It'* an option to speed things up for me. Otherwise I can wait it out, try and negotiate with the other guy'* insurance and get what I deserve for a completely unnecessary loss.
I'm tempted to bring up lawyer and see how they react.

Won't be anything new for them. They have lawyers that sit there all day awaiting the call.

Well, the last time this had happened, the other guy'* insurance was just sitting on the case and not going anywhere, so we called and mentioned getting a lawyer and miraculously the next day, had a settlement.

If you accept payment from the insurance company, I think you will have to give them your car. If that happens you may want to see where it ends up. It clearly has some nice parts others might be interested in.

Good point Barry...

I know Echo SSEi may be interested in a part or two.

Yup, Barry is right, but I don't know how that can be done. I know in some states it is fairly easy to track it, but here in MN I have never been able to do that (at least with my brothers 98 LSS).

Ten years or so ago, my mom crashed her car. Insurance company totaled it, because the cost to repair it was more than the value of the car. However, it was still driveable and she was dead set on wanting to keep it and see if she could get it repaired cheaply. The insurance company said they would sell it back to her for the salvage value of the car. They paid her the listed value of the car minus the salvage value they would have gotten, and she was able to keep the car. We eventually sold it to a junk yard after she changed her mind about keeping it. See what you can negotiate. If they will offer you 5,000 for the claim and sell it back to you for the salvage value of say, 1,000, you end up with 4,000 and the car. Might not be a bad deal. You could fix 'er up or part 'er out.

I'm pretty set on another car at this point. I'm taking Marty'* advice and getting what they are going for in the area currently, which by the looks of it so far, is well over book. Send that to them as well as pictures of what it was before the accident and a detailed description of the care that was givin' to the car, and some testimonies. This story is on at least five other forums I'm on, and I have a lot of "that car was beautiful" or "amazingly well taken care of" etc. etc. Tell them either come back with a respectable offer or I'll call my lawyer.
Otherwise I'm fine with letting it go at this point, I've now been unable to drive my car for over three months minus the one mile stint that led to the accident.