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A car was usually considered a total by an insurance company if the cost of repairs exceeds 80% of a vehicles value. The percentage may have changed since I worked in a body shop, but the concept is the same. This doesn't mean a car is unrepairable, just not worth repairing in the eyes of the insurance industry. However, if your car is determined to be unrepairable, or unsafe even after being repaired, therefore uninsurable, they will insist on totalling it. I don't think this would be the case with your car from the pictures I saw of it. If the book value is less than the cost of the repair the insurance company will settle for 80% of that and you keep your title. Find out "book value", and make a list of reasons why your car is worth what you say it is. Understand that an insurance adjuster's job is to pay out the least amount for his company and he will have his reasons why it isn't worth what you say it is. The value of your car may go up if you tell him, "OK, if you don't want to pay what I think the car is worth, find me another one in the same condition mine was before it got hit." Insurance companies are bound to provide what's called "Like, kind & quality" so they are bound to provide you with a reasonable settlement whether its another vehicle or monetary. They would rather provide a monetary settlement than go car shopping. Bill Vander Werf "Kelly C. Hanna" wrote: > Replies to this message are sent to The Chevelle Mailing List > ------------------------------------------------------------ > > >I'm not sure what the value of your el Camino is. > > I know, I was asking if they were to assign a value of $2500 to total the > car....about how much would it take to get the title back...example: > > $2500 is the amount she would get if they total the car (just an example). > Then if we buy the car back from the insurance company they only give us > $____ . Would the title cost be $500 or $750 or $1000 etc. I was just > asking what the ballpark figure might be. I found the value to be > $3300-4500, but I expect their tables to be cheaper and I thought $2500 was > where they might try and settle. > > >I guess what I should have said is that you will probably have to settle for > >whatever book value is. That's what I had to do. The estimates to repair the > >damage to my motorcycle exceeded the value of the bike. I settled for book > >value and repaired the damage myself. Since the lions share of the cost in > >the estimates I got was labor, what I was able to save in labor costs left me > >with a surplus. > > We aren't going to do this, there's no way I would try to repair this car > after getting the estimates. It isn't an SS or even a special car. She's > set on getting another Elky SS like mine. I was asking the question to get > an idea of what we'd have to raise to get he other car. I am very good at > researching the "book" value of cars on the web, but as we all know, it > doesn't always mean the car is worth that in the real world. > > Kelly C. Hanna > El Camino Country > www.hannawoodworks.com > > ----------------------------------------------------- > To Unsubscribe please visit www.chevelles.net/list.html > To start a new topic, send mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ----------------------------------------------------- To Unsubscribe please visit www.chevelles.net/list.html To start a new topic, send mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
