need some pricing help for insurance purposes.

[dr. awsome]

Well I was in as accident about a month ago and I want to make sure I get a fair amount of money for my car. So I was wondering if every one who is willing could help me to find a fair price for my buggy. I don't really have any pix of it but I will try to give as good as a description that I can.

First off it was a manx style buggy with side pods made by welch fun cars on a 67 pan with a 1 inch body lift. The pan was reinforced with 1/8" steel for a skid plate. It was still the ball joint front end. It had four wheel disk with CNC steering brakes, and a line lock for a parking brake. It was repainted a candy apple red. The paint was high quality but was starting to chip in the high use areas such as the mounting flanges and where you get in and out of the car. The wheels were the white five spokes with a four lug. The front tires were the stock size but mounted on a 14" rim and the rears were a 30X10.50 on a 15" rim. It had a single roll hoop behind the seats out of 2" mild steel. The bumpers were a baja style bumper. The front bumper was not the full width of the car it was more of a buggy bumper and the rear was a double tube bumper that was tied into the engine cage. It had a IRS bus trans axle mated to a 1835 with dual 30mm delortos. It also had a remote oil cooler and remote oil filter. As far as I could tell it was a high performance motor but I couldn't tell for sure. The interior was pretty bare with the cheap buggy seats and vinyl seat covers. It had a good stereo in it. It had a flip face pioneer deck with a boss 600w amp and 2 pioneer 600w 6x9's. I had single kyb gas adjust shock in the front and dual kyb gas adjust shocks in the rear. As far as I can remember that is about it. Anything I didn't mention was stock.

Thanks for you help. I just don't want to get screwed with the adjuster saying it's only worth $500 and not be able to do anything about it.
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is it time to get out of the dirt and switch to the street?

[Brian T.]

I had to do this little dance when my first baja was wrecked. The insurance company found several low priced cars in local adds. They said by finding several cars they could now get an average. The average is what they offered. They did tell me I could do the same thing and then we could try to come up with a figure. I would look for buggys that are as close to your car as possible. Collect these adds and have them for when they offer you a low price for your buggy. You can say these are closer to your buggy. I had alot in my car. The engine alone was over 4000.00 I towed my car home from the start. And bought it for only a few hundred bucks after they gave me the settlement. Good luck

[dr. awsome]

I have started to collect adds. The problem as you know is finding one that is close to the one that was wrecked. Form ads that i have found on this sight that are close I would personally say it was worth around 7-8k or so. I was going to paint some stuff and add carpet and put a high price of 10k in it to try to sell it the next week but then it got totaled. I guess this will teach me to never let any one else drive my car. especially if there an aggressive girl!
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is it time to get out of the dirt and switch to the street?

[Jowlz]

You dont have to accept any offer the insurance company makes. Their first few offers are going to be low low low. I will be interested in seeing how you make out.

For future reference, we have a few older cars. We get the cars appraised every 2 years for insurance reasons. The one that gets driven and shown, we have insured for appraisal value. The others that dont get driven are insured for fire and theft. Most homeowners policies dont cover cars that are stored.
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The honey-do list put my project on hold.......

[Tim10]

NOTE TO READERS --- Stated Value Insurance
Periodically we'll get notes about things like this. Remember to an actuary a bug is a 30 year old rusty car. Not a piece of work. Stated value eliminates the adjusters and negotiation. Your premium is negotiable by what they will/won't cover. I wrote a link on our website if anyone is interested.

Opinion #1 - Take the Offer
Overall, I'd take the offer. By the description the car does not sound as if it was street legal (line loc, cutting brakes etc). Chances are it was titled as a bug etc. IF they offer you $500 for it, take it and buy it back for $300. I know it sucks to have $200 offered for the scrap out... I'd be cautious that they start poking around and learn about non-dot alterations along with dirty title issues.

OR

Opinion #2 - Fight for $2500
Overall your car sounds like a $2500 car. Detailing, rims and interior seem to be what makes buggies worth $5k+... yours does not sound as if it's in this category. Insisting that it's a $10k car will be a far stretch as the top end seems to be about $6k anywhere in the country.... you'll end up buying it back for about $1000... netting $1500

Opinion #3 - Buy Another Body.
You had some very cool stuff on the car. It wouldn't take much to dig up another body then transplant the toys accross. If you do it right, you can net $6k for it at sale time.

Hate to be the one that brings it up ... sounds like the risk of the "hidden can of worms" is not worth the reward. I'd gulp... say "thank you" and gently leave the room.. knowing you can buy it back.

-Tim

PS... I'm interested in buying some of the goodies if you're parting it out.
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Dub Infested- PART WI$H LI$T-CLICK

[takotruckin]

tim, i think he's already in the process of rebuilding it

[dr. awsome]

yes I am rebuilding it. Also it was not a bug. It was a manx. And it was a registered street legal car. I had to pull a few strings with a friend that inspects cars but I got it done. honestly 2500 for it would be an insult for me. It was worth that when it wasn't running because of the equipment it had. Also I will not be parting it out. Mainly because i'm rebuilding and there's not much left to part out. Everything was destroyed in the wreck except for the drive train and the brakes.
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is it time to get out of the dirt and switch to the street?

[Tim10]

There was no insult intended for the estimate -- my apologies if it came accross wrong.

About 3x monthy (during warm months), I get requests to do this insurance stuff for regional agencies.... honest opinion on the value.

Did the state issue a VIN number and plate? Most states remove the VW numbers and then rivet a State ID plate in the front window. If this was not done, the car would be considered to not be the original car (assuming you have the normal shortened pan), reading through the legal stuff the car should then be either titled as a remanufactured, salvaged or issued a new VIN number.

From the intial post, it's likely that non-DOT approved parts were installed in the braking system. A bad attorney (or adjuster) on a sloppy day could argue the brake system was a contributing cause of the accident. I'm not aware of any Park-Locks, cutting brakes, etc that have a DOT approved notification on them.... add to this many buggies do not have mechanical emergency brakes. Most of the vendors (Ja-Mar, CNC etc) have notifications of "not for highway use."

With buggies, bajas and rails... I'd be cautious about stirring up any stink. There are some old threads on other boards that detail creating a bigger mess out of an unfortunate situation.

Sorry to hear about your accident --- How bad did you get hurt? What saved you?
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Dub Infested- PART WI$H LI$T-CLICK

[dr. awsome]

tim you didn't insult me really. I guess I'm just easily roused over this subject. If the insurance agent offered me 2500 I wouldn't take it and would fight for more. It feel i should get at least 5k for it because I believe could have sold it for that much fairly easily.
As for the accident I shattered my L4 vertebrae and broke my jaw. They had to fuse my L3,4, and 5 together. I have suffered major nerve damage to my left leg. I'm supposed to make a full recovery but it will take about 2 years or so. As for what saved me I have no idea. While I was in the car I couldn't move any thing from the waist down and in the hospital I couldn't move my right leg for about a day. The reason I broke my back is because I only had lap belts. I honestly think I was given a second chance and this was supposed to be a major wake up call in my life to get straightened out.
As for the argument of that the steering brakes contributed to the accident I can see where that could come in. But for the situation I don't thing it really matters. The other people cut in front of us and the driver would have and barely any time to hit the brakes if any.
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is it time to get out of the dirt and switch to the street?

[Tim10]

Feel your pain (really)... few years back had a construction accident and broke all my ribs on the front and in the back. Luckily can walk right now. Took about a year before the pain went away. Never realized how many people hugged me until my ribs continually snapped.

Good luck ... please let us know how it turns out.

I now have to put shoulder belts in our buggy --- sorry you have to be an example for my goofiness.

T.
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Dub Infested- PART WI$H LI$T-CLICK

[Tim10]