# Car Insurance Settlement Question--Halp! **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 20, 2008, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/car-insurance-settlement-question-halp/473570 "2008-11-20T01:24:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2008, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/car-insurance-settlement-question-halp/473570/21 "2008-11-20T17:57:36Z")
> [@SmartAleq](#): > > The insurance people are not taking into account the substantial improvements I’ve made to the vehicle… And they are not required to. This is the heartbreaker, but at the end of the day what you’ve got is a 1989 Cavalier Z24. Your hard work and upkeep does matter, but not as much as you might think. Hypothetical: Car value: $2,000 Uh-oh, clutch is worn out! Car value with worn out clutch: $1,250 Cost to replace the clutch: $750 Car value: $2,200 Uh-oh, brakes are worn! Car value with bad brakes: $1,800 Cost to replace brakes: $300 Car value $2,300 (with new clutch & brakes) In no world is the value of the car: $2,000 + 750 + 300 = $3,050. If the work is relatively recent and documented it certainly is worth more than it’s garden variety brother with worn but servicable clutch & brakes, but mostly what you’ve done by repairing the car is prevent a REDUCTION in value for having an inoperable vehicle. Cars cost money to maintain and that’s just a fact of life. And a clutch you replaced 10,000 miles ago will have minimal impact on the overall value of the car. ---
**Author:** ![Burton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Burton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Burton)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2008, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/car-insurance-settlement-question-halp/473570/22 "2008-11-20T18:20:41Z")
On a 21 year old Cavalier their position will be those items are already figured into the value. ---
**Author:** ![YamatoTwinkie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/cc9497/32.png) [@YamatoTwinkie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YamatoTwinkie)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2008, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/car-insurance-settlement-question-halp/473570/23 "2008-11-20T18:24:19Z")
> [@SmartAleq](#): > > A closer analogy is that the lamp has a $1000 price tag, I bust it and it’s gonna cost $800 to fix it, but I say that _I_ only think it’s worth five bucks, take it or leave it, because I can buy another lamp at Wal-Mart for that much. And one lamp is exactly equal to any other lamp, right? Since _I_ don’t care that it’s an antique, nobody else should, either, right? How does one _prove_ the worth of something old and odd–by selling it, correct? However, I’ve just made it so the antique dealer has NO chance of selling that lamp to a motivated buyer. > > The insurance people are not taking into account the substantial improvements I’ve made to the vehicle. They also aren’t reimbursing me for loss of use of the vehicle, either, which is six weeks worth of considerable. But now we’ve moved past the issue of repair, and are just quibbling over what the fair market value of the lamp was. I say it’s worth $1000. You say it’s worth $5. It is up to both parties to do the research to prove their case, and negotiate. I might say that my lamp is usually worth $5, but might be worth $1000 to a highly-motivated-buyer-after-a-worldwide-apolcalypse-in-which-all-other-lamps are-incinerated-except-mine, but that’s hardly “fair”, is it? What do similar quality lamps **usually** sell for? Is it closer to $5 or closer to $1000? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/car-insurance-settlement-question-halp/473570.md?page=1)