My SC is a 2007 with 85,000 miles. Have owned for going on five years. It's a very clean car, cosmetically and mechanics wise.
Based here in South Florida. Insured with State Farm, $2,000 deductible.
Friday after Thanksgiving was driving on Route 95, another motorist swerved into me, impact was on driver side. Front fender crushed, bumper cover knocked off. Got my car to side of road. Discovered the wheel was trashed, tire blown out. No spare, as we know, so it could not be driven off highway. Called SF, they suggested they send a tow truck and would bring car to one of their nearby "affiliated" body shop partners, part of a nationwide chain seemingly buying up local shops, apparently, but one that they could direct as to how to handle "estimates" that met their corporate designs. Had no real choice so I agreed. Big mistake.

The following Monday I tried to contact SF to get an update as to what their body shop had reported. No response. Kept pressing for information and finally once I got ahold of a real person they said they'd already decided the car was totaled. Offered a low ball amount to "settle". I declined. Knew what the apparent damage was and that I was committed to keeping the car, having it repaired. When I declined their response was they'd have to declare to the state the car was "unsafe to drive", then the state would be called upon to intercede and label the car salvage goods.

For the next month we contested their position, when we could get someone on the phone, that is. Not so easy. Their affiliated bodyshop had submitted an estimate of close to $9,000 with the caveat that until the car was "opened up" there could be as much as another $3,000 in unseen damage. So thye submitted to SF a $12,000 estimate which, surprise, surprise, was deemed to be SF's unstated reason that the car was no longer financially viable, for them not me, to have repaired. But in a candid, "off the record", conversation with the manager of this affiliated shop he told me that when he arrived at his shop on the Monday after the accident SF had already told him, before any inspection, that based on age of the car alone - 2007 - SF's "policy" - unstated as it was - in practice they would not allow (pay for it) it to be repaired. Period.
In the end I forced them to release the car to me so I could get another bid with an excellent independent shop. Their estimate - $6,000, all in. SF was called upon to pay $4K, I was on the hook for my $2K deductible. Go figure. Who's playing games that are not in the consumer's best interest? Then, of course, they dragged their feet in sending my selected shop the "approved" amount of money. No cash, no work, sourcing parts let alone rebuilding the car. Now its done, excellent work, but what a pain to have gone through.
In short, be aware. You can pay your premiums for collision coverage but understand that our cars are going to be subject to prejudices - and greed - given they are as old as they obviously are.

So if you move ahead and pay for collision on any of our cars, to SF or others, be prepared to have these games played on you. In truth, I can afford to push back on them - financially and time wise - but I feel terrible for the "average" person who has no choice but drive a ten year plus old car in today's troubled economy.

Amen.

 

Sorry to hear your sad story, but alas, that is what we all will face should something happen to our cars....unless..... If your SC is not your daily driver, they should be getting old enough where you can get them covered under an antique or collectible policy where you can set your guaranteed value. I just renewed coverage for my two BMW's, and the annual bill for both was less than $700. They are insured for the amount that I decide, not the insurance company. As soon as I retire and stop driving my SC as a daily driver I will make this move on her as well.

 

I had a similar experience with SF about 5 years ago.

I've been a SF customer for nearly 50 years. They assigned my case to a third party loss specialist.

We had a fairly terse chat when he offered me 50% of blue book value to settle.

And yes, same thing. The adjuster told me on the phone that the vehicle would be totaled without even looking at it.

Needless to say, the next time I was in my agents office, I gave her an earful.

 

I'm confused by alot of your post. If you were side swiped by someone else, why is your insurance paying for the repair.
You ending up getting it repaired after all? If that's the case what was the total bill.

If the car had 10K worth of damage, I don't know of any insurance company that would do the repair.

 

The car did not have $9,000 supposed damage + a $3,000 "supplemental" as the initial body shop was said to have submitted.
The second estimate, the one I had to force them to allow me to pursue to extricate the car from being declared "totaled", one that that was eventually accepted by SF came in at $6,000. Both called for a $2,000 deductible.
My point is if you have a car that's 10 years old, or older, insurance companies are exerting influence on body shops that they have "preferred relationships" with to submit clearly inflated estimates that would allow them to justify pushing any such claims over to their department in charge of refusing payout on such claims.
My point, or rather call it a warning, to this community is that be aware that just because you purchased collision coverage by no means guarantees you will be paid as one would expect. Cars like well maintained SC 430's are apparently deemed quite valuable as salvage or donor vehicles. Insurance companies, many of not all, feel that they can pursue "cost containment" by pushing for more cars that are ten years or older, irregardless of their actual condition, to be written off by a combination of quoting lower resale value and pressing some shops to inflate your filings to their claims department. Even before the car was said to have been evaluated as was in my case.

 

@Hemisphere -- Thanks for sharing your insurance experience with us.

We do not have SF, but regardless, I can see any ins co manipulating any situation to their advantage.

I'm glad you forced them to allow you to pursue a second estimate and it all worked out in your best interest.

The average person, or maybe I speak for myself, naively believe and trust the ins co is working on our behalf. This was not your case.

Years ago, when our ins co totaled an older vehicle we had for our kiddo, they "suggested" to us that we could buy it back, I think for $500-$1k, and use the ins payout towards repair costs.

So -- That's exactly what we did, and kiddo drove it for another few years before selling with a re-built title.

Otherwise, we wouldn't have known what our options were as we'd never totaled a car before.

Did you end up staying with SF?

 

Like @jhoopes said, if you want to get a better shot at a good repair, use stated value insurance. I have contemplated that a few times in the past when I entertained thoughts of repainting and doing a complete new PPF on the old SC - if you know you want to keep it 10 more years and you're willing to put more money into it, might as well go stated value on the insurance coverage.

 

I have my 02 SC with 70K miles insured for collision and comprehensive with American Collectible Insurance, agreed value 21K. No deductible. The liability portion is through my other NC state insurance for my second and newer car; they cannot insure in NC for any liability. My reg. insurance will cover my liability. I think when I renewed last summer for the year it was about $400.00. It is considered a collectible antique, and annual mileage is limited to about 3000 miles; this is negotiable. Two months after I changed over to them, I was driving on the highway and a pickup ahead had a large empty paint bucket blow out of the bed, bouncing along toward me at 70 mph; luckily it only hit the right front bumper, scratched the pain and broke out the side marker light. Without question, they sent me a check to pay the total repaint of front bumper cover and replacement of a new OE marker light lens through my Lexus dealer; about $700.00. I think they are a great company; you have to send photos of your car, front with side, rear with other side, a pic of your odometer and a pic of the interior.

It's not my daily driver; they only cover pleasure drives, etc. as a retired person, but, they cover for working folks also. Call them for a quote; your vehicle must be in really good condition with a clear title. They saved me 1100.00 per year to have collision which would treat any wreck as a totaled old car so it was a total waste of $ as they would total like SF did in my old Nationwide coverage.

Glad you got it worked out and are happily repaired!.

 

This is a really helpful conversation.

After my previous experiences with them, I'm harboring no illusions that SF would "do the right thing" in the event of an incident with my '07.

I'll have a look see at American Collectable Insurance.

Cheers

 

Thanks all who have participated in this exchange, to date. Much appreciated. It’s exactly what I was hoping to stimulate in posting initially. I have no intention to continue with SF as I’ve probably made clear. If anyone has had a similar situation with other major insurance companies pls let us know and how it was resolved.

I, too, will contact American Collectibles as a possible alternative. In the five years I’ve owned the car I’ve only put on approx 20K miles. Very doubtful I’d drive much more in any given year and if they can indeed scale coverage to include five to six thousand miles per year, even better.

How much to insure for is another matter. I paid $17K for the car five years ago. 65,000 miles, in great shape. But I put in a considerable amount since then, as probably most have. Timing belt/water pump, all new brakes, air intake and exhaust system, new 20” rims & tires, full color change wrap, new audio system, and who really knows all the other incidentals. Best guess, $10-$12K? Have insurance written at $30K?

 

The question to ask yourself is: How much would it cost to replace it with a like vehicle?

That would be my metric on deciding how much coverage to get.

Cheers

 

Yeah, I shouldn’t have asked if you were. Given your experience with them, that should’ve been a no brainer…


Agree with @doobs — it doesn’t always matter what we put into them, it’s a question of how much is it worth in the current market and how much would it cost to replace it with a like one.



*** EDIT: — I have read some owners show or provide examples of other similar SCs out there for sale to prove to ins co they are valued higher than what blue book or NADA dictates and were successfully able to increase their SCs value if totaled, with their ins co.

 

[img alt="This is the car as of today, three months after the accident
If I had to replace it I’d assume purchasing a very clean 2006-2010 SC would be $22-25K. From there based on the added expenses incurred on this car another $12-15K would be reasonable to assume. Compare this to what’s out there today in the $40K range of similar used car. I’m"]https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.clublexus.com-vbulletin/480x360/0f41b8d1_63ba_49c8_b1fc_427701a70a48_4_5005_c_b529336954d05767683ad25fe7bbee96cb22661e.jpeg[/img]
This is the car as of today, three months after the accident If I had to replace it I’d assume purchasing a very clean 2006-2010 SC would be $22-25K. From there based on the added expenses incurred on this car another $12-15K would be reasonable to assume. Compare this to what’s out there today in the $40K range of similar used car. I’m

 

Still haven't heard why the OP's insurance had to be tapped, should have been the offending party unless the POS ran or didn't have insurance.

Glad to see the car's back in shape.

 

The other driver was from South America driving a rental car. After we exchanged driver’s licenses and he presented his rental contract to me he was able to drive off. I was not but only because the drivers side wheel and tire were trashed. In fact the tow truck driver was able to drive the car onto and off of the truck. If I’d had a spare I’d have simply drive home, dealt with it after the holiday weekend.

Florida State Trooper came to my location, took my information, called the other driver’s mobile phone and drove off to interview him at some other location.

There was a formal FMV accident report posted and SF presumably was able to access it. They have not pursued further action on the other driver or the rental company to my knowledge.

Who was “at fault” really isn’t the key matter here, nor apparently to SF either as they’ve made no known effort to pursue the other car, be it the driver or rental company.

Other insurance companies I’ve used send an adjuster of their own to do the initial evaluation. Not SF. They outsource these decisions to an “affiliated bodyshop” and then they clearly have influence in what the final submission is. Because I pushed back as hard as I felt was required SF was compelled to then send an adjuster of their own to accept the second shop’s $6,000 estimate. But “punished” me by delaying sending my approved shop the $4,000 due them as I paid my $2,000 deductible directly to them upon completion of the work three full months after the accident.