My CA18 S14 got smashed by an old lady...

[float_6969]

I wasn't home, but thankfully some friends were and saw the whole thing. The lady said the sun got in her eyes. She actually hit it 3 times. She side swiped it, then backed into it, then drug it forward again. If it's not apparent, it's not usually parked on the curb. The inner fender is bent up pretty decently. Obviously the wheel, the LCA, T/C Rod, T/C rod bracket, and the CAI for the turbo. I think the NISMO S-Tune strut may be damaged as well. The suspension bushings are all Megan Racing hard rubber bushings.

Insurance is coming today to asses the damage. I have a feeling I'm going to have a fight ahead of me trying to get a fair amount of money for this. I hope I'm wrong.

[Rogue One]

Dang that really sucks. Pretty lame excuse, especially since she hit it three times!

BTW, the images aren't showing.

[IanS]

There is no emoticon for the feelings I'm feeling.

We can rebuild her. Better, faster, stronger.

[float_6969]

Dang that really sucks. Pretty lame excuse, especially since she hit it three times!

BTW, the images aren't showing.

I was afraid of that. I tried to link them from my FB post. My desktop is super crashy right now, so IDK if I'll be able to fix them until I get parts for it next week.

[float_6969]

How about now?

[float_6969]

There is no emoticon for the feelings I'm feeling.

We can rebuild her. Better, faster, stronger.

I'm too dumb to give up. I've had a goal to build a 500whp CA18 powered S14 for a LLLOONNGG time. I'm certain I finally have my engine sorted out to be able to handle it. There's only a couple hundred miles on this engine and clutch. I was planning on heading to the dyno again as soon as I was comfortable I had enough miles on the clutch and engine.

[IanS]

Pictures worked fine for me.

[float_6969]

Damage adjuster came yesterday. I haven't seen the report, but he said that he was in the $5K range for repairs. That's using all stock parts because that's what he has to do. He said that they don't do valuations in-house, they have a 3rd party do it for them. He's going to tell them as much as he can about the car, but I need to get receipts together and try to get the value up now.

[IanS]

Damage adjuster came yesterday. I haven't seen the report, but he said that he was in the $5K range for repairs. That's using all stock parts because that's what he has to do. He said that they don't do valuations in-house, they have a 3rd party do it for them. He's going to tell them as much as he can about the car, but I need to get receipts together and try to get the value up now.

Request factory, as in Nissan parts only.

At this age, I'd bet OE stuff is more expensive vs decent aftermarket for a lot of things hahahaha.

[float_6969]

Lol!! Not a bad idea!

[Rogue One]

How about now?

Pictures are okay now.

Sweet baby Jesus, that's painful to look at. How did you not go medieval on her a$$?

[float_6969]

How about now?

Pictures are okay now.

Sweet baby Jesus, that's painful to look at. How did you not go medieval on her a$$?

Fortunately, I wasn't home at the time. I'm still having bouts of rage at the thought of the amount of time I'm going to loose. And the chances of me NOT loosing a bunch of money on this seem slim. I'd feel differently about it if this had been a moving accident. Like maybe I could have done something to avoid it. But the car was just sitting there, parked. And my street isn't exactly narrow. It's not uncommon to have a car parked on either side of the road and two cars going opposite directions all in the same space in the road. That's 4 cars wide. But there were no other cars where mine was parked except my Protege parked behind it. And I WISH she had hit that. Don't get me wrong, I love that car too, but I have very little time and money invested in it. At least compared to the S14. Plus it's got cancer. It's not long for this world anyway.

[AZhitman]

Hagerty is a good source of valuations for insurance purposes. They didn't flinch at a $15k agreed value for our kouki.

Don't accept what they throw at you first. If they want to lowball, lawyer up. Her insurance needs to make it RIGHT, not just even.

[float_6969]

I already have a couple of lawyers in my pocket, but I'm not going to mention that until I get their numbers on paper.

[PapaSmurf2k3]

Man wtf... 3 times?!

[float_6969]

Finding receipts is proving difficult. I've lost a lot of them to time and moving. I don't like to keep old paperwork around, so once I'm sure I won't need it for taxes, I usually get rid of it. I'm trying to get copies of old CC statements, but even those only go back to 2012. Plus the holiday last week took up a bunch of time and I"m still busy with work. Meanwile it's just sitting in the street and I can't move it.

[MikeRL411]

I once had a car slammed into by a careless driver. The insurance adjuster wanted to scrap it. I showed the receipts for parts I had bought for restoration but not yet installed and asked if the insurance would add them to his evaluation or buy them back from me since they were useless without the car. I got full value and, yes, installed the parts.

It has been my experience that insurance adjustors ignore accessories in their calculation. Example, many years ago my RL411 was valued at $500, yet the wheel covers alone were selling for $600 for the set of all four. Not the car cited in the above example BTW.

[float_6969]

This particular damage adjuster admitted that he has to use fixed data for repair damages that don't include aftermarket parts. Be he also told me that they use a 3rd party company for their vehicle valuations in situations like this, so I'm hopeful that this 3rd party company is well versed in modified vehicles and that they'll recognize that S14's sell for far above the KBB/NADA listed values.

[PapaSmurf2k3]

You don't have all your receipts saved via email? I guess I'm assuming you bought the parts online...

[float_6969]

Yes, bought online, but no, not saved via email. Once I've received parts I usually delete the emails. I'm regretting it now...

[PapaSmurf2k3]

ughhhh damn that sucks.
I never delete emails.
I toss paper receipts like a MFer though.

[IanS]

Yes, bought online, but no, not saved via email. Once I've received parts I usually delete the emails. I'm regretting it now...

You can delete emails? I don't know that I have ever deleted an email.

[float_6969]

You can delete emails? I don't know that I have ever deleted an email.

It's not uncommon for me to have my inbox be completely empty. My dad is a bit of a hoarder, so as I grew up, I went the complete opposite way. I don't keep hardly anything if I don't see an immediate need for it. Keeping email receipts though, that's not messy. I'll just make a folder for them.

So far, most of the vendors I've used (FRSport, Frozen Boost, Full Race) all have records of all my purchases. Full race doesn't have the turbo, but I called that in and spoke to someone in particular because they were an advertiser at the time, so I'm hoping they still have a record of the sale somewhere. The NISMO S-tunes I struck out on. I bought them from thenismoshop.com, which no longer exists. I know that was associated with a Nissan dealership though, so I'm going to try to get a hold of them today and see if they still have records from then.

[float_6969]

Updates;
After I came up with over $24K worth of receipts since I bought the car in 2007, they came back with a new offer. They increased the value of my car by about $1K. Yup, so instead of saying it was worth $5,200, they now say it's worth $6,200. And their reasoning for that? Well only the turbo, cold air intake, "lowering kit", and wheels and tires add any value. Everything else was preferential, or maintenance. Yup, a freshly rebuilt engine with less than 300 miles on it is preferential or maintainance. That S15 helical and 4.36 gears? Same. How about all that suspension work? Preferential or maintenance. Why the hell is a huge turbo, cold air intake, "lowering kit", and wheels and tires, NOT all preferential, but everything else it? And the values they gave were a joke. $700 for an EFR7064. It doesn't have 1K miles on it. The cold air intake was valued at $250. It's a piece of 3.5" aluminum with a 90° bend in it, and a couple of silicone joiners, clamps, and an air filter. That thing is probably over valued, LOL! The "lowering kit"? $250. That's basically the value they're putting on a complete set of NISMO S-tunes with less than 1K miles on them. The wheels were valued at $425. That's slightly more than what ONE wheel goes for. I haven't found a complete set for sale at all, but they're averaging $325/wheel right now and comparable sets of Z wheels are going for around $1,200. They gave me $80 for the tires. Not sure what I think about that. They have plenty of tread left, but since I rarely drive the car, they're pretty old.

And all of that was if they kept the car. If I kept it, they were going to give me $5,500. It can't be fixed for that, and I can't buy another S14 that's in comparable condition to mine for that. I HAD to say no. They gave me until the end of this week to either prove it was worth more, or agree to this offer. If I didn't do either, they were "closing the claim" and send me a check for the $5,500. I started to freak out, but after talking to a lawyer, the "closing the claim" thing is a scam they use to try to push you into accepting their offer. In Kansas, you have 2 years to re-open a claim, for any reason. So now I know I have time, as long as I don't cash the check.

I then told him that I could provide links proving what these cars sell for, based on their condition and modifications. I said he'd take them into consideration. So I spent about 5 hours finding links to every S14 for sale on the internet in the US. I sent him a link to every one, with a basic description of the vehicle and it's value. Based on that information, the market value of my car, prior to the accident, would have been in the $12-$14K range. The body was not flawless. No major dents, but some door dings. The paint could have used a buffing, as the clear was starting to look a little oxidized on the hood and roof and rear spoiler, but otherwise, it was in good shape. The interior was in decent condition. It has some cherry burns from the previous owner, but wasn't badly stained or had any broken or missing pieces. The dash WASN'T cracked prior to the wreck, but I've noticed since then it's cracked. I always keep a sun-shade in the front window, so I'm guessing the wreck cracked it. It did have some minor rust in the typical spots, but I fixed all of it when I bought the car and all of my repairs have held.

SO, I'm not trying to compare it to some low-mileage, flawless S14. I know it's not perfect, but it's worth way more than $6,200.

So today they come back with a new offer after I sent all the links. They've offered to fix the car, but not for one penny more than what the original adjuster found the damages to be. That's $258.46 LESS than what they would have given me had I just kept the car and taken the payout.

Needless to say, I said no. I've told them repeatedly that I just want it fixed, or to be given enough money to buy a relatively unmodified S14 so I can swap my parts over to it and then sell my wrecked S14 so I can pay to replace the damaged parts from the wreck. I'd really rather just have it fixed. It would be the least amount of work for me. But I think trying to fix all that body work, and replace the damaged suspension and steering rack would push it well over what they could give me to buy another S14 would be. I offered to settle for keeping the car and a check for $6,500, but they refused that offer. I'm kind of surprised that they're really wanting to quibble over $1K, but lucky for me, it's winter, and I have time to fight, LOL!

[PapaSmurf2k3]

Yeah you never, ever get full price (or much of a price) for modifications, so I'm not too surprised they weren't going to offer you a whole lot more for those. Seems like their base price should be higher though.
Is this the lady's insurance, or yours? What company is it?

[float_6969]

It's her insurance, American Family.

I'm expecting them to close the claim and mail me a check. If so, then I'll get a few estimates for repairs, and appraisals. If those numbers come back considerably different than what they're saying, then I'll re-open the claim and try again. As long as I don't cash the check, it's not really closed.

I know they wouldn't value the car for what I've put in to it, but I don't understand why they won't just fix it like it was. I'm guessing the think it will cost more than replacing it with a stock-ish S14. But even then, I haven't found an S14 for $5,500 that's in decent condition.

[float_6969]

I finally got this sorted out, and it ended well! They valued the car at about $15k, which is s about right. They wanted $5k for buyback. So I'm keeping the car and getting a check for $10k! I'm pretty happy. I'm pretty sure I can find something good for that price and swap my parts over.

[PalmerWMD]

I finally got this sorted out, and it ended well! They valued the car at about $15k, which is s about right. They wanted $5k for buyback. So I'm keeping the car and getting a check for $10k! I'm pretty happy. I'm pretty sure I can find something good for that price and swap my parts over.

Wow hats great!!!
I was horrified when I saw the original pics!

[PapaSmurf2k3]

Congrats! I never thought you would have gotten that much for it. Good deal! Score one for the good guys for once.

[float_6969]

Thanks guys!