This topic is appropriate because it concerns saving money on your vanagon but
not aqllowing the ins. co. to rip you off.  A lot of people have to go through
thios ordeal and knowing what to do and expect can save a lot of frustration and
$$.

With respect to your other point, you are wrong.  According to a major study
just released about two months ago, Insurance companies are keeping a higher and
higher percentage of auto ins. premiums and are paying out less and less in
damage claims than in years past.  In california, profits on auto policies have
quadrupled in recent years because the companies thumb their noses at
third-party claimants and do not pay the losses caused by their insureds unless
they are hauled into court.  If they did the same thing to their policy holders,
they would incur bad faith liability, but there is no longer any third party bad
faith in california, so they have nothing to lose...  only profits to gain.

William Cooper wrote:

> On another note, could we please drop the whole "screwed by insurance
> company" thing.  I appreciate that there are jerks in every industry, but if
> the same company paid out $300,000 to $500,000 on your behalf because you
> ran over some kid, your couple thousand a year in premium would seem a
> bargain.  Trust me, I've seen companies pay claims they had no business
> paying (big ones).  One thing I know helps (this is the shameless self
> promotion part) is having an agent run some interference.  Companies dealing
> directly with insureds have a much easier time denying claims than when they
> have to explain that denial to there Agent.
> I know, I know------SHAMELESS!!!!!
>
> Bill Cooper
> '91 200 t
> -----Original Message-----