TheCarGuy2021

Hi Everyone,

I was going to wait until my insurance is settled to share the news but two weeks ago I was involved in a not at fault hit and run accident in the CR. The important thing is that I'm alright (a handful of broken ribs), however the CR was deemed a total loss. My insurance company has come back with an initial actual cash value of $25k. The car is ABP, stock with a Mugen exhaust and has just a hair over 24,000 miles and was in pristine condition with no funny history. I know an actual cash value of $25k is just silly low and I'm looking into ways to prove this to my insurance company. Ebay is currently littered with non CR S2000s of the same year/similar mileage and they are listed in the low $30k range, however I don't think sharing eBay ads with the insurance company is going to do much. I think I'll need to enact my appraisal clause, if anyone has any advice on obtaining an official appraisal from someone who knows the actual value of a CR could chime in, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks!

adrs2k

Damn, very sorry to hear. Glad you are alright.

TheCarGuy2021

The terrible thing is that I still have the quote from Hagerty, dated 3 weeks before the accident, with an agreed on value of $35k. Procrastination is a terrible thing.

Another helpful scenario might be if I can obtain recent proof of sale records of CRs. If anyone here is willing to share recent CR transaction records with me in private, I'd be very grateful.

russ2k

CarGuy,

I feel for you. That sucks, but like you mentioned, the more important thing is that you are okay. As you already know, the insurance company will try to pay as little as possible, and surely will undervalue the fair market value of a CR. With this in mind, I am pretty confident that due to the rarity of the CR (they won't be able to find any in their market analysis), the insurance company will try to use non-CR S2000's to determine the value of yours. It is possible (probable) that they will use a non-CR in their market analysis, and will simply make an "adjustment" for the difference (non-CR versus your CR) in determining the value of the loss vehicle. I don't see this working in your favor if they do indeed try to make such an adjustment.

There are rules that an insurance company in California needs to follow. Look up California Code of Regulations Fair Claims Settlement Practices Regulations, specifically Section 2695.8. Additional Standards Applicable to Automobile Insurance. I would paste the text of that code section here, but it is simply too long.

I think there is only 1 CR in the Los Angeles Area, and that one has been for sale for quite some time. It is a BB and has more than 3x the miles that your had, and is the least rare color of BB. It also has re-sprayed front and rear bumpers. I can see the insurance company using this vehicle in their market valuation study, but clearly this vehicle is nowhere near “comparable” to your vehicle.

I am not an attorney, but might be able to give you some useful "This is what I would do" advice (not to be confused with legal advice, which I cannot give). Feel free to PM me with your phone number. Either way, best of luck with the insurance company and glad that you are okay.

dbwy111

I sold a ABP around 6-9 months ago for $33,200 (search for the thread). There is a white one for sale now for $36,000. If you look at the old for sale threads, you will find some older sales. Theres a sold listing on ebay, it sold for $26,700 with 46k miles, and the car looked somewhat beat up.
$35,000 seems like a fair number, maybe you can print out the sold threads and supply those.

nibble

I'm sorry to hear. accident that causes broken rips is quite an impact. glad to hear that you are OK. I hope the settlement works as you hope for. I had a bad experience with insurance company few years ago so I understand how painful it can be. most likely, as everyone else said, they will try to lower value of the car much as they can. no matter what you decide, consider buying back and sell it either "as-is" or after fixing it. you will definitely get more money out of it. Good luck.

jasserv

Wow, this is the CR that I just saw in the Speed Academy video.... totally sucks, Sorry to hear bout all this. Hope you recover quick and get everything straightened out with insurance.

TheCarGuy2021

Thanks for the suggestions and yes, that was me in the Speed Academy video airing up my tires in the background before heading home and getting hit.

Anywho, I have the valuation details of the 12 cars the insurance company used to come up with a price. The average mileage of the vehicles they used is over 75,000 miles and 11 of the 12 vehicles they used are not even a CR, so that explains a lot. They also used a $0.0275/mile correction factor based on mileage, meaning a 50,000 mile difference (my CR has 24,000 miles) in value is only $1,375, which is all entirely laughable.

jasserv

Are they reasonable enough to listen to the fact that a CR is not just a regular S2k?

skafia

Ouch. Glad you're okay. Your car was beautiful when I saw her a few months ago. I can share my bill of sale with you on my recent CR purchase if that'll help.