Goodbye, old friend
 

Well, after more than 16 years of ownership, I said goodbye to my Trans Am today. It was totaled after a parking lot impact with a Ford F350 that ripped the DS fender off, tore a 30" tear in the nose and wreaked havoc on the rad support area. It's a pretty nice feeling to get to your car after a weeklong business trip to find your car a pile of broken plastic and twisted metal. Even though I am no longer an F-body owner I'll stick around on the board to see if I can add something to a discussion now and then.

Did I even mention how much I hate dealing with insurance companies?

Here are a couple of pictures of the non-damaged side which is how I'd like to remember it:

Re: Goodbye, old friend
 

Damn!!! That sucks.

I think you need to buy my Formula. :D

You should be able to buy the T/A back cheap, and sell all the good parts.

Re: Goodbye, old friend
 

It does suck...

I probably should be done with Firebirds but they're sort of in my blood. I've been driving them my entire adult life except for a few miserable years in the late 90's. The 4th gen cars were quite a leap forward from the previous years and tremendous fun. But you already knew that...chuckle.

Re: Goodbye, old friend
 

ouch...really sucks. I assume the insurance co. determined the cost of repair was beyond the KBB value of the car. Not my interpretation of a cars value

Maybe buy it back as a parts car for a future F-body build.

FWIW I got "agreed value" car insurance through Grundy. Cheaper than AAA I was paying when it was insured with them and considerably more $ value to me if the car was ever totaled.

IDK where Grundy draws the line on total loss but mine is insured for $25k..

If it was $20k in damage I would assume they would pay for repair vs paying the total loss value. IDK, never made a claim and hope I never have to

Re: Goodbye, old friend
 

Real sorry to hear. I was fortunate to say goodbye to my 4th gen under better circumstances.

Re: Goodbye, old friend
 

I still have nightmares from driving one of my cars to work while in high school. I spent months on my back with a grinder working under the car, replacing floor plates and a lot of stuff like that restoring it. Then from a side road a silver beat up 84 to 86 grand am pulls out and I can still see the drivers side fender and hood slowly buckling up in front of it. Luckily it didn't bend the sub frame and the car was fixed after dad stepped up and "nicely" explained to the insurance company that they were no way in hell totaling the car. Still have it today. Hope you get it all sorted out and get a toy of some kind.

Re: Goodbye, old friend
 

Man, that's heartbreaking.

Time to buy a Corvette?

Re: Goodbye, old friend
 

My lovely wife has a '99 FRC (same body as the C5 Z06) Corvette with a head/cam setup already done. It puts down 410 at the rear wheels and consistently beat my 500 pound heavier Trans Am in the 1/4-mile. We still have plenty of go at our house so it's not like I'll be going through withdrawl or anything....chuckle.

Here's the weird part...I think the LS engines sound like crap. Couple that with a stupid Borla exhaust setup and the thing is loud and obnoxious with a drone right at cruising speed. I think I'll change it to a Corsa to clean up the drone. To me a Corsa sounds better but still not Gen 1/2 Chevy small block better.

That was probably blasphemy to LS guys and Corvette guys....HA!

Re: Goodbye, old friend
 

Well, at least that part is good news. We are a vanishing breed. Look at how few of the "old-timers" are left here. And some not even owning one of the cars any more. It's disappointing. Not sure how much longer I'm going to be able to hang in there. Did we run across each other on Kelly Drown's "Project TranAm" site, when you first bought your Trans Am?

Thanks for offering to hang out and contribute. I've always appreciated and respected your input to our community!

Fred

Re: Goodbye, old friend
 

That is where we first crossed paths. I was brand new to 4th gens and a simple search took me there. We did a ram air box transaction along the way as well....probably 12 years ago. Time flies.

I'll hang around as long as there is something to talk about....chuckle.

Thanks, Fred!

Re: Goodbye, old friend
 

I think Project Trans Am is where I also met bw. :D

Re: Goodbye, old friend
 

My experience is that if you really talk with insurance companies hard and present your points well, they will yield. Once my car was damaged and they said they will pay if I used someone in the network. The network service provider didn't do a good job, I had gone back and fort for several times. Eventually I really pressed the insurance company hard to get the car fixed. They then said take it to your preferred service provider, get a quote from them and we will approve it.

Re: Goodbye, old friend
 

For what it's worth, here is my story. Several years ago a young driver blew through a stop sign and nailed my car in the driver's side front fender. Her insurance company wanted to give me book value on a 94 TA which at the time was around $4000.00. They told me that all the modifications to the car really didn't add value.

Long story short, I sent them receipts of everything I had ever spent on the car and kept talking to them. I talked to the adjuster over and over and then finally said, "Let me talk to your supervisor". Got a call back with a better offer and they finally agreed to pay me about double the original offer and then let me buy the car back at a greatly reduced rate. I'm not a real aggressive person and I'm not telling this to be boastful, but I just firmly kept insisting that the car was more valuable than a stock 94 TA. It took several months, though.

Of course, it wasn't enough to cover the total costs to repair the car, but I just fixed it over a couple of years and at least I got a little bit of money to help the repairs.

For those of you with older cars with a lot of modifications, do what Chimera96 above said--buy "stated value" insurance through Grundy or Haggardy. Mine is much less expensive (with better coverage) than with my regular ins. and that way, if you ever have a total loss, you will at least get paid and not have to argue with an insurance company.

Worst case, buy it back from the ins. com (I think it is usually about 10-15% of the totaled value) and part it out.

Re: Goodbye, old friend
 

OP

with replies and more time after the accident to your car I would agree going back to the insurance company and negotiate a higher value compensation is likely something that would work out in your favor

I am assuming you are claiming this through your insurance as a no fault claim. Your insurance Co. works for you and wants your biz and if the other party has insurance they will get fully reimbursed anyway

I had a car totaled (rear ended) and went back and forth with my insurance on a agreed settlement. I did show a solid service history maintained and very recent repairs/Tires, etc cost I had incurred and they came back with top $.

After going through this situation I realized I would be F'ed if it had been my SS and I immediately got agreed value coverage from Grundy

Never a win/win. If you get the car as a buy back after settlement....or they just let you have it you can determine if the $ you get will "fix" it or buy another F-body and use yours as a donor parts car

Re: Goodbye, old friend
 

I did negotiate with the insurance company...I negotiate for a living so it was second nature. Their first, second and third offer was for book value. With all the mods I was able to get book plus 70% as a 'manager approved adjustment". I'm as happy with the deal as you can be when something like this happens.

Now for the down side. The insurance company wanted to verify the mods and my receipts weren't enough...they had the salvage yard look at the car and see everything. Once the guy at the yard saw this stuff he bought the car from the insurance company...it was bought up before I knew it. Oh well, the deal is sound, it would have just been better to sell the parts, too.