That's a Salvage title. Not worth anything if or when you have to sell it. Plus I understand you have to re-smog it and have CHP check your car for stolen parts.
Good source of finding comps prices for 1988 Mustang GT
- Thread starter Mercedez
- Start date
That's a Salvage title. Not worth anything if or when you have to sell it. Plus I understand you have to re-smog it and have CHP check your car for stolen parts.
I went to a second body shop yesterday and they said the car will be totaled
crapola
I will go to 6 more shops today.
crapolaI will go to 6 more shops today.
Yea thats true. I have a salvaged fox and im in SoCal. Its a pain in the ass because you have to get a brake and light inspection from the chp and they check if you have the smog pump and all the things that make it legal to pass smog. And if they so happen to see something they dont like under the hood i.e. blower, nitrous and they know what it looks like they will make you take the parts off and replace it with stock.
I have no problem with that because the car is factory stock but how much does this cost in addition to buying back your car? Plus how much does one pay to buy their car back?
I have no problem with that because the car is factory stock but how much does this cost in addition to buying back your car? Plus how much does one pay to buy their car back?
Well im not exactly sure how much it would cost to buy the car back, you would have to contact the insurance company that would be totaling it out, and as for the the inspection, All you would have to do is call your Local PD and make an appointment and i think its a fee of like 50 bucks for a one time deal. But everytime you register the car you have to do it.
Every time you register car which is every 2 years here you have to do what? Take it in to local police? Usually we just go t a smog station for that. Does the Salvage title really change things that much?
Every time you register car which is every 2 years here you have to do what? Take it in to local police? Usually we just go t a smog station for that. Does the Salvage title really change things that much?
From what understand yes. You have to smog it and take to the PD everytime youre going to register it. And yes it does change alot of things, thats why when a car is salvaged it sells for so cheap cause no ones wants to deal with the hassles of having a salvaged title. Only reason why i kept mine and didnt buy a clear title is because i didnt have enough money to get a shell and i had a nice motor laying there. Otherwise i would have gotten one.
Totaling the car is really not the option for me. I really just want it fixed as it is more useful as reliable transportation than anything else you could buy at their low ball prices.
No I don't have to go to an approved insurance body shop on their select direct service center plan.
I can go either way.
I have a choice.
I went to 2 state farm direct service repair shops and there was one that I felt comfortable with that said there should be no more than $4,000 damage but that's without looking under hood because hood is jammed shut. They have to do a tear down and still have to call me back.
Another body shop that's private did all the pricing of parts right in front of me with mostly aftermarket parts to keep cost down and because those were the only parts available for this car because lots of parts for 88 Mustang GT have been disconintued-which is a major problem.
He showed me on his computer what parts have been discontinued. His bid was $2,400 without looking underneath hood. Again a tear down will have to be performed by whichever body shop I pick.
The State Farm body shops pay lower rates to their bodyshops maybe let's say 60 an hour vs. 80+ an hour of what other body shops charge.
The insurance company gives the body shop more business (customer referrals) in exchange for the lower shop rate.
If there is a problem down the line and I pick one of their shops then insurance company has a guarantee along with the body shop.
If I go with an independent body shop anything that goes wrong is between me and Bodyshop whereas before insurance and bodyshop are both involved.
I believe I have more consumer protection by going to insurance direct select service center shops but the independent shop came in with the lower price thus far.
He even lowered his rate to the insurance company's shop rate of 60 per hour so then I could use the insurance company to pay or more chance of them fixing damage. I believe by keeping the price low they will not total the car because they go by that book rate of the cars worth and on an 89 Mustang GT (Because they don't go back as far as 88) the paper value is $2,700
But they go by some formula 80% damage worth of the car = total. (something like that I'm not sure of the numbers used).
I went to 5 body shops and most agreed there is a very high chance they will total car.
As previously mentioned I got estimates from $2,400 aftermarket parts to
$7,300 with all factory OEM parts that are available and this is all without teardown or opening hood yet.As we know with insurance companies it's a numbers game. I am sure they will have an adjuster come out and look once I find shop to do the teardown and work .
Sometimes they don't have adjusters come out and will do estimate on-line using pics that body shop send in
I will find out more after the shops call me today. I already know some shops won't and of course I won't choose those shops. I have 2 shops in mind one is the independent body shop and the other is a direct service repair shop for insurance but again that came in at a higher rate.
strtrcr50
New Member
strtrcr50
New Member
One never admits fault.
In my case, the woman behind be drove her sportage into the back of me. I was clearly not at fault. Hence the reason I had no problems threatening to sue her ins company.
trbkrb
Founding Member
I'd look for used parts for sure. Afterall, it IS a used car, not a 2 yr old one that I would want new OEM parts on. And much of the time a used part will be a genuine Ford part that is better than aftermarket. Take that quote and look up the main parts on Car-Part.com--Used Auto Parts Market in your local area. You should be able to find some good used parts and have the person doing the job quote those parts to insurance. Like a hood for about $100. Should be able to drop that quote a bit more. Also did they quote Certifit aftermarket parts? A buddy that runs a body shop uses them exclusively, better quality and good prices CertiFit Auto Body Parts - Home
What parts does it need? You should look on the classifieds here for local parts, and Corral.net and craigslist for parts. Prices should be even better than a salvage yard and you might be able to get the parts yourself much cheaper and save your car in the long run.
Good luck!
What parts does it need? You should look on the classifieds here for local parts, and Corral.net and craigslist for parts. Prices should be even better than a salvage yard and you might be able to get the parts yourself much cheaper and save your car in the long run.
Good luck!
Shakerhood
20+ Year Stangneter 
This is a great example of needing an Agreed Value Policy. I seriously need to take care of that on my Mustang as no book is ever going to show the correct value.
$2,700 High?
This is the lowest one at 75.00 per hour labor rate but he told me he will lower it to $60.00 per hour to make it easier to work with insurance. This was the shop that did all the phone calls in front of me calling his vendors for prices of used and or new parts and this was at closing time. (None of the other shops did this and one shop I went to closed at least 10 minutes earlier than what's posted on their sign)Some of his vendors were suppose to call him back today then he would call me back with more figures but since they didn't call back today he didn't call.)
He showed me what parts were available on his computer and which ones were discontinued and which aftermarketers he would use and which aftermarketers are higher cost. The replacing of the fender has to meet CAPA specs. whatever that is. but that was only $64.00 for a fender.
We agreed that going aftermarket will be the lowest cost estimate and used parts. He had custom cars in there, newer foreign cars just a mix of different kinds of cars. Some of his vendors were closed and they were suppose to call him back today but didn't so this got held up. This shop is a dive. They answer their own phones no receptionist, no waiting room, no private office and cars are all inside close quarters-nothing glamourous here. The bathroom is
Not the cleanest place from what I could see but I didn't get a tour like I did of the other two clean bodyshops other places that had pretty receptionists and separate offices. He said I'm at the mercy of what the insurance company will value this car and I noticed all the body shops have similiar computer programs so as far as they could go back on a Mustang GT is 1989 which in excellent condition was $2,700. I'm thinking and I could be wrong but coming in with the lowest repair bill will be to my benefit but all the body shops said the cost of repair has nothing to do with their formula insurance uses 80% damage to value of car-somthing like that which is used to determine value which is in question right now. All the shops got the price of $2,700 in excellent condition as they all have similiar or same computer programs as State Farm.They all seem to think the car will be totaled
and if that is the case that I should get my recent receipts that total over $4,000 for new radiator, all 6 shocks, suspension bushings, steering rack, new camber plates, engine harmonic balancer, all new headlights and turn signals on front end, new catalytic converters and now if they do this the issue of fixing the car is mute because it would have been totalledcrapola and the question of amount of reimbursement $$$ is the next question in amount/value for pay off. to meI got two other estimates one is $7,367 at $80.00 per hour Labor summary is 38.2 hours of labor (Both of these shops are not State Farm direct service repair shops)
the 7,039 estimate with the $84.00 labor per hour has a labor summary of 37.4 hours.
Both of these 2 shops are listing factory ford part numbers which is probably the reason why it is so expensive in new condition but they told me they won't be using all new parts but probably used parts from junkyard/reconditioned parts. But the estimates from what I see are based on factory new part (Ford part numbers) prices and alot of those parts don't exist anymore. In either of these two $7,000+ quotes they better be using all new parts but we know that's impossible and they admit they won't be all new. If anything those parts better be gold plated at those inflated prices just to bring it back to factory condition.
So now those are 3 independent shops.
The one State Farm direct service repair shop didn't give me an estimate on paper yet as he said he needs to look up figures but this being a direct service center he is the insurance adjuster there.
The other 3 shops requre a State Farm adjuster has to show up at the body shop for the teardown. This place was clean had a waiting room with receptionist, a guy there who has tons of catalogs to locate parts (they have a 1940 Ford Fairlne being restored). The deal primarily in BMW and mercedes Benz and the work I saw they did looked fine. I couldn't tell the AMG there that was a stolen recovery got covered by insurance and each rim cost $1,600 each
He said the damage on my car should not be more than $4,000
and not $7,000.
I feel comfortable with this shop if this is true but I don't think he can beat the other independent shops lower price of $2,400 who said he will drop his labor rate for me to $60.00 and that's the best he can do.I would think that the State Farm Adjuster that works in the body shop would be able to give me the most accurate price since he is a state farm adjuster because it would be nice to know before I officially put in the claim to know if it is totaled then I can decide not to file or go ahead and file the claim if it will be fixed. He should know since he is part of that state farm direct service center system.
Now take this in account that the hood is shut and i can still drive the car but none of these shops will have a total accurate price until teardown happens which means I have to pick the shop to do tear down because that's the place the car will end up staying at. I know they aren't going to put the car back together so I can drive it back to my garage. Plus someone pays for that tear down charge I know state farm pays it for their direct repair shops.
I will have to find more about this from the claims dept. and then ask my sales agent some questions in other areas of this incident like how much will my rates will go up since we have a fraudulant party making back injury claims.
If the claim goes to the loss dept. that means they are considering totaling the car. Each different dept. tells me I must contact the other dept. for any answers
:damnit:
But first thing is first I have to pick from the above shops or find a body shop that will have my best interests in mind
In any event I'm in no hurry to settle this I can go the distance if it is to the best interest of the car and me. It can sit in my garage for now but once the tear down happens will probably be the key point depending on the insurance decision to fix or total because it can't stay in that garage unless it is a State Farm direct service repair shop then they will abosorb any of the storage costs.
Thanks for the info but most of the parts for the car come from Late Modelrestoration.com. But yes we already agreed that to get the lowest repair bill that I would think influence the insurance company better to fix my car rather than total it would be to use junkyard OEM and aftermarket parts.Kind of hard to decide which shop as an indepent shop that will come in usually at a lower cost like the ONE above but the other TWO independent shops came in at the highest cost over $7,000. The direct center gave me the $4,000 cost which is more than the first independent shop for $2,400.
I feel though I will have more consumer protection should car be fixed not totaled at direct repair facility but then again the direct facility estimate r rate is higher and they might total car because of that.
I couldn't find anything at Classic Corral .net. In fact that website looks like it was taken over by someone else and is different now and not as good like before.
strtrcr50
New Member
QUOTE=strtrcr50;7951042]Are you dealing with your insurance company or theirs?[/QUOTE]
Insurance company and that estimate I said was $4,000 and now 5,600 and that's with the hood shut.
Insurance company and that estimate I said was $4,000 and now 5,600 and that's with the hood shut.
strtrcr50
New Member
Insurance company and that estimate I said was $4,000 and now 5,600 and that's with the hood shut.
[/QUOTE]Not what I asked. Is this being billed to your ins co, or thiers?
