Do a little work researching and do a little arguing with the agent. You should get more for it AND buy it back for less.
I had to do that long ago with my GMC. It got totaled when it got rear ended. Bought it back and my neighbor and I fixed it. Years later, I whacked a deer with it, totaled again. Bought it back again but did not fix again, I just drove a piece of S**T till the tranny went out.
P.S. Use the words "good faith" when talking to your agent.

 

I appreciate the advice sir! You make some good points... I'm still kind of frustrated though. Mainly, because I simply cannot find a replacement for my car for $6,800. I can find a few that are kind of close, but not really.

My main hanging points are as follows;

Yes, my car has 220k miles on it, but I recently rebuilt my motor within 30k miles ago, it has a new LS7 clutch, lightweight aluminum flywheel, new slave, bought a used trans for it with less than 50k miles, and I have a new professionally built 3.73 diff with less than 25k miles on it.

Now, I know the insurance company doesn't give 2 ***** about those things... but to me, my car is in BETTER shape mechanically than a 50k-100k mile car.

Yes, cosmetically she looks like she has 200k on her, but that's ok.

For me, getting $6,300 from my insurance to find a "replacement" for my car would be impossible. So, I'm left with trying to find a decent 100k-150k mile car, which typically go for $12k-$14k (Triple Black 6-speeds are pretty desirable). That means I need to finance $7k and pick up a payment for a car that has MORE miles on the drivetrain than mine. I would be getting a car that's better COSMETICALLY and has less miles on the dash, but at the cost of having a $150/month payment and the potential to have to make the costly repairs to engine, trans, clutch, diff, etc that I've ALREADY done to my car.

I don't know... I get it, but it still feels like I'm getting the shaft.

Honestly, I would be HAPPIEST if they just payed the body shop to fix mine. Which is exactly what would happen if they just came up a LITTLE to a valuation of $9,000... which is $2,000 LESS than what KBB and NADA say my car is worth.

 

[QUOTE=sydneyACE;1597218478]I appreciate the advice sir! You make some good points... I'm still kind of frustrated though. Mainly, because I simply cannot find a replacement for my car for $6,800. I can find a few that are kind of close, but not really.

My main hanging points are as follows;

Yes, my car has 220k miles on it, but I recently rebuilt my motor within 30k miles ago, it has a new LS7 clutch, lightweight aluminum flywheel, new slave, bought a used trans for it with less than 50k miles, and I have a new professionally built 3.73 diff with less than 25k miles on it.

Now, I know the insurance company doesn't give 2 ***** about those things... but to me, my car is in BETTER shape mechanically than a 50k-100k mile car./QUOTE]

It would be worth showing your receipts. Can't hurt.

 

if you pony up the $2200 to make it to 9k would they fix it?

 

[QUOTE=3sACROWD;1597218961]I asked about paying the difference and they said "no" apparently that's illegal... LOL!

They DID say however that they would adjust the value to if I give them receipts from they new rear diff, trans, clutch, engine, etc... They said it's not a 1:1 value increase which is understandable, but I only need to get it a little higher and then it won't get totaled.

So... now I'm trying to find all my old receipts. Unfortunately, I did all of the work myself (I'm a GM dealership tech) so I don't have any receipts for labor. But I plan on quoting standard labor rates for engine rebuild, trans replacement, and diff replacement to see if they can factor that in at all.

 

Whoa, whoa, whoa. It's your car, not theirs. Title is in your name unless and until you sign it over. I'm not certain of the process here, but you can argue against the declaration of total, and you can certainly refuse to sign over the title. They can not take it away without your agreement.
https://www.wikihow.com/Dispute-an-I...-Loss-on-a-Car
Lot of interesting suggestions here, even if you go with the total.

 

Just went through a similar scenario.
99 coupe, 250K on the clock, engine went. I went round and round, sell it, part it out, put new motor in, etc. In the end, someone had a wrecked 98 with a good motor who WANTED to frankenstein them together. I stress wanted, because if you're a tech, you know that pulling apart a quarter million mile car is going to create more and more issues at every turn of the wrench.

My $.02... Beat up your insurance co. for a better offer and walk away. It sucks, I know; I wept a bit the day my car was hauled away, but I took the cash ($3800) and found another. If you put all 220k miles on that car, she owes you nothing, and you have some great memories.

 

 

You have many rights here. So long as you have the title, and hopefully still have the car, you are in control.

You can make them justify their valuation. Adding something from your receipts for things you've done to it within the past year is typical. I submitted 2 years of receipts, and included "labor estimates" from labor time guide for my time. They only increased the value between 20% and 40% of what I spent on parts plus about 10% of the labor value. But that helped.

If you work at a dealership and have "connections." You can also get your own estimate, based on your connections and your specifications for the repair (it's your car, it's your choice). You may be able to come up with an estimate that is below the "cash value" of your car. If so, you can just tell them, "Send me a check for this estimate. The folks who made the estimate will fix it for this amount, and I'll sign the release stating there will be no additional claim." If your estimate is below their cash value, it's not a total loss.

 

I had a car totaled and the payout offer was way low. The insurance company's fiduciary is not to you. I went back and forth with my insurance company...providing receipts, looking for comparable car to buy at the price they offered, etc. And ask them to demonstrate their value determination. They'll write a bigger check but you'll have to work for it. Patients will pay off if you're in a position to wait a bit. Good luck!

 

Go to ebay for C5s, hit the "sold" filter and find example of C5s with comparable mileage/specs to use as comparables. Then argue on the valuation.

Also we'd need to know more about the damage to make a determination on whether to buy back. Body shops rape insurance companies which in the end we get raped through higher insurance premiums because of the absurd amount body shops charge insurance companies.

If it's just replacing panels, definitely DIY or shop around and find someone who can do it cheap. But if you have frame damage or other things that require special equipment to fix, I'd just let the insurance company take the car, unless you want to spend the time parting it out or can find someone on this forum/elsewhere who's interested in doing that.

 

[QUOTE=sydneyACE;1597219344]Definitely find your receipts and do a labor cost estimate and give everything to your insurance.

Back in 2005, I had a 2004 Chevy Impala that I had adding about $8000 in fast parts (turbo charger system, intercooler, etc.). The car was totaled when a 16-year old girl t-boned me. Because my additions were less than a year old, the insurance paid me the value of the vehicle plus the full amount of the modifications. Now my car was still totaled, but I did not lose anything money on the mods I had added. My insurance was State Farm.

In your case, the insurance may prorate some of your parts but it just may make the difference in not being totaled.

Good luck.

 

Years ago I had a Triumph Spitfire "totaled" and received a very low settlement offer. It was a nice car but not exceptional. I showed the adjuster a dozen random trophies and some assorted dash plaques and convinced him it was a "show car". He raised the settlement amount by a factor of four !

 

For a Spitfire, he got fired! lol

 

Ok, everyone!! Update time!!

So, I did as many of you guys suggested and kept after them. I had them send me all of their comparisons that they were using to valuate... all 4 of them were automatics, and the closest one was in Salt Lake (like 400 miles from me). I'm assuming they used distant cars because Vettes in my area typically fetch a higher premium (just not very common). I also explained to them that manual trans cars typically fetch a higher premium than autos in the Corvette world. Because of those arguments, they added another $1,000 bucks to their valuation, but that still wasn't enough to get it above the threshold at which it was totaled.

I asked them about my new diff, rebuilt motor, and low mileage trans. They told me to send receipts. I couldn't find my receipt for the used trans, and they told me my new diff wasn't recent enough to count (2 years ago), so I was reliant on the receipt for engine rebuild parts. I'm a GM dealership mechanic so I just did all the work myself on the weekend, so I didn't have any receipts for labor but I submitted a "quote" for what labor is to rebuild and engine (35 hours). I'm not sure if they ultimately took my labor into account or not, but they called today and said that my receipts were enough to bump the valuation above the threshold at which it would be totaled.

So.... I'm getting a check to fix my car!!!! Which was really best case scenario for me!!

 

Awesome!

 

people are going to tell you that R titled cars are worth nothing. Those people do not know what they're talking about.

I've bought, sold, fixed lots of R titled cars. Typically they're worth 10-15% below similar cars. And if the cars values are bottomed out then they'll pull the same amount. R titled jeeps for example. They sell for pretty much the same price as clean titled jeeps. i've sold R titled TJ's for more than clean titled ones lol.

I just sold my R titled mustang for 5 grand.

C5's are kind of bottoming out. Especially high mileage ones. IF you can get enough out of the initial payment and get the buy out low enough, sometimes it's worth it. Sometimes you can fix the car for a couple hundred bucks in used parts. I don't know how damaged yours is or what you have into it build wise. But sometimes it makes sense.

And other times it doesn't.

*edit* just saw your update. great news man!!!!! now fix it yourself cheaper than the payout and buy a blower lol

 

Winning! Nice ending to the story. Cheers!

 

Finally, some good news!

 

Awesome!