<http://gerry.vanagon.com/files/auto-insurance-madness.html>

On Jun 17, 2009, at 3:26 PM, Ed Duntz wrote:

> Last Friday on the way to a VW camping event, another driver was
> making a turn, swung over into my lane, and crashed into me. It was
> clearly her fault, and her insurance company (Geico) is taking
> responsibility, but now the work has to start on my part to show
> what my van was worth. They have declared it a total loss, saying
> that the damage is more than $7,000. Our vehicles colided on the
> driver's sides. The damage to my van is from just outboard of the
> headlight, to the wheel arch, driver's door, lower part of the
> middle panel under the camper inlets, and both driver side wheels,
> as well as likely suspension damage on the driver's side.
>
> I have started to look online at various sites to document to the
> insurance company what similar vehicles sell for. So far, I'm
> looking at or will look at The Samba, eBay completed listings,
> GoWesty, Poptop Heaven, JDB enterprises, cars.com, autotrader.com.
>
> My van was a 1985 Vanagon Westfalia, that Hershey brown experior
> with the usual brown interior. The interior was in very good
> condition, the body was very good except for a few rust spots (but
> very litttle noticeable seam rust), and a different color brown
> slider and passenger door. The skylight was new, the tent was in
> escellent shape.
>
> If anyone has any leads on a replacement similar to mine, or if you
> have recently documented any similar vans for insurance/valuation
> reasons, I'd appreciate some input. I'm about to call the adjuster
> back, who has some numbers for me.
>
> Thanks,
> Ed Duntz in CT