this is the conundrum that all of us are in when it comes to insurance 
-- now you are caught flat footed by the other party's liability policy. 
Bottom line, regardless of what really good vans sell for, the insurance 
company has an underwriter's average selling price to use, legally.  You 
are SOL.  Most of us knew that when we bought them.

If you had collision coverage, and your company agreed with you on 
value, they might help you to recover from the other guy.  Of course, 
you can try it on your own, but the liability company has deep pockets 
to fight you with.

Too bad.  Good luck if you do try to recover your van's true value.

David Mc

On Fri, Dec 18, 2009 at 3:55 PM, Stephen Cebula wrote:

> Okay,
> The insurance company of the person who totalled my Westy wants to 
> give me $4100 including the salvage cost of my van.  I know there are 
> some bargains out there, but mine was in great running shape.  I 
> finaly got to where I had nothing left to fix.  I had no worries about 
> taking it on 500+ mile camping trips.  Can I really spend only $4k on 
> a replacement and not expect to turn around a sink another $2K on it?  
> The insurance company refuses to budge.  They have some report that 
> they are faxing me with only 9 comps on it.  I threatened with the 
> state insurance commissioner and the agent said that all he needs to 
> prove is that he didn't arbitrarily produce that number.  Any advice?  
> Man...I just want what I had.  Is that so much to ask?  I know I 
> didn't have collision insurance, but it wasn't my fault.
>  
> Thanks Y'all
> Steve