Texas total loss valuation help

[Travisr88]

A few months ago my 1977 Chevrolet c10 custom deluxe shortbed stepside truck was backed into and sustained damage to the passenger door and cab corner. It took me harassing the insurance company for 2 months before they even tried to have the damage assessed and finally sent an adjuster out. It was quickly declared a total loss by them and it took another month of leaving voicemails and trying to contact them to find out what's going on for them to make a settlement offer. The offer is ofcourse low and the vehicles used for comparison hardly match my truck and are all out of state. A couple people have told me that the comparison vehicles must be:
-Same year or 1 year newer
-Same make/model/sub-model
-Same options or as close as possible
-Located within a certain mileage of where vehicle is garaged
-And the vehicle information (VIN and such) and contact information to verify everything must be listed.

The comparison vehicles are 2 years off, not similarly optioned, all 500+ miles away and out of state, no VIN or other information.

On top of that they recorded the mileage on my vehicle as 312,000 miles, which I'm baffled on how they could have arrived at that number. When I purchased the truck it was not running and showed between 45,000-50,000 miles and the new speedometer/odometer shows less than 650 miles. This truck is my daily driver even with the damage, it runs and drives good, and as the adjuster listed:
-Mechanical is good
-Tires are very good
-Paint is fair
-Body is fair
-Glass is good
-Interior is fair (disputable, he says trim and headliner are missing, however, it was never optioned with trim, no headliner, no trim on the pillars and no mounting holes for any).
The mileage is what seems to be dragging the value down the most, but the number they listed is entirely fictitious. What are the rules and regulations and/or laws here in Texas regarding this process and what they can and cannot use as comparable vehicles and how value is determined. (The adjuster said it was an average of NADA guide and like vehicles, NADA lists $5525 for low retail).

 

[ecmst12]

This is a commercial vehicle? 2 model years might make a difference with a late model consumer vehicle, but the difference between a 1979 and a 1977 is going to be negligible.

 

[justalayman]

Finding comparables for a truck that old would be hard to find. It's 40 years old. Not going to be a lot of 77 C10's. They're going to get as close as they can and adjust from
There.

To the mileage; they don't know the true mileage. 312k is under average mileage. Given the condition of the truck (paint is fair, body is fair) you don't have some high dollar pristine vehicle. That isn't going to help with the values at all

 

[Travisr88]

This is not a commercial vehicle, this is a personal vehicle. And what I'm seeing is if you own a rare vehicle you get the short end because it's harder to compare, so if one has a Yenko Chevelle it's acceptable to compare it to a Chevelle 300 wagon. Either way the settlement offer was so low that I wouldn't be able to repair the truck nor replace it with anything that runs, which puts me in a very bad place financially. Essentially I'm faced with having to foot the repair bill myself and I simply cannot afford that. Nice to know that you can put so much time, money, and work into something you love just to have it thrown away because of someone else's poor driving. And I have found several 1977 and 1978 Chevy c10s, just not for what they are offering, they're all over but at double their offer. Remember these trucks were produced by the millions and were one of the most popular trucks of all time.

 

[justalayman]

Your comparison of your truck to a yenko chevelle is downright laughable. Your truck was one tens or even hundreds of thousands while there were 99 Yenko chevelles produced. Not even close to an accurate comparison.

You have a truck. An average run of the mill truck. Nothing special about it. You provided the body condition as fair makes it even of lower value (with poor, fair, good, and excellent typically being the rating classifications). Values are determined by the market. You aren't going to find a lot of 1977 c10's and most of them are not going to be of a high market value.

Would you be willing to pay somebody $5525 for the truck you had?

Finding trucks for sale for $10,000 is meaningless. Finding trucks sold for $10k, trucks in a similar condition to yours before the accident, is what it would take to prove your truck a worth what you think it is. From a quick internet search, the trucks I saw for those high prices were fully restored and often customized trucks. That doesn't sound anything like what you were driving.

 

[Travisr88]

I wasn't comparing a Yenko to my truck. That was only an example. My truck was produced in high numbers, but it's very hard to find one optioned the same way, and apparently they couldn't find any shortbed trucks to use for comparisons, I'm not aiming for $10k, I only think the number should be closer to the LOW retail value listed as it meets the description given by NADA guides. The vehicles I can find inyarket area up to 500 miles away that run and drive in similar condition are all going for more than the settlement offer, of all that I can find shortbed trucks like mine are fetching significantly more than long bed trucks. And "just a run of the mill" truck is not an accurate description as it is vague and subjective, to me a Honda is a Honda or "run of the mill" car whether it be a civic or a s2000. Talking to others who have been through this with their "run of the mill" trucks has been so far the most help but many of them have to dig up the resources they used and most of them got more than I'm after. The offer they made is significantly less than the offer someone made me his morning for the truck with the damage, that says alot in itself, this truck has sentimental value to me and I'm not willing to sell it or let the insurance take it, I want it fixed plain and simple and as their client caused the damage and was at fault it should be fixed. But if you honestly believe it is worthless and just a "run of the mill" truck do yourself a favor and go speak to any classic vehicle enthusiast and they'll set you straight.

 

[justalayman]

Going for or advertised at?

Rarely do vehicles sell for their advertised price.

You said it was in "fair" condition. That means it takes a lot of work to restore it to anything close to the trucks i saw advertised for $10-15k.

So in other words, if you spent $10k on the truck it would probably be worth $10k, if you find the right buyer.

 

[justalayman]

Here's one in New Mexico. $3000

http://albuquerquenm.global-free-classified-ads.com/listings/1-77-chevrolet-c-10-it7660685.html

 

[Zigner]

The offer they made is significantly less than the offer someone made me his morning for the truck with the damage...

Then forget the insurance and sell the truck. It's a high production volume 40 year old "run-of-the-mill" Chevy, no matter how sentimental it is to you.

 

[Travisr88]

The difference is I know this truck, I know it will undoubtedly get me to work every morning, buying another would be a huge gamble and it took years to find this one which I sold a 3/4 ton lwb in similar condition to this one minus an engine for what the insurance offered to buy this one years ago. They tried the same thing with my dad's car, totalled it out for miniscule damage that took an hour to fix and $100, then offered a ridiculously low settlement for a car that had options that fewer than 1000 others had. Unfortunately for me his fight was easy as the insurance company was his not the others so they paid and got it back from the other. My fight is with the other insurance as mine was liability only. Even the adjuster that physically looked at the truck valued it higher than their offer.

 

[Zigner]

The difference is I know this truck...

That is not compensable.

 

[Travisr88]

That is absolutely correct, but it is one reason why I don't just sell it and try to buy another. I was just answering a question asked by another poster. Back to the original argument though, my boss has an old Ford falcon, back in the day it was an average coupe, now it is a deteriorated restoration so by the logic above his car would still be just a run of the mill Ford and therefore worth practically nothing? Yenko never actually built cars, yenko simply modified factory cars and sold them at his dealership. But another example could be say a Dodge ram hemi v8/auto regular cab shortbed truck, by the logic previously used it would be valued no different than a base model ram v6/standard regular cab longbed truck and that would be perfectly acceptable. Another example could be say a Honda Civic si coupe, it would be acceptable to value it as a base model 4 door civic? See where I'm going? How about a Subaru Impreza WRX STI, that logic would have me value it as a base model Impreza although in any of these cases the valuation would be apples to oranges. Again, I'm not after some ridiculous high value like $10k, not even the NADA guides listed $5525, although it certainly meets that description based off of the adjusters report and notes, I'm only after the amount it would take to repair the truck to the condition it was before the accident, if I wanted more I could have easily altered the condition in the 2 months it took for an adjuster to look at it, I have been working on the truck as a hobby and could have easily bought and installed parts to bring the value up, but I feel that would have been wrong to do. I didn't ask for people here to value my truck nor give an opinion of it. I asked if there are rules, regulations, and/or laws that insurance companies must adhere to when valueing a vehicle and what they are or where they can be found. Please remember when you order a hamburger with cheese, lettuce and tomato and get a plain hamburger with only ketchup that a hamburger is a hamburger and that's that regardless if they charge extra for the options.

 

[Zigner]

That is absolutely correct, but it is one reason why I don't just sell it and try to buy another. I was just answering a question asked by another poster. Back to the original argument though, my boss has an old Ford falcon, back in the day it was an average coupe, now it is a deteriorated restoration so by the logic above his car would still be just a run of the mill Ford and therefore worth practically nothing? Yenko never actually built cars, yenko simply modified factory cars and sold them at his dealership. But another example could be say a Dodge ram hemi v8/auto regular cab shortbed truck, by the logic previously used it would be valued no different than a base model ram v6/standard regular cab longbed truck and that would be perfectly acceptable. Another example could be say a Honda Civic si coupe, it would be acceptable to value it as a base model 4 door civic? See where I'm going? How about a Subaru Impreza WRX STI, that logic would have me value it as a base model Impreza although in any of these cases the valuation would be apples to oranges. Again, I'm not after some ridiculous high value like $10k, not even the NADA guides listed $5525, although it certainly meets that description based off of the adjusters report and notes, I'm only after the amount it would take to repair the truck to the condition it was before the accident, if I wanted more I could have easily altered the condition in the 2 months it took for an adjuster to look at it, I have been working on the truck as a hobby and could have easily bought and installed parts to bring the value up, but I feel that would have been wrong to do. I didn't ask for people here to value my truck nor give an opinion of it. I asked if there are rules, regulations, and/or laws that insurance companies must adhere to when valueing a vehicle and what they are or where they can be found. Please remember when you order a hamburger with cheese, lettuce and tomato and get a plain hamburger with only ketchup that a hamburger is a hamburger and that's that regardless if they charge extra for the options.

I think a 40 year old hamburger is worth the same, whether or not you add cheese, lettuce, tomato, or any other extras.

 

[justalayman]

Trying to compare your truck to any specialty auto (whether it be a yenko or Shelby (aftermarket) or Calloway or any other new car modifier) or a hi-po factory version of anything is just plain wrong. Those are limited edition vehicles you are speaking of. As I mentioned yenko chevelles having only 99 total produced, your truck is one of tens or hundreds of thousands made. There is no valid comparison between the two.

Nada prices your truck at low retail at $6150 but from what you described your truck doesn't meet the standards
To make it rated as that. That makes the price you were given probably pretty close to
The true market value.

 

[justalayman]

I'm only after the amount it would take to repair the truck to the condition it was before the accident

As long as that amount is less than the fair market value of your truck, that is what you are owed. The max you are owed is fair market value. If you can prove the fair market value is more than they offered, you can negotiate with the insurance company. If you can't come to an agreement, you can sue the other driver. You can attempt to prove your claim of value to the court. If you do, you get what you proved.