Category: Nova

Bye bye!

I really feel like a big burden has been lifted off my shoulders.

The insurance company came through with a reasonable offer for my Nova’s market value, but the buyback is almost $750. Considering time and effort, I would be lucky to get $750 out of that car’s parts. Therefore, I am letting the insurance company haul off the entire mess.

From: ebay [mailto:ebay@myedrop.com]
Sent: Friday, August 27, 2004 1:26 PM
To: ‘Nova SS’
Cc: sentedropemails@blakebaysinger.com; Jennifer Baysinger
Subject: RE: ’75 Nova

 

 

 

Thank you for your email.

 

No, the Nova doesn’t have any rust! It is really in excellent shape, with the exception of the tear on the driver’s seat.

 

Thank you for your interest in an eDrop auction. We are devoted to serving you, the bidder quickly.

 

 

From: Nova SS [mailto:aren@cambre.biz]
Sent: Friday, August 27, 2004 1:13 PM
To: ebay@myedrop.com
Subject: ’75 Nova

Hello. Does that ’75 Nova have any rust?

 

Aren

 

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Earlier this week I stumbled across this fine ’75 Nova on eBay (auction 2487679989). The auction pictures show a very nice, mostly original ’75 Nova.

A Nova buddy from that area graciously examined it more closely today and found bad rust problems. If I was to drive that car in much bad weather, the innocuous rust bubbles would become gross rust holes very quickly. The bad thing is that this rust problem costs at least $2,500 to fix correctly.

Rust near rear bottom corner of rear driver’s side door:

Right behind the left rear tire and along the bottom of the quarter panel:

Right behind passenger’s side door:

Another view:

Do you see any of this rust in the auction description or photos? Nope! The auction photos conveniently excluded any angles that would have exposed this, and the auction even states “The only blem we found was the tear in the front seat.” Whatever!

The owner of the car is not at fault here. The owner simply took his car to eDrop of Wichita, and that place handles the entire auction. Now it’s no wonder that eDrop was so dodgy about answering questions about this car.

Last Thursday my “total loss insurance adjuster” called with the initial insurance offer on my Nova. The offer was a small fraction of its actual value, so I rejected it out of hand.

That evening, I emailed the adjuster about 16MB worth of documents: pictures, receipts for all improvements since 1995, and a spreadsheet of “just maintenance” since 1996. I also sent nine ads for comparable Novas, several of which were above $8,000. And I sent her a completed eBay auction for a ’74 Nova that sold for the insurance company’s initial offering price. That thing was a incomplete rust bucket project that had been ragged out with heavy racing use, has mismatched finders, old paint, shoddy interior, missing parts, and a questionable engine and transmission. That was a far cry from my Nova’s condition.

A different adjuster admitted that this was some kind of standard valuation produced with an unnamed program, and he tacitly acknowledged that it’s inaccurate because so few Novas are sold.