[dnwong]

So, daughter got into an accident at school and the insurance company wants to total the car (2009 Jeep Patriot). How do they determine the value of the car and can you negotiate the value?

[BlackTalon]

Dudley, there have been some in-depth threads in the past about this, so you might find some good info if you search.

[86911TLCAB]

My attempts at negotiations have been pretty limited...you can provide them info on other cars locally that are for sale, you can give them receipts for all recent work done on the vehicle (particularly any upgrades)...but they have better data to access than you will likely have particularly on a car that is not very old. do you think it should be totaled? if you can fix it or have it fixed for less, buy it back.

[DonNewton]

My experience won't be yours: While driving my wife's retirement car (2011 CA Special Mustang), a woman ran a stop sign and nailed me in the right front (the engine supports from the firewall moved about 2" to the left). USAA came out, inspected the car, and provided a settlement price; they knew as soon as they saw it, it was done. I already had found comps in the area. Their settlement was $4500 over the comps I found. It was clean and easy. Then she bought an Audi TTS which I am not allowed to drive. Good luck with the settlement process.

[Chakka]

Originally Posted by dnwong

So, daughter got into an accident at school and the insurance company wants to total the car (2009 Jeep Patriot). How do they determine the value of the car and can you negotiate the value?

From experience we had, they look at comparible replacement and if the repair exceeds (I think) 70% of the comp value, its totaled.
$20k car.....exceeds $14k in repair....totaled. The insurance adjuster pulled comps, they were consistent to what I found.

It sucks, sorry for the situation and glad all are okay.

[dnwong]

Well, we finally settled with the insurance company. The first offer they gave us was actually pretty fair given what is out in the market. We went back and told them about some recent maintenance that was done. The adjuster said he would try to find some higher comps and came back a little better offer. So, all in all, a pretty good experience. It turned out the repairs would have cost more than the car is worth (2009 Jeep Patriot) due to a control module and a wiring harness being damaged. That alone was 3500 in electronics and they do not authorize the use of used or aftermarket parts.

Otherwise, it looked like a fairly basic repair/replace of a bumper, fender and grill with no frame damage. Naturally, I was shocked when they said it was totaled...