Date: Thu, 24 Jan 2008 16:08:10 -0800
Reply-To: Scott Daniel - Shazam <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Scott Daniel - Shazam <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Subject: Re: Insurance Co. Settled on my Westy - Now parting out?
In-Reply-To: <010d01c85ec6$7f9d9b30$0b0ba8c0@RON>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Well, if it wasn't clear across the whole country, I'd buy it off you, the
whole thing.
I recognize your 'don't have time' thing of course, about not having time
to pull parts or have it around . Where I'd be coming from is hating to see
all those good things to go waste, like in a junkyard.
I think camper vanagons are priceless practically, I save every screw
off them, and try to leave them in place on the dead vanagon if possible,
but that entails keeping it around of course. I have the room, but getting
it hauled to Oregon is impractical.
Scott
www.turbovans.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
The Bus Depot
Sent: Thursday, January 24, 2008 12:20 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Insurance Co. Settled on my Westy - Now parting out?
Well, the insurance company finally came back with what I believe is a
reasonable settlement offer for my '89 Westy.
(To recap, it was demolished by a 60 foot tree. See the gory details at
<http://home.comcast.net/~type2/Vanagon.htm>.)
The van was somewhat unique, in that it had a Reconstructed Vehicle title,
but being my personal vehicle, had just about every imaginable option and
was in perfect mechanical condition. I bought it about 10 years ago as a
former Florida flood vehicle, and pretty much redid everything from top to
bottom with new parts. I sent the adjuster receipts for everything I'd ever
done to it, totaling nearly $10k in labor and another $10k (at retail) in
parts. I also provided a letter of valuation from a local specialist
estimating its worth at $12-14k with the R title, and links to companies
like Poptop Heaven and JDB Imports that get big money for similar Westies.
The insurance company started off by offering me $3500. We settled at
$12,700. I have no doubt I could have gotten at least $20k had it not had
an R title, but I knew the value would be substantially lower with an R
title. Given that, I'm happy with $12,700.
The insurance company will not budge on requiring me to pay 10% of the value
if I want to keep the vehicle. Frankly I'd hoped to pay much less for it.
Now I have to decide if it's worth the time/money to part it out, or whether
I should actually let the insurance company keep it. It's got a lot more
than $1300 in good parts, but frankly I have absolutely no time to pull
parts off of it, and really don't want it in my driveway forever. It has
about 50k miles on the engine and trans, and of course has all kinds of
options (both factory and aftermarket). I would be willing to entertain
offers for parts that I can remove in literally a couple of minutes and
easily ship, or for larger/harder-to-remove items if you want to come here
and do it (PA). Based on the response I get, I'll confirm with the
insurance company within a couple of days whether I'm keeping the remains.
I am also on the lookout for an absolutely primo late model Westy to replace
it with. Meanwhile, I got a nice deal on a '95 Eurovan camper (from the 80
year old original owner), so I'll be camping again while I keep an eye open
for my dream Westy.
- Ron Salmon
The Bus Depot, Inc.
www.busdepot.com
(215) 234-VWVW
_____________________________________________
Toll-Free for Orders by PART # : 1-866-BUS-DEPOT
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