Auto Insurance Claims: Car Insurance Settlement, state insurance commissioners, kelly bluebook

Question
First I want to say thank you so much for donating your time to this site! You provide such a valuable service to people such as myself, who do not have alot of money to pay for answers. So I do appreciate your donated time to this site.  

I had a 2002 Hyundai Accent that had 107,000 miles on it and was in excellent condition. I was so excited to FINALLY have a great car.  Unfortunately my car was totaled in an accident. I have full coverage.  My insurance company is offering me only $2700 for it.  When I got the title changed over for this vehicle, the state used their fair market value of $4000 for this vehicle.  I even looked on Kelly Bluebook and my car is worth alot more than $2700. In fact we had just gotten new tires on it and had a nice CD/stereo in it.  Do I have to take their offer?  I told them the info I had (the info I told you above) and they said it didn't matter.  They figured out the market price in my area and my car had alot of miles on it.  Can I dicker about the offered price?

Thanks much!  Happy New Year!

Answer
Hi Michele,

Insurance companies will often make you a low ball offer on totaled vehicles. You should do a couple of things.  First of all, you should ask them to provide you with a copy of what ever it was that they used to come up with their value. It is possible that when you actually review the information, you will find errors.  Second you should check the following websites:

1) www.nada.com
2) www.kbb.com
3) www.edmunds.com
4) www.autotrader.com

The last one will allow you to search currently for sale vehicles like your in your area. You should print out the retail values. You will have to make allowances for differences in condition, options and mileage. If the average of the values you find are higher than than you are being offered, you can present that information to negotiate a higher value. If after all of this you do not feel the insurance company is treating you fairly, contact you state insurance commissioners office to file a complaint against them.

I hope this helps
Richard Hixenbaugh