Should I Settle?

[calvino]

What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? Rhode Island

Here's the background:
I have a 1994 Corolla - excellent shape - 42,000 miles. The other day, Corolla was parked in my driveway. Neighbor from across the street pulled out of his driveway in his giant Ford Wagon and smacked into my Corolla.

Adjuster declared it totaled - no problem with that - who knows what carriage and mechanical problems there might be.

But I do have a problem with the neighbor's insurance co.'s offer: $3,300 -
NADA.com puts high retail cost at just over $4,000.
Also, are there other compensation I could fairly ask for? Did not accept their car rental offer for example.

Thank You

[stephenk]

you will not get high retail value for your car.

try the local papers, auto recycler magazine, etc. for examples of what your type of car is selling for by private parties.

you can also ask the carrier to provide you with the paperwork that they used to come up with the $3300 value.

Is your car drivable?

[calvino]

"Is it driveable?"

I really don't know - it was smacked pretty bad - bumper, trunk, rear lights, and rear side panel damage. I'd be too concerned for my safety and others to take it out on the street.

[jcook7066]

The idea behind evaluating what a car is worth is to determine what you could have sold it for on the open market a day before the accident. I would search Auto Trader.com and look 75 miles from your home - you should be able to find some comparable vehicles and establish a range. Realistically, it will be somewhere between NADA trade-in and retail.

You can also request a copy of the valuation methodology from the Insurance company. Chances are good they use a service called CCC which surveys local dealers. The problem with this is that they ask the dealers for their "take" price - the absolute lowest price you could get that car from the dealer for (assuming you have most of a week to haggle). Unfortunately for you, dealers almost always sell a car for higher than its "take" price, causing CCC to undervalue most cars.

[teflon_jones]

Insurance companies never offer high retail, they always offer low or average at best. I think that their $3300 is probably pretty reasonable, and it might take more time and effort than it's worth to fight for more. But, it never hurts to ask, so you might as well send them a letter and see what they say.