Great story.  You can oftern negotiate salvage
value...15% is usually their low acceptable amount.
steve

Matt Brickell wrote:
>
> Here is the end of the story for those who are interested...
>
> The adjustor came and looked at the van.  He was not an auto
> adjustor--all the auto adjustors locally were at a conference so he was
> pressed into service from residential duty.  He declared the van a total
> loss due to water damage.  I asked how he would come up with a price and
> luckily for me Farmers does not go by NADA retail like most companies,
> they have a more thorough process.  ( NADA for my van is $3,675 )  They
> take market conditions into account, first searching local classified
> ads and calling dealers in the area to find out what the cars are
> retailing for locally.  This benefits someone like me with an unusual
> vehicle as there are NONE in the classifieds or on dealers lots locally.
> The next place to use would be internet ads he said, but he had no
> internet service at his office.  Well, I had taken the liberty of
> finding 6 or 7 pretty cherry Westys at high prices ( 6-8K) and printed
> them off to use as ammo.  He said sure, he would be glad to get that
> info I had, it would help him a lot ( heh heh).  So he took his
> appraisal sheet and my internet stuff back and said he would call me the
> next day ( today).  He called promptly today, told me that he also had
> contacted an individual in the MO-KAN VW club here locally ( pretty
> resourceful I thought ) and that person had said in their opinion my van
> was worth $4-7K.  Therefore, his conclusion was that he would give me
> $7500 for the van minus my $500 comp deductible, plus my rental
> reimbursement.  If you have Farmers Ins and do not have this get it now!
> It is called K5 and gives me $50/day for a 20 day max per claim
> regardless of if I use it or not, so $1,000 to me even though I have 3
> other cars and a company car so I have no need for the rental, I still
> get $1K. So he came up with $8,000 total.  This is if they keep the van.
> If I want to buy it back, salvage value is 30% of his bid in the end to
> make a long story less long, the van minus salvage 30% plus $1K rental
> coming to $5,600, and the van.  Well, as much as it hurt, I think 8
> grand will do me better than 5 and a half and a waterlogged van that I
> have no time to mess with and will never sell to anyone as salvage for
> $2,400.  So it will go bye bye and I will likely use half of that 8G to
> get another and 4 to pocket for future VW projects.  In the end I am
> completely happy with Farmers and the overly fair amount I received
> promptly and with no hassle.  All I have to do now is go in and pick up
> the check next week.
>
> My conclusions:  Keep good insurance.  I pay a little more for Farmers
> but they are outstanding consistently.  Get good ammo if you need to
> substantiate a loss on your Vanagon.  Minimal work on my part got me
> twice what book was on the van and more than replacement value.  Lastly,
> belong to a good list like this one whose members have given me much
> support and good advice consistently.
>
> Thank you all, and I may continue to lurk in the event that I will in
> the upcoming months get another van.
>
> Matt Brickell
> 83 Jetta TD
> 86 Jetta D
> 84 Westy soon to go to the great beyond and to donate its parts
> hopefully to many needy salvage yard VW scavengers.  Or, to some lucky
> soul who has the time to rebuild it and will enjoy it.
>
> Olathe, KS