IML: American Clueless Insurance

["Eric" <gearhead@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Rodger,
If you supply the insurance company with a recent list of '63 LeBaron ads 
going back a few months showing asking prices from Hemmings, Auto Trader, 
ebay, etc, this will help the insurance adjuster to put a dollar figure on 
the vehicle, otherwise Clueless is only going to look at it as any other 
vehicle that is no longer listed in their computer program which is akin to 
the Kelly Blue Book. Also, supplying copies of repair and replacement parts 
receipts will also show an invested amount you have in the vehicle. These 
things will show that there is a collector value in the car and that it's 
not a $500 '84 Chevrolet Citation type of total write off. This is the 
typical way a higher value is established with insurance companies. They 
will likely take a percentage of the average of the asking prices you supply 
and then if the damage is less than 80% (the usual percentage of vehicle 
value that they use to claim 'total loss') of that value, they shouldn't 
have reason to call it a total loss and will pay something near the full 
damage amount.
You would want to go out and get the standard '3 estimates' from quality 
body shops for the repair. Having quotes for the parts you need from the 
various suppliers you can get bumpers/etc from will help the body shops 
figure a damage amount. Submit the estimate that would be under the 80% 
vehicle value average from the asking price averages that you give to 
Clueless. This will give the adjuster a base figure to work with for the 
amount you expect to be paid.

Clueless needs to have their hand held through this process. The more foot 
work you do, the faster they can close out the case and move on to something 
more in tune with Clueless's professional abilities of looking up values in 
a Blue Book (which they don't use, they have an industry value computer 
program that makes it even more simple for Clueless), and ultimately their 
coffee break.

Eric
Portland, Oregon
********************************************************
From: FltSgt@xxxxxxx
Date: Wed, 1 Dec 2004 23:37:50 EST
Subject: IML: '63 Le Baron vs American Family Insurance
Reply-To: mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hola

On Monday morning the kid up the street who has been one of the fastest
vehicles on the street failed to slow down after it had snowed.  Due to the 
speed
he lost control of the '89 Jeep and from 55 paces away he started a hard 
slide
into our '63 Le Baron, backwards.  When I asked what happened ( duhhh ) he
stated that he was only going  10, maybe 15 mph.  ( At such a slow speed 
this was
able to knock the Le Baron over six feet backward into the neighbors parked
'78 F150 long bed.  The 'Le Baron-F 150 package then went another foot 
before
stopping. )

Yesterday ( 30 Nov '04 ) when the American Family Insurance rep called it 
was
in her second paragraph that she used the words of "just total the car out".
When I told her that was not going to happen, she then said they would send
out a person to "take a look at the damage".

Today this guy calls and didn't have a clue of what it was that he was to
come and look at.  But he did use the same " total it out phrase". ( It must 
be a
cheap way for the insurance company to get out of paying for speedy up the
street. )  After some time clueless calls back and wants to know which 
engine
did I have in the car.  " ... a 413, which was the only engine for the car" 
I
replied.  Clueless then said, " ... and how many cylinders does this engine 
have
?"  I started to laugh but since I was in the mountains the cell phone went
dead.

After a couple of minutes clueless calls back and wants to know why the door
panels are off.  I had to let him know that I had taken them off for restro
reasons.  This time he wanted to know if there was a place for parts for the
car.  I told him about the Neb and Calif connections.  Then clueless asked 
for
their numbers.  He said that he would get back to me when he found out the 
value
of a '63 Le Baron.

I'm so glad that I went in the house and took pictures while the skid marks
were fresh on the snow.

I told the local NAPA what had happened and they called my Gla Blue Le Baron
"...a cream puff".  I liked that.  They also said they would gladly print 
out
every item that I have purchased whenever I thought the car needed that 
part.




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