It’s been just under two months since some text messaging choad in a Jetta railed me. I have fought the good fight, but this week, 464/1000, one of less than 300 Kensington Grey Galant VR4s ever sold in North America, will have a salvage title and become a daily driven parts car.
The original figures
Allstate originally got a couple random, used car dealing schlubs to guesstimate that 464 was worth barely $1000. They got a $150 salvage bid on the car and offered me a whopping $889 if I wanted to keep it.
My rather reasonable figures
I scoured the cars for sale section on GalantVR4.org – the best source for GVR4s on the market – and found 60 examples listed in the US since the first of the year. They had a national average listing price of $4300. I told Allstate this would be an acceptable figure if the car was to be totaled out. (I was prepared to drop as low as $3800, which was the average regional listing price minus outliers.)
The gearhead appraiser’s figures
Even though I had already waited over 7 weeks and spoken to as many as six different adjusters with Allstate, they finally moved with authority and lived up to their “good hands” mantra. I was advised that a proper “gearhead who races cars at PIR” would be contacting me about the matter.
Mike Sheehan showed up Thursday and we talked shop for half an hour in a covered parking place. Two business days later, I get a call from Allstate advising the final figures on 464. Mike’s estimate came in at just under $3600. Of course, a more valuable car is more valuable to the salvage yards too, so the salvage bid went from $150 to $950.
I’m going to get the title branded salvage and trade it for a check in the amount of $2600 or so.
And that’s that.
No. I’m not parting it out.
Yes. I plan on continuing to drive it.
And yes, 195 will be making some solid progress towards being a real rally car this summer.