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Car Totaled. Fight Insurance payout or move on?- UPDATED

M

michal1980

Diamond Member
2006 Scion xA was totaled this week in an accident on the free way.
Had 45k miles on it, auto, side air bags, and remote door locks/alarm system. Overall in very good shape.

Insurance offer with taxes is $8096 for the car, less deductible.

KBB value says $7577+tax [for excellent condition],
edmunds says $7096.
NADA says $8900.

Look at used car listings:

Carmax has a few, the average price there is $10081
KBB car listings average $9860
cars.com car listings average $9348
autotrader car listings average $8908
truecar listings average $8583
edmunds listings average $8497

average all the listings except for carmax, I get %8955, if I discount that 10%: 8060.

Which is close to what the offer is, less taxes.

I can escalate the claim value to another team, or take the offer as stands.


Any thoughts?

UPDATE:
insurance company raised offer by $1100. In the process of sending them the title
 
Last edited:
Ask for more.

Also, the insurance payout should also cover sales taxes,but not registration costs.
 
You can always try to ask for more, but it looks like a fair payout price to me. All dealer and carmax prices will always have an overhead for the profit margin so those are inflated. Yeah and no used car will ever get valued at KBB excellent.
 
Mide said:
You can always try to ask for more, but it looks like a fair payout price to me. All dealer and carmax prices will always have an overhead for the profit margin so those are inflated. Yeah and no used car will ever get valued at KBB excellent.
Click to expand...

I decided to ask for more. I dont need the check asap. and the adjuster said they wont go lower.

The only reason I pushed is that even discounting asking prices 10%. The offer was low by about 500 dollars.

If I go and pick the cars closest to the one totaled, through out the highest and lowest priced one, I get a pretax asking price of $9700, with taxes $10243. The $8100 offer from insurance would mean I'd have get the car 20% off what dealers are asking. Seems like a bit of a stretch to me.

I'll let you guys know what happens.
 
michal1980 said:
I decided to ask for more. I dont need the check asap. and the adjuster said they wont go lower.

The only reason I pushed is that even discounting asking prices 10%. The offer was low by about 500 dollars.

If I go and pick the cars closest to the one totaled, through out the highest and lowest priced one, I get a pretax asking price of $9700, with taxes $10243. The $8100 offer from insurance would mean I'd have get the car 20% off what dealers are asking. Seems like a bit of a stretch to me.

I'll let you guys know what happens.
Click to expand...

If the vehicle you are looking at is IDENTICAL (engine, wear/tear/accessories) and within 8K miles (1K/year allowance), ask the insurance company to justify why they are underavluing the vehicle.

Or ask them to purchase the vehicle that you desire.
 
You can always ask for more. Also, you aren't insured for the sales tax amount, so you can stop adding any sales tax to your value claims. The value of the vehicle does not include sales tax.
 
Ferzerp said:
You can always ask for more. Also, you aren't insured for the sales tax amount, so you can stop adding any sales tax to your value claims. The value of the vehicle does not include sales tax.
Click to expand...

this varies by state. in my state we get sales tax.
 
cabri said:
If the vehicle you are looking at is IDENTICAL (engine, wear/tear/accessories) and within 8K miles (1K/year allowance), ask the insurance company to justify why they are underavluing the vehicle.

Or ask them to purchase the vehicle that you desire.
Click to expand...

I cant find one indetical which is why I'm looking at averages. There aren't too many 2006 scions with 45k miles on the market. So my comparable are 2006 scion xa's under 60k miles. (but not under 40k miles) with automatic transmissions.
 
In what world has a 9-10 year old Scion retained 2/3 of its original value? Even with low miles I would be ecstatic over an $8k+ offer (and I was involved in trading in an 05 xA last month so I have some recent experience with this).

Viper GTS
 
My experience with this is the insurance company will just tell you to GFY. They get to make up all the rules and only apply corrections that favor them. Unless you're willing to take them to court, good luck getting a fair offer.
 
I have been taught in the event of a totaled vehicle, never accept the first offer from the insurance company.
 
Ferzerp said:
You can always ask for more. Also, you aren't insured for the sales tax amount, so you can stop adding any sales tax to your value claims. The value of the vehicle does not include sales tax.
Click to expand...

Texas you get sales tax. I, too, just went through a total loss settlement. Sales tax is added.

Michael, did they give you a list of the vehicles they used for the valuation assessment? If not, ask for it, they have to give it to you. You can then try calling some dealerships and ask them for a value (not trade-in value) of your vehicle.
 
CPA said:
Texas you get sales tax. I, too, just went through a total loss settlement. Sales tax is added.

Michael, did they give you a list of the vehicles they used for the valuation assessment? If not, ask for it, they have to give it to you. You can then try calling some dealerships and ask them for a value (not trade-in value) of your vehicle.
Click to expand...

I did not think to ask for that. The initial guy doing the valuation seemed fairly low level. He couldn't make any more adjustments. The main settlement office is supposed to contact me by Tuesday, I'll be sure to ask.
 
Viper GTS said:
In what world has a 9-10 year old Scion retained 2/3 of its original value? Even with low miles I would be ecstatic over an $8k+ offer (and I was involved in trading in an 05 xA last month so I have some recent experience with this).

Viper GTS
Click to expand...

I don't know. If I didn't look around at what the asking price for a low milage xA was I would have taken the offer.

but heres a CarMax search. They are the highest, but I was shocked when I saw what they are asking:

http://www.carmax.com/search?AsM=NA...c-bc5c-69d16158d79c&Ep=search:results:results page
 
CPA said:
Texas you get sales tax. I, too, just went through a total loss settlement. Sales tax is added.

Michael, did they give you a list of the vehicles they used for the valuation assessment? If not, ask for it, they have to give it to you. You can then try calling some dealerships and ask them for a value (not trade-in value) of your vehicle.
Click to expand...

StateFarm did this to me (required by law) when they totaled a Chyrsler of my wife.

They used a third party to comb through listings with the state; not sales.

I asked for the list and then followed up.
Some of the vehicles were actually junk, not as described and others were not sold.

Essentially faulty data was used.

Because of my research and threatening to go to the state insurance division, they upped the value by 20% ending up close to my target
 
I managed to move a 14500 first offer to 24000 on my GTO, all it took was sending them the adds of every one for sale, they corrected for mileage, age, condition, and paid me out the average based on my vehicle being excellent... that's an exceptional result tho. They had no data on sale prices so they used out of market data for the first offer.
 
My girlfriend's car was totaled when a drunk driver rear ended her and pushed her into the car in front of her. It was a 2003 Honda accord with something like 160,000 miles. I doubt she could have gotten even $2000 for it, and the KBB for fair condition (probably generous) was right around $2000. The drunk dude's insurance company wrote her a check for $3900 and there is no tax payment in NC.
 
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