Stolen! Merry F'in Christmas to me!!

[Noir]

by the way, good luck johnny. hope the insurance treats you right.

[Matthewmongan]

Originally posted by Noir


let me git this striagt, if one of your guys see a black svx or any svx, they'll pop the door and reference the vin of the engine plate with PA state police? they have to open the car because it's relitivly easy to obstruct or modify the dash vin and door place exspechaly after the length of time that has traspired.

is that what you guys plan to tell the police when either someone comes out to kick your ass or calls the cops on your for braeking and intering?

repo/privite investagators have some leaway in the laws, if their searching for a car they can enter the car in a non damaging maner and remain in the bounds of the law. you have to understand that if we believe that a car is modified we have to know conclusivly if thats the car or not, with the duration in this incident it is highly likely that if the car is still being driven that the vin is obstructed or modified and the car has been respraied. however if the car is indoors we cant go in to a residence to check it out. but if its on the street or driveway(non gated if the agent isn't a puss) we can open it without to much gripe from the local pd. if you tried to do this with out a repo/p.i. licence you would get locked up, but thats just one of the perks of the job. about the hot wireing and lock picking im just speaking from personal experience. i dont believe your average car theif would carry a long bar air bag and wedge (relitifle large equibment a long bar is over a meter in length) with him most of the ones i have heard of used slim jims which can be easily concieled. i havent been able to pop an svx with a slim jim because the way the window rolls down and the way the lock is situated someone with more experience on a slim jim could probably do it with some time. and no we arnt good at bosting cars most of the time i gps it with a nextel in magnet box to the frame and have a tow truck pick it up later. but im speaking only out of personal experience i forworded the vin to the north office and they said they would look for it. ill make some phone calls tomarrow and see if i can find someone to check out the parts department to see if its been choped.

i have dealt with several cases like this on repos that have been choped or stolen and the outcome isn't good. of the 13 that i have done i have only recovered one car intact and the rest are filed and the round cabinent. i have never found the culprits who choped the cars just parts hear and there i believe that 7 of them were insurence frouad. the others were genuin theift. their are alot of resources at a crimonals disposal many of which i dont have access to but a car cant just dissapear of the face of the earth, their is always a trail of metal. someday maybe on ebay some foolish bastard will be selling an engine with your vin and thats when the fun begins.

[CigarJohnny]

Originally posted by Noir
by the way, good luck johnny. hope the insurance treats you right.

They should get the paperwork today that they need to get the loan info from the credit company. If so, I was told that I would be hearing from them today about the payoff info. Since they know what the car is worth and they have my loan payoff info already from the first paperwork I filled out in my claim/report, the fact that she (insurance rep) said they need to confirm loan balance to see how money I would be getting after the car loan is paid off would lead me to believe that I just might walk away with a couple bucks to put toward the replacement car.

I am still figuring on owing money to the credit company but am not opposed to the idea of not owing them anything. Everything I have heard is that insurance companies only pay trade-in value on stolen cars. According to KBB, trade-in value on a 92 LS with low miles like mine is worth only $2700. When I bought the car 2 years ago the trade-in value was $6200. Talk about depreciation! With my loan half paid I still owe money according to my figures. Who knows.

Johnny (wishing myself some good luck)

[CigarJohnny]

Originally posted by Matthewmongan
i forworded the vin to the north office and they said they would look for it. ill make some phone calls tomarrow and see if i can find someone to check out the parts department to see if its been choped.

Thanks for the effort, Matthew! It would be great if your guys actually came up with something. I would love to bag these cork suckers in the worst way. It's easy to see why horse thieving was a hangable offense in the old days. It still should be.

Johnny

[CigarJohnny]

BTW, in case I haven't already, I just want to thank all those who have shown me support since this happened. You are all great!

Johnny

P.S: More info to come as events unfold.

[svxfiles]

Johnny, since I answer all the calls at the dealership, I speak to adjusters when they call. They tell me that they have to try to find a car for their customer, or at least find the value of the car that got totaled, or went missing.
What they try to find out, in my experiance, is how cheap can they replace the vehicle for.
If I have a replacement, I take a shot in the dark, and give a good price on a car they can actually buy with no trade off of me. If I do not have a car like that, I give them full Kelley Blue Book retail price which in your case is $6280.00 www.kbb.com
You can use the argument that you had NO intention of trading in your car, and why would you, when there 3300 members of a club that know and love these cars! The currant N.A.D.A. retail is $3650, but you have no way of knowing that. I hope things work out, and you will be driving your NEW svx soon. Tom

[CigarJohnny]

That makes more sense to me, Tom, as it seems a fair way to do business. But fair and keeping their books in the black are a different story to insurance companies. I will let you know what happens in my case.

I sure as hell hope I do not have to go to the Reading meet in the PT Cruiser this year. I love the car but it's just not an SVX!

Johnny

[mohrds]

Originally posted by CigarJohnny
I sure as hell hope I do not have to go to the Reading meet in the PT Cruiser this year. I love the car but it's just not an SVX!

Johnny

The way its looking, I may be driving an Excursion to Reading this year

Hope you get a new SVX soon.

Doug (Suffering from SVX withdrawal)

[svxistentialist]

Originally posted by CigarJohnny
That makes more sense to me, Tom, as it seems a fair way to do business. But fair and keeping their books in the black are a different story to insurance companies. I will let you know what happens in my case.

I sure as hell hope I do not have to go to the Reading meet in the PT Cruiser this year. I love the car but it's just not an SVX!

Johnny

Johnny,

Let me add my sympathy here also. I have only just found this thread now, have not browsed much in the Babble for ages.

My opinion of insurance companies is low to non-existant in these circumstances. They will point to the small print, that they are only obliged to give you the book value for the car.

However, you need to make a case for yourself. Book values are average values. Your car is far from average, and you are way more fastidious than the average owner.

Make the case that your car has far lower mileage than average for the year.

That you were conserving it as a future classic.

That you have [hopefully] a complete set of records for every penny spent on the car and stamped up service books.

That you have any or all government tests up to date and certified.

That you are a senior member of the US Official owners club for a rare automobile.

That you have refused serious high offers for the car due to it's condition, but no money could induce you to part with it.

You catch my drift. Don't acquiesce. Make them pay correct and reasonable recompense.
[If they insist on giving you a low monetary value for the car, don't accept it. Tell them you will only accept a similar low mileage car in the same condition, which they must find for the money they are offering you.]

Joe

[Noir]

Like Joe said, make a case for yourself. From my past experience with insurance companies they use a third party to contact 3-4 different dealerships to gauge the value of the vehicle within a reasonable distance (usually 30 miles, but those cork slurpers will occasionally stoop to newfound lows by calling dealerships that are over 100 miles away from your residence). they will then try to take the lowest of the two and give you the average.

what i would do in your case is contact 8-10 subaru dealerships within 100 mile radius. i'd give them the mileage, year, etc on your car and then ask them how much would they sell a car like that for and the approx. trade in value in good condition.

i'd then take all your findings with all the contact information to the insurance , average it out, and say pay me.

try it out man, svx's are worth more up north than in the south. also make sure they know that the car's a collector's item. they'll give you more leeway if you tell them that.

if your insurance adjuster is a relatively nice guy, you can whine about all the repairs you've done recently (with invoices of course) and they'll prorate it and give you some money back.

[Noir]

Originally posted by Matthewmongan

repo/privite investagators have some leaway in the laws, if their searching for a car they can enter the car in a non damaging maner and remain in the bounds of the law.......

Yes, but if you enter a car that you have NOT been contracted to recover by the owner who is the creditor, isn't that illegal to enter someone's vehicle without their consent? Let's put it this way, if you try to enter my car without my consent, I'd beat your ass, get your license taken away, and put you in jail (maybe not in that order).

So don't get yourself into this situation. If you see Johnny's car, call the cops.

By the way, you should hang out with your sister more often.

[Matthewmongan]

this is being handeled as a probono private investigation so their is some leaway but if the cop wanted to be a jerk he could pull out the cuffs, personaly im not physicaly looking for the car so their is no risk to myself. im just calling in the favors. im not to familiar with the laws in that area but in Maryland their preaty cool. we work with the police and they are aware of our actions.however, thats how they do buissness these guys will do anything short of fing up the car to see if its the one their looking for and if the car does get fed up their is the umbrella insurence policy that covers all emploies, my office works diferently in most cases, but their sucess rating put american lenders 3rd in the country for recovery, you gota break some eggs to make an omlet. personaly if i were looking for the car i would gps every svx i see and moniter their movement, (no its not invassion of privacy they just shot down that case in the suprime court) but some poeple are more upfront than i am.

i hang out with my sister all the time and she has never given me an english lesson.

i called nick stewrt at global investigations he going to keep his fingers in the parts departement, i went to high school with him and hes a good guy. hopefully he'll find something.

[Noir]

Originally posted by Matthewmongan
yes it is a possibility, but personaly im not physicaly looking for the car. im just calling in the favors. i hang out with my sister all the time and she has never given me an english lesson.

I'm just trying to make you realize that if you pop someone's lock and 'investigate' their car to see it's VIN numbers without permission, it's illegal and whoever does this would be in a 'world of hsit'.

The sister thing was a joke, but she really should give you some pointers on way to improve your spelling unless you want to teach Kung Fu and repo cars for the rest of your life.

[Matthewmongan]

teaching kung fu would be a wourthy endever that i would rather do than any other profession. however it would be wrong for me to charge someone for theaching them something they have a right to know. in my future line of work i imagine i will have a secretary to dictate my writing through a recording. if not, god made spell check for a reason.

[Noir]

Originally posted by Matthewmongan
teaching kung fu would be a wourthy endever that i would rather do than any other profession. however it would be wrong for me to charge someone for theaching them something they have a right to know. in my future line of work i imagine i will have a secretary to dictate my writing through a recording. if not, god made spell check for a reason.

actually god didn't make spell check, some programmer did. anyway use da ubAr sphell checkAr f00!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!