A day (night) that shall live in INFAMY! (part 2)

General discussion about our beloved Tercel 4WD cars
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irowiki
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Location: Farmington, NM

Re: A day (night) that shall live in INFAMY! (part 2)

Post by irowiki »

I keep comp only as well, I think it costs me between $20-30 a year per car, and glass is included.
Former Tercel Enthusiast (not a practical family car anymore but they still have a place in my heart)

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87 Corolla FX16, 105k
94 Jamboree RV (Ford E-350), 90k
95 Camry Wagon, 170k
97 4runner, 275k
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Petros
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Joined: Sun Jan 28, 2007 6:31 pm
My tercel:: '84 Tercel4wd w/extensive mods
Location: Arlington WA USA

Re: A day (night) that shall live in INFAMY! (part 2)

Post by Petros »

usually the policy of the insurance company is to only pay what the book value shown in the various ratings (Kelly, NADA etc). My agent once said that they can really justify paying out when someone spends more on fixing or maintaining the car for more than it is worth. Many owners do that out of affection for their cars, for which there is no way to account in actual value. Their only obligation is to compensate you for the value of your loss, and nothing more. Even than they will always try and justify paying out as little as possible (the adjuster is not your friend, he works for the insurance company and his job is to minimize pay outs).

Some insurance companies are worse than others, and can be quite nasty. I have had Start Farm insurance since I was 16 and have no complaints, competitive and always reasonable to deal with on the rare instances I have had claims. My agent is a great guy too. They also have one of the lowest complaints per policy holder of any of the national carriers. I would be very pleased if they paid me $2200 for my car, considering that most insurance companies would likely offer me $800. I get a low premium, and am happy with that, and take my chances on the rest. Most of my good parts I can always swap into another T4wd anyway.

I also decided that for the many years of not having a claim, the extra cost of additional coverage over the minimum is not worth it. So we take our chances, if my old car gets totaled, I will find another one and do the same up grades to it as I have done on my daily driver.
'87 Tercel 4wd SR5 (current engine swap project)
'84 Tercel 4wd (daily driver, with on going mods)
'92 Mazda MPV 4wd (wife's daily driver)
'85 Tercel 4wd DLX auto(daughter's daily driver)
'01 Honda Civic (other daughter's daily driver)
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