[Superman]

Just checking with you guys. Waiting for the insurance company to respond to my first (and last) counteroffer. They initially offered $9K for my totaled car. I want to hear you guys estimate its actual worth. Be candid. I can take it.

There are many SC's on the market that can be had ("take" price) of $12-$13K. I say these cars will cost more than $20K including purchase, maintenance and repairs, over the next six years. Mine will not.

Description:

Cosmetically a 20-footer. This car has 272K on the odometer, and has the "patina" you would expect. Door dings. Rock chips. Yes, it needs body and paint work.

Headliner is in place, but there are small tears. Driver seat has a seam coming apart on the seatback. Seats do not look new, but are serviceable for now. The rest of the interior is in strikingly nice shape. Cleaned up, it does not look like a 272K car. Not at all.

That is the extent of the bad news.

Good news:

Desirable colors. Smoky Quartz Metallic factory paint. Burgundy interior.

Engine freshened in 2002. Cylinders had .0015" wear or less. WELL within spec. Piston ring lands showed NO wear. Head stud had snapped, and the head showed a ring at the head/cylinder joint, so all six heads were flycut and the cylinders were verified flat also.

All new valves, guides, seals. Installed by JW.
New rings
fresh bearings. All crank and rod journals were beautiful.
20/21 cams (made this car WAY more fun to drive) Remember, this is a small-runner SC engine, so intake velocity his high (9.3:1 CR). This engine has great torque as low as 1000 rpm. No kidding. Compression was around 180 on every cylinder.

Transmission was freshened by JW in October 2006. A bunch of parts. Dog teeth, sliders, etc. Whatever it needed.

Suspension was just gone through. New bushings. New shocks. Rack spacers. Turbo tie rods. New tires (Kumho MX). 26mm rear torsion bars. Corner balanced and aligned in July 2007.

Headlight relays, and 55/100 H4 bulbs in the "direct replacement" headlights available from Bosch and Hella. Mine are Hella.

Backdated heat. Early heat exchangers.

Car is just becoming smog exempt in Washington State.

Toolkit. Jack. Mint spare.

High pressure headlight washers. Fogs. Heated power mirrors. Power windows. Heated rear window. Sunroof. Yadda yadda.

As I say, this car had some cosmetic patina. Mechanically, I was running out of ways to improve her.

What would you guys consider a fair value? Really.