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Smart Shopper Replacement Cost by Insurance Company for Totaled Vehicle
196 messages, Last post on Nov 17, 2009 at 7:17 PM
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if you are offered too little, and you dispute the settlement, I'll bet your insurance policy requires you to go to arbitration. You MIGHT be able to avoid this if your insurance company tells you they will review an appraisal from your own appraiser. This may cost you about $150. If the insurance company doesn't like your appraiser's appraisal, then you go to arbitration which will cost you about another $300 or so. Generally, unless the arbitrator reallyl has it in for you, you'll get back a settlement that will usually cover the costs to get to the arbitration in the first place, but perhaps no more than this. If you are disputing the settlement, you need evidence to show why it's not a good settlement. This will require you to look for "comparables" which mean comparable in miles and condition and equipment to your car. Also, you can look at the Kelley Blue Book at your public library, but be sure to make all deductions for miles, condition, etc. The book tells you how to do this. good luck, MrShiftright Host
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My 2004 Passat is a total loss after being involved in any accident (fortunately nobody was hurt and I walked away with no broken bones....impressed with the way the car handled the crash). Anyway, my insurance valued my car (16000 miles) at 21,371 $ (after the deductible)....I am not sure if this is a the right price. KBB gives 21,555. Should I just take it ? or maybe re-negotiate with insurance ? Any advice would be greatly appreciated...thanks. |
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If they are offering you KBB retail price, that's about as good as it gets. If it's wholesale price they are offering, well, then you can start complaining. But KBB retail is actually very generous. Why dont you double check and use Edmunds' True Market Value system as well. It's on the edmunds.com Home Page when you click on "used cars". You'll see a tab for "appraising your vehicle". NOTE: make sure their offer doesn't include tax and license in that figure they gave you. You are entitled to tax and license fees over and ABOVE the value of the car. Sometimes they combine the two and try to sneak that past you...so in essence you are not getting KBB you are getting 10% or so less than that....as license and fees in some states equals almost 10%.
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Replying to: Mr_Shiftright (Apr 08, 2005 9:19 am) Also I was asked to sign a power of attorney to transfer my title over to the insurance company...is that the normal procedure ? |
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| Yes, if they total your car, they own it. If you want your car, you can buy it back from them for usually like 10-13% of value, but then you don't get tax and license. | |
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I was involved in an accident where a construction company truck ran a stop sign and pulled directly into my path. I hit him and while I haven't had my truck appraised yet, I'm sure it's totaled ('93 Ranger). The driver was cited by the officer making the report for running the stop sign (I had a witness to the accident). My question is: Do I have any legal recourse to get reimbursed for more than the blue book? The truck was my daily driver and now, through no fault of my own, I'm without it. I expect to get a meager settlement given the estimated value of the Ranger. It seems as if I should be able to pursue a settlement that will give me an opportunity to replace the vehicle without experiencing any financial penalty. Any inputs would be appreciated. Thanks. |
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I'm no attorney but I believe if you read your insurance policy their only obligation is to give you Fair Market Value for your truck and no compensation for the inconvenience. That is to say, you get paid a fair price for what you lost. If you think you can find evidence that the KBB price isn't fair (by showing comparables, or other price guides), you can do that, and you can even demand arbitration and have a referee make an award. Of course, you can pursue civil action of any sort you wish with the trucking company but I'm not sure what you'd sue them for exactly. |
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I recently, was involved in an accident where my 2001 Silverado was totaled, and I have a couple of questions about settling with my insurance co. First is, do you know how ADP and FIA come up with there final figure on how much a vehicle is worth. I mean I realize there are factors like mi., options etc.. and you should add or sub. for theses things, but I was told they do a market research within a 100 mi. radius of my zip and then some how, without averaging the 20 or so trucks they located, they came up with a figure. In this case it was roughly $16,250. I did my own research and came up with only 16 trucks with similar mi. and options and averaged them out to come up with a figure of $18200. I faxed this back to my adjuster and she then had to send it to a second outside co., (FIA)?, and they countered me with $17,250. Go figure! Next question is should I settle, am I asking to much, or do I have a foot to stand on. I also included a couple of the book prices in my fax, and their averages were almost identical to mine. Unfourtunatley, Edmunds was not among those, as I was not aware of the site but will be if I pursue this any further. I also wanted to add that it has already been since 3-18-05 since the accident accured and the seem to be drawing it out as long as they can. Any suggestions? |
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Well you are $1,000 apart. To go to arbitration and also get your own appraisal done will cost you about $500. So the question is how hard do you wish to fight for the additional $500 you may or may not make? When you signed your insurance policy, you agreed to arbitration if both parties could not agree. Best thing you can do is keep submitting GOOD and ACCURATE data to support your claim and they might give in. If not, and they dig their heels in for that $1,000 bucks, they sort of have you over the barrel. I personally don't like to bleed over "the principle of the thing". You have to keep in mind that there is really no one exact fair price for your truck. If you are $1,000 apart, you could both be right, and legitimately so. If you could get another $500 out of them, I'd settle up. Now remember, if they total it, they owe you tax and license fees on TOP of the number they gave you. Make sure they aren't quoting you a figure that already INCLUDES the tax and license. If they did, they are in fact offering you more like $15.5K for the truck itself. |
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I recently acquired from my company a used 1997 luxury car with 85000 miles, one executive owner, fully loaded, perfect condition, very well maintained, all issues repaired or replaced and purchased via a silent auction. If you could find a car in such condition it would list for 2 to 3 times what I paid. It was a special type of deal offered once a year for employees only of the company and I had only owned the car two days before the incident that destroyed the automobile. Incident, NOT accident, this was NO accident, the OTHER person/driver, while after the left turn arrow had elapsed and the intersection was solid green, decided to attempt a left turn from the far right hand turn ONLY lane. This person had contemplated the turn, allowed one driver from the center right turn lane to come around them, forced two vehicles behind her to wait and managed to anger all drivers who could see the wild and illegal maneuvers prior to my entering the intersection and crossing my path resulting in a total loss to my vehicle. Both airbags deployed in my vehicle. Stunning and bruising me to say the least. Three witnesses rushed forward incredulous as to the other drivers actions. The other driver was issued a citation with three "causes". I'm a little surprised the police did NOT insist on testing for driving under the influence. The other driver refused to leave their car, nor allow me to exchange driver license information. It was in the morning and I didn't smell any alcohol, however, the other driver sat and chain smoked the entire time refusing to talk to anyone except the police. I am very suspicious that the other driver had been under the influence of some substance. The other driver appeared to be incoherent and muttering nonsense... I called while at the scene to find out if the OTHER driver had insurance. They did. I filed a report with the other driver's insurance company. I have received one call from the other driver's insurance company, I have called the other driver's insurance company three times, the other driver's insurance company has said they are waiting on the other driver's story. The other driver's insurance company stated they hadn't received the police report. I checked with the police department and they showed NO record that the report had been requested so I obtained the report and faxed it to the other driver's insurance company. It has now been 4 days and the other driver's insurance company has yet to get back to me. I have three solid witnesses, bruises, hurt all over and a totaled car, I anticipate the other driver's insurance company will probably give me the very short end of a short stick as a settlement. I want a car equal to or better than the car that was destroyed delivered to me ASAP. I want reimbursement for all out of pocket, lost time at work and loss of vehicle use. I live in Texas, if that makes any difference. Is this unreasonable? Will I have to sue them to be made "whole"? Why is all this burden on me, I didn't ask for this grossly negligent driver to destroy my vehicle and this is only an accident in the remotest meaning of the word. What is the best way to go?
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