I Bet You Wonder How I Knew...
I had my appointment with MPI yesterday to get an estimate of the damage done to my scooter last week. As I expected, they want to write it off. While there doesn't seem to be any mechanical damage and it's all cosmetic, they estimate the damage to be $800. A roll of duct tape, which could fix it, costs $5 at most. ;) I think their estimate is a gross exaggeration. As soon as I got there, the assessor said to me, "I gotta be honest with you, we write off most scooters. The cost for parts is like buying a new one, or sometimes costs even more, because scooters are so cheap." (cheap in comparison to a 4-wheel vehicle like a car) I then met with the adjuster.
First stupid question by him, "I suppose you didn't get the name of the guy who did the damage." I said if I had got his name, he wouldn't have had legs to run away with as I would have been breaking them.
He said that MPI would not take the scooter away from me because it's still safe to drive. I got the impression that for them they'd be looking at salvage cost. While he couldn't give me exact numbers yesterday, I got the idea that what they would give me for a write off would not cover the cost of getting a new scooter. And I love Starscream, despite problems it's given me in the past. I told him that I didn't want to give up this scooter or get a new one. He suggested that we might be able to just settle by letting me keep the scooter as is. However, if it would get written off again, the value would be a lot less. That's a chance I'm willing to take and I told him that. I mean, I've had it for 3 years now and put just over 8,000 kms on it. So, he'll likely be taking that into account when coming up with his estimate that I should be getting next week. Maybe I could just drop the claim altogether...
Second stupid statement, "The problem with scooters is that people steal them or do a lot of damage to them." I said that's with any vehicle, not just scooters. And it's downtown Winnipeg (where it happened). I told him how the first time I parked my car downtown, it got broke into...on my birthday. So no, I don't accept that that's limited to scooters. It can, and does, happen to any vehicle. It's just if someone kicks a scooter hard enough, it can cause this sort of damage whereas if someone kicks a car, you might get a dent in the door.
Third stupid question, "Could you park your scooter inside at work?" O.o Ummm...it's a motorized vehicle and weighs around 200 lbs. Nope. That's when I realized he hadn't even seen it.
So we went out to look at it. "If it still runs and you're happy with it then good. But, I mean, it looks like it was in an accident." I said, "So? I don't care about that. Plus, it adds character. Totally badass. And duct tape can fix it."
My friend, Dallas, shared this video after finding out about MPI wanting to write it off. Hilarious!
First stupid question by him, "I suppose you didn't get the name of the guy who did the damage." I said if I had got his name, he wouldn't have had legs to run away with as I would have been breaking them.
He said that MPI would not take the scooter away from me because it's still safe to drive. I got the impression that for them they'd be looking at salvage cost. While he couldn't give me exact numbers yesterday, I got the idea that what they would give me for a write off would not cover the cost of getting a new scooter. And I love Starscream, despite problems it's given me in the past. I told him that I didn't want to give up this scooter or get a new one. He suggested that we might be able to just settle by letting me keep the scooter as is. However, if it would get written off again, the value would be a lot less. That's a chance I'm willing to take and I told him that. I mean, I've had it for 3 years now and put just over 8,000 kms on it. So, he'll likely be taking that into account when coming up with his estimate that I should be getting next week. Maybe I could just drop the claim altogether...
Second stupid statement, "The problem with scooters is that people steal them or do a lot of damage to them." I said that's with any vehicle, not just scooters. And it's downtown Winnipeg (where it happened). I told him how the first time I parked my car downtown, it got broke into...on my birthday. So no, I don't accept that that's limited to scooters. It can, and does, happen to any vehicle. It's just if someone kicks a scooter hard enough, it can cause this sort of damage whereas if someone kicks a car, you might get a dent in the door.
Third stupid question, "Could you park your scooter inside at work?" O.o Ummm...it's a motorized vehicle and weighs around 200 lbs. Nope. That's when I realized he hadn't even seen it.
So we went out to look at it. "If it still runs and you're happy with it then good. But, I mean, it looks like it was in an accident." I said, "So? I don't care about that. Plus, it adds character. Totally badass. And duct tape can fix it."
My friend, Dallas, shared this video after finding out about MPI wanting to write it off. Hilarious!
Click to view