My New Coupe -Need Legal Help

[redtanrt10]

Thanks to all for your advise and sympathy. After I posted yesterday I went to the laker game to try and get my mind off of this. Timing is terrible. Two tough work days (07 budgets, etc) and then I'm leaving 6:00 AM Wednesday for a flight to Houston to see my folks. JonB, thanks for the call and all others for the tips, PM's etc. Long story short looks like I'll have to get into a protracted fight with the insurance co and the shop. Date with the police tomorrow to review the crash site, good friend , retired county sheriff advised me police will take a report and take the guys info at face value (no rubber hoses to get at the truth). The're greatest concern is destruction of city property and human injury of a bystander, not some guys viper, and while that stinks, most would agree we'd rather have them investigating crime not civil matters. Insurance agent and other's on this board with knowledge had a similar theme, ins co will want to repair and most use the 70% of value rule to total. So, I'll have to claim/fight for "loss of value" as JonB pointed out, get expert witness etc. In addition I can sue the shop, neglegence loss of value.

Unfortunately all this takes alot of time and is unsettling. Just want to enjoy my new car. Thanks again to all for the support and sympathy! Keep you posted.

Mike

 

[big-n-italian]

<< The're greatest concern is destruction of city property and human injury of a bystander >>

is it my understanding that there was injury to a bystander also?

 

[GTS-R 001]

If I were you, I would be concerned that the co pilot could sue you no matter who was driving, so find out who it was.

Also keep in mind the loss in value of your car now that it has an accident on its record ( I got a 12K settlement from an insurance company for depreciaation alone on my 99 jag XK8 after some old guy taking his foo foo dog to a grooming ran a red and caused 37K worth of damage, don't be afraid to ask for the insurance co. to at least pay for your depreciation loss )

Dropping the car at DC Performance and getting Dan and his crew to assess the damages is a good start.

 

[propsail]

QUOTE: If I were you, I would be concerned that the co pilot could sue you no matter who was driving, so find out who it was.

The cracked windshield looks like airbag damage to me. Passenger side airbags usually go upward.

~Craig

 

[rschiltz]

I'm sorry to read about the situation you're going through. If I was going to be in town during your Houston visit, I'd offer to buy you a beer.

 

[2MANYTOYS]

Man I feel bad for you. It's a shame that you can't leave your car with a business without some ******* wanting to pound on it. Your actually being a lot more calm than I would be. My blood pressure rose just looking at the pictures. Do what JonB says and everything should turn out ok. The insurance company will try to screw you though. Good luck.

 

[gtsviper]

Mike...if you still need an attorney send me a pm with your contact information.
Andy

 

[VinR1]

any new info?

 

[compcoupe21]

I don't know all the details so forgive me if I missed something. You can always sell out of the car to a salvage company. Simply put if the car is worth 70k and insurance wants to pay out 40k which means it's not a total you can always just transfer ownership for hopefully as close as you can get to 30k. Add the two checks and their is your 70k. A salvage/body shop can repair it for a lot less then the stated damage amount and therefore potentially make everyone involved happy. Just my 2 cents...

 

[Flexx91]

I don't know all the details so forgive me if I missed something. You can always sell out of the car to a salvage company. Simply put if the car is worth 70k and insurance wants to pay out 40k which means it's not a total you can always just transfer ownership for hopefully as close as you can get to 30k. Add the two checks and their is your 70k. A salvage/body shop can repair it for a lot less then the stated damage amount and therefore potentially make everyone involved happy. Just my 2 cents...

And simply let the shop "off the hook" after they smashed a customer's car during an unauthorized joyride? I would still sue their *********. What average person would want to go through all of the hassle of parting out a wrecked car - as this takes time, money, and space. The only problem would be proving the accident occurred during a joyride.

 

[redtanrt10]

Following the advise of JonB and Dan @DC I took the car to Scandanavian Coach Craft in LA last week. Owner was in Europe and got back late yesterday. He called me today and said he didn't really need to get too deep into the car, it's totalled. What I knew was the rear frame was slightly bent, the RF a-arm bent, but on the lift he said the front frame is all torn up and buckled. His remedy to fix is an entire new frame so that plus labor plus all the rear end parts it needs, coupled with availbility on the coupe parts means its done.

The claims handler at State Farm has been very fair and helpful, I just hope the $'s are right. Here we go again with a new car decision, we started on a yellow vert and migrated to a striped coupe, wish I could get both!

thanks to all for the advise and support! I'll post pictures of the new car after the KW's, exhaust, 3.55's etc, etc are done.

Mike

 

[Blue Pilot]

Are you going to let the same shop do the KW's and exahust on your new car?....





just kidding, sorry for your loss.

 

[04mystic]

awesome to hear that it may work out for you. After the last couple of weeks I dont know if Ill ever take one of my vipers to a shop. People are getting there cars trashed everywhere.

 

[Racer Robbie]

I would like to thank you Jon, Parts Rack, for the great write up. Another point that everyone should do is keep a disposable camera and tape measure along with pen and paper in their glove box of all their cars so they can take pics and make notes at the time of an accident.