My Camry was in a fender, hood, bumper, and headlight bender

[redpoint5]

If it's minor and people are honest and apologetic, I let them go on their way. If they want to lie or be unconcerned they made a mistake, I'll give them the hell they are demanding.

[Piotrsko]

I admire your constraint.

[freebeard]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

If it's minor and people are honest and apologetic, I let them go on their way. If they want to lie or be unconcerned they made a mistake, I'll give them the hell they are demanding.

With the Squareback, I offered to settle for cash at the side of the road, but he remembered he'd have to fix his own car too, and so he called in the insurance company.

Back in the 1980s I was driving up South Willamette and passed a girl waving a Car Wash sign (and doing it quite well) at a stop light. The kid behind me saw 'the sign' but not the stop light and hit my rear bumper. There was a police officer sitting at the light to see the whole thing. Since it was his first accident, I offered to settle for a new $17 Beetle bumper. When he showed up with it, he had a parent in tow wanting to know why I was scamming their kid.

[redpoint5]

I was eating at a restaurant when a woman came in asking if anyone there drove a blue Acura. I figured nobody else there had an Acura, so I told her mine was grey. She said she had accidentally backed into it in the parking lot.

I walked out with her and it was my car she had bumped into. I thanked her for the honesty and told her not to worry about it.

My roommate scraped along the side of the car backing out, he was honest about that, and I told him not to worry about it.

Was rear-ended on I-5 in stop and go traffic while stopped. I hopped out, took a look at the scrape on the rear bumper, and the kid apologized. Told him not to worry about it and I hopped back in the car before traffic had even begun to move again.

A kid put his car in reverse and sped off about 35 feet before creaming the front end of the Prius my wife was parked in. Took the $1,000 from his insurance. Who drives 35 feet in reverse without looking?

[Xist]

Maniacs, that's who backs up without looking. According to Seinfeld, that includes old people.

freebeard, you don't seem to have better luck than I do. What did the insurance adjuster say after seeing the entirety of your pride and joy?

[freebeard]

I dunno, I've just been at it longer. I haven't even mentioned being the penultimate car in a four-car chain reaction.

The adjuster had nothing good to say. Instead of fighting the salvage title, I sold it on. With the Superbeetle, I fought tooth and nail to keep it off a salvage title. They eventually relented when I started quoting Oregon DMV regulations to my own insurance company rep in San Antonio, TX.

[redpoint5]

Bug parts are cheap, at least back in the day. I remember being able to replace nearly anything for $10-$20. Easy to do, too.

[Xist]

Since when are you an expert Oregon DMV regulations?

If Beetle parts are cheap, how much are running Beetles?

[freebeard]

Since my own insurance company tried to low-ball the repairs.

Parts were cheap, now they're all reproductions.

www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/newads.php?type=cars

high
1956 VW Bug - Vehicles - Type 1/Bug - through 1957 $45.000
low
1960 Ragtop Patina Bug - Vehicles - Type 1/Bug - 1958-67 $2500
nice
1969 Convertible Bug - Vehicles - Type 1/Bug - 1968-up $8,000

$8K for a running convertible on Porsche alloys sounds Okay.

[Xist]

I can't afford a Beetle!