Sorry to hear about your misfortune.
The usual advice is "stand your ground" with the insurance company.
There is the article on dealing with the insurance company, at vanagon.com.
Good luck,
Jerry

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ed Duntz" <eduntz@HOTMAIL.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Wednesday, June 17, 2009 12:26 PM
Subject: van wrecked; documenting selling prices

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