# Is my car going to end up totalled?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-car-going-to-end-up-totalled/551472>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [August 25, 2010, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-car-going-to-end-up-totalled/551472 "2010-08-25T23:20:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\
**Post date:** [August 28, 2010, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-car-going-to-end-up-totalled/551472/21 "2010-08-28T03:40:18Z")

</div>

> [@ENugent](#):
>
> …  
> What value is the insurance company likely to use for my car? The “blue book” value I can find online looks like about $9-$10k, depending on whether I use the “price I would get from a dealer” or “private sale” numbers and for “good condition”. …

BTW - if it _is_ totalled, don’t give it up for any less than it would cost you to replace the car. That is, obviously, more than you’d get selling the identical car - say the blue book _sale_ value is 9,000 but you’d pay a dealer 10,000, you’d insist on 10,000. The idea is you want to get what it could cost you to replace it, not what you could have sold it for.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ENugent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/4af34b/32.png) [@ENugent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ENugent)\
**Post date:** [August 28, 2010, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-car-going-to-end-up-totalled/551472/22 "2010-08-28T04:40:55Z")

</div>

Yup, [it’s a total loss](http://www.contracheck.com/nika/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/car.jpg). Apparently the salvage value is pretty high since both the front end and the trunk are unscathed, which contributes to the decision to total it.

I have exchanged voicemails with the insurance adjuster, but no numbers have been mentioned yet. I assume I’ll find out on Monday.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ENugent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/4af34b/32.png) [@ENugent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ENugent)\
**Post date:** [September 5, 2010, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-car-going-to-end-up-totalled/551472/23 "2010-09-05T21:58:47Z")

</div>

OK, just to post the final chapter in all this. Pemco came through with a pretty decent offer, although it took quite a while to actually talk to the adjuster. Today I ended up buying a 2009 Camry with about the same mileage that my 2005 had, for a few hundred over the insurance payment. My rental goes through tomorrow, so I have this afternoon to clear all the junk out of my car and move it over to the new one.

If you’re going to be hit by another car, I recommend doing it in Washington. Apparently we are a “replacement value state,” which means that the payout involved finding ten recent purchases of similar cars to calculate the value, then adding on sales tax and prorated license fees (plus incidentals like the car seats). I got significantly more for my car than its “blue book value.”

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-car-going-to-end-up-totalled/551472.md?page=1)