Hey guys. So I'm currently in the process of negotiating a settlement with my insurance company (RE: My recent accident).

Well they made an offer, and though it's not a low-ball offer, it's not as high as I would like it to be. It's not a bad offer, just a bit more would be nice. So I'm trying to squeeze a little bit more out of them. The adjuster doesn't disagree with me, but tells me that they require written proof of a higher fair market value in order for him to help me with a higher settlement. I had some autotrader ads, as well as a Kelley's Blue Book report. Both were not acceptable. The adjuster said that because Kelley's BB is US, they cannot accept that. And autotrader ads don't help because different people will price their cars differently, and does not accurately reflect the car's fair market value. Just because some guy prices a car at $25k doesn't mean it will actually sell at $25k or if it's even worth that much. etc..

So in the end he basically says I will need more concrete proof, which could mean another appraisal from a different appraiser, or a Canadian Red Book value. He says his red book doesn't go back as far as 1989, so he's using the appraisal they received from a 3rd party appraiser. I searched online and found that Canadian Red Book also has an older cars version, which would include 1989. It costs me $30 to order, and I would have to wait until it arrives, which could be a couple weeks... and in the end it may not give me a number I'd be satisfied with, who knows...

Anybody have access to this older vehicles red book I'm speaking of? Would save me time and money. I don't mind forking out the $30 to order it, really, but time is important.

...Or I can sign this acceptance form, fax it back, and wait for my cheque..

Thanks guys,

Mark

 

i will ask around a few shops I know deal with older cars..

 

when I had my accident several years ago (50 km/hr almost head on) I had to fight with my insurance people too. I knew the car was going to be written off and was not fixable, but I wanted more money to replace it with a car of similar condition.

I didn't get as much as I wanted, but what I did do was to buy the car back, and then sell another several hundred worth of parts to people.

In the end I came out ahead and made more money than if I had tried to sell the car before the accident.

you could use your good parts on another vehicle, or sell the parts.

hope you get what you think the car is worth.

p.s. I hate insurance companies.

 

what insurance company are you dealing with?
My insurance company asked for for sale ads, I showed them 4 or 5 high priced ones, they gave me an average of that number.

How else are you supposed to value the car?

Maybe talk to an appraiser and feel them out, see if they'll appraise the car for a decent number. If not, move on to another one. Just tell them the situation and see if they agree with you before you show the car.

Not sure if you got my PM but if you didn't I can send it again. I'd love to hear a response, anyways :P

They have to take an appraisal though, that proves what the car is worth.

 

auto trader worked for me when my travel trailer was damaged showed a few adds and that was it they came up with a value on what i gave them.
auto trader is a place to sell cars, people ask a price if they want it to sell they are
within reason and it sells, i would say thats market value!

 

I don't know about Ontario, but in recent years I've been finding insurance companies keeping an database of ads from the AutoTrader, local papers, the Bargainfinder, auctions, and so on. Since the ads typically don't specify condition or options, they're an amalgam, including many of the crappiest, barely running and non-running samples available - and generates a nice, lowball price that they say is backed up with numbers. When my wife's 626 Touring, which was not a turbo but otherwise loaded, clean, new tires, clutch, CV's, got totalled by a cell-phone jabbering SUV driver, we had to fight to get $1900 for it - and they wanted to give us $1300. I shopped for 2 months for a replacement at any price and didn't find one, but comparable cars were $4-$5k. In fact, a lot of truly crappy cars were asking $3-4k

 

it is unfortunate that you weren't able to get a fair price for your 626.

I printed off several ads from auto trader for my insurance company.. They asked me for 10, I gave them 10, they removed the lowest priced 3, averaged the remaining 7 and gave me that price. It took a LOT of haggling to get them to be fair but in the end they were. I'm not going to post numbers but I was satisfied with the end result.

I agree that there are several crappier cars on auto trader but generally its only nicer stuff. I don't bother listing a car on trader unless it's going to sell for top dollar, why spend $70 on a forsale ad when kijiji is free? It's just not worth it for a fair/poor condition car. I think many others think the same way as well.

Trader is an indication of fair market value - there are some overpriced cars and some rustbuckets, but on average I think it's a decent way to find a value for a car in the Canadian market.

 

I got $9500 for my 275,000km A4 when I paid $6000 for it almost a year and 40,000km earlier.

So suffice to say, I like Bel-air direct.

 

I would suggest an appraiser. A good one can estimate the value of the car BEFORE the accident. The cost should be reasonable as your already planning on $30.00, probably get a good one for under $80. (I paid $45.00 last summer to get a motorhome appraised when I took it to them). The insurance company would take it much more seriously and should pay-off in the end. Good luck.

 

Terrh - I agree, the Trader is generally reasonably representative of market prices. The problem being when the Trader, plus a bunch of free/cheap advertising sources is used to generate a value, without regard to condition of the vehicles being sold, or the vehicle being evaluated. Part of the problem is when you purchase a car in exceptionally good condition, or take a car in marginal condition and restore it to excellent condition, and they still want to pay you the "average" price for the car.

In the case of my daily driver Passat that I've had for a year, I got the car for $800 - it ran, but couldn't be driven because of a complete failure of the auto tranny. Even though the car had only 71,000kms on it and was in excellent condition, the $8500 cost of the repair made it essentially worthless - the previous owner had had it sitting for 9 months because it wasn't worth fixing and no one was buying it for parts. I had a crashed manual transmission version of the same car, and used it convert the new one to a five speed, besides moving all my good suspension bits off the crashed car onto the new one and selling a VR6 and various suspension and brake bits left over for about $1500.
When I phoned my insurance to add the new Passat, I told them a purchase price of $8000 (which is about market value anyway), and added a zero to the bill of sale. And I have the receipts for my Koni yellows, stereo, etc. Damned if I'm going to get screwed again.