| Retirement of my 2008 Land Rover Range Rover 4.4L | |
Gentlemen,
I have bad news. On Thursday 17Jan20 a group of teenagers in Madison, Wisconsin commandeered my vehicle without permission out of my driveway, and long story short the insurance company totaled the vehicle. I watched my first Land Rover being pulled on a tow truck a week later. Before everyone asks I state: I don't know if it was locked, I don't know if the spare was in the car or in my garage, and because the group of teenagers ditched the vehicles there are no suspects as to who stole my vehicle. There has been a string of underage vehicle theft in Madison, Wisconsin and a total of 12 humans were apprehended within the next week in other stolen vehicles, and the chances are high that one, two or all of them were involved in the theft. Here are some things that I learned in the process of having my Land Rover stolen.
The insurance companies goal is to not get got... They are qualified professionals and it is their responsibility to ensure the insurance Company does put themselves in a situation where the cost of repair does not exceed the, "totaled value." I learned that the age of the vehicle also dictates the totaled value. I thought it was 70% percent of the assessed value was totaled value, but as it turns out that varies state to state. In Wisconsin age of the vehicle dictates whether or not it falls in the 70% rule.
After the vehicle was stolen my initial thought was,"great! All the damage will be repaired." Foolishly I thought that would mean new TPM system, new brakes, new rotors, new calipers, the airbag connection that causes the airbag to be deactivated would be found, the spark plugs would be replaced, maybe a coil pack, the CD player would be repaired, and everything would be ship shape. I thought the exhausted engine would be returned to it's natural rested glory and everything would be hunky dory. Turns out that was a foolish thought. I will explain momentarily.
Whilst awaiting the teenagers to ditch my car my initial thought was to go start the search for a replacement in kind for my Land Rover just in case. For this I thought I would march down to my local Fields Jaguar Land Rover and search their midwest inventory. I was able to locate a 2010 Land Rover Range Rover Supercharged Full Sized in the Chicago area for $17,899. Which in retrospect would of been a great suitable replacement.
Certified Land Rover Dealerships will not resell a vehicle within the dealership cluster if it does not pass their,"safety check." This is not the exact lingo, but the salesmen informed me that vehicles prior to sale get their safety check which involvers ensuring that no warning lights or error codes pop up upon starting the vehicle upon arriving of whatever lot it is on. This rule also applies to vehicle repair.
Upon learning this I realized that due to the high level of maintenance safety standards there was little chance that my vehicle was going to be repaired. The amount of time that the most qualified Land Rover technicians could spend totally assessing and repairing what they find could take an astronomical amount of time, and at the going rate per hour at a Land Rover Dealer Shop the total value could be reached rather quickly. Not too mention we have no idea if the kids put pickle juice in the intake, sugar in the gas tank, and or a potato stuffed in the exhaust. The message is that a Land Rover with an unknown amount of damage resulting from theft has the potential to total the vehicle alone.
If your Land Rover is totaled by theft it seems that the majority of the time if their is any kind of mechanical damage past just surface scratches and a detailing job to remove that ever so pleasant an aroma of Black and Mild Vanilla blunt smell the insurance company will total the vehicle.
This leaves me to my last point. If you love your Land Rover and you loved it enough to get financing seriously get gap insurance until you know you are ahead on the value of the vehicle. I did not have gap insurance and I was just fortunate enough to receive a fair assessment price and be in a situation where because of all of this I was able to refinance and procure a beautiful 2004 Land Rover Discovery II from the folks at AP Vintage Motors in Statesville, North Carolina. If I would have purchases the Gap insurance I would be in an even better situation that I am currently. Instead of paying about 30 dollars less a month if I had gap insurance I would of been able to stretch out that 30 dollars into more savings.
Folks,
I enjoyed my time with my full sized Range Rover and it was a beautiful vehicle. My life of being in a Land Rover continues and I am going to spend some time working on the Discovery 2 and learning what that model of the Land Rover is all about. I will be back to get that full sized RR one day, but for now the path will be travelled in a Disco 2.
Godspeed.
|
31st Jan 2020 4:02am
