MCStone

If you own the car outright, the bank will cut you a check. If a bank had a lein on it, they will only authorize stock replacement parts. I had this issue when I destroyed the rims on my 3000GT. insurance spent 700 a piece to replace them with stock... I could have had some NIIIIICE rims for 2800 bucks.

Good luck,
Michael


P.S. don't damage the roof any more than it is. That's just tacky and the typ of thing a spoiled kid would to to try and milk every penny out of a situation, just pay your deductable and insist on all new parts.

slates74

It's funny you should say that about your 3000gt, I had one also which was financed and when I got hit I need new wheels as well. The insurance company just gave me the money allowance for the price of new OEM wheels and I bought some 18's for it . Yeah I agree about destroying the soft top more, that would be tacky.

callaesthetics

My car recently got into an accident and the repair shop found a very minor tear in the top (about half an inch). The Insurance said they would replace it with a new top, but i would have to pay about 20% of the cost. Otherwise, option 2 is they repair the top and cover my $500 deductible for me.
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~blacks2k~

I just went through the exact same scenario as you.

I went outside one morning to discover my soft top was slashed several times. I immediately called my insurance company to put a claim through to repair the soft top. I took my car to local honda dealers for estimates, and they also sent an appraiser out to look at my car, and he agreed the soft top would have to be replaced.

I told my insurance company it was my intention to replace the soft top with a hardtop, as i did not want the same thing to happen again if i got another soft top.

The insurance company told me they would cover the full replacement cost of a new soft top, and the labour to install the soft top. They told me if a hardtop costs more, i would have to pay the difference. So in the end, the best estimate i got from a honda dealer to replace and install a new soft top was about $3300 Canadian (apparently the dealer claims it is 13 hours of labour for the replacement)

My insurance company wrote me a cheque for the amount of $3300, and i ordered myself a brand new hardtop for $2600 from Desert Honda of Las Vegas. It is currently being shipped, and i should have it installed sometime this week.

My advice to you is get estimates from HONDA dealers on replacing the soft top (initially i went to get an estimate from an affiliate body shop of my insurance company, and they told me on a labour intensive job like this they would just send it to a honda dealer to be done anyways).

After you get the estimates, your insurance should agree to pay the full amount of the replacement of the soft top and you can get a cash payout to purchase a hardtop (it may help to make an argument that having a hardtop is less of a liability to vandalism than a soft top would be, and that you dont want a similiar incident happening again.)

Anyways, hope this helps, sorry to hear about your loss i know exactly how it feels.