Sacramento, Unite to save my Z!
 

ok guys, I really need your help on this one. Anyone within a 60 mile radius with a Datsun 240Z, pretty much stock, I need to know the going value of your car if you were to sell it as of now. I'm sure you have probably read my posts about my rear end collision. My insurance company says I may have to take my car as a salvage title, and my Z means WAY too much to me to have that done. They told me the only way to save it from the salvage title is to try to find price quotes for cars within the 60 mile radius, and they would compare my car to the cars in which I found. I would really appreciate it if you all could do that, you have no idea. So, if possible, can you list:

1.Year of the 240z
2.Stock or not
3.restored?
4.salvage title?
5.Price

Thanks again, you all, you know I'm in debt to all of you.

I wish you the best on this. I don't think your car is that bad, I mean all you need is a bumper rite? Can't they just buy you a bumper?
Insurance companys blow my mind sometimes...

usually not very easy to come by a new bumper that's been out of production for over 20 years, so they have to use as-new parts, or nos (new old stock) parts that are hard to get

If you are planning to keep the car I don't think the salvage title will mean much in the long run. Zs are pretty far from the top of the list of increasing value collectables. I would take the money and run.

What I would do is take a lot of pictures of the damage, and of the repairs for a future buyer to see what little it took to total the car as far as the insurance company thinks. It's not like you have taken a car that was run over by a semi and repaired it. Salvage titles are becoming fairly common anymore with the quick depreciation of car values.

My neighbor's shop does a lot of the totaled wreck repair stuff, car new price $35K, 3 years old value $16-20K, sheet metal damage down one side and frame need straightened, insurance company says totaled, he buys it for $2K-3K, puts 2K in new/used sheetmetal etc, has the frame straightened better than new for $2-300, paints and sells it easy for $8K and makes$2-3K for his labor. The buyer gets a car that is probably better than before it was wrecked! I've seen him take two cars, the front off of one the rear off the other, literly cut the cars in half and put them back together, when he is done there is no way you can tell except for the salvage title.

Think of it this way, take the total and the money. Buy the parts yourself, like the bumper for a tenth of what the bodyshop would pay. Take it all to a shop and have it fixed using your parts and have cash left over to add some extras. Let's say that you end up with $1000 left over extra, and down the road you sell the car and get $1000 less because of the salvage title, you're still even, maybe ahead because you had that $1K to play with all that time...

As for your search for car values you are lucky to be in Calif, still a lot of Zs there. One other place you might want to look to get values is eBay, search the closed auctions and print off the final selling pages from cars that compair with yours, the insurance company might buy that as compairable values.

As others have said, good luck with your fight against the insurance companies!