Quote:
Originally Posted by JSH
Good luck with that. A year ago the pre-crash value of the vehicle was established at about $4000 by the insurance company that paid out for the last crash that totaled this Camry. The salvage title absolutely matters and the insurance company is under no obligation to pay Xist the value of a car with a clean title. A good outcome would be 75% of the book value of a clean car.
While ads can be used for comps what really matters is sales transaction data. There are industry sources that collect this data which the insurance company will have. Your best option is Ebay completed sales and maybe KBB.
From Edmunds:
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Yes, but there are costs associated with losing the vehicle beyond the value of the vehicle, like loss of use of a functioning vehicle, taxes, fees, etc.
Then there's the fact that Xist had a functional vehicle. Insurance is responsible to make the claimant whole. If that person had a mechanically sound vehicle, insurance must provide a way to achieve a mechanically sound replacement.
The way to do this is tell them you will be happy to accept a lowball offer due to branded title, if only they provide an example of branded title replacement vehicles in perfectly mechanically sound condition.
At the end of the day, the value of a vehicle isn't in what a piece of paper says about it, but the reality of what it delivers; reliable transportation.
The claimant holds most of the cards. Does the adjuster want to have the oldest liability on the books of all the other adjusters over a matter of a few hundred bucks? As long as they can put in the notes a justification for paying more, they'd rather close the case out and move on.