General Leia bites the dust

Sad day for my wife. Her baby, a Furious Fuchsia 6-spd 2010 Challenger, was just written off as a total loss. Some distracted driver pulled out in front of her as she was crossing an intersection. Anyway, she is ok, but a little depressed at losing her car.

After a delay, the insurance adjuster finally reviewed the case and assigned full blame to the other party. I guess this other lady misjudged how fast the Challenger was moving because I don't think she could have otherwise missed the car due to the color!

I have felt your pain. I've had lesser cars get totaled buy the other drivers ins company. Do a buyback and fix it .Aftermarket parts are so cheap, fenders are 53.00, A CAPA fender is only 90.00.

I'm suprized they wrote that car off.. to bad its so far away.. I wouldnt mind buying the engine and trans

I'm not upon current CA law on auto accidents, I would try and make the other insurance company fix it due to it being a "classic"
You and her are the injured parties and they need your agreement to settle this accident

..... I would try and make the other insurance company fix it due to it being a "classic".... Dream on, its not a classic.

I think there is a nice one on here for sale.

After the insurance company pays the loss, buy it back from them if the price is reasonable and fix it.

I did that once YEARS ago.. they pretty much said to get it out of here just based on the storage fees there
got.. I had another car that was the same with a blown engine .. worked out great for me

That's a GREAT personalized tag

If the airbag went off they will total where I live.

That's an easy fix, I would definitely buy that one back.

I have a nice FF hood laying around...

it depends on the car make.
i work in a VW Mazda dealer body shop. we replace air bags all the time in VW's. sometimes 2 and 3 air bags, front seat belts and the headliner when the side overhead ones are deployed.
we do Mazda, drivers and passengers pretty often also. if the side ones and they need a headliner or the seat bags then they become scrap.

Too bad on accident!! I hope it's fixable and you can buy it back. If you still want a challenger that's better then risk buying someone elses used one or paying out for a new one.


These cars are easy to take apart and fix but they are also made out of really thin metal.

Thanks for the commentary and suggestions. I appreciate the shout out on the plate, too. Not a day went buy when we didn’t see somebody getting a chuckle out of reading it or giving us a thumbs up.

The insurance company told the body shop to get estimates for fixing it using the cheapest panels available, and it still exceeded the insurance company’s repair allowance. There’s only a slim margin on 10 yr. old Challengers anyway, and I guess neither the body shop or the insurance company wanted to “own” this car in the event there were future issues that cropped up and we had to bring it back to fix little things. It’s kind of hard to see in the pics, but the front of both doors wrinkled, it buckled by the driver’s A-pillar, and the inner fender/frame stub/mount deal holding the engine on the driver’s side is tweaked. I think it was this last damage that pushed it over the edge.

Cut the floor and the frame out and turn it into a drag car.

Who is your insurance company?

Just curious what the Insurance company actually thinks it's worth...?
On the rare occasion that color actually pops up for sale, they do seem to hold their value better than other '10 R/T's
The R/T Furious Fuchsia cars weren't numbered like the 400 SRT's... (287 US & 113 to Canada)
But they still only ended up shipping 1000 of them to the US.... Canada got the other 127.

I know the new ones don't hold value like the old classics...
But that color (FF) does hold up better than any of the other non-numbered 2010 Challengers.
The Insurance company should have to take that into account...
If they disagree... ask them to go find a another FF car for sale & prove you wrong.

With that amount of damage it sounds like they're right about it being a write-off.
If you aren't happy with what they offer you for it start searching ads to see what they sell for and go back to them. It needs to be an equivalent car with realistic price.

That is some significant damage. And as you pull it apart, more will likely show up. Usually, in this kind of situation, if you can do a lot of the work yourself and really, really want to keep the car, then buying it back can work. But if the car has a lot of miles, or if you have to hire too much of the work out, or if there is heavy underlying damage, etc, then it might be best to let it go. Only you can make that call. Just make sure that you understand the full extent of the damage.

Given it's age, there are a lot of those cars in the wrecking yards. But the majority of them are hit in the front, so front end pieces are the scarcest. And in case you didn't already know, sticking replacement parts on is the easy part. Getting the pieces to fit right and get the gaps right (or just acceptable) is the tough part. There will be all kinds of things that won't line up right. And in the end, although you may get it back on the road, it may never be the car it was and you just might not be happy with it.

So having said all that, from someone who does this for a living, with the information you have provided, my opinion is to let it go. Good luck with what ever you decide.

buy it back and use the drivetrain in an early hot rod or 68-70 A or B body !
you will have everything needed to do the swap.

Definitely worth buying it back even if you part it out,and use the drivetrain.

Buy back will be high and probably not worth it. It is repairable and will be sold at the insurance auction for half of what the insurance would want you to pay for it.

And the insurance company will be paying the towing company thirty dollars a day for the privileged of storing it there. Make them an offer. They will probably accept, if they have any smarts at all.

Nice summary, and that is pretty much the conclusion we'd reached.The General has already gone to a dismantler up in the North Bay, so someone might end-up with a score or a headache, depending on what their plan is for the car.

Funny, but after her talking about possibly wanting a truck (bigger, safer), another Challenger, and even an EV ("cute," no gas bill), my wife asked me today about what it would take to get the 'Bee out of storage and put it back on the road so that she could drive it? She has a really short commute, and it would check the classic Mopar muscle-car block for her (and me)... I'd pretty much shelved this car the last few years after I stopped working to care for my parents. Since they've both now passed, it might be time to get moving on this one again.

That was an extremely unpopular color and actually penalizes the value when you go to sell it. I think we are at least another 10 years before that color becomes an asset and I wasn't waiting. It is unfortunate what happened to this car but we live in a throw away world.

Is that a C Body convert next to the Charger ???

Is that a C Body convert next to the Charger ??? [/quote]

You mean docked next to the Charger!

You mean docked next to the Charger! [/quote]

I think the "C" stands for C-hris C-raft

Yup. Brother's '70 Fury III. MigsBig on this board used to own it at one time.

Funny, but after her talking about possibly wanting a truck (bigger, safer), another Challenger, and even an EV ("cute," no gas bill), my wife asked me today about what it would take to get the 'Bee out of storage and put it back on the road so that she could drive it? She has a really short commute, a Since they've both now passed, it might be time to get moving on this one again. [/quote]

BINGO!!!

Insuring the Bee as a daily driver might be a problem. Most classic auto insurance doesn't cover daily driven stuff. The reason being if the car was driven to work, and road conditions changed while at work, the classic would still have to be driven home, causing a much higher risk of damage.

Other then the insurance problem, letting her drive the Bee is a great idea. Gene

You can insure it as a daily driver through most regular insurance companies, but it will only be stated value, not the more desirable agreed value that the collector companies offer.

The stated value of a mid 70s car could be anything you and the company agree on, but in the event of an accident, you will be fighting for anything much over $1,000. Should the classic Mopar get stolen, the battle is worse. You better have a good acceptable, current, appraisal of the vehicle at the time if such a crash would occur, and good dated recent pictures also help. I've been through that fight before. 2 month old pictures and documented repairs helped a lot. Don't assume the insurance company is going to do the right thing. Gene