82 245T, 86 244DL, 87 244DL, 88 245DL, 89 244DL!