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Car total, insurance question


Forrest Gump 9

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Last week during the snow my wife slid off the road and hit a tree. She was fine, just hit the tree and nothing else. The accident was front passenger. Driver airbag went off, the front looks bad but I didn’t think insurance would total it.

This morning the insurance called and said they are totaling the car.

 

This is my first dealing with insurance on this subject. What can I do? I’m sure they’ll shafted me with the value being a rare obscure vehicle. The car is an 2007 R63 AMG. Mercedes built less than 100 of these for only one year.

 

 

Added notes:

Just got an email and they said the total value is $14,xxx. The cheapest currently available is $30,000 and it’s across the country in Washington state. This will be fun dealing with in insurance

Edited by Forrest Gump 9
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Find as many comparable examples that are for sale in the area (or anywhere). Miles, Options, etc.

 

Also, get ready for them to "take off" for the car not being freshly detailed inside and out.

 

:(

 

KillJoy

 

Currently there are two for sale in the whole country. There are six for sale in the last two years on bringatrailer. Should I send them all eights that I’ve found?

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Sounds like they gave you the total value for a non-AMG model.

 

Could be this. Make sure they know the model and send them the comps for ‘like’ vehicles. I’m guessing they will come back with a better offer with all the details. Sorry to hear about the accident. Glad she’s ok! Good luck!

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Here it is.

 

http://www.columbusracing.com/forums/showthread.php?t=110639&highlight=total+loss

 

I have also helped a few other people increase their return on various cars ranging from an extra $2500 on a 2G DSM, to getting the offer up on a built GT500 from $68,xxx to $99,281 iirc.

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Keep fighting the valuation. They will make it as favorable for them as possible. They did the same with my wife's Jeep recently, comps had very few of the same features, and none of them had more. I sent in my own comps and had them update the equipment list on my wife's car, which helped, but we still ended about 1k short of where I thought we should be.
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Thank you for the advices. Insurance called and said they’ll reevaluate

 

Don't rely on the Insurance Company to do all the work and wind up where you should rightfully be. If you really don't want to get screwed, you are going to need to do the legwork, or hire someone that will.

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Don't rely on the Insurance Company to do all the work and wind up where you should rightfully be. If you really don't want to get screwed, you are going to need to do the legwork, or hire someone that will.

 

Agree. I would contact a couple local dealers and perhaps even gather data from Mecum Auctions.

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  • 2 weeks later...

So the insurance came back with $18k since i declined their $14k initial offer. That’s still way too low for the value.

 

There are two listings in the whole country right now, one for $35k and the other for $34k. Bringatrailer has one on auction and with five days to go it’s already at $27,500.

 

I sent the insurance with all the information I found. Now they want me to find a “Certified auto appraisal” to appraise my wrecked car. Anyone knows a good one that I can hire?

 

Google found me one in Columbus, but she doesn’t do it anymore.

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Off the top of my head, have you tried calling the Mercedes dealer (MAG or Germain) for a recommendation for a certified auto appraiser familiar with Mercedes cars? Independent appraisers are often used in lease condition disputes so the dealer might know one they can send you to.

 

That being said the yellowpages has a section for this:

https://www.yellowpages.com/columbus-oh/auto-appraisers

 

and this national company says they service the columbus area and charge $300 for a total loss appraisal:

https://autoappraise.com/services/

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Off the top of my head, have you tried calling the Mercedes dealer (MAG or Germain) for a recommendation for a certified auto appraiser familiar with Mercedes cars? Independent appraisers are often used in lease condition disputes so the dealer might know one they can send you to.

 

That being said the yellowpages has a section for this:

https://www.yellowpages.com/columbus-oh/auto-appraisers

 

and this national company says they service the columbus area and charge $300 for a total loss appraisal:

https://autoappraise.com/services/

What Kerry shared is what I had to do to claim diminished value on the Audi after his accident. I think the final cost was around $350 The diminished value returned me $1500

 

Sent from my Galaxy Note 8 using Tapatalk

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