flood damaged interstates

[289cobra]

There are two flood damaged (SANDY) interstates that will be sold by insurance companies. So you will know if you are buying one there vin numbers are 2007 vin WDOPD744765944213 2006 VIN WDOPD744365968492.

[AWCHIEF]

Thank you for the heads ups. Where these your trailers?

[wayneskid]

Originally Posted by AWCHIEF

Thank you for the heads ups. Where these your trailers?

An Interstate is a Sprinter based Class B motorhome, not a trailer.

[Protagonist]

Originally Posted by 289cobra

There are two flood damaged (SANDY) interstates that will be sold by insurance companies. So you will know if you are buying one there vin numbers are 2007 vin WDOPD744765944213 2006 VIN WDOPD744365968492.

If the insurance company is selling them, that means they were written off as a total loss, and all you'll get is salvage title. Meaning LOTS of work, and probably lots of expense, to get them road-worthy and insurable again. Their greatest value right now might be as hangar queens, to be parted out to repair other Interstates of the Dodge Sprinter era.

[AWCHIEF]

wayneskid, thank you for the unnecessary clarification. My question for the OP still stands.

[Protagonist]

Originally Posted by AWCHIEF

wayneskid, thank you for the unnecessary clarification. My question for the OP still stands.

I am duly chastized for wasting your time.

Having a vehicle of my own that was flood-damaged here in New Orleans a while back (though it wasn't an Airstream), that wasn't totalled, but should have been considering I spent a lot more to get it running than the insurance company paid me, I couldn't resist unnecessarily putting my one-cent's worth in.

[AWCHIEF]

Protagonist, not sure where you got the impression that I was responding to your post. Please reread my post and you will see that I was responding to another poster.

[Protagonist]

Originally Posted by AWCHIEF

Protagonist, not sure where you got the impression that I was responding to your post. Please reread my post and you will see that I was responding to another poster.

You're right; I have no clue how I missed that. It's a bad sign when one can't even remember one's senior moments! Not to worry, I took no offense even when I thought it was directed at me.

I won't recant my apology, though. I'm sure there are as many readers that would feel the information about the salvage title was equally pedantic and pointless.

[AWCHIEF]

I think it was very good information. After Katrina we had a lot of water damaged vehicles of all kinds put on the market for sale. Not all sellers were totally honest in their disclosure of storm damage. I am sure many of them ended up in areas away from here and were bought by people that were not aware of their true history or the extent of possible damage.

[Colonial Airstream]

The two of those units were pretty much toasted. All the electronics were fried and they had mud, sand and mold everywhere. I feel so bad for my customers that lost them. I can't believe how an insurance company can sell these two units for parts or as whole.

[Protagonist]

Originally Posted by NeatAirstream

The two of those units were pretty much toasted. All the electronics were fried and they had mud, sand and mold everywhere. I feel so bad for my customers that lost them. I can't believe how an insurance company can sell these two units for parts or as whole.

I can understand it. Insurance companies are in the business of turning a profit, run by people who are professionally, if not personally, cruel and heartless.

Not knowing which insurance companies are involved, it's hard to say. But if it's a smaller, localized insurance company whose customer base is entirely in the impacted area, then selling off the vehicles they totaled could very well mean the difference between the insurance company dying due to excessive hemmoraging of their cash flow, and staying in business long enough to eventually recover.

The big national companies at least have a big national customer base, and can use money they collected on policies in California or wherever to pay out claims in New England. If they're the ones selling the vehicles, then it's just pure money-grubbing evil, not necessity.

[wayneskid]

Originally Posted by Protagonist

I can understand it. Insurance companies are in the business of turning a profit, run by people who are professionally, if not personally, cruel and heartless.

Not to take this thread in a completely different direction, but...
I've done business with a large national insurance company for many years and have had a few claims. Two notable claims point out what's wrong with this statement:

• My home was burgled and the thieves hauled off $35K worth of tools, photo gear, audio gear, video gear, guns, etc. I was able to document my purchase of some of the items but I have a LOT of hand tools and couldn't possibly list them all. (My CFO/wife says I have WAY TOO MANY tools, but that's another story). So, the adjuster told me to buy what I had lost and they would reimburse me. I went to a large industrial hardware store and loaded both decks of two warehouse carts with tools. I just walked all the aisles and picked up what I thought I had lost. I think the printed invoice ran to 7 pages and the bill was something like $4200. They wrote a check for the full amount, no questions asked. They treated my claim for some of the lost photo gear in the same manner.
• I had a heating system failure in my detached garage with temps around -20. The result was a lot of broken plumbing in the apartment above the garage and in the ceiling of the garage; fortunately there was no water damage. I hired a plumber to do the first bit of work and after watching him work for a couple of hours, fired him and decided to do the work myself. The adjuster came out twice and did estimates for what it would cost for a contractor to do the repairs. They paid me this amount plus my cost for some items I purchased to facilitate the work. The bill came to around $13K. Again they wrote me a check, no questions asked.

I both of these cases and with a few other, smaller claims, this company has given me everything I could have wanted and more. And, there was never any hassle in getting it done. Never any feeling that they were trying to squeeze me to hold their cost down. Yes they are all in business to make $$ but some of them really do operate on the principal that they will be most successful if their customers are happy.


Just had to say it. Sorry.

[Protagonist]

Originally Posted by wayneskid

Not to take this thread in a completely different direction, but...

Yes they are all in business to make $$ but some of them really do operate on the principal that they will be most successful if their customers are happy.

Until they get thousands of claims in the same week from the same geographical area, all wanting their own personal piece of the insurance company's hide. Then it's a different story. I saw that for myself after Katrina.

[Alumaholic]

Originally Posted by Protagonist

I can understand it. Insurance companies are in the business of turning a profit, run by people who are professionally, if not personally, cruel and heartless.

Not knowing which insurance companies are involved, it's hard to say. But if it's a smaller, localized insurance company whose customer base is entirely in the impacted area, then selling off the vehicles they totaled could very well mean the difference between the insurance company dying due to excessive hemmoraging of their cash flow, and staying in business long enough to eventually recover.

The big national companies at least have a big national customer base, and can use money they collected on policies in California or wherever to pay out claims in New England. If they're the ones selling the vehicles, then it's just pure money-grubbing evil, not necessity.

By definition, the goal of any business is to make a profit, and failure to make a profit will put any business owner out of business.
Explain to me, how is selling these damaged vehicles to someone who sees value in them and wants to buy them "just pure, money grubbing evil"?

[Protagonist]

Originally Posted by Alumaholic

By definition, the goal of any business is to make a profit, and failure to make a profit will put any business owner out of business.
Explain to me, how is selling these damaged vehicles to someone who sees value in them and wants to buy them "just pure, money grubbing evil"?

If you're an insurance agent by profession, and if you're the one selling these Interstates, then I apologize for any insult you may have perceived, as long as you're not trying to mislead or gouge any eventual buyers.

Regardless, I do not want to be responsible for turning this thread into a flame war, so I'll shut up now.

[289cobra]

My only reason for putting the vins out there is to let people know.

[289cobra]

One of the salvage pools is charging and extra fee for all the cleanup. From the pics they look excellent.