Ok, after a tersely worded email about the sunroof, it’s up to a little over ~$6600. I still don’t think its enough to purchase a comparable used car but I don’t think they’ll give me anymore. I think it’s worth more given what the car is advertised to sell for. Do you think its worth going to the CPFB or the BBB to make a stink about it?
That looks to be in line with the cars value, and a quick search on cars.com shows ones around that price. I saw a 2006 Sonata with 90k miles for 6,700. Blue book value ranges from 4,100 to 7,100 depending on condition.
You’ll get better results going to your state’s insurance commissioner, but I suspect you’ll get no results at all either way. I am actually a little surprised to discover a 2006 Sonata is worth more than $5k.
Given what which car is advertised to sell for? If you’re just scanning the ads, the prices you’ll see are going to be higher than the prices the cars are generally actually selling for. Depending on what the used car market and haggling culture are like in your area, possibly MUCH higher. The books are supposed to be an indication of what the cars are actually selling for on average. They’re not perfect and there’s still plenty of room for quibbling, but they’re generally a better indication than just scanning the car ads.
It might be a nice perk if an insurance company offered either a car concierge service to haggle on your behalf or gave you the option of bumping the insured value up to enough to buy at a no-haggle place like CarMax. But I’m not aware of any that do. In practice, I think they realize that most people do something other than go out and buy an exactly equivalent car when theirs gets totaled.
I’d be bummed if someone totaled my minivan. I’ve been driving it since 2000. It’s in good shape and everything works, though the headlight covers are frosted and the headliner is falling down. Only 150K miles and I hope to get another 30K, about 3 years of driving. The tranny isn’t any worse than it ever was, and that’s usually the straw that breaks the camel’s back. (Pretty heavy straw, actually.)
It’s been paid of for a long time. According to Kelly Blue Book online (pretty nifty, they’re very specific), it’s worth about $2K. I’d hate to have to replace it for that, though. My son tells me I couldn’t get $2K for it, as it sits, and he’s probably right. But anything I look for that’s similar is in crappy shape.
And all the dirt is MY dirt, which is not nearly as nasty as someone else’s dirt.
For the most part, “total loss” is a racket designed to force folks to buy another - probably new - vehicle, complete with highter insurance rates, etc. May 5th will be one year since my accident (single car, no injuries). I protested the insurance company’s unjust declaration of total loss, my car was partially repaired (mechanical), and I started driving it again last August, cosmetic repairs pending. I have a blog about my experience: http://speekup.blogspot.com/
I’ve been through his. Research the value of the car in your area. Use that information for any counter offer of value. If he car is repairable then offer to buy it back from the insurance company. Ask the price first. You’re doing them a favor if you buy it back from them because you save them time and money. I ended up making money on the process. I got something like 2400 for the car and it cost me 1200 to fix it with used parts and I paid them a couple hundred for the car.
Bear in mind that if you do this, you’ll likely have a “Rebuilt” connotation on your title that will make the car practically worthless if you ever want to sell/trade it. If you plan on driving it until the wheels fall off, it can pay off if you can get the repairs done inexpensively and if they don’t want too much for it to begin with.
State laws vary of course.
I think in most states, there’s some way for the owner to keep and repair a totaled car without getting a branded title, but in some of them you definitely do have to be careful about following just the right procedures and making sure the insurance company is aware of your intentions early on before they start the paperwork to sell the car as salvage.
If a car runs at all, it’s worth more than $850. How is “a running automobile” an intangible value?
My house is insured for replacement value. Now agents probably have some slimy secret definition for that, but the gist they gave me is that if my house burns to the ground, I’m insured for the cost of building another similarly sized house in its place.
Is there anything remotely similar in the car world? Or for that matter, the items IN my house? We had a power surge a few years back that killed, among other things, our refrigerator. It was an older fridge, so the insurance gave us $50 for it. Sorry, that’s what your accounting books might say my refrigerator is worth with depreciation, but that won’t replace my fridge. It isn’t like there’s a thriving used refrigerator market where I can find old $50 refrigerators.
Is it possible, at all, for any person to insure themselves such that if disaster strikes, they don’t have to pay more money to make things right again? Isn’t that supposed to be the point of insurance after all??
I think the key is that the books they use to figure out value are supposed to be based on an average sale price.
If you’re the kind of person who really hates car shopping and isn’t willing to spend a lot of time and effort shopping and haggling, you will usually pay more than average for a car and so when you get a payoff for the average value of the car that just got totaled, you’re going to be disappointed. Whereas if you’re a wheeler n’ dealer type who shops for bargains and inexplicably likes to haggle, you’ll usually be paying below the average and when you crash your car, you’ll be delighted with the generous payout given by the insurance. Plus, hooray, you get to go car shopping!
My example was for a 1999 Honda Accord, standard equipment, 150,000 miles in the Los Angeles area.
According to the Kelley blue book, the trade in value of the example car that I used ranges from 1006 to 1646 depending on condition. A private party sale from 1700 to 2400, depending on condition. Edmunds says the car is worth 635 to 1271 for trade in and 982 to 1932 for a private sale, again depending on condition. (not sure why edmunds is lower, I haven’t had to personally use either in ages)
Car insurance generally covers ACV or actual cash value and valuation of this type are the most common. It does get more complicated depending on other options, upgrades, etc.
One huge difference I can think of right away is that houses don’t lose value like cars do and often are worth (or at least sold for) more after a number of years. I never directly handled homeowners total loss claims, so that’s getting out of my area of expertise.
The car was totalled. It had no value to the insurance company because of the cost of repair. But do the math. I got $2400 for a car that required $1200 to repair. It was mostly replaceable sheet metal and a pant job. I paid $200 to buy it back. It ran great and I drove it for 2-3 years and sold it for $1000. If I gave it away it was still a bargain.
That was a good deal. I’d say that you were a little lucky that your $2400 car could be repaired for $1200. It sounds like it was just barely within the criteria of being totaled. The OP doesn’t tell us what repairs would be so his mileage could vary. I’d guess that totaling a $7000 car is going to require more than sheet metal and paint. I’m also a little surprised that your insurance sold you your car back so cheap.
Edmunds includes auction sales in its valuations, which are more realistic for high-mileage cars.
Didn’t realize that. Thanks for the info. (It’s been a very long time since I needed to remember details like that)