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Bought my 92 245 in September. Perfect exterior and interior. Seller couldn't keep it running(needed a Crank Pos. Sensor).
Jan. 9th, drunk driver rear-ended me. Geico tried to "low-ball" me, but I stood firm and got what I felt was a good settlement for me to fix it myself.
On the way back to work from picking up that settlement check,only a 5 mile trip, I was hit in the front driver's corner.
This guy's insurance was with Progressive. They came and looked, offered me a lowball estimate and offered me a check right there, which I refused.
I took it to a local body shop, and suddenly the outcome was out of my control. When the body shop had the ins. adjuster come to see what else needed to be done, the cost got high enough to total the car. It seems that in Fla., it is totaled if the cost of repairs is 80% of the car's value. A salvage title is written and you cannot register the vehicle.
So I was left with negotiating the cost of a replacement, which I feel I did well on.
The bottom line: Don't bother to carry collision insurance. Don't take your car to the body shop if you have any desire to keep it in your control.
The whole scenario was crazy.
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Progressive is pretty sleezy to begin with. They have those "mobile claims offices" running all over the place ( driving like maniacs, I've nearly been run off the road by 4 or 5 of them ) they learned that trick from big city taxi fleets. They have people who run around to accident scenes with checkbook in hand to try to get people to sign off on an accident on the spot, because they found out years ago that people don't think straight on the spot and you can usually sucker them into taking a lowball check if you wave it in their face while they're rattled .
--
-------Robert, '93 940t, '90 240 wagon, '84 240 diesel (she's sick) , '80 245 diesel, '86 740 GLE turbo diesel, '92 Ford F350 diesel dually
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My son was rear ended this Monday, took out the tail lights, pushed the bumper shocks all the way in, popped the top trim off the top of the bumper.
Progressive adjuster came this morning, I had all the part prices ready for him.
He took the required pictures figured the damage to $1650 wrote the check and was on his way. None of his resources had the parts. Ill be in the pick in pull in the am for the bumper, already replaced the tail lights from my shed.
It helps that my daughter is an adjuster.
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Lift the carpeting in the trunk and look for cracked paint where the "frame rails" underlie the floor, beside the spare tire wells on either side.
The 83 was rear-ended by a kid in a small pickup while I was sitting at a light. Compressed the bumper shocks enough that they had to be replaced, cracked a taillight, and chewed up the bumper cover. And distorted the frame rails enough to crack said paint. His insurance paid every cent of the $1600 (this was in 1997, when the car was worth the fixup) which included pulling the car straight on the frame machine.
It would probably cost more than it's worth if it needs straightening, and maybe you can live with it, but it's good to know, should strange handling or tire wear appears.
--
Bob (son's 81-244GL B21F/M46, my 83-244DL B23F/M46 and 89-745(LT1 V8): dtr's 94-944 B230FD; hobbycar 77 MGB, and four old motorcycles)
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I don't like progressive insurance even a little.
My wife and I got rear-ended at a stoplight in our '90 740GL wagon by a guy in an S10 on a cell phone.
The cop was on the other side of the intersection.
The guy had progressive insurance, who first tried to give us $380 for the bumper cover only. The two quotes we got from shops were $800 and $1300 (the latter which seemed ridiculous, I'll admit). One end of the bumper was pushed in about 2.5 inches (clearly the shock). The claims person said that she had to actually SEE the shock with her own eyes to believe it existed on the car. To her, "It could just be a little bracket." I told her "on this car, there is no bracket. There is a shock that gets pushed in, which is clearly what happened here." Then she got mad at me and told me that I was lucky to get any money at all for the bumper cover because "it wasn't very bad anyways."
Well, after numerous phone conversations and my father in law getting involved, the car was taken to a body shop to take of the cover so she could see the shock and we got a bonus check for $209 for the shock. It was a real hassle.
I've heard from a few sources that progressive and other similar companies purposely hire people who have NO idea about cars as their adjusters so that they won't give out money when they need to. She had high heels on and took about three pictures of the bumper. Never got under the car.
I'll never patronize such companies.
Nate
--
1997 850, 1979 242GT, 1990 740GL
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I like the high heels thing... maybe fishnet stockings too?
cx
weak attempt at humour... but ya gotta love the 6" heels with fishnets
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....I hate when I do that.
My 85 wagon was totalled last June when I had to stop fast for a cop that was on a call and crossing my path when I had the green light. The guy that hit me was driving a 4 door Dodge Ram truck. My car had 254,xxx miles and didn't look very pretty but was running great. I had just replaced the o2 sensor, temp sensor, water pump, fan clutch and the carpet. The tires were not yet a year old and the windshield was about 1 1/2 yrs old. It passed the Texas emmision test just four months before the accident and was getting 23 mpg city. Oh, the A/C still worked and I had already replaced the wire harness. Basically, I wasn't ready to get rid of it. The guy had Progressive ins. They offered me $600.00 based on the FOUR comparible Volvo wagons that had sold recently across the USA. I said no and just went quiet. After about two months they called me and said they needed to settle. I said that you can't buy a car that has A/C for $600.00. They asked me what I wanted and (stupid me)I said I would be happy with $1000.00 She said OK and I could buy it back for $150.00. I should have held out for $1200.00 but I was ready for something else anyway.
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How do they calculate the value of the car?
and can you establish a new value if you restore the car, to
challange the insurance fleabags?
Bill
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