musicars

My wife's "new" Alero got rear ended a couple of weeks ago. She loves this car and wants it fixed. The other driver's insurance does not want to pay the full cost of the repair due to the age of the car. The only way to make this happen is to find some really clean Ruby Red (dark red, almost maroon) parts to limit the need to paint.

So, it's probably a long shot, but if anyone has or comes across a trunk lid and rear bumper cover in Ruby Red (color 526F) in the Minneapolis - St. Paul, MN area please let me know. I have found a couple of each, but so far they all need paint work. The car is a 2003 Alero, but I think 2000 - 2003 used that color. The trunk has a spoiler which I think I can save if I need to.

If I can find clean parts we can use the balance of the insurance money to get the wrinkle in the driver's quarter pulled out. I just have to find a body guy that will do the work and let me provide the used parts. It does not look too bad but it's always worse when you start looking behind the smashed stuff.

Thanks.

Grace Stinespring-Welch

i have a 98 olds intrique. i don't know if that will inter change

musicars

Thanks, but the Intrique is a completely different animal. I need Alero only parts.

RetroRanger

Do not let the insco push you around. Assuming your wife is not at fault they are responsible to repair or replace your car to its pre accident state. They cant (legally) dictate to you that they wont repair your car unless the repair costs exceeds the replacement costs.

My VW was totalled in a not my fault accident. Her insco offered me $2000 for the car (it was 9 years old and 120k miles) I told them no I cant replace that car for less than $6000 and I backed that up by selecting for sale ads that met that criteria and forwarding them to her insco rep. (obviously there were others for sale for less but I did not use those as comps). In the end we agreed on $4000 2x their original offer, I 'bought' the car back from them for $120 and rebuilt the front end and airbags w one of those low cost hi mileage cars I didnt use as a comp. I then drove it for 2 more years and sold it for $1500 w 150+k miles.

they wanted to send me the $2000 check right away i refused ( i had possesion of the car which helped) and had rented out a car on their dime (i pd up frnt and recouped from them) as it was their insureds fault...that allowed them to hasten their decision instead of foot dragging as they would do if I no options w them. The whole process was just over two weeks...expect it to go a month (at least) if you dont have a rental that they are going to pay for or possesion of your car. I called them daily I was polite but firm

My point is inscos are in business to screw you every way they can they are not in business to "help" you out in any way.....this goes for your insco and hers ...

good luck

Boldsmobile

You don't have to accept the price they offer. You want the car back in the condition it was. You should not have to compromise. Tell them to source used parts, why should you use your time to save them money?

Don't let them bully you. You need to negotiate to keep yourself whole.

vistacruiser1971

Ditto what Boldsmobile and RetroRanger said. I have argued with insurance as well. You should be paid repair costs. Then we might find the right color parts to save you some money. Hope it worked/works out. trent in Los Angeles

jaunty75

No insurance company that wants to stay in business more than five minutes will pay more to fix a car damaged in an accident than the car is worth. And it's not because "they're out to screw you" or anything like that.

The point of insurance is restore you to the state you were in before the accident. But that doesn't mean the same car. It doesn't even mean any car car at all. It just means in the same state financially. That's why they give you a check instead of buying you another car if the car is too damaged to repair.

The OP doesn't say exactly which Alero he has (2 door, 4 door, GL, GLS, or GX) or how many miles are on it. But assuming the highest-end model and 50,000 miles, which is low for a 10 year old car, the Kelley Blue Book site says the trade-in value is about $3,500. Add maybe 10% to get a retail value, and you're around $4,000. If it costs 90% of this value or more to repair, the insurance company will just total the car and give you the money.

As others have done, your best bet, if your wife really wants this car, is to buy it back and have it fixed. Alternatively, you could take the money and try to find another Alero similar to it. That might be less trouble, and you probably could get one that hasn't been in an accident.

musicars

I missed the more recent responses to this so I'm adding some info. Here are some more details. The car is a GL2 with 55 RPO codes, more options than most GLSs I have seen. It also has a custom dealer installed two tone leather interior with heated seats. It has 102,000 miles. The insurance company of the lady that hit her presented us with a six page computer print out. After chipping away at the price, they valued it at around $4500 (I'm rounding off numbers here). Their computer evaluation estimates $465 salvage value yet the adjuster claimed they want $1300 (has since dropped to $1000) for salvage which means we get $3200 (now $3500) for repairs. The repair estimates are from between $4500 - $5000. I have dug up proof that the salvage value they are quoting is too high but they are ignoring it.

If the adjuster would follow his own report showing the $465 salvage we would have around $4000 for repair. Using used parts and a clean trunk lid that does not require painting in the inside, etc. we could get this done.

We have also tried presenting this to our insurance company and they have the salvage at around $565 but the value around $4200. Which is slightly better.

We are considering suing the lady that hit us for the $4500 amount and letting her deal with her own insurance company. I think using her own insurance companies' report as evidence we might prevail.

It's kind of a matter of principal. This issue of the insurance company requiring us to buy back our own car stinks. I feel we should get the value of the repairs not exceeding the value of the car. Hey, that's the way it seems to work on Peoples Court. But then this is not TV.

jaunty75

OK, I'm a little confused here.

You're saying that the insurance company of the lady that hit you has your car's salvage value at $1000. If you want to keep the car, they want to give you an additional $3500.

Your argument is, and it's based on what her own insurance company's report says, that the car's salvage value is only $465, and you want the company to give you the difference between that and the pre-accident value of $4500, which means they'd give you $4035?

Do I have this right?


Given the repair estimates of $4500 to $5000, the cost of repair is equal to or more than the pre-accident value of the car. Given this, assuming you didn't want to repair the car, would her insurance company give you $4500? They should, right? Then they take the car and sell it as scrap metal.

It may stink that you have to buy the car back and get it fixed yourself, but it's not unreasonable for her insurance company to total the car and give you the cash than to bother having it fixed. It may be a cool car and all with lots of unusual options, but it's still just a car in their eyes, and most people would just take the money and move on.

You say you want to sue her for $4500. But you could get $4500 right now by just taking the insurance company's offer. Of course, you'd lose the car.

What YOU want is to have both the damaged car AND the $4500, right? So you'd end up with cash and car valued together at anywhere from $4965 ($4500 plus $465) to $5500 ($4500 plus $1000) depending on what value you use for salvage value. You'd end up AHEAD, financially, of where you were before the accident. This seems to be an unlikely outcome.

You may sue, but you may not get all you want. If it goes before a judge, he may decide that you can't have both. You can either have the car's pre-accident value ($4500) and give up the car, or you can have the car's pre-accident value minus whatever the agreed-upon salvage value is, and keep the car. Maybe he'd split the difference between the $465 and $1000 salvage values and say it's worth $750 or something like that.

vistacruiser1971

Hi: Junk yards here are giving between $350 to $400 for similiar cars to be junked. It sure seems like your adjuster is playing with the scrap value. It is likely worth $350 to a junk yard here in Los Angeles. While they were talking value of your car, did they go up on values based upon the extras and low miles?? Kelly Blue book gives plusses for low miles and some options. 12-15k Miles per year are common averages and either should give the low miles credit. Leather, sunroof, power seat all might be plusses in your favor. Have you shown ads for similiar cars for sale in collector sources like OCA? Seems like a check for $4K and a clear title would be a win for you. Good luck, Trent

jaunty75

Apparently the offer on the table is currently $3500 plus the damaged car, so he's already somewhat close to this. Maybe a little negotiation can get that $3500 closer to $4K, and he can avoid the whole lawsuit idea.

jaunty75

Easier said than done. I looked just now in the classified section in the two most recent issues of JWO, and there are no Aleros for sale. There are very few '90s Oldsmobiles at all. The July issue has exactly three, for a '92 Trofeo, a '94 Cutlass, and a '97 Aurora. The same three ads are in the June issue.

If he wants to know what 2003 Aleros are currently selling for, he'll need to check the Kelley Blue Books and look for ads in the typical places that people sell used cars. They certainly aren't appearing yet anywhere where people might advertise collectible cars.


It's interesting. I went on carmax just now to see what '03 Aleros might be listed for, and "Oldsmobile" isn't even available as a choice on the list of makes. With the newest Oldsmobile being now almost 10 model years old, I'm guessing that they're just too old for a site like Carmax, which is apparently interested in selling later-model cars.


A quick search on craigslist turns up a few.


Here's a nice-looking one in Syracuse, 150,000 miles, asking $2495:

http://syracuse.craigslist.org/emq/3921360962.html





$3,000 for one that doesn't look too bad but has a few issues, 124,000 miles, in LaCrosse, Wisconsin:

http://lacrosse.craigslist.org/cto/3927285050.html





Here's a very nice-looking one, also in upstate New York, asking $2799. He doesn't say the mileage, but he does say "12,000 miles per year." I guess he wants us to do the math and see that that's about 120,000 miles.

http://rochester.craigslist.org/cto/3947855569.html




What's interesting is that, while we don't know what these cars will ultimately sell for, assuming they sell at all, none of these cars has an asking price anywhere near the $4,000 to $5,000 the OP wants for his damaged Alero. Yes, he has a higher-end model with lots of options, and his mileage is lower, but if he's looking to the marketplace to show the insurance company what the car is really worth, he might end up disappointed.


The Old Cars Price Guide lists values up through 2005 models, and it lists the value of a 2003 Alero GX in showroom condition at only $3,700, which I find surprisingly low. But there it is.

musicars

Look, I get the whole point of view of the having the car and having the cash may not seem fair to some, if that were actually the case. But for a minute humor me and look at it my way. We had a real nice Alero. Through no fault of our own we now have a smashed Alero worth very little as is. This is not a matter of us getting a pile of cash and having a nice car to boot. This is simply a matter of being made whole. It would technically take $4500 to put our car back to the way it was. There is no windfall for us here. We want it fixed!

Also, I looked for nice Aleros for over two months. There was not one anywhere near this nice with this kind of mileage. They all had rust on the hood lips, quarter panels, door bottoms, and misc spots while this one does not. My wife maybe puts on 10,000 miles a year. A car with 150,000 on it might as well be 5 years older as far as I'm concerned because the extra 50,000 miles is the equivalent to 5 years of driving. I have seen Aleros with low mileage (around 100,000) around here with asking prices from $5000 - $7000 (even one dealer wanted $10,000 but that's nuts and nobody will ever buy that). There are tons of them with 125,000 - 200,000 miles for way way less. But that's comparing apples to oranges. Most of those cars are 4 banger GL cars with cloth interior, steel wheels with hubcaps, no sun roofs, etc., etc. But that's not what we had! All we want it to be made whole!

I don't know how to put pictures here or I would. I'll work on that.

By the way, this tread was started as an attempt to get some clean parts. I found them. Even found a nearly mint trunk with the same gold letters.

musicars

Ok, I'm trying for two picture (easier than I thought) from before the accident and one shot from after it got shmooshed (but I hooked the bumper back up so it wouldn't drag on the ground). We will see if this works.

jaunty75

Hey, no one has said you shouldn't be made whole. But there are different definitions of "whole." You have one. The insurance company has another. A judge may have a third.

After seeing the photo of the rear end after the collision, I'd take the money and run. Cars are never the same after being hit as hard as yours was. There's hidden damage. Problems will crop up later. Doors don't quite close right. Body panels don't quite align. Water leaks in where it never did before. The frame might even be bent a little bit.

I had a similar experience when a '91 Acura I once owned was rear-ended when my daughter was driving it. No injuries, but the right rear was hit not much differently than your car was. It was amazing the amount of collateral damage. The entire right side of the car all the way up the front bumper was pushed forward. The passenger side door couldn't be opened even though the car was hit well away from it. The damage to your car sounds less serious, but still...

I know your wife loves the car, but it's just a car, and she can fall in love with another one.

vistacruiser1971

Hi: Glad you got the parts. Original colors and the emblems are great. The car will look great when done. I hope you are in the Olds Club (OCA). I was thinking over the last couple of years there was a Alero or two that were nice and asking more money. Those ads faxed to the insurance adjuster might help get the check done. Nice looking car. I like the late models with the key back on the dash where they belong. Glad to hear you will get it fixed. The photo does not show the side views so the rear bumper damage does not look so bad. Hope the quarter is not bad and does not need paint. We like factory paint like the replacement parts. Good luck, Trent