So, I hit a deer with my car. It's not terrible, but the damages exceed the value of my car...

My car is a 2001 C5 6-speed with 220,000 miles.
Insurance says it's worth $6,853 which seems pretty low to me, but I guess I don't have a say in the value. :/

They also told me salvage value (what I would have to pay to buy it back) is $3,500... which seems pretty high to me.

Again, I don't see that I have much say in the matter though.

Long story short; I should buy it back for $3,500 right? It's worth more than that to part out or whatever right?

Seems like a no-brainer, but just wanted to see what everyone thinks.

Also, is there a way to dispute an insurance company's valuation? Do you guys think they got the value right?

 

I'd let it go, unless you are in a position to part it out, which takes time.

 

Don't buy it back. After you sell all the one of a kind parts, you will be left with a useless pile of stuff you will have to get rid of.
As for valuation, you need to find out what the Actual Cash Value of your car is. Ask for some auction results for the past 2-3 months and also look at the NADA/KBB/Black book sale values are. Not sure how you would go about "forcing" the insurance company to cough up more money.

 

I was amazed at how fast I was able to part out my C4....mostly through here! It was down to a husk in less than 2 months.

 

That valuation is actually pretty accurate if it's a stock 01 with those miles. I bought my 98 with half the miles for $7,500 six months ago.

Sorry for your loss. That really sucks.

 

My local metal-recycling guy picked up my frame, I was able to sawzall everything else down far enough to fit in the bins.

 

I'm a mechanic at a GM dealer, so I could part it out pretty easily...
Also, I feel like I could sell it to someone right now, as is, for around $5,000. I mean, it's a running, driving C5 with some cosmetic damage... I don't know... I'm kind of in shock right now.


If I wanted to replace my car, I'm looking at like $11k+ for a triple black 6-speed targa top right?

 

The valuation seems right. Ins co valued my 02 vert auto w/100k miles for $8900. My wife totaled a car and I was able to bump them up as I had just had it painted.

If you can sell it for $5k do the deal. Try to get it for less.

 

Good luck in whichever direction you go. Sorry to hear about the accident.

 

Those numbers are wacked - way too low. Ask how in the world they determined the actual cash value. NADA which I find accurate has the average retail with that mileage at $11,400 and average trade in value at $6850. They are obligated to pay you actual cash value. My insurance company, bank and credit union all use NADA to determine value. Even KBB has the value higher at $7200 and I find them always low. Yes you can negotiate both the value and buy back price with most companies. In the past I did by back at 18% of the actual cash value they offered. Good luck!

 

See, this is what was going through my mind before they called me today. My body shop who did the estimate ($6k in damage), said "Don't worry, they won't total it. They only total them is the damage is over 70% of the value." Which means, that by their calculations it was worth at least $8,500. They also told me that worst case scenario, if their valuation was off and they DID total it, that I could buy it back for 10-20% of the value.

Basically, my insurance company is telling me that my car isn't worth very much..... UNLESS I want to buy it from them. A buy back price of 51% of their estimated value seems unheard of.

 

I'd say that valuation is pretty good. That's a LOT of miles and C5 prices aren't the greatest anymore. Hate to be the bearer of bad news but with that kind of mileage, it's really not worth much.

As for the buyback price, my thought would be that the insurance company is looking at what a junkyard would pay to get the car, given the value of parts able to be sold, so they pull a separate buyback value based off that. You've probably got some grounds to argue lower based off of repair costs for the incident that got it totaled in the first place.

You can challenge either valuation with the insurance company. I don't think you'll get anywhere with the actual value, but you may be able to talk the buyback value down some. Get some supporting sales and references, and talk to them.

 

Your numbers are more realistic. Go to NADA.com, look it up, hit the print key and go do battle. You should easily get $6k plus the wreck then make your decision

 

Not many buyers for a C5 with what most people consider extreme high mileage, and not many buyers for the mechanical parts. I'm not surprised at the ACV they came up with, but the salvage value seems really high. Then again, a local shop or yard may have put in a bid on it at that price. Each state has insurance regs that usually tightly dictate ways they have to use to calculate a value--it's not from thin air. Look up yours, and start checking prices. You can ask the adjuster to send the applicable regs and which way they used. It's usually full retail plus tax. Frankly, I'd negotiate the ACV higher, and let the guy who bid so high have the salvage, he's high. Once spring comes and snow and ice stops causing accidents, shops in the North have trouble keeping staff busy. That may be why the salvage is set so high.

 

i would let it go.....how many people are looking for parts that have 220k on them?

 

About 20 months ago my 92 C4 coupe was caught in a flooded street in front of my house and was considered totaled by the ins. company. It was an auto with 180,000 miles on it, no radio or A/C and a well worn interior. State Farm wrote me a check for $9200. Hello 98 C5.

Today I was talking to my ins. company again because a neighborhood kid ran into the back of my wife's 2004 Mercury Mountaineer a couple of nights ago and they consider it totaled. They made me an offer and said if I didn't agree with them I could contest it by showing them other cars like it either in dealer ads or craigs list proving it was worth more than they offered me. The onus was on me to do that. I'd talk to your agent, that's what they are there for, their offer seems awful low.

The offer for my 2004 Mountaineer with 180K miles, $4000 after my $200 deductible (the kid had no insurance), buy back $368 dollars for reference. Repair costs were 3600 dollars. All damage was cosmetic. At over 75% value damage they consider it totaled.

 

I had a Honda S2000 that was totaled (not my fault). Due to the other driver being insured for the bare minimum, my company paid out the S2000, which I then bought back. Buyback value was approximately 15% of the payout value.

 

If they're offering you near $7K for a C5 with over 200,000 miles on it I would take it.

I know people like to think C5s are still worth money but they're not. At worst I value six speeds roughly $1k-$1.5K above their automatic counterparts and with automatic C5s selling in the $6,000-$10,000 range (I actually JUST saw a 2001 automatic sell for $7K) it's VERY hard to not take that money. Sure you're going to probably have to put some more money towards getting into another C5, but 1) you're probably going to find something with less mileage and in better shape and 2) you're going to have a car that will NOT be branded as a buy-back from insurance. Not that I personally believe there's anything necessarily wrong with buy-backs or "totaled by insurance" cars as we have plenty rolling around, but others will not see it that way.

The other thing you'll have to consider with a car that may receive buy-back or "totaled" status by your insurance is you may be forced into a specialized policy on it by your insurance carrier. You may want to check into this specifically before you make your decision. A specialized policy based on prior damage can limit future coverage for that vehicle (i.e., a carrier may not be willing to pay out or cover to a particular limit or for particular reasons). It can get sketchy.

 

When I wrecked my '94, they originally said $7k. After a ton of calls and showing comps, I got a check for $11ish k. Buy back was $2300 and I let her go. I paid $4k for her a year prior.

I would pull comps, but finding a C5 for sale with 200k might be a challenge.

 

Lets not forget if you buy it back, it'll have a salvage title. If you are keeping it for a long time, no big deal. Trying to sell it or insure it....big deal.