noman

It started with a '68, 289 coupe I inherited from my dad. I decided to rebuild it so I started looking for parts. At about this time a woman at work told me that her '94 5.0L GT convertable had just been rear-end and the insurance wanted to total the car. She was really upset because the car was the last year they made the 5.0L and it ran great, she had just spent all sorts of money fixing the rear-end, brakes, getting the motor tuned, etc. And get this: the car had under 100000 miles on it. I told her I'd pay whatever the insurance decided salvage value was. Turns out the insurance wanted $1500 for it!! So, I was looking at . . . what $5000+ worth of parts for $1500! Heck, the wheels alone were worth $400. I even went to the yard to make sure the motor and drive train were ok. I had front and rear disc brakes, tranny, 5.0L EFI motor and computer, suspension parts, you name it, all in one package. For a couple of weeks I kept asking her what was going on and she would tell me that she was haggling with the insurance company. Then one day I asked her about the car and she made this sad face and said "there ain't no car anymore". Turns out the tow yard SOLD the car to pay for the storage (under $500)!!!! [:@]Apparently, the yard sent a notice to her old address and by the time she found out about it it was gone. I think the yard "sold" it to one of their own employees who saw a good thing and went for it. The yard waited until the insurance agent was on vacation and the yard manager knew this woman's current address. Unfortunately, the law says they only have to send it to the registered address and there's no way to prove they knew the current address. So, the upshot was that the insurance paid the woman the salvage and I'm back looking for parts.[&o]