1G my car got hit!

[nwBryce89]

Hey guys, I need some help with trying to figure out what my car approximately could be worth. My buddies girlfriend backed into it the other day and her insurance is covering the cost of repair but the shop is thinking it's more than likely going to be totaled. I have tried to value it through kbb and nada but have not had success with that. My question is what (roughly) would you value an extremely clean 1991 talon tsi awd with 70k miles automatic, I have all original paperwork and receipt from when it was new. I also have over $20k in maintenance receipts over the life of the car, the spare tire and tool kit have never even been touched. it's pretty stock except for hks exhaust system, fresh built head with os Valves , MLS hg, arp head studs and enkei wheels with bfg kdw tires. There is a car identical In my area for sale except like 83k miles and totally stock for $6k which I think is a little steep. I'm just trying to not get ripped off by the insurance company so any input is appreciated, thanks.

 

[ThunderChild]

that sucks man sorry to hear that

honestly, that low of miles and mostly stock, if its in good condition inside/out (no big stains, dents or scratches, aside from the recent ones) i would say between 5-6.

my friend got backed into in his midnight blue 92 by a truck, pretty much ruined the front core support, hood and cross member, totalling it here in CDA area, and they paid him almost 7k with very few receipts.

it will really depend on the insurance adjuster and company itself, and how well documented things are, but id say 5-6k is a good place to start.

 

[oneslowwdsm]

A 92 is worth $2300 around your mileage. Maybe more if you add on some options. Not sure if this is what they would base their value on though. IMO they probably won't pay you enough to be satisfied if they have to take the car. I think they end up totaling any car past a certain year no matter the damage but don't quote me on that.

How bad is the damage? If it's just a dented hood and bumper, I would just ask the girlfriend to pay you to fix it. It might be cheaper for her in the long run. A 1g hood and bumper is chump change at any pick n pull. Hard part might be finding a good bumper. Good luck.

 

[nwBryce89]

The driver door and quarter in front of rear tire got pushed in just a little. I'm trying to figure out how to load pics, it won't let me atm. It's not the car in my avatar. I would be happy around the 5k range but it is probably wishful thinking. They should be calling tomorrow morning with what they think it is worth. It just sucks because it took me a long time to find a real clean auto. Thanks for the input I'll keep ya posted.

 

[guseclipse]

They base the value from nada. I just got my Mazda totaled. DD duty car. I checked on Nada I got paid pretty close to what was on there. They also take 3-4 car for sale around same condition and average the price out. So if they find 4 talon and price average around 2000 then that's what most likely you will get. It sucks man older cars just don't hold value

 

[gst-turbo]

The cars are old so you will get around 2500 but you should buy it back for cheap and part it out

 

[nwBryce89]

I only paid $700 for it but it had a bad head gasket, the previous owner wanted $4k before he found out it had a hg issue. Pretty much all the dsm around are between 700 and 2000. My aunt just totaled her avalon which was loaded and real good shape also and the insurance tried to base the pricing off of cars in the area but they were using cars that were beat to hell double the mileage and had zero options. She was able to fight them on and get about double what they were offering in the first place, but it did take months so if I have to go that route I will. I have five other dsms at the moment and other stuff I drive daily so I don't really care how long it takes. Thanks

 

[lasershark]

They will try to find a similar car at a dealership... ya thats easy now days
They will most likely low ball you and you have every right to negotiate to get a reasonable amount. Pull ads of cars on the private market that are in similar conditions and document their prices. This is called fair market value. Dont compare your car to cars in poor condition, the cars have to be comparable and it doesnt necessary have to be in your area if there is nothing as nice for sale in your area
Are you trying to keep the car or would you let it go?

 

[AwD4g63TsI]

Every state is different and insurance companies have to go by "certain" regulations. I used to work with insurance companies way back with totaled cars and their values. This is my experience with them.
Unless you have paid extra for, and fully disclosed all of your aftermarket mods, insurance will not care about that value. Many insurance companies don't even offer the extra protection as an option for aftermarket goodies because it costs too much for them if something happens. So if you don't have aftermarket part coverage, you run in to this-the insurance company will only give you what the car is worth bone stock. And that means not much. Mileage doesn't really matter at your cars age.
Your best bet as others have mentioned is to buy it back if you think it's worth it to you. Also, be aware that if you start stripping the car of all the "parts" you've added, they have every right to take you to court and recoup their lost value on the totaled car. Remember, they are estimating the value on the stock car, and they are expecting a car with all of its parts intact if you agree to the totaling. Insurance will send it to auction to get whatever it fetches on the rebuilder/parts market. I've seen many cars come to a salvage lot that were stripped of their go fast parts...the insurance company went after those owners. Beware of doing that.
The choice would be easy to me based on the amount of money you claim you've dumped in to it...but it back and part it out yourself or fix it yourself.

 

[nwBryce89]

They called this morning and said they are having trouble putting a value on the car, so they are expanding their search for similar cars. I do not have the car in my possession at the moment it's at the body shop, so I can't pull parts off even if I wanted to. I did a search last night of my area for similar cars for sale and there is nothing comparable, they are all shells or have tons of miles and paint flaking off. I am going to buy back if they total it, they told me how much it would be and it's incredibly cheap.

 

[gst-turbo]

Buying a car back is very cheap

 

[Mitsu82330]

I went through an almost identical experience within the last year with my car and thought I would share some insight. Some old lady backed into me in a parking lot and did damage to the same area (drivers door/rear quarter panel). The body shop estimated damages at ~$1,800; my car was still drive-able though and I had no intentions of totaling it out and ending up with a branded title. To determine value the insurance company utilized a service that basically pointed them at three listings nationwide. Of course they couldn't find many comparable vehicles and tried to say my car was worth approx. $1,800. The report they sent didn't show much information about the vehicles they were using as comparisons and I gathered that these listings were from Craigslist so I tracked each vehicle down by searching Craigslist. Only one of the vehicles they pointed to was even a turbo and one was a 1.8 beat to hell with 200k miles! They will try to lowball you at first. I then went to the classifieds right here on dsmtuners and found some cars that were comparable, but you can probably search Craigslist as well. I also took pictures of my car showing the aftermarket parts and overall condition and made a list of all the upgrades to my car. Finally, I put all of this information together in writing and basically disputed their valuation of my car. They reconsidered at that point and set the new value at $3,400, which meant the car was suddenly in repairable condition. They cut a check for the repairs and that was the end of it. Your experience may differ based on the insurance company your working with, but if you take the time to do a little research and put it all together you can probably avoid being totaled out. Another thing to note... the body shop I was working with would not repair the car if it was going to be totaled. I can't remember what their reasoning was, but it's something to think about if you're just considering the totaled/cash out route.

 

[lasershark]

They called this morning and said they are having trouble putting a value on the car, so they are expanding their search for similar cars. I do not have the car in my possession at the moment

If you plan on keeping it don't let the insurance take possession of the car, I got offered 800 bucks for my pretty clean 92 gsx when it was totaled and that was with them keeping the car. After a little busy work and negotiating I recieved a fair deal but it took 3-4 months. They tried to pick up my car with a tow truck which gives them the upper hand, so I did not allow them to take it. They did the same thing with "having trouble putting a value on the car" then they found a base model eclipse and tried to compare my gsx to that for "fair market value" comparison. I didn't let that fly and kept everything very professional with my rebuttal. Receipts helped in my situation and I basically got every penny back (for the mods). With insurance companies, everything is a negotiation; if you are patient you will be ok. I learned so much throughout my ordeal so I try to share to help other "first timers" out.
I submitted roughly 6-8 car ads thoughout the country that were actually comparable to my car along with all my receipts. It took a while but we finally came to an agreeable number. I also did as much as I could through email that way there was documentation of every interaction that I had with them.

Keep us informed!

 

[nwBryce89]

Thanks guys I really appreciate the comments, and my reasoning behind putting this up was for other people to see if they ever get put in a similar situation. The shop called me a couple hours ago and said that the insurance had put a value around $5k on the car, which is amazing. They did say that's not the final number they are going to be adding in a few more adjustments, I am going to call tomorrow and see if they will look at the receipts I have for mods and stuff.

 

[ThunderChild]

just like i figured, thats a good sign man, hope it all works out for the best!

 

[91-GS]

From your description it sounds like there is about $700-$1000 in damage ($400-$500 in paint, everything else in labor) if a shop gets to fix it. Obviously fixing it yourself it would be much cheaper. Since this was a low speed collision there won't be any structural damage and the car should still be safe to drive, unless something in the B pillar did get messed up. All that being said, unless you really need the money you should buy the car back, fix it, and keep driving it. In the end you could sell it yourself and most likely get more money then that insurance offered.

 

[nwBryce89]

Ya I planned on buying it back. To me it looked like no more than 1500 in damage, I went to school for auto body and paint and did the Icar program which is used for estimating but that was a long time ago I don't remember everything that goes into estimations. What I don't understand is why they may still total the car even though it is worth way more than what the damages are.

 

[Kapok6]

Read through my thread and PM me with questions.

http://www.dsmtuners.com/threads/another-one-bites-the-dust.459620/

I will tell you this right off the bat, NADA and KBB have NO bearing on how insurance values your vehicle.

 

[91-GS]

Some insurance companies would total a brand new sport bike if it simply gets knocked over in a parking lot because there may be "structural damage on a high performance machine". While that might not be the case with this car most likely the guy/girl who made that decision saw just another 'early 90s four cylinder beater' and has no idea what AWD or Turbo or any of that other stuff means. As mentioned before they either go by the book (for newer cars) or try to find similar cars for sale (for older ones) to determine their value. Although since not many shops have frame pullers any more if there is some damage to the door jamb then that is probably why they decided to total it. There is no easy way to fix thicker material like that with just hand tools.

 

[Turboterd]

If you haven't contacted your insurance company yet, you should. Not to try and get your friend screwed, but to cover your own butt.
You could start by asking your insurance company how much they would pay for the car if it was fully covered. You could also have someone from your insurance company recommend a place to go get an estimate for repair at.
If you can do the work yourself, I would try to get them to cut you a check without it having to go to "their" collision repair facility.

remember, you don't have to take their offer if you don't agree with it.

 

[nwBryce89]

As of right now I am still waiting to here back from them. The car had no insurance because we don't drive it, it was just a toy that sat mostly. Eventually the plan was to use it as a drag car. I even had a full other drive train for it. I will just wait and see what they offer and go from there. I'll keep ya posted

 

[nwBryce89]

The insurance company contacted me today with their offer of roughly $5k and I keep the car or $5100 and they keep it. The way it worked out is they put a value of about $4400 and the rest was taxes and some other stuff I don't fully understand yet. So I am going to try to get the value up over the $5k mark at least since one almost identical to my car sold in my area about a month ago for $6k. The adjuster will not be in till Monday but she said to bring in all records and receipts for the car and we'll go from there. And they also gave me a brand new Chrysler 200 rental car to drive for now, which is a pretty decent ride I just don't like the 8 speed automatic that's constantly trying to figure out what gear it wants to be in .

 

[nwBryce89]

I don't have any real updates yet, the insurance company still won't come up a little so I have not settled yet. The adjuster is telling me their is nothing she can do since the evaluation came from a third party which doesn't make sense to me , she would not have a job then. Can anyone she'd some light on this, I'm not sure what to do next.

 

[lasershark]

Be very factual, stress to them that you understand that they used a third party but that third party failed to see the value in your clean low mileage car as far as comparable goes.
You can also request the data that the third party used to come up with your value, I would highly recommend this.
You can then see what cars they used to compare yours to and they will have a break down in value (i.e. power windows, ac, turbo or not trim package ect...)

This is what I did and that's how I knew "my third party" tried to use a base model.
Get the data, request it from the insurance company. Don't ask for it make it more of a demand statement like, "I would like to see the third party evaluation report" if you make it a question they can bs you with excuses

Remember it's a game of chess with smiling faces but they are still trying to do whats best for their job and the company they're not bad people but they are still not going to openly try to "hook you up"...