You are lucky. Even after we gave them three written estimates from local
dealers of what my car would have been worth in our area of the country,
they insisted that their price from their men in the big city many miles
away was the only one they would accept.
"DebbieG" wrote in message
...
Well, it's finally been settled. They started at $4,000 but I was
insistent
that wasn't enough. My husband hates dealing with stuff like this and
would
have agreed to their first offer so I take care of stuff like this. They
came up in small increments every time I talked to them. They offered
$4,400 so I called a Ford dealership to see what they thought it would be
worth and the used car salesman thought that was a great offer. They
finally came up to $4,750 but I wanted $4,850. My husband kept saying,
"Just let it go" but I just couldn't. My parents said "It's only $100 ...
settle already!" My brother said "I didn't know you could negotiate what
an
insurance company pays for a totaled vehicle. I'll remember that!" I
think
they were sick of me and finally agreed to what I wanted just to make me
go
away ... we got the check today!

FYI: I'm also the one that does the negotiations when purchasing a car.
It's funny because when they come back with a counteroffer they always
look
at him and he just points to me and says "Talk to her." In fact the last
car we bought, he went to look at it with me, we went back home to get
some
paperwork and he didn't want to go back so I went alone to finish the
negotiations. His strengths lie elsewhere -- thank goodness opposite
attract!

Thanks to all of you for your advice and suggestions.
Debbie


"DebbieG" wrote in message
...
| My husband wrecked our 1995 Ford Explorer Sport last night on the ice.
He
| rolled it and more than likely it will be totaled. We'll know in a few
| days. Fortunately, he walked away from it although he kinda looks like
a
| prize fighter today due to the air bag.
|
| We have never had a vehicle that has been totaled and I wondered, since
I
| never trust insurance companies, how much were not going to get. We are
not
| going to replace it since it was a 3rd vehicle (the oldest of the 3).
|
| Does anyone know what insurance companies use to come up with the value
of
| the vehicle? I've gone to Edmunds, NADA, and Kelly Blue Book websites
and
| they all stated different amounts.
|
| We bought the vehicle new and it has been insured with the same
insurance
| the entire time so they know it has never been in a wreck (we've never
had
a
| claim on it). It WAS in very good shape and had almost 170,000 miles on
it
| and we planned on it giving us a few more good years. I know that will
be
| considered high mileage but that's not bad for a 10-year-old vehicle.
It
| looks bad now so how would adjusters know what kind of shape it was in
| before it was wrecked?
|
| Also, if they come up with an amount that we don't like, do we have any
| options?
|
| Is there anything else we need to think about that I haven't mentioned?
|
| I just want to make sure we handle this correctly at the right time.
|
| Thanks for any help/suggestions,
| Debbie