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Old 03-05-2012, 08:24 AM   #11
Clodfobble
UNDER CONDITIONAL MITIGATION
 
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Austin, TX
Posts: 20,012
Quote:
Originally Posted by Aliantha
(our thinking is the car's only worth a couple of grand, so if it's that badly damaged that we can't drive it, we'll probably just replace it anyway).
Friend of mine used to drive an old beat-up car he called the "Claimsmobile." It was a barely-running piece of crap, worth about $500. Somebody rear-ended him, the body shop said fixing the bumper was going to cost a lot, so the insurance company just wrote it off as totaled and gave him a check for $500. He was perfectly happy to keep driving the old car with one more dent in the bumper than it had before, so basically he just walked away with free money for his trouble.

And this happened two more times, before the car finally gave up the ghost and he sold it for scrap... for another $500. He never tried to get in accidents, certainly, but in the end he made a profit owning that car.
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