This is topic Totalled my Modular Notch - Need Legal advise in forum General Talk at Northern California Ford Owners  .


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Posted by RRRCobraSC281 (Member # 7086) on :
 
MY car, 88 Modular Notchback Mustang, was involved in a 4 car accident on I-880 around 1:20pm. Traffic came to a stop, at least in the #1 lane and I stopped behind the car infront of me. Just like any bumper to bumper traffic jam. Then about 12 seconds later, a BMW plows into the back of my car, knocking out the back glass and broke my seat. Then with in a second another car hit the BMW and that set-up a chain reaction collision that caused me to advance forward and hit the guy infront setting off my airbags.

My driver rear quarter is screwed, as is the roof is tweeked. I think the IRS sub frame was what kept it fairly solid back there.

I know the insurance companies will only give me blue book on my car, but if I had a stock car, I'd be fine with it. But like most people on this forum, we have moderate upgrades, and mine is far from stock.

Just wondering what people have done in the past to make things right again.

I was really glad my $1200 hood was still okay.
 

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Posted by 5LTR SVT (Member # 7080) on :
 
damn that thing was clean , sorry to hear man
 

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Posted by slow96cobra (Member # 6001) on :
 
if you have receipts for any of that, that should help out a bit
 

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Posted by 68dustin (Member # 5388) on :
 
OH hell no... im sorry for ur loss.. that was a bad ass car..
 

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Posted by 87droptop50 (Member # 7185) on :
 
Fuck ... I'm sorry to hear this
 

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Posted by 2TONE (Member # 4216) on :
 
damn,sorry to hear thats really bad news ,sorry for ur loss ,it was a sweet car
 

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Posted by SAV650HAB (Member # 10324) on :
 
Damn not good, as far as the insurance if you went over all your upgrades and reciepts to prove you purchased them with your insurance company your good, if not and these parts were never mentioned then i think your gonna be out of luck. Thats what i know when i did my insurance threw geico i had to show pictures and reciepts, in order for them to cover most of what i bought for the car.
 

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Posted by Blind (Member # 3052) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by SAV650HAB:
Damn not good, as far as the insurance if you went over all your upgrades and reciepts to prove you purchased them with your insurance company your good, if not and these parts were never mentioned then i think your gonna be out of luck. Thats what i know when i did my insurance threw geico i had to show pictures and reciepts, in order for them to cover most of what i bought for the car.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Blind:

quote:

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Originally posted by SAV650HAB:
Damn not good, as far as the insurance if you went over all your upgrades and reciepts to prove you purchased them with your insurance company your good, if not and these parts were never mentioned then i think your gonna be out of luck. Thats what i know when i did my insurance threw geico i had to show pictures and reciepts, in order for them to cover most of what i bought for the car.

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that applies if you're at fault, but because the car behind him caused the accident, all he has to prove is the value of his car to the other persons insurance company.


sucks man, best of luck, go see a doctor!

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shit there's your answer, show them the reciepts
 

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Posted by Stimpys 5.0 (Member # 5829) on :
 
Damn man that really blows. I'm going through the same thing. N they said that most of the upgrades are consider maintaince and most likely not improve the value of the car(which is total bullsh*t). So I'm digging through all my receipts to hopefully get a Lil more money than what there offering me now.
Good luck
 

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Posted by Beasty5.0 (Member # 2935) on :
 
Rob,

I'm sorry to hear what happen to your baby, but glad your ok.

As far as the car, it's really going to depend on the insurance company your going to deal with, but like most they will not want to payout. Also, the agent your going to deal with is also going to be a factor, whether or not they are hard to deal with. That being said, your best bet will be your receipts and any appraisal you may have done to the car. If you don't have any, than you better pray that the person your going to deal with is a car enthusiast. Good Luck
 

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Posted by Vallejo707 (Member # 10296) on :
 
Pics of Before and after ?
 

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Posted by 94 N.C.F. GT (Member # 3946) on :
 
dammmmmmm that mofo was to clean sorry to hear this
 

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Posted by Adam5.0 (Member # 6995) on :
 
buy it back from the insurance company
 

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Posted by slow96cobra (Member # 6001) on :
 
heres the bad ass car

http://www.californiafords.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=045978#000000
 

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Posted by iceman302 (Member # 7180) on :
 
Damn it! That thing was very clean. As a general rule, I always have my Mustangs insured for agreed value. Even my Raptor has additional insurance to cover the mods. My GXP had $10K worth of extra coverage.

Gather all of your receipts, find as many comparable cars as possible to reinforce the value, and pay to have a custom vehicle appraisal done. Those things will give you the strongest legs to stand on. Then, submit a claim to your insurance company and negotiate like mad. They have a duty to deal with you fairly. Let them seek reimbursement from the other insurance companies involved.

Once you've settled on a value with your insurance company, negotiate the salvage value. If its low enough, buy it back and use the parts for another build or sell them outright.

[ May 10, 2011, 08:27 PM: Message edited by: iceman302 ]
 

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Posted by 03smknsvt (Member # 5514) on :
 
are you talking about your coupe??!!
 

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Posted by 03smknsvt (Member # 5514) on :
 
wtf!! sorry about your loss..
 

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Posted by fam_lace (Member # 8565) on :
 
a few weaks ago the same shit happen to me on 580 in dublin but i had minor damage sorry to hear about that bruh
 

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Posted by 89bluenotch (Member # 7454) on :
 
Sorry man... Sucks you put a lot of work into that car!. Glad to hear your okay.
 

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Posted by dubfive-0 (Member # 8965) on :
 
man this blows, but at least your okay bro.. like everyone else is sayin look for reciepts and hope they get you covered... post pictures by the way

BEST OF LUCK my man

[ May 10, 2011, 08:54 PM: Message edited by: dubfive-0 ]
 

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Posted by SnakeBit (Member # 8871) on :
 
OH NO! I'm really sorry this happen to you bro. Damn that was one clean coupe. I'm glad to hear you were not hurt.
 

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Posted by kingroy (Member # 7736) on :
 
Sorry for your loss. But since a BMW hit you, your neck and back hurts for at least a year. Get cashed out on that and buy yourself something new or different a year from now.
 

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Posted by RRRCobraSC281 (Member # 7086) on :
 
Thank you for all who replied. The bad part is that I did all the work. Yeah, most of it can be swaped into another ride, but Damn....Really didn't want to do this twice. I'm going in for a medical check up tomorrow.

I planned on taking it to an appraiser to give me a somewhat fair value of the completed work.

I really can't do anything until I get the actual police report.
 

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Posted by SnakeBit (Member # 8871) on :
 
if the words "soft tissue damage" come up, you are paid!
this site might help you. It looks like they have a Q & A section
http://www.caraccidentattorneys.com/legal-advice/auto-accident
 

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Posted by stangin' (Member # 514) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by iceman302:
Damn it! That thing was very clean. As a general rule, I always have my Mustangs insured for agreed value. Even my Raptor has additional insurance to cover the mods. My GXP had $10K worth of extra coverage.

Gather all of your receipts, find as many comparable cars as possible to reinforce the value, and pay to have a custom vehicle appraisal done. Those things will give you the strongest legs to stand on. Then, submit a claim to your insurance company and negotiate like mad. They have a duty to deal with you fairly. Let them seek reimbursement from the other insurance companies involved.

Once you've settled on a value with your insurance company, negotiate the salvage value. If its low enough, buy it back and use the parts for another build or sell them outright.

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quote:

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Originally posted by stangin':

quote:

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Originally posted by iceman302:
Damn it! That thing was very clean. As a general rule, I always have my Mustangs insured for agreed value. Even my Raptor has additional insurance to cover the mods. My GXP had $10K worth of extra coverage.

Gather all of your receipts, find as many comparable cars as possible to reinforce the value, and pay to have a custom vehicle appraisal done. Those things will give you the strongest legs to stand on. Then, submit a claim to your insurance company and negotiate like mad. They have a duty to deal with you fairly. Let them seek reimbursement from the other insurance companies involved.

Once you've settled on a value with your insurance company, negotiate the salvage value. If its low enough, buy it back and use the parts for another build or sell them outright.

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great advice. assuming you have full coverage, deal with your insurance company would be easier and your best bet. hopefully, you're insured with a decent company that won't dick you around.

remember, DO NOT take their 1st, 2nd, or 3rd offer. stretch it out as long as you can and ask for the moon. they will offer some ridiculous low amount, you counter with a ridiculous high amount. don't settle until you get what you think it fair. just haggle and haggle until you're tired of the situation. they will want to close the case asap, but don't let that happen. each conversation should end with a better deal each time if you play your cards right. good luck.

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Exactly. This is a long story but here goes...

I bought my first Mustang (an '87 LX hatch) a month before my 18th birthday in 1995. I loved that car and sunk every dime into it over the course of almost 5 years... built 306, Tremec, built rearend, full suspension, stereo, chrome Ponies, etc.

The car had 78k when I bought it but 5 years of commuting from Roseville to UC Davis really racked up the miles. It had 184K on it went it went to the glue factory in November of 1999. Let's just say that bald drag radials and a downpour don't mix. I spun the car backwards into a decorative rock median at around 40 MPH. It broke 3 out of 4 wheels, the front suspension was toast, and it ripped the welded subframe connectors right out of the floor. The car was so tweaked that the hatch was pinched tight on one side of the roof but you could stick your thumb in the other.

Fortunately, the accident was deemed a "no fault" and I reached out to my insurance company. I told them that the car was basically new mechanically and I had a folder full of receipts for all of the parts and labor. They said "no problem" and that they would account for the mods. Their first offer? $2800. Big problem. I damn near threw the phone but I held my composure and told the lady to call me back when she had a reasonable offer.

$3500... No.

$4000... Nope.

She got up to $5000 and dug her heels in. This was after a couple months of haggling. I told her to get her supervisor involved. I got him up to $6000. He told me "not a penney more". I responded that they had a duty to deal with me fairly, that I'd provided everything they had asked from me, and they had basically dicked me around for 3 months. I also politely let them know I figured the arbitrator would have a little problem with the fact that my independent appraisal came in at just shy of $11K.

The appraisal and threat of arbitration reopened the doors of negotiation. It finally crept up to $9K and they told me they wouldn't go any higher. Arbitration was the next step. I negotiated the salvage value down to $300 and told them I would walk away if they cut me a check for $9K and I got to keep the car. I think they were so sick of me by this point that they agreed. I parted out that car for every nut and bolt. I got another $6500 from all the parts... a total of $15,500 on a car that was probably worth a little more than half that.

Not a bad end to the story... except its not quite the end. My second Mustang (a '91 LX hatch) was even more built than the first. It was a beautiful car with higher quality parts than the first... Emerald Green, 331, Tremec TKO, Boyd Coddington Timeless 5's, the works.

The '91 didn't meet the same fate as the '87 but I did hit a very large dog in the dead of night on a dark stretch of Greenback. I did some damage... mostly to the bumper cover and headlight. I got a quote for the repairs and headed to meet the adjuster.

It was the same damn lady that handled the claim on the '87! I cringed. My estimate was quite a bit higher than theirs. She didn't even blink and wrote me a check on the spot for my repair estimate. She clearly remembered me.
 

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Posted by Broke4.6 (Member # 9085) on :
 
ahh man this just broke my heart!! I LOVED THIS CAR...man I hate hearin stuff like this..glad your okay tho man!
 

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Posted by 98z28 (Member # 8408) on :
 
Wow!! So sorry! That was by far my favorite fox body!! I don't even like fox body's but that thing was bad ass! Time to build again!
 

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Posted by Nasty Notch (Member # 8863) on :
 
A quick question say for example your car is built from the ground up and u purchase alot of the parts from the shop owner but the are used but everything has Ben documented and receipts have been wrote out for all the parts and the labor and something like a accident happens will the insurance company pay for the labor and parts or do they have to be brand new purchased parts.... sorry if I'm jacking your thread
 

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Posted by iceman302 (Member # 7180) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Nasty Notch:
A quick question say for example your car is built from the ground up and u purchase alot of the parts from the shop owner but the are used but everything has Ben documented and receipts have been wrote out for all the parts and the labor and something like a accident happens will the insurance company pay for the labor and parts or do they have to be brand new purchased parts.... sorry if I'm jacking your thread

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The documentation is the key... new or used. Still, the best course of action is to insure the car for the proper value before something bad happens.
 

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Posted by STREETFIGHTER50 (Member # 2973) on :
 
Damn sorry to hear bro. Make sure u get paid! That was one of the sickest Coupes I know
 

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Posted by LS1EATR (Member # 2702) on :
 
O dam this sucks bad bro, hope ur doing okay, that mustang was clean. Good thing nothing happen to you buddy.
 

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Posted by 99FLYER (Member # 1528) on :
 
Soooo efffin sorry bout the loss....

Just keep pitching a "bitch fit". I had an 89lx that was modded to hell and back that caught fire. Car already had salvaged title so 21st century insurance wanted to give me $2500 because it was in great shape. I bitch fitted till my lips were purple and they finally had an independent car appraiser look over the car. I shmoozed him and he valued the car at $7000 even with te salvage title. The car was 11 yrs old at the time of the fire.
 

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Posted by SAMACH1 (Member # 7042) on :
 
sorry for your loss...
 

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Posted by Notch_notch (Member # 8902) on :
 
damn!! that suck. sorry for your loss.
 

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Posted by Mineralgt (Member # 9909) on :
 
Damn Bro this left me speechless I'm sorry for your loss. This car was the background of my computer. I really hope you get paid out for this and build another one. And thank god your ok. Good luck
 

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Posted by 915.0gt (Member # 9518) on :
 
insurance companies hate law suits,you were rear ended and not at fault, just show proof of purchase through bank statments or recipts and if they dont wanna pay start throughing around that you are going to take legal action against them, also pay the doctor a visit and start talking to them about bodily harm.

once u go to the doctor and tell them you are going to fight back they will start to cave, its gona be cheaper for them to pay you than get into a legal battle that they will lose as long as you have proof of purchase for your parts and a doctors note
 

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Posted by 50Reasons (Member # 6452) on :
 
Sorry about your car but the main thing is your ok and you can always build another one I know it will be a pain to do again though .
 

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Posted by RRRCobraSC281 (Member # 7086) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by 50Reasons:
Sorry about your car but the main thing is your ok and you can always build another one I know it will be a pain to do again though .

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