Hurt CB7

[accordtypeR]

Yesterday on my way home from work, I was cruising down the road and all of a sudden some guy blew through a stop sign right in front of me. Without the full time to react, I slammed into his rear bumper, sending him spinning in the oncomming lane. My car came to a complete stop, all of the electronics were dead. I was probably going about 20 miles per hour when I hit him, but I am feeling sore all day today. The car doesn't looked totalled to me and I don't want his insurance company to total the car out. I like my cb7 . What do you guys think? Is it totaled or no? The car was running smoothly and looking great (just put my blackhoused headlights I bought from J-specCb4). I miss my cb .........

Hey buddy well first and formost im glad to see that you are ok. From the pics it dosent look too bad. Take it from someone who was in an accident before. My guess the insurance co. is going to cut you a check for the value of the car. Take that money and fix the car.

[resynch]

First and foremost, I would like to thank you all for your inputs and suggestions during this time. This is the first time I have been in an accident this bad.

mrvinyl33 - my car lost all electrical power after the impact, the weather is nice and springlike here in georgia so i was enjoying the weather. after the incident, i could not roll my windows back up .

i'm the girl and accordtypeR - i will find out definately tomorrow on how much the insurance company is going to give me for the value of my car. right now the adjuster believes that the car is a total loss but he is trying to find shops to estimate the costs for repair.

Today I am feeling a little bit better, just sore more than anything. I have a rental car now so I am able to get around without buming people for rides. I will keep you guys informed once I hear something. Thanks for all your help!

[deevergote]

Man... too many wrecks these days!

It looks fixable. The rear 1/4 won't be cheap, but you won't be paying for it at least! The front end damage doesn't look that bad. With a new fender and a hammer, you could probably do a lot of it yourself (again, you won't be paying for it, so why bother?)

[owequitit]

I hate to be the naysayer here, but I think they are going to try and total it on you. They usually use the lowest "book" value they can, and they are going to try and tell you that is XX years old, or has XXX,000 miles and isn't worth anything. Book value depending on your mileage and condition is anywhere from 1,000 to 2,800. If you don't have any good pictures to refute otherwise, you are pretty much screwed. They aren't your friend and they have no interest to work with you. They want to close the case for as little money as possible, and the less leverage you have, the more successful they will be.

ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS keep very high quality recent pics of everything on your car, including mods. That way if they argue about mileage or condition, you can show them recent pics and determine how hard they want to argue. If they try the old, "the mods weren't covered by your insurance" trick, you can always throw the "I just put them in this weekend and wasn't able to add them to my insurance policy" routine. They then have to prove that to be the case.

If you didn't cause the accident, you are the victim. Don't ever forget that. Since the other guy caused the accident, his insurance company has a lot less leverage on your mods etc. You are entitled to a vehicle that is "like and kind" to the one that got hit, before the accident. If they give you shit, tell them: " I was minding my business, proceeding LEGALLY through an intersection when YOUR CLIENT HIT ME. At no point did I ask him to HIT ME, nor did I ask HIM TO HIT a car that wasn't stock." "Unfortunately, my mods are your problem."

Keep in mind the option to buy the car back, take your stuff off and either sell it, or transfer it to another CB7 in the event they total it. If they total the car, I would personally not fix it. You will spend almost the value of the car, and then you will have a hard time unloading it for what it is worth because of the salvaged title. IMO you would be better off finding another clean example and put your stuff on that. Or get a new car altogether.

In some states there is a law that basically gives the insurance companies a lot more leverage once your car gets to be a certain age. In the State of AZ, once the vehicle is 12 years old,(until it is old enough to be historic or classic) I have a lot less leverage than I did when it was 11 years old. Don't know why, but a lot of states do this. Be careful.

Also, it would behoove you to at least talk to your doctor and an attorney about the medical injuries and your options. Talking doesn't involve suing. You will need to know what options you have in order to make an informed decision.

What I am about to say comes from personal past experience. Do what you want with it. It is NOT legal advice of any sort. This is what I would do if it were me.

Get EVERYTHING in writing. You would be surprised how many times you are told one thing and then another. If it is in writing, you can say "last time you told me this, and now you are saying this. I like what you said last time better, and I have it in writing." This technique is very effective for backing large companies into large corners.

I understand the desire to not be letigious and sue everbody. You will never experience a bigger pain in the ass than dragging a huge insurance company (or multiples in some cases) through court. They have people who get paid $50,000-$150,000 yearly, who's sole purpose is to screw you in a court of law. They are professionals, and they show no mercy. You will feel guilty that you are like the McDonalds lady who spilled coffee on herself. You will feel like you are one of the everybody elses.

Here is the unfortunate reality of our country today. Again, this comes from past personal experience. The legal system today is designed to sue people first and ask questions later. Here's why: There is a statute of limitations on everything you do. The more you try to resolve stuff peacefully, the more of your statute of limitations you burn up. By the time you are done exhausting all reasonable and peaceful avenues, your statute ran out. The insurance company just got off free of charge.

Back to the medical issues. They will try and tell you that it is normal and it will go away. Especially if it is "soft tissue damage." Here's the reality as spoken by my doctors: Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. It depends on the person, the injury, the history of injury and VOODOO witchcraft. They have no technology to see soft tissue damage and they have no way to heal soft tissue damage. You can't prove it exists and they can't prove that it doesn't.

Consult your doctor and at least make sure there aren't any permanent issues that you may need to deal with. Once that stuff gets screwed up, it is very difficult to fix, if it is even possible, but you will at least know about it.

I got hit pretty good a couple years back, and I'll be damned if I don't wake up every morning with a stiff aching neck,that had no prior issues whatsoever, sharp shooting pains and a splitting headache. I have been unable to move for days in the past because it hurt so bad. I have a good headache right now as a matter of fact. But I couldn't prove it was there, so I have to live with it (they have since revised state laws in my favor).

Again, I am not saying to go sue everybody and I am not giving legal advise. But if you don't protect your interest and your rights, you WILL lose them because it saves the insurance companies money. If you don't care, neither do they. You also need to be astutely aware of your limitations because then you know what kind of time frame you are dealing with to get the matter resolved peacefully. I hope that the insurance company you are dealing with is reasonable, and hope they deal with you peacefully. But protect yourself in case they don't.

[owequitit]

Sorry for the long post before. I just hate to watch people get raped.

Insurance companies are businesses, and they think like any profit driven business does.

The overall strategy that you should be working with is this: Make them understand that it is cheaper to deal with the problem now than it is to fight with you, and they will be much more reasonable.

[TysCb7]

What insurence company you have? My friends dad owns a body shop and was telling me how some insurence company's love to total cars while others are more reasonable.

[sandman61377]

Hmm.. he should be ok. When my '92 DX got hit in Oct. of '04, the other person's ins. didn't take out any money for me keeping the car, and the title wasn't changed to salvage, since the ins co never took possesion of it. I got around 2k for it, and its the lowest value trim level, with no mods whatsoever, and my air bag was already popped from before I bought the car.

[owequitit]

I personally have American Family, but have never claimed on it because it hasn't ever been my fault. I don't have a lot of complaints about them so far.

I speak of the Hartford. They are the most evil, rude, arrogant and ruthless sons-a-bitches in the world. I pitty the fool that has to deal with them. Making them go bankrupt or just out of business is on my to do list. They fought about everything! They acted like it was my fault for being stopped at a red light and getting rearended by their client at 30-35 MPH! What a bunch of A**HOLES!

I have also dealt with State Farm. They were more reasonable, but only because they had less leverage. Pictures helped here. Still we had to threaten to take them to court and keep reminding them that their client hit a parked car. All over about $400. Had I not had those pictures of the car, they probably would have gotten away with it.

We have also had past issues with Title Insurance companies that made mistakes that cost my family thousands upon thousands and then turned around and told us "too bad!" My family isn't rich by any means. That is a big deal.

We have always had very good luck with health insurance companies too.

My point is this. Maybe they will be reasonable, maybe not. Why put yourself in the position where their level of reasonability has as much of an effect as possible on your successful outcome? Plan for the worst and hope for the best. That way you are ALWAYS as prepared as you can be. That is just a good philosophy to live life by.

[coletrain]

hey, if they report the car as totaled, sell me your lip if it's in good cond., haha., i want one.

[accordtypeR]

First and foremost, I would like to thank you all for your inputs and suggestions during this time. This is the first time I have been in an accident this bad.

mrvinyl33 - my car lost all electrical power after the impact, the weather is nice and springlike here in georgia so i was enjoying the weather. after the incident, i could not roll my windows back up .

i'm the girl and accordtypeR - i will find out definately tomorrow on how much the insurance company is going to give me for the value of my car. right now the adjuster believes that the car is a total loss but he is trying to find shops to estimate the costs for repair.

Today I am feeling a little bit better, just sore more than anything. I have a rental car now so I am able to get around without buming people for rides. I will keep you guys informed once I hear something. Thanks for all your help!

My bad I didnt know that you were a girl, anyway you are part of the CB7 DISFUNCTIONAL FAMILY....lol again im glad to know that you are ok.

[resynch]

Well guys, the insurance company claims it to be a total loss. I made copies of all of rececipts for my modifications and handed them over to the company. I won't know how much my car is valued at until early next week. My stomach began to churn as a began looking at the long list of modifications that I paid my hard earned cash for.

owequitit - First off, thank you so much for spending the time to write out clearly what I need to do. I will use that in my arsenal to fight the insurance company if they begin to fuck me on the value of my car. Plus I realized that I have a bunch of pictures of my car through few years that I have owned it so that will help too. Again, I can't thank you enough for your input .

accordtypeR - I am not a girl....I was referring to cb7tuner member "i am the girl". But thanks for your support!

colslaw87 - We will be in touch about the lip, I will let you know what I will do.

deevergote - I know man, I thought I was safe from the cb7tuner wreck spell but I see that I was not. I see it has gotten you too! At any rate, depending on how much the insurance gives me, I will probably will get that 92-92 ex coupe that I have always wanted out of this deal.

sandman61377 - More than likely I will just get me another cb7 and just swap my parts over to it. I still wanna stay in the family if I can, but finding one that isn't beat up is going to be very hard.

The insurance company has been nothing but cooperative with me so far in dealing with this accident. But the ultimate test will be on the value of my car. Until then, I will have this nice 2006 Chevy Impala to drive around until they decide on how much they want to give me. But it doesn't compare to my Cb7 though.........lates

[J-specCb4]

buddy dont worry what ever happens my offer still stands and im sure everyone on here will help u get back on ur feet.... or wheels lol

[resynch]

92 EX Sedan w/ Leather





I am not going anywhere anytime soon from cb7tuner! The only bad thing is that the angle of the hit broke my alternator bracket, cracking the block on my f22b . This one is completely stock and I plan to keep it that way. Thanks for all your support guys during my time of need! J-specCB4, I might take up your offer when I get some more funds!

[deevergote]

Wow, nice replacement! Is it auto or 5 speed?

[AccordWarrior]

Wow, that is nice.

I wish I lived where there was no rust. CB's around here are still relatively plentiful...but they all have cancer. As we all know, I'm never ever...EVER..going through that again. Ever.

I gotta say though 92-93 EX Sedan > 90-91. (Yes, this is coming from the dude with the 90 LX)