Date:         Fri, 12 Sep 2003 14:38:21 -0500
Reply-To:     Grant Braddish <braddish@MAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Grant Braddish <braddish@MAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: Totaled camper van
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

First off, I am an insurance adjuster.  While I don't deal with total loss vehicles, I can say that there is not a specific conspiracy to screw Westy owners by the insurance industry.

The bottom line is, we all own very unique vehicles.  They are not quite passenger vehicles and not quite RVs.  The evaluation systems that insurers use are designed to evaluate the most common vehicle types and do not do very well with 15+ year old 'specialty' vehicles.  KBB.com and others do the same poor job of providing actual pricing on Westys.

Keep in mind that the common misunderstanding of VW campers is that they are owned by pot smoking hippies who keep them running with bailing wire and nitrous oxide balloons.  It's not easy to overcome this misconception with your future in-laws or your insurance company.

Every week I see posts discussing a 'fair price' on a Westy somewhere in the world.  The typical reply is - it depends on the condition, mileage, maintenance, etc.  As we all have seen this can add or subtract thousands of $$ from the 'fair price'.

As a Westy owner, we all are willing to put up with various quirks our vehicles inherently have.  We quickly forgive the engineers.  It's important to remember that one other quirk that we have to deal with is the difficulty of determining a 'fair price' for our Westy whether we want to sell it, buy another, or face the ultimate disappointment of having it 'totalled'.

Your insurer should respond to quotes from local dealers (ask your local VW dealer if they will share some recent sales receipts for Westys), on line classifieds, local classifieds, etc. They will not care if you just dropped $3500 into your coolant system (an average car is supposed to have a working coolant system, remember?) or other 'mainteinance'.

If you have any questions, please feel free to email me.

Grant


----- Original Message -----
From: Eric Zeno <vw4x4@FYI.NET>
Date:         Fri, 12 Sep 2003 14:55:13 -0400
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject:      Re: Totaled camper van

> Mike,
>        Don't waste your time.   This is the ripoff of all insurance
> companies
> today.   Simply tell them no, and ask them to contact you when they want
> to make a reasonable offer.  Here in PA they have 2 years to pay.  If it
> gets
> close to that time,  they will be very reasonable.
>
>                                                               Eric
>
>
>
> Mike Miller wrote:
>
> >Volkites,
> >
> >I need some asking prices for full camper Westphalia water boxers.  My van
> >has a big boo boo and the insurance company wants to total it for $1800 so I
> >need comparative prices, preferably Northern California, to show them.
> >
> >TIA,
> >
> >Mike
> >
> >
> >
> >

--
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