Goodbye to an old friend

[DeLorean]

It does not have to be rusty, there are plenty of non rusty cheap 900's you can pick up. CL / auctioz-zip, / ebay. might take a few weeks, but you can be rolling in another "low rust" 900-t for less than $1000 if you play your cards right.

[sjones]

It could work out to your benefit. If the woman driving is at fault for making an illegal u-turn her insurance company
could 'total' your car. I know non cabs have the lowest value, but you clearly had a lot of work in it. Did you keep your receipts? Ideally it would be great if you could get the car totalled, get a settlement cheque from the insurance company, go shopping and pick out a cherry C900 for $500, transplant as much of your 'upgrades' you made to your C900 to the new C900.

[Luke]

It does not have to be rusty, there are plenty of non rusty cheap 900's you can pick up. CL / auctioz-zip, / ebay. might take a few weeks, but you can be rolling in another "low rust" 900-t for less than $1000 if you play your cards right.

Yeah I know it seems weird, but I'd rather have one thats already had a bit of a hard life for all around driving, that way I don't feel bad about making it worse. I find that with an annual wax-oil treatment and a leaky engine to help the rust proofing they hold up ok. I already have a sweet rust free '79 900 that I drive when ever the weather is nice.

[jungletits]

Gotta say I'm with Snakes on this one... '86 5 dr iz whutchu need bro.

[squaab99t]

It could work out to your benefit. If the woman driving is at fault for making an illegal u-turn her insurance company
could 'total' your car. I know non cabs have the lowest value, but you clearly had a lot of work in it. Did you keep your receipts? Ideally it would be great if you could get the car totalled, get a settlement cheque from the insurance company, go shopping and pick out a cherry C900 for $500, transplant as much of your 'upgrades' you made to your C900 to the new C900.

Not that easy dealing with the insurance companies. In my experience they have been a PITA . they will offer a $500 total, because they can not find a kbb or anything except a junkyard price. I've tried to negotiate (waive) the $50 they charge for you to but it back. No go, so I said come get it. their response. "It is not worth getting." FU....

Cherry 900c for 5 bills? good luck...
The cost of your time to transfer the parts? What is your time worth? $20/hour is my rate unless I'm learning something new. Either way it suxs.

[Luke]

It could work out to your benefit. If the woman driving is at fault for making an illegal u-turn her insurance company
could 'total' your car. I know non cabs have the lowest value, but you clearly had a lot of work in it. Did you keep your receipts? Ideally it would be great if you could get the car totalled, get a settlement cheque from the insurance company, go shopping and pick out a cherry C900 for $500, transplant as much of your 'upgrades' you made to your C900 to the new C900.

Not that easy dealing with the insurance companies. In my experience they have been a PITA . they will offer a $500 total, because they can not find a kbb or anything except a junkyard price. I've tried to negotiate (waive) the $50 they charge for you to but it back. No go, so I said come get it. their response. "It is not worth getting." FU....

Cherry 900c for 5 bills? good luck...
The cost of your time to transfer the parts? What is your time worth? $20/hour is my rate unless I'm learning something new. Either way it suxs.

Yes, this what I am dealing with now, the adjuster came to check out the car today, confirmed without hestitation that it is a "total".... then couldnt find a value in his system for it, but was able to look up estimated salvage value of $800-1000, meaning that if I want to buy it back for salvage thats what they will deduct from the settlement. So basically unless its value as an actual useful car before that accident comes back more than $1000, I will get zilch if if want to keep the car. Wow, what was the point of even making a claim? I might as well have just sucked it up and moved on found something to start moving parts into.

[SwedeSport]

That really sucks.

We should all put effort into insuring our cars at appraised value. It will cost a little more up front, but we wont get screwed by the insurance companies when our cars get wrecked. Lets put our heads together to see what is the best deal.

I know a guy who built a street rod and spent north of 100k to do so. It had 40k worth of body and paint work in it. He got rear ended by a teenage girl in a neon and did 30k in damage to the thing. He got nothing from the insurance companies.

Last I checked the book value on my 86 was like 400 bucks. I know I have a little more than that invested in it. If I got burned like that I would have to wait til the gal in the BMW gets her car fixed, then go do some midnight maneuvers with a quart of paint stripper.

[paulh]

Yeah scrap prices are stupid, the guy at the counter in New Ringgold was saying they are paying something crazy like $650 a car now. Whatever you do, don't take their first offer, show em some recent sales on ebay or saabnet, the car should be worth at least $3k, likely more if you play your cards right. Its not gonna be an easy sell, but you should be able to manage to get something out of them if you are willing to spend some time on the phone proving your case.

Paul

[hutch]

Maybe you want to look at something like this?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Saab-900 ... 500wt_1182

You could probably sell the airflow kit and come out nearly even...

[JeffCullen]

Painful to see a nice flatnose meet an untimely end

[99Super]

I'm with paulh on this one. When the drunk killed his Hon-duh by hitting Deb's 99, the Ins Co. only wanted to pay like $200. We documented everything and showed similar car's calues and ended up getting $1600 after the $200 fee to keep the car.
Fight the bastards!

john

[Luke]

Update:

Still fighting with the insurance company to get some money for the car - luckily Pa has pretty clear laws on total loss evaluation - but insurance companies have lots of tricks up their sleeves to avoid paying out! We'll see what happens.

[Jordan]

That sucks. Leanne's damage was estimated at about 850 dollars (dented hatch and broken tail light) by the adjuster but we haven't heard form the other drivers insurance company to see what we will actually get or if they are going to consider that "totaled". I think its going to be pretty close.

[RobVonSAAB]

Hey Luke I feel your pain, I got hit by a Suburban in my 92 900 turbo. Front end hit at around 25 mph. It was totalled but I managed to get 1,600 for the car. They wound up letting me keep it. And when the weather warmed up I was able to bolt in a spare rad support, rad, and hood. The passenger side bumper support was completely rusted out and fell apart from the hit. Its amazing how much rust is invisible and lurking in dark places on these cars. That was a good point you made about the leaky engines helping with rustproofing. I also lay my funnel ontop of the upper a-arms after I fill my trans. Hopefully it helps to keep that area from rusting out as it usually happens on the passenger side. Do you need another rad support? That car is too cool to get crushed as long as the frame isnt bent too badly.

[Luke]

Thanks for the offer Rob, I am all for saving these cars whenever it is possible, unfortunatly its bent really badly, the inner wheel well forward of the spring tower is crumpled and pushed to the side so far thats its almost touching the turbo manifold.