Well wednesday morning I get to talk to my insurance adjuster. The word going around is that if damage to the car is 60% (this is a local figure) then they will total it. This is much lower than the regular 80% most people have been telling me about. Now I have to decide on how much a buy back is worth. I'm still willing to drive my forester eventhough all the pretty has been beat off it but I think the buyback will be at least 6500. I'm really not sure if I want pay this for an off road vehicle that I can't lower the gear ratio on. If I get a lift from mudrat and bump up the tire size I will need gobs more low end torque. Can this be done with a cam? Oh yeah I'll still need to invest about a grand to get it back on the road. So I guess it boils down to the buy back cost. Maybe I should get a gl10 or rx d/r 5spd like I had origonally planned. I'll post my $$$$$ figures when I get them.

 

byron

 

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04 Forester X Titeleist edition

In my experience, buy-back is about 10-20% of InsCo's valuation. On old stuff like mine, it works out to be about $50-150. The insurance company has no use for it, so it is whatever they think they can get from JY minus what they think the hassle to have a JY take it.

 

Don't borrow trouble by imagining buy-back being too high. Just worry that valuation will be too low. They offered us 45% of KBB-value!!! And no recourse except to sue...

 

They do have fancy HQ buildings, though.

 

Pat

I don't think you will have to give back $6500 for your Forester. I find that most automotive recyclers bid about what they figure they can get out of JUST the engine. It's seems to be a rule of thumb in this area. Of course you will not be bidding, but you may be able to negotiate. The Ins Co. is only looking for what they can get from a salvage yard. I have bid on several salvage cars to rebuild, and won my share. The auction I go to is a sealed bid type. Once I won one by $4. Once I lost one by only $10. That hurt. Theft recoveries are my favorites because they seldom seem to be hurt much. Their titles still carry the "former non-highway" brand though. Since you are probably not surrendering your title, it would not get "branded" in my state. Check with local authorities about yours.

I just hope that Progressive gives me a fair deal. I'm guessing that my repair bill will be 10k+ because every piece of metal will need to be replaced. One of my concerns though, is with the side airbags. I think there are crumple sensors built into the body that work with the inertial sensing system. I would like to know how these work. Does anyone know if there is any way I can get my car third party inspected while they rebuild it? Ok this is assuming that it doesn't get totaled. As far as the high buyback I have heard some pretty high numbers like 3k for a new 2wd reg cab ranger:-\ .

 

byron