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Enthusiast
How do Insurance Co\'s value wrecked Vipers? See this amazing story!!
I have a client who recently purchased a 93' Viper with 5k miles. 3 weeks later, he was in the craziest natural disaster imaginable. See his story below, you won't believe this one....
***below his story are some Insurance claim questions you guys might be able to help with. Thanks, Chris.
*********************************
Dear son,
I totaled the Viper.
I'm Ok, not in the hospital and haven't a scratch. But it was close and got closer as seven police officers and a dozen bystanders all told me I should be dead by lets see: beheading, drowning, hitting a tree, stone wall or other immovable object head-on - or maybe just bled to death. What a fun crowd to hang out with in 30 degree weather.
Here's what happened. About noon with the sun shining near 70 degrees and few clouds in the sky with a warm breeze and other "nice day" signs, I decided to head down to my favorite car shop and pick-up my vanity plate bracket in the Livery. On the way back within two miles of the house, it began to rain - just a light drizzle as clouds began to form overhead. Rather suddenly. Then it turned to a downpour in a few hundred feet, which turned into light hale, heavy hale, snow and finally ice. Mind you, it was clear and sunny two miles back. Of course I have no top on the car so I'm really trying to beat the rain to begin with. Suddenly, according to news reports and the police, there was 2-3 inches of ice on the road between and only between two stop lights less than two miles apart - and no where else. It was a freak of nature people were saying they had never seen before. Nor so suddenly. The temperature dropped to below freezing in minutes if not seconds.
I'm in the fast lane. Suddenly my tires break lose and I'm hydroplaining. Then spinning in circles. Followed by taking flight into the air about 20 feet up, flipping at least once, sliding between two large oaks, over an embankment, into the air again backwards where I slammed into a steel walking bridge spanning a creek, where I turn again and land flat in the creek about 30 feet down.
By now the creek is a torrent from the sudden rains and the car begins to sink with me strapped in. I get the harness off, grab my briefcase (??) and as the water is above my chest and rising rapidly, I realize the water pressure hasn't stabalized enough for me to get the door open (or it;s damaged shut). The water is at chin level and to make matters worse I'm a whole lot heavier than norm because I wore your Mother's mink coat and it's REALLY HEAVY with water. I climb up on the seat but I don't know the depth of the creek so I hesitate hoping the car will hit bottom. It doesn't and continues to disappear underneath me, threatening to **** me down with it. Two guys are on the bank ten feet away and I make a dive for it, but sink to my toes before managing, with their helping hands - in the middle of a storm you can barely see in - to help me out and up the bank. My hearing aids are shot from the water (later to dry-out and somehow come back to working order) so I can't hear a thing.
The Viper sinks below the surface as I begin to feel vibrations of some sort. Turns out six more cars including a totaled BMW are busy cracking-up all over the highway like me. But I'm the only one to go in the drink.
The cops have interesting stories to tell me. Like, "I've never seen such a good accident". A good accident? "You should be dead". "You could have landed upside down and drowned" "If you hit the bridge a little lower you would have been beheaded" I especially liked that last one. And I've always had a fear of drowning. "You could have hit the stone wall head-on". "It's probably good you didn't have air bags". "Are you sure you're not hurt?" "How could you possibly have gotten out of there alive?" "What year is the viper?" "Is it one of those V-10s?" "What's the horsepower?'. Enough to get me in the creek. I tell everybody it's my son's car and he's going to be really mad at me.
And so it went until they drove me home to change and back again to wait for the tow truck...
and the scuba divers to get underneath the car and hook it up for pulling out of the creek. That took some hours as turned dark and began to rain again.
I'm a little sore I'm finding. But I'm seemingly OK otherwise. The news cameras from Channel 2 were all over the place and I refused to talk with them. Bloody hell they will get some fun news out of me. I'm sure glad i didn't take Shalimar with me. They had dogs there too in case they needed to locate the dead driver who most people didn't know was standing right beside them listening to what I could hear them jabber about. I had a police jacket on a cop gave me for warmth, and free pizza and coffee brought by the owner of Garlex Pizza down the street to feed the gawkers. Everyone, including all the cops are snapping pictures. After all, it's not every day a guy flips his Viper and goes airborne into a creek, between two Oaks, hitting a bridge and missing a stone wall. And walks away. Other cars took out trees and stuff. All between two stoplights. the cops could not stop saying they had never seen anyone walk away from an accident like this. Others were saying it was a miracle. Some asked me if I were religious and believed in Jesus. A couple of others asked if that was a Viper "in the toilet". It was turning into a circus.
How did I get that blood on my chin one asked (it was Shalimar and I playing a little too rough this morning when her nails shot out and accidentally grazed me). My back hurts a little and I'm out of meds until Tuesday at least.
Other than this I had a good day.A little more exciting than planned, but otherwise not bad all in all. Except the viper's totaled. Will call the insurance people and go see it at the tow place. Then start looking all over again for a bargain Viper. I bought driving gloves today too. And soaked my Prada driving shoes. The water didn't taste good either. I'm going to go take a shower.
I hope your day was good.
Love,
Dad
???????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Anyway, he is waiting to hear back from Farmer's Insurance who he has been with for 20+ years to find out how much they will fork out. Any idea on how Insurance companies will pay for such a car? Do they base it on Wholesale or Retail Book values or market rate, etc??? Since Vipers are one of the very few cars that ever sell for over Book value, it is hard to determine how much they will pay him. In an recent post, I saw State Farm payed out $42k for a 19k mile Gen1 ??? Also, how soon can he expect to see any money from them? He is waiting to find out how much they will reimburse him prior to investing in another Gen1 Viper. Thought I would help him do a little homework and provide some comps from other Ins. carriers. Please provide any feedback or experiences. Thanks.
I have a client who recently purchased a 93' Viper with 5k miles. 3 weeks later, he was in the craziest natural disaster imaginable. See his story below, you won't believe this one....
***below his story are some Insurance claim questions you guys might be able to help with. Thanks, Chris.
*********************************
Dear son,
I totaled the Viper.
I'm Ok, not in the hospital and haven't a scratch. But it was close and got closer as seven police officers and a dozen bystanders all told me I should be dead by lets see: beheading, drowning, hitting a tree, stone wall or other immovable object head-on - or maybe just bled to death. What a fun crowd to hang out with in 30 degree weather.
Here's what happened. About noon with the sun shining near 70 degrees and few clouds in the sky with a warm breeze and other "nice day" signs, I decided to head down to my favorite car shop and pick-up my vanity plate bracket in the Livery. On the way back within two miles of the house, it began to rain - just a light drizzle as clouds began to form overhead. Rather suddenly. Then it turned to a downpour in a few hundred feet, which turned into light hale, heavy hale, snow and finally ice. Mind you, it was clear and sunny two miles back. Of course I have no top on the car so I'm really trying to beat the rain to begin with. Suddenly, according to news reports and the police, there was 2-3 inches of ice on the road between and only between two stop lights less than two miles apart - and no where else. It was a freak of nature people were saying they had never seen before. Nor so suddenly. The temperature dropped to below freezing in minutes if not seconds.
I'm in the fast lane. Suddenly my tires break lose and I'm hydroplaining. Then spinning in circles. Followed by taking flight into the air about 20 feet up, flipping at least once, sliding between two large oaks, over an embankment, into the air again backwards where I slammed into a steel walking bridge spanning a creek, where I turn again and land flat in the creek about 30 feet down.
By now the creek is a torrent from the sudden rains and the car begins to sink with me strapped in. I get the harness off, grab my briefcase (??) and as the water is above my chest and rising rapidly, I realize the water pressure hasn't stabalized enough for me to get the door open (or it;s damaged shut). The water is at chin level and to make matters worse I'm a whole lot heavier than norm because I wore your Mother's mink coat and it's REALLY HEAVY with water. I climb up on the seat but I don't know the depth of the creek so I hesitate hoping the car will hit bottom. It doesn't and continues to disappear underneath me, threatening to **** me down with it. Two guys are on the bank ten feet away and I make a dive for it, but sink to my toes before managing, with their helping hands - in the middle of a storm you can barely see in - to help me out and up the bank. My hearing aids are shot from the water (later to dry-out and somehow come back to working order) so I can't hear a thing.
The Viper sinks below the surface as I begin to feel vibrations of some sort. Turns out six more cars including a totaled BMW are busy cracking-up all over the highway like me. But I'm the only one to go in the drink.
The cops have interesting stories to tell me. Like, "I've never seen such a good accident". A good accident? "You should be dead". "You could have landed upside down and drowned" "If you hit the bridge a little lower you would have been beheaded" I especially liked that last one. And I've always had a fear of drowning. "You could have hit the stone wall head-on". "It's probably good you didn't have air bags". "Are you sure you're not hurt?" "How could you possibly have gotten out of there alive?" "What year is the viper?" "Is it one of those V-10s?" "What's the horsepower?'. Enough to get me in the creek. I tell everybody it's my son's car and he's going to be really mad at me.
And so it went until they drove me home to change and back again to wait for the tow truck...
and the scuba divers to get underneath the car and hook it up for pulling out of the creek. That took some hours as turned dark and began to rain again.
I'm a little sore I'm finding. But I'm seemingly OK otherwise. The news cameras from Channel 2 were all over the place and I refused to talk with them. Bloody hell they will get some fun news out of me. I'm sure glad i didn't take Shalimar with me. They had dogs there too in case they needed to locate the dead driver who most people didn't know was standing right beside them listening to what I could hear them jabber about. I had a police jacket on a cop gave me for warmth, and free pizza and coffee brought by the owner of Garlex Pizza down the street to feed the gawkers. Everyone, including all the cops are snapping pictures. After all, it's not every day a guy flips his Viper and goes airborne into a creek, between two Oaks, hitting a bridge and missing a stone wall. And walks away. Other cars took out trees and stuff. All between two stoplights. the cops could not stop saying they had never seen anyone walk away from an accident like this. Others were saying it was a miracle. Some asked me if I were religious and believed in Jesus. A couple of others asked if that was a Viper "in the toilet". It was turning into a circus.
How did I get that blood on my chin one asked (it was Shalimar and I playing a little too rough this morning when her nails shot out and accidentally grazed me). My back hurts a little and I'm out of meds until Tuesday at least.
Other than this I had a good day.A little more exciting than planned, but otherwise not bad all in all. Except the viper's totaled. Will call the insurance people and go see it at the tow place. Then start looking all over again for a bargain Viper. I bought driving gloves today too. And soaked my Prada driving shoes. The water didn't taste good either. I'm going to go take a shower.
I hope your day was good.
Love,
Dad
???????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Anyway, he is waiting to hear back from Farmer's Insurance who he has been with for 20+ years to find out how much they will fork out. Any idea on how Insurance companies will pay for such a car? Do they base it on Wholesale or Retail Book values or market rate, etc??? Since Vipers are one of the very few cars that ever sell for over Book value, it is hard to determine how much they will pay him. In an recent post, I saw State Farm payed out $42k for a 19k mile Gen1 ??? Also, how soon can he expect to see any money from them? He is waiting to find out how much they will reimburse him prior to investing in another Gen1 Viper. Thought I would help him do a little homework and provide some comps from other Ins. carriers. Please provide any feedback or experiences. Thanks.
