Quiet in here...
 

Everyone exhausted and burned out from the meet? :D

Maybe everyone got hit by hail. I sure did. The claims adjuster won't be looking at it until this Wednesday, and I shudder to think how that will all come out.

---jps

Ouch! How bad did it damage the Miata-beast?

In Steamboat CO right now, hailing as we speak, but my 8's at home in UT :D

I'm still soaking in the meet. I think I'm addicted, I want to have another now. Gimme gimme gimme :D

We've had some nasty rain the past few days here in Utah, but no hail to my knowledge.

So would you guys be interested in coming back for one of our "mini meets?" Sorry IGOZMZM, no prizes this time... :D just maybe a drive or a track day, or a combo thereof.

NEED MINI-MEET... <Chanting> MINI-MEET... MINI-MEET... MINI-MEET... :D Need more track time... Hey - I think I'm well on my way to ensuring that I'll win the prize next year (again), for "Most tickets", got another one on my way home from getting my 8 serviced shortly after the meet, (9mph over - jerk cop). Need radar jammer pretty much before anything else... :D

In my area (near Sheridan and Hampden, for those who don't know), we got tennis ball sized hail. The roof has been totalled, and skylights in the shopping mall across the street were shattered. Some of the hail that large was simply marble-sized hail that clumped together while still in the air, and came down in one piece, while some of the hail that large was one big ass piece. You could look at the ones that hit concrete and split open, see that they were one large hailstone, and count at least 20 "rings" from when the hailstone (more like hail-rock) formed as it cycled up and down in the clouds before falling. The extreme updrafts required to pull hailstones that large back up into the clouds must have been incredible. Pretty cool, actually.

Meanwhile, every body panel of the Miata was damaged, and there is a small tear in the roof now (it's "plugged" with duct tape at this time). You ought to see the aluminum hood, it definitely got softened up more than the rest of the car. The windshield on a Miata is more vertical than alot of car windshields nowadays, and it was one of the only two vehicles in the neighborhood that did not loose a windshield (the others were merely cracked, and the plastic "lining" in the windshields actually kept them intact. Pretty impressive, actually. There was an Escort hatchback that was hit in the rear window, and that was completely shattered ('cause they don't have the same construction as a windshield).

So, the car is mechanically sound, but the body is ugly. The question is how the insurance company will handle it. When it's a big situation like this, they try to skimp every penny, and it's not quite worth it to get a lawyer to get what you are really due for a car like this if they try to screw you out of something. *sigh*.

Anyway, I'll update people after Wednesday (with pics), just to give them the benefit of my experience dealing with a modded car with insurance in a situation like this.

---jps

Crazy how isolated those storms can be. I was driving my '8 down Kipling at Hampden at the time of that storm and the hail was only marble sized. I was still freaking out, of course, but avoided any damage.

Now I'm paranoid about driving mine to work, since we've been getting so many storms lately.

Good luck with the insurance Sputnik.

Did I hear mini-meet.....track - this time I want to drive the track. I would be interested in hearing about a mini-meet for sure.

Let's do it. With this kind of enthusiasm, it may not be such a 'mini' meet. The track sounds great to too, if we can swing it.

Hey, it's Sheriff Roscoe Peeeeeee Cotraine! ;)

Yeah, the Southwest plaza area was covered with more precipitation, but the hail was much much smaller. We actually got hit with two hailstorms that day. The first one came before any rain, and was the one with the tennis ball sized hail. It was at the leading edge of the system, and right where any "circulation" would occur. A half-hour later, we got hit with the pea-marble sized hail that hit the rest of the general area.

Quote:

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...Now I'm paranoid about driving mine to work, since we've been getting so many storms lately...

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I wouldn't worry about it too much. Snot happens, and it can happen anytime, anywhere, whether it be a hail-storm, or an idiot in an SUV racing a Civic. Besides, an RX8 is going to be new enough that it won't be totalled by something like hail, so you won't lose out if in fact it does happen.

My issue is that my car (without mods) is only worth so much, and companies normally "total" a car if the damage is half of the car's value (which is where you get screwed). My car is genuinely worth much more than blue-book or NADA ($20k worth of parts and labor went into the car, this is not some Honda that someone hot-glued body panels on and installed a coffee can exhaust, thinking it's worth $5k over blue book), but that normally doesn't come into consideration.

Catches like that is another reason why I've never leased a car.

---jps

Me neither.

So who wants to take point in organizing a mini-meet? I'm kinda overloaded right at the moment...

The promised hail report:

The concern of mine is that some insurance companies will total a car if the damage is more than half of the estimated value. For example, if a car is estimated to be worth $15k, the car will be totalled if damage comes to $8500. The insurance company will pay you $15k (minus deductible) and take the car. Or, if you want to keep the car, the insurance company will give you a check for either the damage ($8500), or half ($7500), depending on company and/or policy, and total your title. A totalled title means that you can no longer get comprehensive insurance for it, only liability. Someone who buys the car will not be able to get comprehensive either, even if the car is repaired better than new.

So if it is totalled, you come out short. If you go ahead and total your car and happen to find an equivalent used car, you will still be out the title/tax. This is what happened to my parents cars.

Now, I have State Farm. I specifically asked my agent if I needed to adjust my coverage to cover the aftermarket items, and I was told no. I took their word for it, since they would get more money if I did have to increase my premiums to cover the rest of my items. With my luck lately, I expected that State Farm would do the same "total at half value and not consider uncovered aftermarket items" thing that other companies were doing, which is why I was not optomistic. It turns out that State Farm doesn't total a car at half value, and the almost $7k worth of damage was still some $1200 away from totalling a stock '99 Miata Sport. And if it was more, they would also have considered the aftermarket items. I wouldn't expect to get full replacement value, but the fact that some of it would be considered in the value of the car when paying for damage is good.

They covered replacement of the convertible top for one little tear that occured, replacement of the front hood, both front fenders, trunk lid, fuel lid door, and a small body piece located between the trunk and convertible top. They also covered repairing the two doors and two rear fenders.

I'm glad that I stayed with State Farm over the years. The one thing to learn from this is to make sure that you are actually covered for what you think you are. Don't assume, check with your agent to make sure like I did, so that you're not hung out to dry if something happens (or that you know what adding or removing this or that coverage actually does after all). Regardless of which insurance company you are working with, a healthy dose of skepticism is useful, IMHO. That way, you make sure that you get what you need, and you don't get blindsided. BTW, when I was healthy and did alot of road course track events, I checked with State Farm, and at the time, they did cover my car on those track events.

I wanted to get a little more idea of what they would have valued some of the aftermarket items at, but they were busy, and I didn't want to waste their time on useless excersizes. Meanwhile, the attached picture shows some of the damage on the aluminum hood (which RX8s also have), which are very susceptible to hail damage compared with the rest of the car. But it's very hard for me to get the full effect of the damage on my simple camera.

---jps

Wow, you should take better care of your car! Man, lookathat hood!

:D

Glad Farmer's ante'd up. Sounds like it worked out pretty well for ya overall.

My philosophy of life... for insurance companies and everyting else. :)

Yeah, I now drive a Mazda golf-ball. ;) But then again, it even more of a sleeper now... I want to make sure that we get this straight. I am insured by State Farm, which is a totally different company from Farmers. It's important that people don't get those two confused.

Meanwhile, here's a shot of some of the worse damage on a front fender:

---jps

Whoops, that's what I meant to say... State Farm, not Farmers.

Jeez, does anyone post in here but Omnicron?