dj pyrotechnics

Well, like most of the regulars know, I used to be a reguar visitor/poster here at 7GC. I wasn't super well known, but i did a couple of cool things, like *ALMOST* make a DIY for blue LED dash lights, and custom halo rings (which you can see in my user gallery). I came to this site for hours every day learning about our cars. I did a couple of normal mods... AEM CAI, projectors, painted trim, and so on. As a matter of fact I just recently finished planning out what I was going to to for my civvy. I started to Autocross and I was dead set on what I wanted to do with my car!

That is a pic of my first auto-x on Sept 6 this year. It was amazing! I never had so much fun driving like an idiot and doing it safely and legally with an instructor. Anyways, on to my story... I was driving to my friends house and I was on this road where there was a left turn that was really rather a blind turn. It started off wide and then got sharp near the end. The posted speed limit was 20 MPH I was doing maybe 30 or 35 and when I was making this turn, right where it was getting sharp, a small animal, like a raccoon or a cat, darted across the road and I steered to the right to avoid it. Well the good news is that the cat or whatever was ok, the bad news was, I hit a mailbox. After hitting the mailbox, my right front tire went into the soft shoulder, hit a raised driveway, my car swerved completely out of control. My car fell into a deep ditch, where it decided it was going just fast enough to hit the slanted culvert in front of me, only to roll my car upside down, and back on the driver's side. When my car settled down...







...I looked to my left, All I saw was grass. I was sideways on some guys lawn. My friend was maybe 100-200 ft in front of me, and he threw his car in reverse and came to help me. I was trying to figure out how the hell to get out. I climbed onto the drivers seat, to the console, to the passenger seat, and finally onto the passenger door. I was a little shaken up (who wouldnt be after being in a rollover?) but i felt ok. The cops showed up not long after I got out, then the fire truck and the ambulance. The fireman and paramedic checked me out and said I was ok, but since I am 17, they had to talk to my mom, that insisted I be taken to the hospital to be re-checked out. I was taken to the hospital, and again, nothing changed and I was ok. I got home about 2 hours later, only to have the Florida Highway Patrol show up at my door. They already had a ticket for "careless driving" written out before they asked me what happened. That pissed me of but I wasnt going to make a big deal about that. I was worried about my civic. My parents (who I am insured under) have full coverage with gap insurance. We owe $13,100 on the car, and they are gonna give us $12,700 which is the NADA value of my '02 LX with 18k mi. What I am worried about is all my aftermarket crap. I did some research online of the MSRP of all the crap I bought for my civic and I got a grand total of over $3500. That includes my property that isnt part of the car but that was damaged (a laptop among a few other things). Now we talked to the insurance company, and my dad mentioned something about aftermarket parts, and the insurance guy (not our adjuster) said, "You can take all your aftermarket stuff off, but make sure you put the original equipment back on." That REALLY PISSED ME OFF!! I wasnt the one talkingto the insurance company (Progressive), which I wish it was. It makes me mad that I paid to have THAT civic with THOSE parts INSURED. I dont want the parts sitting in the garage to be insured!!! I paid my money to them so I wouldnt lose the money later on in case of an accident (now). I am not about to lose all the money I invested in that car without a fight. Here are what my options are:

a. Buy the car back and try to sell the parts (dont want to do)
b. Try to negotiate with them
c. Contact all the press I can, especially those news segments that do all the scams and other ripoffs on local tv.
d. Consult a lawyer about the situation, then represent my self in small claims court, where you dont have lawyers representing you.

I will not give up with out a fight. I demand that they give me at least half of what I invested in that car. It is not right for me to dish out a lot of cash every month (which will double or even triple now) only to have them tell me that they wont pay for the stuff on the car. It was horrible losing that car. It was like losing someone really close to you. As a mode of transportation, yes, it can be replaced, but i really loved that car. I spent countless hours on that car just tinkering and cleaning and doing all sorts of stuff. The car was like a really good friend of mine, and I put most of my pride into that car, my first car, since I did most of the stuff on it myself. I loved my Civic.

Mr.Modify

iTrader: (3)

damm dude that sux man!! i hope ya win the war man!!!

civicdude

iTrader: (2)

Sorry to see those pics...but at least you are ok....moving to members rides

hoho

damn...that sux....u know sometimes those stupid animals deserve to get run over since they dont run until you're close to them....good luck wit the fight and i hope u win!!

xRiCeBoYx

iTrader: (22)

OMG.. seeing those pics almost made me cry... i just recently got into an accedent with my vic, but the only damage was body damage to the passenger side/bottom, passenger door, damaged fender and passenger side mirror...
i dont know what to say in your case, but good luck with whatever happens and i hope for the best

7thGenerasianCivic

iTrader: (13)

aww...this is such a swt post.
you luv you civic.

well the good thing is that youre ok.

tinman

Oh man, your poor Vic. At least YOU are ok. I'd cry if that happened to me. We do tend to get attached to our cars.

Braydogg

OMG .....glad you're ok... I had the same problem when I totaled my 2000 Si ....but mother nature got me (black ice) and I hope you save all your aftermarket reciepts.....thats what helped me....I wish you luck and sorry to hear what happend.....hope for the better!

juscallmetoyota

iTrader: (1)

damn.. your ins. is gonna be high as fawk now. atleast you came out ok.

as far as the money goes w/ ins... your gonna lose unless you wanna spend $$$'s trying to fight it.

abmerop18

iTrader: (26)

sorry about the ride, man. and good luck trying to get your money back.

EviLMyStS

iTrader: (1)

Whoa bro, very sorry to see this happening to your civic... Hope everything works out for you

dj pyrotechnics

thanks guys... does anyone have advice for fighting the ins. company? I have to start digging for reciepts for my crap now.. i probably dont even have half. can they give me face value for it or anything?

erica02civicCPE

Makes me mad how people underestimate how much aftermarket parts and installation costs to put things on vehicles. I hope all turns out okay for you. They defintely owe you for atleast SOME of the money you put into that car. Good luck! Glad to know your okay

NCStyle

man... that is rough... i def remember back when u posted a good amount.... don't leave the site... for your aftermarket stuff, i don't know what to tell you... i think buying it back would be hard to do and not worth it, but maybe if you and your friends went in there one night and got off your mod's, then they wouldn't know? i'm not exactly sure what to do, but you could get those heads, CAI, and dash kit off real easy... trust me... good luck man!
brad

dj pyrotechnics

It would be hard for me to leave this site! I have had 3 hard drive failures (2 mechanical, 1 filesystem) and im still here. Does anyone on this site work for a car insurance company? I need some serious help with this.

dru106

iTrader: (13)

Mann!! Im sorry to hear that about ur car Is the engine still good? Cuz it looks like theres no damage on the hood. Does it still run? And who is that girl on the car?

Big Baller L

iTrader: (5)

dayum really sorry to hear about you're ride. I know what you mean by saying ur attached too it. I spend so much of my time researching, cleaning messing around with my car, and I love it now. Im really sorry to hear about what happend. As for the insureance im really not sure what you can do...try asking in the legal section of this site. They might know in there. Anyways hope everything works out, and at least you are alright.