My car is totalled and I need your help proving the value.

[Chisum]

I say this every time somebody posts one of these threads - get it appraised, professionally. it will cost around $100 but it'll be worth it. you don't have to take whatever the insurance company will give you.

KBB doesn't have much bearing on the actual market. None of the insurance companies i talked to use it anyway..

I want to live in your state, where you can negotiate with insurance adjusters without hiring an attorney.
I work at a body shop, the most insurance adjusters will do is let you keep the car, but they offer less money. Customer makes up the difference. We've had customers with beautiful cars (older cars) with low miles, hit EZ but totalled, and they prefered to fix their car rather than total it.
Once they total it, they own it, they take the title, sometimes you can buy it back, but always with a salvage certificate. We just got a '73 340 Duster in, perfect car until he wrecked it!! :) owner says he has a stated value policy for $20,000 on the car. The car has about $8,000-$10,000 damage. I can't wait till the adjuster looks at it. The owner is going to shit a tombstone.
As far as private appraisals, are these really collector cars? Can the insurance company get an appraiser, too?

[Jon325i]

It's not a R3V unless it was an idiotic move by the owner. Usually a chain reaction of stupid decisions.

Examples:
- Driving in the rain through twisty roads on bald tires
- Knowing full well that your timing belt is about to snap and your coolant is low and water pump is about to go, and you drive across the desert.
- "Doriftoing" on the streets

Oh I know....hence the unprovoked bit. It isn't qualified per forum rules.


Jon

[z31maniac]

Can the insurance company get an appraiser, too?

For someone spouting off a bunch of bullshit about what will and will nt happen, its pretty apparent you've never even read an insurance policy or understood it.

OP, good luck with the insurance company!

[eurohick.]

Established facts:
"kbb" of a 17 year old car is pretty low
the Ins co. isnt going to want to give you dick for a 17 year old car.

However if you are in a situ where they are going to declare it a total loss, then simply tell them to find you a replacement vehicle in the same condition yours was in. Thats the usual signal to ins companies that you know what your car is worth and arent going to take a $2k check and a dick in the ass for your trouble. the important this is to be persistent with this, as ins companies main strength is they can wait you out. be sure you call, do your homework, make them know you arent going to go away.

you do have to buyback the car, but this number is usually very low, between 7 and 11% of the totalled payout.

[nando]

If you can't agree on a price, at least in the State of Washington you are entitled to picking a 3rd party arbitrator to look at the amount offered by both sides. The insurance companies don't want it to go this far due to the low numbers these cars are worth. So they would rather settle and get the case closed rather than spend a lot of time dinking around over a $1,000 delta. Be persistent and they will soften up.

yes that is exactly what I did. Their original offer was something like $3000. I ended up getting $7000 plus my car. Oddly enough, due to WSDOT rules for salvage titles, I ended up getting my title back clean because the re-appraisal pushed the value over the threshold for a rebuilt car.

The insurance company doesn't use KBB, at least most do not. They have a software database that is handled by a third party that collects recent sales data for cars similar to yours. They can search for any car that is a similar model and up to 2 years newer. So for a 91 318is, that means they are probably only finding E36s, and we know exactly what early E36s are worth (nothing). I'd be surprised if they had found any E30s for sale to compare it to. So they are using cars that go for $1000-1500 to value the E30 which isn't the same car at all, despite having the same model name.

Now if you drive a honda civic or a toyota corolla, that system works fine. but a niche car like the E30 isn't really represented very well. Get it appraised..

[2002maniac]

Time for a little update: state farm's original offer was $3200. Today they finally made me an offer i could accept. They didn't like the prospect of paying their attorney to in to small claims court and possibly shelling out $7500 for the car and my attorney's fees. I should have my check for 5000 on friday! Woot! :)

[Mtriple]

congrats!

[Edev]

Time for a little update: state farm's original offer was $3200. Today they finally made me an offer i could accept. They didn't like the prospect of paying their attorney to in to small claims court and possibly shelling out $7500 for the car and my attorney's fees. I should have my check for 5000 on friday! Woot! :)

wow congrats man! thats awesome. what do you have your eye on now?

[Jean]

Sucks about the hit, but glad you have it working out to your satisfaction and good luck on the car search :)

[e30this]

Time for a little update: state farm's original offer was $3200. Today they finally made me an offer i could accept. They didn't like the prospect of paying their attorney to in to small claims court and possibly shelling out $7500 for the car and my attorney's fees. I should have my check for 5000 on friday! Woot! :)

Well good. Now how much you want to pay for me to ship you a quarter panel. :p

Glad you got what it was worth.

[z31maniac]

Time for a little update: state farm's original offer was $3200. Today they finally made me an offer i could accept. They didn't like the prospect of paying their attorney to in to small claims court and possibly shelling out $7500 for the car and my attorney's fees. I should have my check for 5000 on friday! Woot! :)

Glad to head they finally made you a reasonable offer. That's where I use to work and who I'm insured with.

[BraveUlysses]

Time for a little update: state farm's original offer was $3200. Today they finally made me an offer i could accept. They didn't like the prospect of paying their attorney to in to small claims court and possibly shelling out $7500 for the car and my attorney's fees. I should have my check for 5000 on friday! Woot! :)

You mean they didn't call your bluff on bringing an attorney to a small claims court? Congrats!

[UmmYeahOk]

Ask the insurance company how they prove the value of the car, then go out and use their methods to find a fair price.

When my 318is got mashed into, i was told to find as many examples as i could in a 200 mile radius. I found 2. So did the insurance. Change the demographic until you find atleast 15 to 20 then average the price, highs and lows, include mileage and try your best to argue the value. Took me a year to get an extra 1500 on the value of my car.

And they were both junkers, werent they? I dont understand why insurance assume one car is the exact same value as another. A car that was loved and babied is NOT the same car as the one that was beated around and abused.

As it is, I doubt they will offer you even $2,000. You know what they will say? If you don't like it, get an attorney. You apparently have never dealt with these pricks before. Good luck. Don't be surprised if they say your car was parked over the white line. I hope the police were called and you got a copy of the police report and the report says right on it you were parked legally.

I knew a guy with a mint condition 1987 RX7. They totaled it because they claimed the new paint job alone would cost more than the cars worth. Totaled over a few scratches. Unfortunately he didnt take our advice about bring the other persons insurance company to court.

And as far as cops go. I know youre up north, but in TX the police wont even come out if theres snow on the ground. I think the reason is on those days theyre just so busy with collision reports, that what officers they do have should go to more serious wrecks (ones where there is a serious injury) Clearly theyre not going to be there to attach an IV, but I guess they consider it more serious, and needs their attention more. They advise that you take pictures, get witnesses, and they'll write a report when the weathers nicer. This is also why the whole state shuts down if theres just a little bit of ice on the ground (doesnt even have to be on the roads)

[G-Man]

I just recently settled with my insurance company (USAA) on my 89 325i 4 door sedan 5 speed that I totaled in DEC. The car had 200K on it and was in good shape. I received $1.8K after the $500 deductable and salvage value. The salvage value on this car was $125. Now that I was able to buy the car back, I'll start stripping the car (when it stops raining). I am keeping the tan Recarro's and tan interior, stereo, 5 speed, IE stainless steel exhaust. M20 from the wrecked car is going into my new 85 Euro spec E28 525e 5 speed. I am doing the complete e to i motor swap on the E28.

G-Man

[Moto-Mucci]

Interesting read.
I've always been scared of this happening since KBB says my car's worth $1600, but I paid $4200 for it..along with $16k in receipts.