Insurance companies

What's been everyone's experience with dealing with insurance companies? How much do you get for the truck in relation to kbb value? My 2007 DCSB TRD OR was totaled and kbb value was $23,500 plus I have them a list of about 3k in aftermarket parts. Would it be realistic to expect 24-25k?
Thanks for any input.

 

They're definitely not looking out for your best interest.

 

Luckily Tacomas tend to have a relatively high fair market value... Gap insurance is a good thing.

 

I have state farm if that makes a difference.

 

Let me give you this, line of thought; that most car/powersports dealers go by. And most insurance companies; but they won't admit it.

The value of a used vehicle or motorcycle; is very subjective.

Definition of Subjective: Subjective is a statement that has been colored by the character of the speaker or writer. It often has a basis in reality, but reflects the perspective through with the speaker views reality. It cannot be verified using concrete facts and figures.

Thus: If a customer comes into a dealership, to trade his/her vehicle on another vehicle, a trade-in price must be established. Similar to your, quote from an insurance company.

We used recent auction reports, NADA or KBB or similar, to arrive at a base price, taking into account mileage, condition, mechanical condition.


Now here is the kicker, that I have been building up to.

Those modifications, or aftermarket changes you have made on the vehicle; were made by You, for You. It will be hard to sell that vehicle, unless I find a customer with Your same tastes for modification. Yes, get a grip on that.

You buy a $30,000 truck and put another $30,000 into, sound system, suspension changes, wheels, tires, interior, etc, etc. So You may think you have a $60,000 vehicle. And to You, You do have that.

To someone else, not so fast.

The insurance company, like the dealership, has to make a profit.

And those added modifications/upgrades, will never bring you back dollar for dollar.
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My 2012 got t boned with about $14 k in body and mechanical damages and Allstate replaced my after market rear suspension. New ome leaf packs and shocks along with the necessary hardware.

 

Insurance company should give you avg retail price + tt&l. You do not have to take their first "offer". They try to low ball you in hopes you take it. Even if it seems like an ok offer, I would still refuse it, they will come back with another offer.

I am surprised your truck has a kbb at 24-25k. It is 7 yrs old now, and I believe that is significantly higher than my 2010 DCSB TRD OR 4x4 I looked up a few weeks ago.

Aftermarket parts do not increase the value very much. Unless you declared the parts to the insurance company along with their value, I doubt you get much extra.

 

I just went through the whole process last month. I settled for more than book value. They will probably run a report to establish the value of your truck. Make sure you are sent a copy and read the whole thing before agreeing to settle. Mine was 19 pages. The report compared my 2009 DCLB Sport to other 2009 DCLB 4x4s for sale "in my area" (really most were 250-300 miles away). The comparisons were with base models and one SR5. Don't assume that their value will populate all your features based on the VIN or OR/SR5 package. If you have your window sticker compare that line by line against what their report says is on your truck. Value was subtracted from my truck since the mileage (86K) was greater than the comparison trucks but value was added since my truck had many more features than the others. When I read the report several items were missing. The adjuster didn't notice that the backup cam was part of the tailgate handle (and the display not visible in the mirror with the truck off), JBL premium sound wasn't noted and the trim package was listed as Off Road vs. Sport. My insurance company added/corrected those features, reran the report and my value went up $750. As for aftermarket add ons I didn't get as much of a bump up from those but they did add to the value, for the Firestone ride-rite air bags they added $130, for the fiberglass topper they added $200. This was my experience with West Bend Mutual, they were prompt and fair, YMMV.
I believe the book value on my truck was around $22.9K and I settled for $24.9K. Between the safety of the truck during the accident and the value it still held, pulling the trigger on a new 2013 for $29.2 was a pretty easy decision.

 

Very low miles

 

They will stiff you if they can. Let me tell you a true story. Several years ago I had a truck that was old but well taken care of. New motor and transmission and painted even though the truck was close to 30 years old at the time it was in good shape. A friend of mine borrowed it to haul some pulp wood on a trailer he had. Well something went wrong and he totaled it in a jackknife accident. I filed on his insurance.

They wanted to give me 600 dollars, old truck not listed in book, for compensation and they take the truck. In this state we have to sue the person not the insurance company so I contacted my friend and told him I would need to sue him to get the insurance company to do right and he agreed so he said he would let the insurance company know.

Well they called me and this guy on the phone started telling me how I would lose in court. So I told him I was going to go around the car lots and take pictures of trucks like mine as the dealers had the prices on the windows. His tune suddenly changed. He said now wait a minute tell me about this truck. He asked all kinds of questions as to what it had on it and kept adding money to the offer for each item I told him about. He finally got to 2300 dollars and we agreed.
So what I am saying is you do not have to take what they offer. The court will use either a blue book or NADA as priced at time of accident. That is what you need to use or do as I was going to do go to car lots in your area and take a picture of trucks like yours that are comparably equipped or from news papers or even Craig's list. By the way it will included the after market parts if they raise the value. It is the fair market value at time of accident.
The problem with insurance companies is they know they have most people over a barrel as they cannot wait long on the money so they will take what is offered.

 

This...

Went through the process two years ago and it was identical. As mentioned, check to make sure all the comparibles have the same features, etc. My insurance company was great (granted it was the other guys fault and my insurance company paid me out and then went after his insurance) but my TDI was a year old with 21k miles and I got 1k less than I paid for it at the beginning.

 

Just want to update you guys, state farm got back to me and gave me $25,116.20 for the truck. They valued the truck at 22ish, gave me 2ish for TTL, and 600 for aftermarket parts. Minus a 1k deductible I am getting a check for 24,116.20 to get a new truck, let the Craigslist obsessing begin.

 

Sounds like a good settlement. Let us know what you get. It gets a little crazy when your options open up like this. For me it was do I buy used and pocket some cash with no payments? spend it all even up? borrow a little and go new/nearly new?

 

Found a nice 09 for 20k that I'm picking up which leaves me about 4k to play with. Thanks for help everyone!

 

I am currently a licensed representative of American Family Insurance. In my experience, if you do not schedule or endorse your vehicle additions insurance companies will treat your auto as if it were stock from the factory. By having your additions listed, it is slightly more in price but well worth the coverage instead of being out of pocket for your labor of love. Whenever I do physical inspections, I ask what people paid for their accessories and inform them that if it is not scheduled/endorsed it will not be covered.

With regards to claim reimbursement, American Family Insurance also uses fair market value. Meaning the adjuster will research similar year/make/model vehicles, taking into consideration mileage, condition and features. I do have personal experience with an auto claim with American Family. About 2 years ago I was hit by a stolen car in pursuit, damaging the passenger rear door barely missing the rear axle. Suspects were apprehended at gun point shortly after hitting me and I was able to drive to work. With my claim in particular, since the driver of the stolen car did not have current coverage my uninsured motorist limits saved me. Based on a 1990 Honda Accord Ex with 160K miles, the adjuster came up with a value of $1,100. Due to the extent of the repair cost over $2K, my vehicle was totaled. Now I had 2 options at the time, either take the $1,100 payout and AMFAM takes possession of my car to recoup some of the loss or keep the vehicle and close the claim without payout. I decided to keep the vehicle since I owned it outright and would save to purchase a new vehicle (which I'm glad I did and found the perfect Taco for me!). In the end, I sold the Honda with a branded title for $800. I did a little research to see what like model Honda's were selling for and were between the range of $600 (parts car) to $1,700 running and driving. I felt that $800 was a fair price for a 23 year old Honda with 3 different color pastel doors, branded title and 2 decades of use. So I feel that AMFAM came up with a reasonable offer for my vehicle post accident.

For those of who are also financing your vehicle, I highly recommend GAP insurance either through your current insurance provider or finance company. With GAP coverage, if your vehicle were to be totaled either the insurance company or bank will pay for the actual cash value of the vehicle plus the difference in the loan. The term actual cash value means taking the replacement cost and subtracting depreciation factors such as age & condition. Without this specific coverage, the difference in the payout and loan will still be owed to the bank. On average, I've seen it as low as $18-24 every 6 months to $50-60 year.

When I purchased my '07 TRD Sport AC last year in July of 2013, I contacted my underwriter to see what options were available to cover all the aftermarket additions. He recommended adding customized vehicle coverage for the value of the additions. The previous owner did not have receipts or invoices for all the additions, so I located product information with prices. I ended up adding $7K in customized vehicle additions, lift, wheels, tires, ARB, intake, etc. I plan on increasing the customized vehicle coverage as I add new additions in increments of $1K. My recommendation for everyone is to contact your insurance company to see if they offer customized vehicle coverage or what options are available to you to cover those additions. If you can keep receipts/invoices or just a record of additions with specific make/model/serial numbers it will benefit when comes to reinbursement. If anyone has any questions with regards to coverage or insurance post them and I be glad to assist, I am more than happy to be a resource. I've learned so much from TW and its members, anything I can do to contribute let me know since insurance is my speciality. I will also upload a copy of my declarations page so that you can see the customized vehicle additions listed on my policy.


PS. Just noticed my dec shows the effective dates from 1/11/14 to 1/11/14, oops! But rest assured I do have current coverage =)