This f****n sucks!!

[99civic03]

My mom's car, an '01 IS 300 is in the shop for today and tomorrow, so today she took my car at about 6pm to go visit her friend who lives in Duvall, a rural town about 15 miles away from here, Redmond, WA. Anyway, she just got home about 15 minutes ago, and she pulled up to our house in a tow truck, with my 99 Si on the back of it, the front end completely messed up.

I guess what happened is she was going 45-50 in a 40 mph zone, and a deer jumped out of a ditch on the side of the ride, and she hit it. She slammed on the brakes and some how lost control or something, and went into the ditch as well. Luckily she is OK. We are pretty much sure the car is totalled, which really sucks a whole lot, cus it was my first car, and I just dumped almost $2,000 into it for mods. I just got it lowered with Tokico shocks and springs, put on 18" racing hart rims, and put on a carbon fiber front lip. Hopefully I can salvage 3 of 4 of the rims plus hopefully the shocks and springs.

This really, reallly sucks, because I probably wont get another car of that caliber. We got a really good deal on the Si from a family friend, it was only 9000, and so I dont think my parents are gonna be willing to pay much more for a new car. Of course it was my moms fault, so that should help some. I probably wont get another car until my birthday in January, so until then Im rideless Really the only good thing about this is that I get to drive my parents cars for a while, the IS 300 i mentioned earlier, and my dad's 02 WRX which is very fun to drive as many of you know. Anyway, Im just really bummed about the whole situation, but hopefully Ill get a decent ride in 6 months or so, Im thinking either another civic or possibly a 92-96 prelude.

[99civic03]

Here is a pic I just took in my garage.

[sageuvagony]

I swear I feel like crying. I dont know you but... a car like that... so young...beautiful, dead... HONESTLY it impacted me so much reading ur post... I can almost feel the pain... I think I do.. If it were me I'd be a lil more upset... Im sorry for the loss man... What does insurance plan to do?

[99civic03]

trust me it hurts, I felt like crying when I first saw it, and it still hasnt really sunk in yet that my car is gone

Insurance will cover the car, but the problem is that because we got it so cheap, theyre probably not gonna give us as much, unless some miracle happens and we get more from insurance than the car cost, but those people can be such a**holes im sure that will never happen.

[B16EJ1]

Is it a Canadian Si? You got an EX not Si grill is why I ask.

[99civic03]

Yeah it is but my neighbors who had it before me swapped in B16A2, the US spec Si motor, and then sold it to me 2 weeks later so they never got to fully enjoy the B series engine, and neither will I anymore.

[Miataracer]

insurance doesnt care how much you payed for the car... they will come and look at it, look up its value according to whatever book they use, estimate the dollar value of the damage done, then if that is like less than 75% of the cars value (or whatever number your company uses) they will fix it, otherwise they will give you about what it is worth

of course, they will try their best to stiff you... FIGHT!!!! do not let them pull any bull$hit on you! Tell them it was in perfect condition, it had special value to you because it was from a friend, whatever it takes... but don't let them off easy... whey they say we will give you so and so dollars for it say NO, that is not enough!

get on www.nada.com and find out what your car was worth before it got wrecked, for that matter get on www.kbb.com as well. print out the figures, use them against the insurance company

Advice from someone who has been there before... Insurance companies don't get rich by giving money away, they will try to stiff you but you can fight them and you can get what you want!

[99civic03]

Now that I think about it, do you think it would be possible to take the engine out of there and sell it to someone looking to do an engine swap? The insurance probably wouldnt allow it though huh?

[sageuvagony]

is the engine any good? what generally messes up in the engine when it gets in such a wreck? I'd try to pull it out... Insurance may be gay and say "We will give you this much money for the car but its no longer yours so DONT TOUCH!"

[Miataracer]

B16EJ1... how the hell did you figure that out??? About the EX thing I mean... that is amazing, I looked at that picture and all I saw was mangled metal and you could tell it was not an American SI... thats just crazy... lol

[Miataracer]

I'd bet the engine would be ok for the most part... possibly some broken externals...

[99civic03]

Yeah Im pretty positive insurance wouldnt allow it. My neighbors bought the car in Canada, for their son who just graduated college I beleived, and some how he convinced them to swap in the b16 for a christmas present or something. In early January though, he lost his license because of an accumulated number of speeding tickets, and his parents sold the car to me and my parents a couple days later on Jan. 12 for a couple thousand below blue book. Miataracer thanks for the help, I will be sure to use your advice to get the most I can out of the insurance company.

[sageuvagony]

I have never seen a thread grow so fast!

[eckoman_pdx]

Hey man, I seriously feel for you. I mean, I feel really bad for you. I know how you feel. I know from experience. Last year, I was at a red light, and an F-250 nailed me from behind. The guy himself was cool, totally admitted fault at the scence (officer said it was complelty obvious it was his fault, so he thanked the guy for being honest and saying me trouble). Of course, I got trouble. I had a B18B1 with really low mileage just put in, and a slew of other mods. I have just purchused Z3's, plus a body kit. His insurance tried to offer me only like $3000. I got them up to $5000. But I wouldn't budge. I called an attorney, who I actually later hired. He told me they have to give me "fair market value" for my vechile. Since a vehcile like mine (or yours) isn't listed in a "blue book," fair market value can be legallly determined by finded as many for sale ads as you can of cars with simliar things done to them with the price listed. I did this, and gathered about 15 local ads, all between $9000-$13000 for cars of a simliar year and simlier mods. Anyways, I hired him becuase they along wanted to screw me. Long sotry short, he legally proved my "fair market value" to be around $10,000 at the time. So finally, insurance opted for the fix and not the total. Anyways, what I am getting at is don't let them screw you. You don't have to settle. You can fight. Since it's your car, they can't touch it unitl you let them. They can try and total it, but in the end, you have the final say as to weather you agree or not. If you don't agree, hired an attorney. If they try screwing you, just take the damn engine, tranny and ecu out. It's your car, so you can do whatever the hell you want in that regard. I was ready to strip my car if I ended up totaling it. Good luck with all this, man.

[99civic03]

Well my dad and I spent about two hours today haggling with the insurance company, and we came to an agreement about the car. They are going to give me $9500 for the car, and it is now theirs. I am going to buy a new computer, cus this one I have now is a POS, and I am going to buy a new car with the $8500 I have left. I think I am gonna wait till December or possibly January to buy the car, because if I heard the insurance company correctly, as a part of our deal, we wont collect the money until the new year, which I guess isnt terrible, because by then hopefully the price of a 99-00 will have gone down below $8500 and I can get one of those instead of a 96-98.