Auto Insurance Claims: total loss vehicle, repair estimate, insurance adjuster

Question
I was recently in a car accident that resulted in the front end of my car significantly damaged, the responding officer was of the opinion it was probably a total loss.  My insurance adjuster will not be available till Tuesday. Can you tell me what the adjuster uses to come up with the payoff amount? Are there any other factors involved such as mileage?

Answer
Hi Laura,

First, the adjuster will write a repair estimate to see if it should be repaired.  If it is economical to repair, they will; if not, they will call it a total loss.  Normally this occurs if the repair estimate reaches about 75% of the actual cash value.  

If a total loss, they will offer you the actual cash value.  This is the retail value immediately before the collision.  This is what you could have sold the car for to a consumer before the collision.

Each company comes to their value their own way.  Most use some third party vendor to assist them, like NADA or something similar.  They will consider the make, model, age, mileage, condition, options and anything else that will affect the value.