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Here's my recent experience with my '83 245. Lady does a let hand turn in front of me. All damage to me is limited to front end forward of engine cowl. I have my car towed to my home. I had just done a thorough suspension overhaul front and rear myself and had a shop do clutch replacement and tome transmission work. So lot's of my money went into the car just before the tragic wreck.
The lady's insurance co. adjuster comes to the house and concludes it's totaled (I agree, I can see some front frame damage). I point out the work I had done evn beyond the recent stuff. He finally tells me I'm not going to like his onsite estimate and says it doesn't look right to him. He calls me back later in the day with a new improved calculation. If I keep the car and then the salvage cost of $150 is subtracted, I could get $420. He stills seems to hint that even this is not fair and that he's referring it to the "total loss adjusters" and perhaps I should direct all recent receipts, etc. to them. I follow his tip, and I fax everything I got (24 pages!) including tax bills and comparable CraigsList postings. They respond with a slightly higher estimate of around $750 after subtracting the salvage of $150. I call up this adjuster and ask why. He says the paint is bad (ok), high mileage of 283K (what do you expect for a 25 year old car, duh!), receipts were older than 60 days (car was on jackstands for 2 months while I made numerous part purchases), and the dueling went on. Finally, I firmly told him I wasn't going to accept this offer and for him to go back to rework the estimate. Several days later he calls with a net offer of $1070. I accept it, buy a newer 245 and swap suspension parts while pulling other parts I want to keep off the wreck.
Don't let them push you around. Also, I had no collision insurance on this car. Basically then, I was on my own with no help from my own insurance company.
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'83 245 GLT, '90 760 GLT
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