A woman with two kids in a '94 kia took out my girlfriend's 1983 blue wagon, yesterday, Friday 13th. The woman was pulling away from the police station (!) and, apparantly not looking, smashed into my girlfriend, Becky, as she was driving past at 25mph. Damage is all cosmetic. The headlight and washer fluid reservoir are all that broke...not sure about the breaks and suspension.

Becky contacted her insurance company before I arrived at the scene of the accident. So now I am wondering where to go with this... Insurance companies involved, I am guessing they will total the car and try to low ball us on the replacement cost...after all it is a 1983 car with 256,000 miles on it. The car is weathered, but has brand new tires and a few other new parts which I would want to get off of it, but more than that I would love to grab other valuable parts like the AMM, and relays, computer unit. What else can I get off the car that would be worth it? It has to be done fast, because it is parked on the city street.

I read DAVESHAN's post about his accident in June of 2003 and seems similar. Dave if you are out there, I would love to benefit from any lessons you learned in going through your situation. I am in Los Angeles, so same California laws will apply to me. (p.s. I'm a big fan of your websites)

Ultimately I would be happy to get $1500 or thereabouts and get to keep the car which I could dismantle as much as possible and sell for scrap. ...or should I just rip the parts out now before the ins company comes. Then they can haul it away and I'll have some good parts to sell off.

Thanks,

Ryan
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1989 244 Silver Sedan, 1983 245 Blue Waggon

A guy in a Mazda Tribute backed into my 765 a while back. I shopped around and got estimates from $800 to $2400+ to fix the damage.

The blue book value on the car is probably closer to $3,000. AAA of LoCal never sent an adjuster out to look at the car, so the agent went purely by the pictures I took (which were designed to make the car look as nice as possible. I got a check for about $1,100. I dropped $125 on a fender that's a perfect match, the rest on Bilsteins, tools, e-codes, and a new dash.

It looks like prices on 240s have just tanked recently. Dig up as many ads as you can showing early 80s 240s with an asking price of more than $1500.

Get a body shop to give you an estimate on the accident repair. If you can verify it's just the fender then try and get $700-800 outta the insurance company. For that much you can fix up a lot. If you're not worried about the paint matching, you could get a fender from a PnP for less than $50. Headlamp bits too. Save the rest. Spend it on e-codes. Or something.

Either way, unless you want to be rid of the car, avoid getting a salvage title.

--
alex

Well, I'm sitting in the family room watching Phantom Menace and checking email. Bummer about the car. My experience was shockingly similar, some guy had just come out of the courthouse from paying a ticket and was driving his SUV while reading the paperwork. Amazing some people have liscenses.

The guy's insurance adjuster came out, looked at the car and pronounced it totaled, it had a slightly bent hood and broken grill. They did price comparisons and determined it's worth to be $1475 they deducted the $60 they would have gotten from the salvage auction and cut me a check. I went to Ecology, picked up semi-matching hood and grill for a total of $60 and put it on the car. Getting prices of cars that sold from craigslist/auto trader may help also.

It looks like your car is fixable, I'd get any paperwork that will help the adjuster determine the value together and see what happens. In my case I got more than I expected. I'd see what your company will do, before taking any parts off of the car, odds are you'll get $1200+ and get to keep the car. It looks like it won't take much to fix it so you may end up with $$ in your pocket and a drivable car. The only down side to getting a salvage car back on the road it having to go to a "Brake and Light Station" this is a California approved place that inspects the car to be sure it was fixed right. If you go this way be sure to get the VIN of the donor car as they want to know where the parts came from.
Good luck, the situation sucks but you may come out of this OK.

--
Dave Shannon
Spring Valley, California
'67 1800s
'73 1800ES
'88-240
my pages

I had a similar experience lately with one of my customers. She had an '89 with about the same mileage that was in very good condition and had less damage done to it than yours. Initially they were going to give her $700.00, $600.00 if she wanted to keep it. She copied and faxed over her extensive service records from my shop and they gave her an additional $200.00 because of that, albeit begrudgingly. One of the things that came into play with her was the $500.00 deductable. If she was going to get $1200.00, the deductable brought her down to $700.00. She opted to let them have the car and she took the extra $100.00. She told me I could have anything that I wanted off of the car so long as it would not cause a problem. Well with that I promptly swapped out the seats front and rear, fuel pump/filter assy, visors, rear bumper, mouldings, tail lamp assys, mirrors, and a few other things. Put all of this stuff into my eldest kids car and it worked out great. Of course the only thing here is that I put all of the parts off of the kids car back onto the wrecked car so nobody knew what happened and the car was off to the junk yard anyhow.

Being a shop owner I have had opportunities and reason to look into putting a salvaged vehicle back on the road. What I have been told is that you will need to get:
Brake and Lamp Inspections $100.00 (ball park)
Smog Inspection $50.00
CHP VIN verification $0-$50.00 (not sure truthfully)
Re-register with DMV $50.00

Then it is yours again. From what I was told you apparently have to reregister the vehicle like you just bought it all over again plus getting the VIN verification and brake and lamp cert and a smog cert too.

Now when you couple all of this time and money with the destroyed 1/4 panel it can really become a loosing proposition fast. I had a customer who wanted to give me a car a while back and between the broken radiator neck, damaged right front fender (less than yours) and all of the expense that comes with a salvage title it just was not worth it.

The only piece of advice I can really give is to carry the minimum legal insurance coverage required by law. Uninsured motorist coverage on a $500.00-$1000.00 car just does not make sense, especially when you factor in a $500.00 deductable.

That same eldest kid that got the free make over on her car wrecked her 85 240 about a year ago, pre-makeover thank God. Speaking of thank God, no one was hurt and she smashed everything between the fenders and made a taco out of the hood. She carries PD/PL insurance and that is it. The gal she hit was it perfect shape and not even concerned about it. For $200.00 at Pick-a-Part we were able to pick up the hood, upper core support, grill, all the head lamp bucket stuff, and a near new radiator all in the same faded smurf blue as her car. Had it all done in the same afternoon and if you had not seen it the day before you would have had no idea what she just pulled off. The problem that I see for you though is that the 1/4 panel is crunched. There is a lot more work involved in changing that out and probably a little bit of welding too.

That is my experience with the whole salvage title thing and crunched Volvos, take it for what it is worth and with a grain of salt as I have only researched it but never actually went through the motions of putting one back on the road after being totaled.


Mark

"Brake and Lamp Inspections $100.00 (ball park)
Smog Inspection $50.00
CHP VIN verification $0-$50.00 (not sure truthfully)
Re-register with DMV $50.00"

Costed me $50 for the brake and light, smog can be had for $30, and CHP does not need to verify unless there is suspicion, as DMV normally does the inspection in the drive-thru area.

For more info from the DMV, click here.

"The only piece of advice I can really give is to carry the minimum legal insurance coverage required by law. Uninsured motorist coverage on a $500.00-$1000.00 car just does not make sense, especially when you factor in a $500.00 deductable."

Carrying the minimum is the absolute stupidest thing one can do. Once the insurance limits are tapped out, the owner is responsible for the rest of the amount. Such is extremely easy these days, as lawyers are rampant (Larry H. Parker got me 2.1 million dollars!), soft tissue "injuries" run up the medical tab really quickly, and the average new car costs over $25k.

A fellow SoCal member found out the hard way after he got into an accident a couple years ago. The car he hit was a Saturn. As it was totalled, that tapped out his insurance limits already. The total tab was a few thousand dollars, from his own pocket. Put yourself into that position ... what if it was a BMW or a Mercedes instead?

Another fellow member got involved in a hit-and-run that totalled a brand new RAV-4 and his Volvo, along with damaging a Chevy pickup. Long story short, that vehicle's owner, which was pinpointed with evidence left at the scene, had to refinance their house to shell out over $30k.

If you have any assets at all worth more than $1000 (bank account, business, house, additional cars, etc.), you better have real insurance coverage. Additional coverage is not as expensive as what some think, nor is uninsured coverage (which has no deductible). Ask - it doesn't hurt.

I much rather shell out a little more every year instead of having to shell out several hundred dollars every month for the next 15 years, just for one accident.

-- Kane ... doesn't hurt to ask other insurance companies too. With even more coverage, I saved over $200/year switching from 21st Century to Allstate.

--

While I would never deliberately mislead anyone, take into consideration that any information and advice provided was at no cost to you.

WOW, struck a nerver huh Kane? Let me clarify my position here. Yes, you should have enough insurance to cover your ass, set your limits high enough that it will cover your butt. However, a large percentage of these cars we're talking about are $1000.00 cars. Paying for the extra coverage to fix your car is not really financially prudent in my opinion. The car is worth $1000.00, $1500.00 tops, you get it totalled and they give you $1000.00 tops for it and now you have a car that is bent to hell to some degree, totalled so you have to jump through the hoops of the DMV to put it back on the road and deal with paint and body work to make it right again. Between the extra money you will be spending on premiums, the money you will spend re-certifying it, and the money you will spend on paint and body work you would be money ahead to go find yourself another $1000.00 Volvo.

I am in the business so I see this stuff come through my door on a regular basis and talk to the guys who make a living out of going to the public auctions every week and middle manning these cars that they pick up for $200.00-$500.00 all day long. Heck, I just picked up an '84 244 GL for $130.00! The car was in great shape but it needed a MAF sensor, I advised the people to put in the sensor and drive the car as the rest of it was in great shape. They declined the repairs and asked if I wanted to buy it, I told them they owed $70.00 diagnostic on it and that because it did not run it was worth $200.00 tops. All three of my kids drive 240 wagons and I paid no more than $500.00 for any one of them.

The deals are out there and unless your older 240 is really something special the added expense of insurance to fix it when it get wrecked just doesn't make sense. By all means have enough coverage to cover your but and only you can decide how much is enough.

Mark

Struck a nerve because of the way you put it which reads like such applies across the board. What you're talking about is the collision - and I totally agree that when a car is worth less than $2k, it ain't worth carrying it. That's fine and all, since all it will cover is yourself, but certainly you should never short change the coverage to opposing parties (libility).

Comprehensive and uninsured motorist is a lot cheaper than most people think.

-- Kane
--

While I would never deliberately mislead anyone, take into consideration that any information and advice provided was at no cost to you.

Kane is right on, even if you don't own anything courts can impose a Judgment which will take anything you ever get. I carry the max 21st offers and we have a large liability policy in addition.

Market value should decide the offer from the company. In my case I had only liability insurance on that car which meant I dealt with his insurance Co. His adjuster found 3 actual sales of 245s in the southern California area to compare. At the time the car had ~200K but the interior etc was spotless, dash was crack free etc so I got top dollar.

I forgot about the DMV inspection, I got the brake/light then sold it to Julio as a parts car he got it registered. I picked up a '92 745T which cured me of newer Volvos forever.
--
Dave Shannon
Spring Valley, California
'67 1800s
'73 1800ES
'88-240
my pages

Hey Dave,

Just thought I'd drop my two cents in... the 84 245DL is at 218K+ miles and going strong. She is now my daily driver being that the 79 264GL has a head gasket leak (I'm waiting on my vacation to tackle that job) and the wife won't let me get near the 02 MB C320S (somehow the rear tires spin a lot when I'm behind the wheel... lead foot + turning off the Electronic Stability Program = A LOT OF FUN) How easily she forgets all the hard work I went through to get her into that car. Oh, well at least the 245DL is still going strong and the way she is running I have my eyes on 300K+ miles with no problems (other than a leaky PS Pump that should be here in a couple of days). Just goes to show you what a salvaged car can do if given a chance. Take Care Dave!!!

Sincerely,
--
Julio Meza

1979 264GL B27F 128K --> BW55->M46, CLS, IPD Sway, 81+ Dash, Gauges, Flat Hood & E-Codes

1979 262C B27F 166K --> Restoration Project

1984 245DL 218K --> Sport Wagon

2002 Mercedes C320S 40K --> Wifemobile

Glad the old girl is doing well, I miss it way more than the '92 745T that I replaced it with, and sold less than a year later. However the next wagon I buy is going to be either a 122 or P-210.

Bricks that age are salvaged out for such minor damage that many of them are good as new. Personally I'd rather have a salvage vehicle that I knew the history of over a non-accident car that was an unknown with no history.

--
Dave Shannon
Spring Valley, California
'67 1800s
'73 1800ES
'88-240
my pages