Living in socal it was hard to even find someone interested in insuring it.  My car  was one of those mid 70's cars imported legally, but the fact that it was from overseas and was never imported by the manufacturer made it hard for insurance companies to find in their computers.  AAA was willing to not only insure it, but also do the registration and related inspections instead of taking it to the DMV...plus it didn't cost me a dime.  It actually lowered by insurance rates due to the multi car discount.  Overall hard to complain you know?

I might just add after all this, that a "Stated Value" insurance policy is something to look in to. After having a classic car policy for a while that limited my driving "to and from shows and events," I inquired of Safeco (carrier of house and Audi) if they had stated value classic car insurance without those restrictions. They said they did, but didn't advertise them. I have a policy that lets me drive the Mini anytime, anywhere, and I just changed the stated value from $15k to $20k which did NOT raise my premium. While they say 2,500mi/yearly limit, they did not ask for an odo reading. Your rates may differ based on location and stated value, but I pay $198/yr.

 

Congratulations Ransom, and thanks for keeping this updated.  Off I go to stop in front of somebody now.

 

After you have the cheque, can you still buy it back at like 10% or something...even if you can't register it again...lots of parts there

Update:  well there's some very good news.  After turning in a book of receipts a half inch or more thick, and having a 3rd party evaluate the car, they have come back to me with a value of $10,000, or $10,996 after tax,title,etc is added in.  This was right on the money as far as I was concerned, and much better than the $4k initial offer.  By Monday I should have a check in hand

From a management point of view, we've been discussing this back n forth for years and it's always the same. There should be a sticky on this: What to do if your Mini is involved in an accident. A database of values, MiniMania could be involved as they are the one's who sell repair parts and could benefit. Damage = $. maybe someone can take this on so whenever we are involved in an accident in our Mini, we can send over a schedule af values associated with the damage. The higher the better. I might have $10k in parts, but if I did the work myself, I should be compensated for that at shop rate's. The value of a car is how much it's sold for - Barret Jackson at the top, MiniMania for sale board at the bottom. Somewhere in the middle would be acceptable to me. Ultimately it would raise the values of our Mini's. Thoughts?

Having represented more plaintiffs in auto PI cases than I can count, and having been rear ended in my mini also, my best advice is to first seek competent medical attention (at the very least visit your regular doctor, if not the ER), and then think about contacting a good auto PI attorney.  It's not about "doing the right thing" or "not trying to get everything I can" out of the other party.

Remember, first and foremost, that it is not the job of the other person's claims adjustor to take care of you, its to pay you as little on your claim as they possibly can.  They are rated on that.  They get promoted on that.  Insurance companies are in business to make money for their owners, and they do that by paying you as little as they can, or nothing at all if they think they can.  When you throw a classic car into the mix, most of the time they don't know what to do, as standard rates for parts and repair don't apply, and for the most part they are clueless.  Be prepared to do most of the ground work for what the value of your property damage claim is on your own.  they will have no idea where to go for parts replacement values, what specialized body work would cost to repair, what your car's value was pre-accident (in order to determine whether to total loss it or not), etc.  In short, its not like you got hit in a Toyota Camry - there will be a lot of negotiation on value, repair cost, etc.

I was rear-ended in my mini by a yahoo in a beat up pickup truck at a stoplight.  His insurance company (USAA) had no clue what to do as it was a classic car.  After he hit me, the first words out of my mouth were "I hope you have good insurance".

I might be in the market for the front half of a mini.  Please let me know what you decide to do, when you've reached a decision with the insurance company.

yep we will see how it goes...I'm still waiting for the final verdict.

I agree - figure that the doorsill, rear quarter, rear panel & rear valance are common rust repair panels, the boot floor and others won't be too bad to replace for anyone who's experienced in mini shells.  Think about how much you've also invested in the rest of the car - engine/suspension/brakes/interior/glass etc. that isn't affected by the impact. 

I think it would be a shame to throw it all away, akin to throwing the baby out with the bathwater.  My 2¢, get it back and get it back on the road somehow.  It's too nice to scrap.

If Pigs could fly, Poison would be a Squadron Leader. Ah well, we really shouldn't mock the afflicted. Even if he was dropped on his head as a baby. If he'd landed anywhere else it would have killed him.

ps...Saor Alba is Gaelic and means Free Scotland... Not my name.

...and another leap of untethered logic.

haha, Jim even if you don't tell us, it's obvious that you still have that piece of skin attached to your body,,, it's too late now Jim,,,it's too late!!!

doctor might need a chainsaw , or may need to do it in the slaughter house...lol

Ah well, just goes to show Doctors aren't infallible....they threw the wrong piece away.

Buy it back and let some board member have it for the salvage value. I bet there's half a dozen folk that would jump in to "help" you out including me but too far away. Salvage is easy - they offer you 2 checks, one to settle and they keep car - Larger $ or  the smaller $ and you keep car. The $ delta between the 2 checks is all you may be concerned with. I'd offer you free storage but you're way too far away. By the way, if it's in a tow yard or collision repair - they're going to hit someone up for storage so I'd bring it home or wherever so you can control the fees. I make the insurance estimators come to me, not your responsibility to take to them.

The point is: Keep it in the family, all your going to need is may be a rear clip with top & some other incidentals. The bow in the top may disappear when you cut away the damage in the rear. I'm going to guess that if you send it up to one of the Mini repair guys that they can probably make it pretty close to whole for whatever you may collect on it.

You guys friggin crack me up  I am one of those weird people who aren't really concerned about bleeding every last dime out of this situation.  I just want fair compensation for my vehicle and my medical bills paid for.  As long as I get that then I'll be cool...if not then one of those radio/TV ambulence chasing lawyers might need to get involved.

At this point it's sounding like it might be over $8k in in work, which sounds like a totalling out to me.  I basically noticed today that the roofline bows upwards in the center, and the bottom of the body slightly downwards in the center.

i probably wont buy it back after all this.  Not worth enough with a salvaged title and I don't have enough a parking space/garage to dump it in until I figure out what to do with it.  I gotta say, it is tempting to:

1.  buy it back, cut the front end off, mount it to my wall as a trophy of a car well loved, then send the rest to the scrap yard.  A romantic notion that my 700 square foot condo thankfully prevents my from doing ??

or

2.  Go max max style on it...to hell with it, it's salvaged and not worth crap anyhow...and who knows, maybe the resulting post apocalyptic rat rod dune buggie thing might look cool!

Just went through this recently when a Motorcycle hit me in a Honda Civic i was selling. His insurance company (Geico) wanted it out of the tow yard and over to their auction site, i agreed but wanted the salvage rights which they said ok. They came back to me with a ridiculous figure for salvage which was 50 % of what they were offering me for the payout of the totalled Honda. After trying to negtiate with them for 3 weeks and getting nowhere I said bring it back to me and our lawyers/insurance companies can talk. I ended up paying 25% roughly of what they paid me which figure was also increased once i had possesion back. I sold the car in a package deal with 3 other Hondas my Son had for sale (complete with a Florida COD title) to a Honda guy for 2.5 times what i received from the insurance company. The insurance company was a lot more willing to listen when i had possession of the car.

Hold out with them and if you have classic car agreed value tell them that is what you want.

ransom.. just heads. up   depending on the stupic.s insurance company .. you might NOT be able to buy it back..  and get PARTS ONLY car.. and they CANCEL your Calli title.. seeing it lots here in NC. now.  and states like Florida.  getting Certificate of Destruction..  with just 25% of damage..of book value..

Really surprised you didn't just do it yerself with a pair of nail clippers......

 

Your welcome malsal

Now (considering the source) there's some material for a good one liner.