Financial Channel

My wife and I were travelling the morning after our wedding this past Sunday and were hit by someone speeding as we pulled into traffic. I recieved the warning ticket for failure to yeild right of way. Her Ins. Carrier, Amica has totalled the car. We recieved an offer of $13895.00 for the car, plus sales tax, minus the deductible. They claim to use Autosource for their appraisals.

I am unhappy with the offer only because of the base price. Looking at NADA, trade in for this vehicle with our options is $14,000.00, and Retail is $16,350.00.
I've checked with Edmunds($14,283.00 retail), Kbb ($13650.00), Nada/\ and searched Auto Trader, Cars.com, etc. for cars in the area. The Corrolla S's aren't very common in this area (14870) and from what I've found we will be looking at approx $15,000.00 and up for a comparable replacement.

The Claims rep. said that some of the items we paid extra for that are listed in appraising the car on all these sites are not listed as extras on Autosource, and she cannot justify talking to her superiors for a price adjustment without showing them some items she missed.

Where do we go from here if she decides not to raise the offer? We will be out approx $1000.00- $1500.00 to get the same car, which is our plan as we are recieving close to 40 mpg with it and love it.

Thank you in advance for all your esponses and help in this matter.

Wow. What a wedding present....

Does your insurance policy include any provision for resolving such a dispute? (If it does, unfortunately, it is probably skewed in favor of the insurance company.) You may have some rights under the laws or insurance regulations of your state, depending upon where you live.

So they can basically take their estimated value from wherever they please and refuse to adjust it even if market value is different? If Autosource is so much lower than all other book pricing and even real market values(I even used a 200 mile radius when searching), I can see why they might use it, but then they could just ask Joe Shmo what he thinks its worth and take his word as well, providing it's even lower.

Does your insurance policy include any provision for resolving such a dispute?

Looking thrugh the olicy I found no provision in this event. We just moved to NY state.

Perhaps the New York State Insurance Department can clarify your rights.

That site does anything but clarify things. I cannot seem to make heads or tails from it. Tried searching as well as popular questions.

Sometimes you actually have to use the telephone. Unfortunately, there remains a great deal of information that isn't available online.