What is ACV with aftermarket additions, low miles, damages..

by gretchenbrant » Thu Aug 14, 2008 01:17 am

My daughter was T-boned by a driver and her 2002 Honda Civic LX was totaled. It had about 50,000 miles on it.

My mom bought the car new and had leather seats installed after market. She gave it to my daughter who added a 1 disc cd player and tinted windows. About a year ago the same car received hail damage. The insurance adjuster gave her an on-the-spot estimate and she received a check for something between $3500.00-$4000.00 dollars. She decided not to fix the damage.

It has been difficult to find the ACV from NADA and autotrader/carsoup.com because of the after market improvements and low miles. NADA retail for 02 Civic LX automatic without leather and tinted windows is $8750.00. The cars on autotrader and car soup average about 12,000.00 (without leather or tinted windows).

The insurance adjuster offer is 9,455.00. With taxes, title, etc. the total offer is $9670.00. They started at 10,205.00 and subtracted $750.00 for hail damage--which he said was a "big mistake" one of the claim people made, but he was going to stand behind it. When I suggested he start at 12,000.00 and then subtract $750.00 for hail--to which he said he'd then change the hail deduction to $5,000.00--the "real" cost of the hail damage.

How do we know what is the acceptable amount to subtract for hail damage? With respect to my car, what is acv with the after market additions and low mileage?

Is 9455.00 a fair settlement?

Thanks!

G

Total Comments: 12

Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2008 04:07 am Post Subject: what is acv ?

It should not be difficult to obtain the value via NADA... you enter the miles... it shows the value based on those miles. Aftermarket seat covers are not going to add much to the value... OEM leathers seats are about $600. I'd guess that AM covers are going to add around $200 or so to the value. CD player, $25. Tinted Windows, I'd guess at another $50.

Are the prices your seeing on autotrader, _asking_ prices... not selling prices?

Personally, the offer seems like an extremely fair one. Trust me... if the cost to repair the hail damage was $3000 and they are only deducting $750... that's a deal.

Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2008 06:22 am Post Subject:

I agree with what the adjuster has said about the hail damages. Any previous unrepaired damage will affect the valuation of the vehicle.

It must not take much time to run the vehicle on the NADA site. you only have to put details regarding the vehicle to obtain the value. Also you can ask few of the local used car vendors to evaluate the car. This too will give you a fair idea.

Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2008 06:39 am Post Subject: What is ACV with aftermarket additions, low miles, damages..

Well, the aftermarket parts may increase the value of the car by few bucks, but there won't be a huge change by it anyway. The ACV will remain more or less the same.

You can't expect much from the car with unrepaired hail damages.

You haven't mentioned whether there were other AME parts like- alloy wheels, air-condition, anti theft devices, power wheels or such feature were attached to it or not. All these factors may influence the value of the car.

Also your place of residence and the demand for such car in the surrounding market may affect the valuation.

~Jeremy

Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2008 09:52 am Post Subject:

You'd better take this offer and run!

They started at 10,205.00 and subtracted $750.00 for hail damage--which he said was a "big mistake" one of the claim people made, but he was going to stand behind it.

I'll say it was a big mistake! they should've deducted the entire amount of damage they wrote on the prior claim (before the deductible)...and they still could....that is fair...seriously take the money and run...

tinting windows does not increase the value...leather seats...200 bucks maybe...

I'm not kidding call them and get that draft coming before some supervisor figures out what happened and fixes this mistake...and yes they can (and should) do that!

Don't be greedy they've already overpaid this by about 3k!

Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2008 01:32 pm Post Subject: what is acv ?

I'll say it was a big mistake! they should've deducted the entire amount of damage they wrote on the prior claim (before the deductible)...and they still could....that is fair...seriously take the money and run...

I worked for a company that did this so I've given it a lot of thought. IMHO it's not correct. Best way I can explain my point of view is if a POS worth $500 has a $500 dent in the 1/4 panel. Does that mean it's worth nothing? A used vehicle is worth far less then a new vehicle partly because it's probably going to have some damage anyway. So the value of the vehicle has already taken a hit with this anticipation. So the value should not take a full hit on any damage that exists. Any damage beyond the norm, should still lower the AVC but not dollar for dollar.

But to go hand and hand with this... the adjuster on hail loss should have probably have turned in a Risk Report requesting that the carrier drop comp/coll until the owner could show that the vehicle was repaired (as it appears there is no lien on the vehicle). I know I'd not have remembered to do this, though.

Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2008 05:16 pm Post Subject:

Thanks for all of the input. It helps a lot to get your perspective since we have no idea whether $750.00 is too much of a deduction, or a good deal. Sounds like it is.

There aren't any other after market items.

I did go to NADA--the retail is $8750.00 without leather or tinted windows.

Is there anyway of finding out what similar vehicles have sold for?

We're in Minneapolis and there were only one or two 02 Civic LX's with about 50K miles. I did a nationwide search on Autotrader & Carsoup--the average was about 12K asking price. The insurance company started with a average market value of 10,205.00 and subtracted $750.00.

Thanks again! Great site!

G

Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2008 07:02 pm Post Subject: what is acv ?

I would answer that as follows.... if the list/asking price of a vehicle were $12,000... would you offer up to $11,000 for the vehicle? That is, would you expect the person to sell the vehicle for $11,000 if the asking price were $12,000?

Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2008 12:35 am Post Subject:

I should have explained it better....we would take on a 2008 and 2007 100% of the pre-existing damage off the acv...as it gets older there is a range, next few years is 80-90%, then 60-80 for a pretty old car...They have already been paid for that damage, or compensated for this...so if the hail damage was say 4k, and they take it @ 75% deductiing 3k from the ACV he's still ahead 1k...

Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2008 03:41 am Post Subject:

we would take on a 2008 and 2007 100% of the pre-existing damage off the acv...as it gets older there is a range

Better but I still don't agree with it. Along the same lines as the vehicle being worth less then the sum of it's parts, I don't think damage can reduce a vehicles ACV dollar for dollar. But again, I think a tier is better then no tier.

Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2008 10:00 am Post Subject:

Well I see the point on current year...clearly they have been paid within the last 12 months...then on the ones that get older the rep has the ability to adjust the ped percentage...as an example i totaled a 1990 rivera yesterd, wrote the ped very very light, in fact wrote a ''maco'' total refinish (the clear was peeling everywhere and was tri-coat :roll: )...we all know you ain't getting a car repainted for 500 bucks....anyway the total amount of ped was around 800 bucks...(only obvious hard damage, not door dings etc)...I took the ped at 60% because will that 1990 rivy be worth less than one without all the paint peeling everywhere? of course it will..

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