My GN Stolen Today

R

r_beaudette

New Member
Joined
Jul 5, 2006
Stolen '87 GN- La Habra, Ca.

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I posted this already in the stolen rides area here.... Thought I'd do the same for the local threads...


My '87 GN was stolen today from a shopping center parking lot at Beach Blvd and Imperial Hwy in La Habra Ca.

Nothing really distinguishing, typical black brick in great condition, 41K miles.
VIN- 1G4GJ1174HP464100

Please keep an eye out for someone selling one.. parts etc. that seems suspicious- I am in shock over this.

My stupidity, no lojack. I was in a Lowe's for about 20 minutes and came out and it was gone. They must have followed me and waited for me to go into the store...

This really sucks!
 
SORRY to hear about this.. i hope you get her back soon.. If not, i hope your insurance company doesn't mess with you on your payout..

keep us up to date..
 
Thanks Nordy.. Just got off the phone with my insurance company and according to the declarations in my policy there is no limit on my comprehensive insurance for theft. It says "actual cash value" under the limits heading... This is a Progressive policy. I've never had a car stolen before. Do any of you know what criteria they use to determine "actual cash value" on a collectible type vehicle like these?

I would much prefer getting the car back, but I'm not going to get my hopes up too high. Hope for the best and expect the worst is how I'm dealing with it.

The cop that showed up wrote down "87 Regal" on his report. I tried to get him to write Grand National in the model area of the report but he said that that was how it came back from the plate number he ran... Obviously not a car guy. He probably wondered why I was so upset about losing a 20 year old Buick....

Thanks for reading- And Darkside? I don't think I'll have use for that THDP and test pipe for now... :frown:
 
figured that much; that really sucks about your car man! Mine was broken into 2 times, but never stolen. 2$ wired/switch kill switches do the trick for me. I have 2 hidden swtiches that kill the car; i have them rigged up to stock buttons too so good luck tryin to find which ones.

Each time ive be broken into they just wreck the insides once they can't get the car; its really sad and cops didn't do squat for me either. Insurance came through though; but i learned that lesson after the 1st attempt on the car; after that i just pay premium price for the best insurance i can afford.

then i wised up, got regular insurance and bought TELETRAK.....fawk lowjack; only cops that have lowjack in their cars will respond to your "stolen car" report. I heard less then 15% of cops cars have it. LOOK into TELETRAK its the best. By sat. they can open/lock your doors and kill the motor. With many other features as well. Look it up, its the BEST anti theif device ive ever had. O and btw you dont have to call the cops when you report it to teletrak; they let you the customer decide whether or not you want the PD involved. How cool is that! That was one of the selling points for me. So even if your car is stolen they will not report it to PD after you call them; they leave everything and all decisions in the hands of the customer. With a cell i can call 24/7/365 any time and find out exactly where my car is. they can even zoom in and give you a description of the area around your car! Expensive but worth it to save your baby; the unit and 3 years of service was $1000. But after 3 years its only 100$ a year, to me thats a steal haha no pun intended sorry.


dont worry about it at all a THDP isn't hard to sell :) Good luck to you.
 
have your documention ready.. print off Kelly blue book and NADA price quotes.. track down some auto trader or internet sales that met your cars history. they WILL try to low ball you, thats their job. If you have documention of receipts or work (ie, your parts list on your sign) you can try to get that back.

they (allstate) tried low balling me back in 03 when my brand new 03 CBR600 bike (only 2000miles) was stolen. because i had my paperwork and documention on other CBR's i came out happy (well over what i paid).
 
r_beaudette said:
Thanks Nordy.. Just got off the phone with my insurance company and according to the declarations in my policy there is no limit on my comprehensive insurance for theft. It says "actual cash value" under the limits heading... This is a Progressive policy. I've never had a car stolen before. Do any of you know what criteria they use to determine "actual cash value" on a collectible type vehicle like these?

I would much prefer getting the car back, but I'm not going to get my hopes up too high. Hope for the best and expect the worst is how I'm dealing with it.

The cop that showed up wrote down "87 Regal" on his report. I tried to get him to write Grand National in the model area of the report but he said that that was how it came back from the plate number he ran... Obviously not a car guy. He probably wondered why I was so upset about losing a 20 year old Buick....

Thanks for reading- And Darkside? I don't think I'll have use for that THDP and test pipe for now... :frown:
Click to expand...

"Actual Cash Value"= the depreciated valuation based on ccommon sources (KBB, NADA, etc). If you want to maximize the $$$ to you should the car be declared a total loss, you need to arm yourself for batttle.

Ok, here's what I did when I got t-boned, and the insurance company wanted to settle for $6k. Get as much information as you can from as many sources as you can- articles, cars sold, etc-make sure the sources are NOT affiliated with you directly in any way (except for receipts for parts purchased to upgrade/maintain the car.

>Hemmings
>GM High Tech Performance
>Old Car Trader
>ebay (cars sold)
>These boards
>High End Auctions (B-J, Krause, etc)
>vaulation guides
>etc, etc

Make 2 copies of anything you plan to submit to the ins. company (in case they lose one). What you're doing is giving the claims adjustor a comprehensive file that represents the true valuation of your car- in essence, you've made his job a lot easier, because you did the research, and all he has to do is proof/verify the info. Since the info is from nationally reputable sources, there's no bias in your favor that the insurance company can hold against you. Evey shred of info given to the adjustor/company should be able to be verified as true.

You want the claims adjustor on your side, as he's the eyes and ears of the insurance company. Tick him off, and he'll close the claim as quickly as he can- usually in the company's favor.

Doing the above took me about 3 or 4 days, and I made over $7k more than the original offer.
 
Thank you very much for the input SoCalGN. That is very good advice and I will start my research right away; I've actually already been on KBB, NADA, Cars.com, ebay and Autotrader looking at prices for comparable cars... So far I've seen a low from NADA at $8800.00 to a high of 32K from KBB (41K miles, excellent retail value).

I still hope I just get the car back with minimal damage.
Even if I could get 20K+ from insurance, I would not have sold it for that much if it was offered today.
 
XxDarkSidexX said:
figured that much; that really sucks about your car man! Mine was broken into 2 times, but never stolen. 2$ wired/switch kill switches do the trick for me. I have 2 hidden swtiches that kill the car; i have them rigged up to stock buttons too so good luck tryin to find which ones.

Each time ive be broken into they just wreck the insides once they can't get the car; its really sad and cops didn't do squat for me either. Insurance came through though; but i learned that lesson after the 1st attempt on the car; after that i just pay premium price for the best insurance i can afford.

then i wised up, got regular insurance and bought TELETRAK.....fawk lowjack; only cops that have lowjack in their cars will respond to your "stolen car" report. I heard less then 15% of cops cars have it. LOOK into TELETRAK its the best. By sat. they can open/lock your doors and kill the motor. With many other features as well. Look it up, its the BEST anti theif device ive ever had. O and btw you dont have to call the cops when you report it to teletrak; they let you the customer decide whether or not you want the PD involved. How cool is that! That was one of the selling points for me. So even if your car is stolen they will not report it to PD after you call them; they leave everything and all decisions in the hands of the customer. With a cell i can call 24/7/365 any time and find out exactly where my car is. they can even zoom in and give you a description of the area around your car! Expensive but worth it to save your baby; the unit and 3 years of service was $1000. But after 3 years its only 100$ a year, to me thats a steal haha no pun intended sorry.


dont worry about it at all a THDP isn't hard to sell :) Good luck to you.
Click to expand...


Teletrak sounds great, wish I'd had it today. I'd be over at someones house/garage with about five buddies with shotguns making someone very nervous and apologetic right now.... If I get her back or replace the car, I will definitely look into that Mark. I would not be able to let it out of my sight again after today without some sort of protection like that.
 
Having anything stolen sucks much less a Grand National. Hope things turn out ok for you. I used to live over in Hacienda Heights not for from your town.
 
Sorry to hear about this, it makes me sick to my stomach thinking about it. Best of luck with either recovery or replacement. I will keep eyes out, I am not too far from you.
 
I hope everything goes well with the Insurance Co. That sucks man. I would go back and ask if there are security cameras mounted anywhere in that parking lot. :wink:
 
Underboost said:
I hope everything goes well with the Insurance Co. That sucks man. I would go back and ask if there are security cameras mounted anywhere in that parking lot. :wink:
Click to expand...


Thanks Brent,
I did ask Lowe's about the cameras and they said that after the cops generate a police report they would hand over a videotape. Unfortunately, that takes about 3 days to materialize... I've just about given up on seeing my car again. It feels almost like a kidnapping without a ransom demand. I would gladly pay a recovery fee but it does not look like that will happen. I put a lot of work into this car. Pisses me off that some A$$hole can do this to another person.
 
License plate number? Yeah I know the thief probably put on a different plate but then again there's a lot of stupid ones out there.

Do you have a pic of the car? (GN wheels, emblems, tint, radio, dual or single exhaust, rear window defroster, power ant, rear swauy bar, etc.) I know that these cars have a tendency to look the same but sometimes a few options/upgrades/details might differentiate it enough (at least among the loyal darkside), to help us help you find it.

I lost my first TR back in 95 so I feel your pain. We'll keep an eye out down here for you.
 
r_beaudette said:
Yeah, I can still laugh. That is pretty funny LedZep. Why don't you just torch it and put yourself out of your misery..;)
Click to expand...

naw I have morals... I would feel guilty about insurence fraud. I just leave the doors unlocked.

I hope it works out for you. If you dont see your car again, get a better one and dont look back:D
 
Turbo31951,

There are a bunch of pics in my signature. Thanks for the concern. I really appreciate any help on tis board....
 
ledzeppac said:
naw I have morals... I would feel guilty about insurence fraud. I just leave the doors unlocked.

I hope it works out for you. If you dont see your car again, get a better one and dont look back:D
Click to expand...

hey, you don't see a 30K mile GN for 13K anymore. That's what I paid for mine a year ago. And it was pristine! If the insurance company comes close, I'll defintitely be looking for another one on ebay...
 
ledzeppac said:
naw I have morals... I would feel guilty about insurence fraud. I just leave the doors unlocked.
I hope it works out for you. If you dont see your car again, get a better one and dont look back:D
Click to expand...
----------------------------
Pill, trust me, you are thinking of murals, not morals, believe me, you have no morals.
------------------------
Robert:
Really sorry to hear about this, makes me wonder if it could be the same thief/thieves that got Brian's car a couple of years ago. His disappeared from a mall parking lot in Brea, I believe. This really sucks. Regardless of how it plays out, I hope that it works out to your satisfaction and in your favor.
 
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