As I posted a few weeks back, my '98 GSR was stolen and found stripped days later. The insurance company is considering it a total-loss, and just finished their adjustment process. They're valuing my car at $10,400 + approx. 600 for tax. This seems low to me! I bought the car a year ago from an Acura dealer, and it was an Acura Certified Pre-Owned Car. (paid $13,500 + 500 dealer fee + 800 tax). I explained to the insurance adjuster that it was in great shape, was certified 1 year ago, and still had 2 years left on the 7 yr./100,000 mi. warranty that Acura gives you on Certified cars. My car also only had 51,000 miles when it was stolen.

He told me that he based his numbers on the "private party" kelley blue book retail instead of delear retail. This accounts for the $1,500 difference in pricing I feel I'm not getting! He showed me some examples of local Integra GSRs that were for sale from private parties at around $10.5k-$11k with similar mileage. I told him that I spent 3 months last year looking for a nice GSR (South Florida), and the ones at that price were usually pretty beat up with gauge holes drilled in the A pillar, etc. .... you could tell they were driven very hard. This is the reason I went to a dealer and got a certified car.

Anyways, he told me to do some research and send him the results to look at. So far, I'm finding several local '98 Integra LS and GS models that are for sale on autotrader.com for the same amount he's giving me or even higher ...... let alone any GSR models I might find.

 

taking into consideration where you live and where i live..... i'm gonna call SCREWED!!

cars go for cheaper here, and i paid more than $10,400 for my '97 GSR with 48,000 miles (not much more tho )

so yeah....get out the lube, and bend over for the ins. company!

sorry bro... hope they make it right!

 

My car was recently totalled and my insurance company paid us $13,6xxx (I believe). Mine had ~57K miles on it.

I would say that your insurance company is being shady.

 

well there's many different methods for insurance companies coming up with the figures that they give you. you have to take in consideration that there's also "depreciation" that is applied to each car's value. so they really don't just go call around to the 3 nearest dealerships and take an average. there's much more calculating than that. you'll never get what the car was truly WORTH (in terms of Kelley Blue Book, etc). kinda hard to explain.

i'd honestly ask your insurance company HOW they go about getting to that figure they have reached. they should be able to fax you a copy or email it to you or something. and do NOT sign anything until you fully understand what is being done. (i. e.: until you have reached an AGREEMENT)

Good luck man

 

You can negotiate this price. For example, visit the dealers again pretending to be a prospective buyer and get printouts of what they have for sale, in the same condition as yours. Prove to your adjuster that your car is worth more than they say.

Ben

 

show em receipts for every little thing u had doen to ur car.. from rims to stereo to oil changes show em how much money u put into it.. worked for me

 

For perspective my insurance company gave me $7,000 for my 94 LS with 113,xxx miles. I think you should be getting much more. However they did adjust for certain things on the car such as rims, cd player, and premium speakers. If I would have taken them off the pay out wouldn't have been as high. They also claimed my Wings West 3 piece spoiler as a ground effects kit. I think it all depends on who they send to apraise the car because they make the decisions. Technically they can hook you up. For some odd reason there was no adjustment made for performance parts. He said if I would have had my stock header and exhaust I would have gotten the same price. Hope this helps, good luck.


Edit: Mine was involved in a collision, I don't know if the situation would be the same


Modified by skygtr01 at 5:39 AM 7/25/2003

 

I think you're getting shafted man. It might be where you live and the cost of living, or your insurance company, but whatever it is, you should be getting more for your car. A few weeks ago I totalled my '96 GS-R. It had 70k on it and only the factory 6 disc CD changer counted for something. I came out with roughly $11,200 (a $500 deductible brought that down to $10,700 though). I lost hella money still, because I paid too much for the car in the first place, then threw on a $1000 warranty and had to pay the tax. I guess my insurance company was being generous because both the KBB and NADA values were around $9k.
I'm not sure how they guage how much the car is worth, but I get the feeling that it's in a pretty generous manner. Last winter I totalled my previous car when an old man pulled his Taurus out in front of me. The car was worth $4k, and I got $6k. Good luck man, try to squeeze more money out of them.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 1hotintegra &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">show em receipts for every little thing u had doen to ur car.. from rims to stereo to oil changes show em how much money u put into it.. worked for me</TD></TR></TABLE>

this depends on the coverage you had (as well as the insurance company). i tried showing my insurance company ALL my reciepts, and they didn't give to *****

 

thats weird.... when I totalled my CIVIC ( not teg ), it was end of year 2000... I bought my car brand new at beginning of 99... and when the civic got totalled, I had 55,000 on it, and the insurance company paid 19,000+ to me..... the only mod left on the car was the exhaust.... and I took everything else out!

 

OK - I talked to the sales manager at the dealership where I bought it. He went off the NADA guide which states retail on a '98 GSR to be $11,600 + $600 in miles adjustment for mine having only 51k miles. That comes to $12,200 which is $1,800 more than the insurance co. valued it! He said he would fax me over a statement saying that my GSR was worth AT LEAST the $12,200 NADA value (since his dealership certified it one year ago) - also based on the rarity of Certified GSRs in the local area, etc. This should help my cause!

 

Yes. They are not "shafting" you. They are asking you to prove why your car is worth more than they are offering you. This is one way of doing it. Another way is to shop around and collect advertisements for cars of similar mileage, model, and vintage, and show them the prices. You can do that, too. If your car is indeed worth more than they are offering, you should be able to support that in these ways, and the insurance company should be willing to raise its offer. Good luck.