Wrecked Vipers, Salvage Titles & The Evil Insurance Empire

[REMIX]

Another question I think may be relevant to potential buyers and owners.

What's the deal with some of these "salvage" vehicles? I mean, many claim to have "light" damage but end up as salvage vehicles anyway. Does the insurance company just trash the car at the slightest sign of damage? Is it that expensive to repair a crushed fender and bumper? I would be leery of even making a claim if the insurance company is so quick to trash and total a car like this. I think I'd rather let it sit for a while and eventually pay the funds out of pocket...I can't imagine their replacement value is anywhere near the value of the car. Could make for a problem if the car is financed. Not to mention the increase in my insurance rate because one of my vehicles was "totaled".

What's your opinion?

Just curious.

REMIX

 

[Anthony - 98 GTS]

Viper's are VERY expensive to fix - especailly at full dealer pricing. The hood alone (unpainted) costs almost $15,000.

 

[joe117]

I always wondered about this. If you figure that the company would give some guy, say $45k, for his totaled car, and they could sell the wreck for $15k, then they would be out $30k. I would think that a bashed in right front could be fixed for less than $30k. I've seen totaled cars on ebay with what look's like bashed in right or left fronts.
Perhaps there is something more to it. Is it just that the cost to repair is more than I think it would be or do they just total for any frame damage, figuring that it can't be properly fixed?

 

[dansauto]

lots of factors, Diminished value..lots of owners don't want the cars after they have been wrecked...they are very expensive to fix, and insurance companies get a pretty good salvage value. State laws govern when a car must be considered salvage and this varies (it's ususally around 70% NADA retail value)

What appears to be a little bash, could actually be a twisted kinked frame. Which requires sectioning and replacing. NOT an easy task. The car must first be tore apart to get to the damage, pulled to square the car, then the damaged section cut out and replaced at factory welds. Lots of time and frame sections arn't cheap.

 

[snowmann]

Make no mistake about it, salvaged cars have a good amount of damage... like the post said above at least 70% the value of the car and in some states this figure is more. Sure a Viper is expensive to fix, but you are talking at least 40K worth of damage in most cases, 40K of damage is no light damage. Don't believe the sales B.S.

 

[REMIX]

$15,000? For an unpainted hood? I think I just had to scrape my jaw off the floor.

REMIX

 

[MichaelP]

Actually I talked to a Dodge body manager last week he said he just ordered one and it was more like $17,000.

Just think how much Dodge saved by getting rid of the clam shell and going with a more traditional hood on the '03 Vipers.

 

[Bonkers]

What an insurance company selling price to owner and what they "could" get at auction are two totally different things. You need to remember there are quite a few huge factors involved with totalling a vehicle (especially exoctics.)

As a general rule Insurance companies always lose money on a wrecked car, how much they loose is about the only thing they have control over. Vipers are EXPENSIVE to fix. Period. Unlike myself, most insurance companies are not allowed to swap parts off other vehicles, cruise ebay for weeks at a time, buy aftermarket, and cut and paste holes. They have to buy OEM (or OEM quality) usually unpainted and single peiced (read: for a door they cannot buy a bolt on door, they must buy the panel, the interior panel, the window ect...)

In the end this adds up to some serious dough in parts, rebuilders, buyers, secritaries, transporters, storage, accountants, adjusters, market analysts, ect...

Take a hypothetical situation (as I don't know the real numbers I will embellesh heavily here) You wreck you're new 01 RT. The car has a street value of $50k and a wholesale (buyout) value of $42k. If the insurance co takes it for auction they "might" get $20k for it, but will spend $40k to get it to auction. $42+$40-$20 = $62k loss. They sell it to you for $20k and forget the accountants and other manpower = $42+$1-$20 = $23k loss.

Hope I didn't toally confuse you... running on dew high right now...

 

[ewave]

Just think how much Dodge saved by getting rid of the clam shell and going with a more traditional hood on the '03 Vipers.

Just think about how much more money they could save by installing a high revving 4 cylinder engine like in the Honda S2000 instead of that V10!

 

[Daffy Duck Viper]

Just think about how much more money they could save by installing a high revving 4 cylinder engine like in the Honda S2000 instead of that V10!

Speaking of high-revving engines - what would need to be done to the Viper engine to make it rev high like that, and yet still retain its massive amounts of torque? Is such a thing possible? Just curious.

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[REMIX]

When I finally get my car, I'll be driving like a granny. Thanks for that!

REMIX

 

[Bonkers]

When I finally get my car, I'll be driving like a granny.

Suuuurrrrrreeeeeeee, like we haven't hear that about 14,000 deliveries before....