How to determine insurance value of a totaled car?
The insurance company’s valuation is usually based on what it will cost them to replace your car from the used car market in your area. If you feel they are shortchanging you, you can always ask them for the paperwork they used to determine the value of the car. When our car was totaled, that was about 15 pages of used car ads. Check out their paperwork to make sure all your accessories are included. In our case, they did not include the tape player, and we pointed it out, and they upped the price. Also, they are supposed to cover the sales tax (at least in MN). No idea on the premium.
My experience was dealing with Geico when one of their insureds totaled my car. They took the value of three cars, same make model year approximate mileage etc., even color, for sale at three dealerships within 25 miles of me (I’m in LA, so I’m sure local density of cars for sale worked to my advantage) and then they averaged that price (though all were in a couple hundred bucks of each other). The claims person was even nice enough to give me the dealerships where they got the quotes. For the hell of it, I went to the closest one on my way home from work one night and took a look at the car — it was nearly identical. And the price, including tax and fees and so on and so forth, was a hundred dollars less than they gave me. I ended up buying a different car, but I was quite pleased with the outcome and rather surprised that they hadn’t tried to cheat me.
