My garage burned, taking my Vibe and Toyota Celica

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Gandalf
Posts: 72
Joined: Fri Oct 14, 2005 7:32 am

My garage burned, taking my Vibe and Toyota Celica

Post by Gandalf »

My garage burned almost completely, taking my 2005 Vibe, with only about 52K miles on it. I also lost my 1988 Toyota Celica, with only about 66K miles on it. Both cars were in near mint condition. I bought both cars new, and paid cash for both of them. The bright red Toyota was never, ever driven in the snow, or even rain, if at all possible.

The Vibe was a white base model, with literally every option available on it except stability control, which I have read was extremely rare to non-existent, and a CD changer. It did have XM satellite radio. The Vibe was my first car with an auto transmission. I had both alloy and steel wheels for both cars. The Vibe steel wheels had very aggressive all season radials for winter driving. The Toyota alloys had high performance Pirelli tires on them.

In 1984 my brother and I tore down the decrepit old garage behind my house, and we built a 24' by 24' 2 1/2 car garage. I had two Dodge Colts at the time. One was a 1984 Colt Turbo, with the 8 speed transmission. I raced that car extensively, running it on 100 octane aviation fuel, with added octane boosters. I increased the turbo boost, and advanced the timing. It was quite fast, dyno'd at about 120 HP, and weighing a little under 1600 lbs. Surprisingly. this was completely legal under the club racing rules at the time. I didn't always win, but enough to make it really fun. All my trophies were in the garage, of course, along with a lifetime's accumulation of tools and automotive equipment, parts, and supplies. I had a LOT of things stored in the garage. I listed more than $50,000 worth of contents. My insurance company is extremely unhappy about this. To say the least. I have yet to collect on the contents.

I got the usual insurance chump change for my two very low mileage, near mint condition cars. Because insurance companies are little better than organized crime. I think Geico’s motto is ‘why should we have to pay any money OUT? It cuts into profits!’

To give you an idea of how crooked Geico is, 4 days after I used my car insurance to get a rental car, somebody at Geico called me up and demanded I return the rental car the next day, even though I have 30 days of rental coverage. They simply LIED to me, to try to save some money on the rental car.

I had the policy right in front of me, but the LYING crotch fruit of unwed mis matched species parents tried to convince me I only had 5 days of rental coverage. Several people told me the same LIE. I was reading my policy to them, but they stuck to their LIE. Got Geico insurance?

Now you know what kind of insurance company they are. Change insurance. Now.

The structure of my garage was only insured for $23K. Getting the debris of the old garage hauled away, and a 20 foot by 20 foot garage built cost $46,200. 20 by 20 ft. is only 400 sq ft. I HAD 576 sq. ft. Almost 50% larger. And I had to buy another car. So far, I'm out of pocket over $38,000. I'm not happy about this, to say the least.

The whole time I owned my Vibe, I made just ONE repair. I had to replace the light bulbs in the stereo. Cost $22. That was IT. I did all the maintenance myself, except tires and one or two alignments.

The same with my Toyota Celica. ONE repair. The spring on the seat belt retractor on the driver’s side broke. After about 30 years. The part cost about $200. Took about an hour to replace. When I went to the Toyota dealership to pick up the part, the entire parts, service, and sales dept. came out to look at my car. There must have been 25 people looking at my Celica. I had just waxed it, and Armor All’d the interior. Half the people were children, or not even born, when the car was built.

When I bought the Vibe, I bought the two thick telephone book sized factory manuals for it, for $186 in 2005. They have some wear; they were in the car for a long time, but are in good condition. For some reason, they were in the house at the time of the fire. I also have 4 unused factory keyless remotes. The instructions to program them are in the manual. The remotes work on any 2003 – 2007 Vibe, Matrix, and Corolla. You can program up to 4 remotes for one car. I know they work because I test programmed them for my car.

If you want the manuals and remotes, make me a reasonable offer. Shipping will be a bit expensive, as the books are thick and heavy. My E-mail is g.gandalf(at)lycos(dot)com
zbyers
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Re: My garage burned, taking my Vibe and Toyota Celica

Post by zbyers »

Sorry to hear about the loss of some great cars and garage.

Did you try to negotiate the payouts for the vehicles? Insurance companies always lowball their first offer since most people just take it and move on.
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joatmon
Posts: 10018
Joined: Fri Mar 21, 2003 5:19 am
Location: SMC MD

Re: My garage burned, taking my Vibe and Toyota Celica

Post by joatmon »

That really sucks. Trying to find some bright side in this disaster, at least the house wasn't damaged, and nobody was hurt

Did they determine the cause of the fire?

Early in my career I had a government job and geico seemed to have some inside deal on marketing to us, but the word of mouth locally was that geico had good rates, until you filed a claim, then they cancelled the policy. That was some time ago, don't know if it was true then or now, but was enough to get me to steer clear of them. They are obviously doing really well without me, raking in tons of money, based on how much advertising they can afford to buy.

What car did you buy?
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SSizler
Posts: 144
Joined: Tue Jan 21, 2020 7:06 pm
Location: Urbandale, Iowa

Re: My garage burned, taking my Vibe and Toyota Celica

Post by SSizler »

Sorry for your loss.
I can't imagine how i would handle such an event.
I sent you an email about your fobs for sale.
2003 Vibe Base / Frosty Mono / Moon & Tunes / Auto / 206k mi / Total Loss 1-23
2006 Vibe AWD / Lava Mono / Loaded w/Leather and Sport Pkg / 150k mi
Many other 2 & 4 wheel toys :mrgreen:
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tpollauf
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Re: My garage burned, taking my Vibe and Toyota Celica

Post by tpollauf »

Interesting BUT sad story. :cry: Apparently your policy must have been worded for "appraisal" value, instead of "replacement" value. There's a BIG difference between the two. Unfortunately you never really know how good/bad your insurance company is UNTIL you need to file a claim. It seems like there are more bad stories than good ones out there. I have a similar arrangement like yours where the two cleanest, lowest mileage Pontiacs reside BUT it's an attached garage to the house. My 2009 Vibe GT 5-spd manual @ 36k miles, and the wifes' 2009 G8GT auto @ 60k miles.

I currently have State Farm which is the big player here in Ohio and EVERYTHING is insured for replacement value, which costs a bit more BUT worth it in the event of a disaster.

I take it you don't plan on acquiring another Vibe in the near future seeing how you're offering up your repair manual books for sale? Help us out here by letting us know your whereabouts. I may be interested in them. Some of your tools (sockets, wrenches, etc.) may be salvageable but I'm sure the tool boxes & related stuff is shot. Post pics of this disaster if your comfortable sharing it with us, otherwise I'd understand.
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KingKrab65
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Re: My garage burned, taking my Vibe and Toyota Celica

Post by KingKrab65 »

What a horrible and devastating experience. I am so sorry to hear about the loss of your cars, garage, and your historical stuff.

I used to work for a printer in Alexandria, VA back in the '90's. We printed for GEICO. We printed ALOT for GEICO. Everyone who worked there pretty much said the same thing as Jotman, great rates but no pay on claims. I steered cleared too. (BTW - GEICO stands for Government Employees Insurance Company). At that time, they were also late paying their printing bills to the printers.

I hope that you are able to get some decent money on your claims. I know it will be an uphill battle too. It is devastating but at least you or your family were not injured during the fire.
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joatmon
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Re: My garage burned, taking my Vibe and Toyota Celica

Post by joatmon »

tpollauf wrote: Tue Sep 07, 2021 7:33 am I currently have State Farm ...
To me, State Farm always sounds like some sort of working prison, as in "Got caught robbing a liquor store and the judge gave me three years at the state farm" :D
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Gandalf
Posts: 72
Joined: Fri Oct 14, 2005 7:32 am

Re: My garage burned, taking my Vibe and Toyota Celica

Post by Gandalf »

I tried fighting with Geico over the value of the cars, but I only had a rental for 30 days. They had the upper hand and knew it. They f**ked me over, and laughed about it.

I bought a new Toyota Corolla Hatchback to replace my Vibe. No sunroof and the stereo really sucks. I had the 200W 7 speaker system with subwoofer in the Vibe. The Toyota has 4 tiny midrange speakers and MAYBE 20 watts. It's quite a bit smaller than the Vibe, and lower to the ground. I'm disabled, and getting in and out are hard on me. On the plus side the 2000cc engine develops 169 HP with 8 fuel injectors. The smaller car is heavier than my Vibe, but is much faster, and gets considerably better mileage at 30 city 38 freeway. It has 4 wheel disc brakes, and absolute crap for tires. The CVT transmission works very smoothly. I loathe and despise the touchscreen controls. I have to stop and pull over the car to safely use them. I had to buy the car off the lot, so i had little choice, due to time constraints.

I sure wish I had my Vibe back. It was the nicest car I've ever owned, by far. The Toyota has a lot of electronic crap on it that just makes it hard to drive. Virtually NONE of the controls can be operated by touch. You have to look away from the road to do almost EVERYTHING.
Mark
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Re: My garage burned, taking my Vibe and Toyota Celica

Post by Mark »

Wow, this is a depressing thread. So sorry about the loss of your cars and other property, and your insurance woes. Good Vibes are still out there and can be found if you want to look. Probably not a 2005 with 52k, but a few years ago I got a 2005 Moon & Tune one-owner with 101k on it. Paid $4500 and still think I got a great deal.
'08 Base Stealth, '05 Base Satellite
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