Auto Insurance Claims: Total loss of vehicle with a washed title, buying used cars, chrystler

Question
I was rearended and pushed into the vehicle in front of me causing enough damage for the insurance co. to total my vehicle.  The vehicle had apparently been totalled in the past in another state and sold a couple of more times before being purchased by us therefore appearing as a clean title.  The vehicle is a 2001 Chrystler Town & Country Limited (completely loaded).  Is is common practice by insurance companies to reduce the amount of the fair market value by 50%.  The van never gave us a problem, was a great vehicle until someone destroyed it for us. We were told that since it didn't really have a clean title that instead of 5,000 it is only worth 2,500.  Also, any way to know how the insurance co. determines that and will they pay more.

Answer
"Is is common practice by insurance companies to reduce the amount of the fair market value by 50%." --The fact that it was previously totalled does reduce the value.  The exact amount is  subjective and negotiable.  If the vehicled was in the condition you describe, 50% sounds like way too much to me.

"Also, any way to know how the insurance co. determines that and will they pay more." -- Each insurer uses their own method.  Most will use an outside source like a vendor who will give them a value, or they might use a book value like NADA.  In a case like yours, they will also need to make some subjective estimates.  Sometimes they call car dealers and ask for opinions.  I would ask them to explain precisely how they decided on the value.

Also, do your own research.  Call several used car dealers and ask them to guess the retail value before the accident.  make sure you getr etail value, not trade in value.  Also, check several free online servvies like NADA, blue book, etc.  Check cars.com and the newspaper for comparables.

The bottom line is you need to estimate what you could have sold the van for before the loss on the open market.  People do run Carfax when buying used cars, and most buyers would know the van was previously totalled, and some people would not have bought it for that reason.  this lowers the value.  But I think 50% is too much.  Maybe 20-30% is closer.

If you cannot agree on a value, you can choose to sue the responsible driver in small claims court.  The insurer will hire an attorney to defend their insured customer.  This costs them money and they do not want to go to court on something like this.  They will probably offer you more to settle.