Stolen. . . A couple of questions.

yesterday was a bad day. my (cherry for a jeep) 2000 XJ Classic w/ 65k miles owned from new was stolen from my parking garage at work. I filed a police report, etc, but i'm not too hopeful.

Anyone have experience with a recovered vehicle? Just trying to think ahead if it does get recovered and i have to go through the whole total, salvage, buy back thing with insurance. I know the title will get marked, but i had always planed to keep it till it died, so resale doesnt really concern me.

I am guessing the steering column will be trashed, what kind of repair/cost am i looking at there?

any other hints or thoughts are welcome.

thanks,

ixj

If you're decently handy with mechanical stuff, I would replace the steering column instead of having someone else do it. I'd bet on 1-200 dollars parts cost at a junkyard to pick up any parts you'll need and maybe a day or so of work.

EDIT: hopefully they don't joyride it and then crash it into a snowbank/guardrail like the thieves did with my dad's honda civic. Luckily it only screwed up the bumper and plastic trim, and insurance covered a shop doing the work on that.

I had mine stolen in New Orleans. They destroyed the column, destroyed and bypassed the Sentry key BS, they stole some tools I had, and destroyed the stereo/hvac trim piece while taking my CD player out. Then they parked it and slashed a tire. The best part was when I went to pick it up with the key the Sentry key system kicked in and wouldn't let me drive it.. however it let them drive it.

I think the bill came to $1000.