<VV> comprehensive, was Corvair vandalism

[Bill Elliott]

On Thu, 22 Sep 2005 10:07:03 EDT, Rt66Vairs at aol.com wrote:

> 
>In a message dated 9/21/2005 8:02:53 P.M. Pacific Standard Time,  
>ScottyGrover at aol.com writes:

>While  I've got an insurance professional on-line, I have a question: If my   
>''Vair is involved in an accident, and I am awarded compensation, does  that 
>mean  that the insurance company can confiscate my ''Vair and  send it to the 
>crusher,  or can it be salvaged  somehow?



A few years ago I bought a completely original low mileage SAAB Sonett out of a large collection in 
Florida. What made it really impressive was the fact it was still in its original colored gelcoat, had never 
been painted, and had zero body damage. The transport picked it up without a problem and made it to 
within 5 miles of my house in Chicago when the retraining straps broke and the car basically came off 
the trailer. (The driver actually saw it coming loose and jammed on the brakes... slamming the car 
against the front of the trailer then it bouncing off and goining partially off the trailer, but not falling to the 
ground.)

The insurance company at first wanted to pay only a couple hundred dollar for the car, but in the end 
paid me everything I had paid for the car AND the transport... then offered to sell the remains to me for 
$50. They even left the title alone, leaving me with a clean title (was never sure how they did that...)

So I turned around, put the car on Ebay...and sold it for as much as I'd paid for it undamaged.

But the story gets better. The buyer turned out to be a car carrier who showed up with a big rig. He 
casually mentioned he was headed to San Diego... and I had a Lotus Europa, a Red Devil F440 race 
car, and trailer that a buyer in San Diego had bought and paid for, but was having trouble finding a 
shipper. He called my buyer, they closed the deal, and we loaded the Lotus and race car/trailer instead 
of the SAAB. Though he no longer had room for the SAAB, he paid me in full and said he'd swing back 
by on his eastward trip. He delivered the cars in San Diego a few days later and that's the last anyone 
ever saw or heard from him. His email and cell phones were disconnected...and I never had a physical 
address for him.

A year later I turned the car over to the storage place where it and several other of my cars were 
stashed, getting nearly a year's storage credits in exchange. They intended on filing a mechanics lein for 
storage to get a clear title for it.

This was a very profitable car for me...

Bill Elliott