TotalLossCA
Junior Member
What is the name of your state? California
I was involved in an accident two weeks ago that totaled my vehicle (2000 Saturn SL2). The other driver's insurance company accepted full liability and consequently made me two total loss settlement offers. (I did not accept their first offer.) The offer letter included three used car ads for similar vehicles, but none of them are anywhere near where I live.
According to my research, "local market area" is defined as a maximum distance of 75 miles surrounding the area where the motor vehicle is principally garaged. Two of their cars are over 300 miles away! The closest was 138 miles away.
From what I understand, data may not be collected from outside of the local market area unless the insurer can demonstrate that a comparable car cannot be found within the local market area. I live in Los Angeles County where there are dozens of listings for similar Saturns within 50 miles of my home, therefore I feel it is unfair of them to calculate the average retail value of my car using those ads.
I faxed them current LOCAL ads for several vehicles the same year make and model with similar mileage to my totaled car that are within 50 miles of my zip code and asked that they remove the vehicles outside of my local market area and recalculate the value using local vehicle values. They agreed to include my ads in their calculations (raising the settlement about $300), but they are unwilling to remove those vehicles that are not within reasonable distance to my home. Their average is still several hundred dollars below the average value for the car here in Los Angeles County.
Do I have any options here? So far, I have left a message with the adjuster's supervisor and sent an email documenting my situation.What is the name of your state?
I was involved in an accident two weeks ago that totaled my vehicle (2000 Saturn SL2). The other driver's insurance company accepted full liability and consequently made me two total loss settlement offers. (I did not accept their first offer.) The offer letter included three used car ads for similar vehicles, but none of them are anywhere near where I live.
According to my research, "local market area" is defined as a maximum distance of 75 miles surrounding the area where the motor vehicle is principally garaged. Two of their cars are over 300 miles away! The closest was 138 miles away.
From what I understand, data may not be collected from outside of the local market area unless the insurer can demonstrate that a comparable car cannot be found within the local market area. I live in Los Angeles County where there are dozens of listings for similar Saturns within 50 miles of my home, therefore I feel it is unfair of them to calculate the average retail value of my car using those ads.
I faxed them current LOCAL ads for several vehicles the same year make and model with similar mileage to my totaled car that are within 50 miles of my zip code and asked that they remove the vehicles outside of my local market area and recalculate the value using local vehicle values. They agreed to include my ads in their calculations (raising the settlement about $300), but they are unwilling to remove those vehicles that are not within reasonable distance to my home. Their average is still several hundred dollars below the average value for the car here in Los Angeles County.
Do I have any options here? So far, I have left a message with the adjuster's supervisor and sent an email documenting my situation.What is the name of your state?
