Well, It's a Total Loss

We have been driving a 2012 Volvo XC60 for about 7 years - just a 3.2l AWD, not an 'R' or anything fancy. 

A couple of weeks ago, we were coming home through the hills at dusk and a buck decided to commit suicide pursuing a doe across the road.  Did not even have a chance to touch the brakes.  It took out the passenger front corner (fender, headlight, hood, grill, etc) but, thankfully, did not come over the hood into the windshield.  After pulling some plastic away from the the wheel and removing an antler from what was left of the grill, we were able to drive the Volvo home.

Contacted the insurance and after a bit of back and forth on the value, the adjuster agreed that it was a total loss and he "will forward your claim to our Total Loss adjuster. They will contact you and review what will happen w/ the vehicle and present the potential payout for the car."  The repair cost was about $6,300 and the value was a couple of hundred dollars more.

Since I have never had an insurance claim for a total loss, I am wondering what the process with the Total Loss adjuster might be.  I would be happy to take the repair cost (or close to it) and walk away.

What should my strategy be in dealing with the adjuster?

He's going to write you a check for the value of the car less the deductible and send a wrecker to get the car. You might stress that storage is not free or you may have it sitting in your yard until they get around to picking it up. 

Edit to say. Get on Marketplace and Craig's List and get some comps that are local to you. Get values from JDP, KBB, and NADA. His numbers should align fairly closely. If not, show them the comps and values you pulled and see if you can meet somewhere in the middle. 

Toyman hit on most of the important points, but I would just stress what he sort of said-  you have no obligation to accept their first settlement  offer if you do not think that it's a fair and reasonable one.  Local comps on marketplace/cars.com are worth researching beforehand, as are any documented repairs/parts/accessories that you added close-to the claim date. 

If you're getting pushback from your contact person, just keep asking to escalate the case... 

+2 on fighting for your number if they lowball you, which they will.  When our trailer was totaled due to hail damage, I provided multiple comps, and still had to fight through three different adjusters until I finally got a supervisor to approve a fair value.  Took 5 months.  You may need to go nationwide with the comps if there's nothing local, but don't settle for a lower value from a car that isn't directly comparable.

How many miles on it - that value seems especially low.  For reference, our '06 Rav4 (AWD, V6) with 225k valued out around $7k last year when I was rear-ended.  It was fixed, and the bill was over $4k.

The adjuster actually pulled several comps when determining the actual value.  Miles are at 172K. 

Our insurance is AAA, so hopefully they will be OK.

At this point, my wife is not convinced the car would be safe after it was repaired, so we would be selling regardless.  If I can get around $6K and avoid Craigslist and Markeyplace. I would be fine.

If you want to email me VIN, mileage and your zip code, I can pull comps for you pretty quickly.

Just like any transaction the first offer is just that, a first offer.  SWMBO just went through this and from start to finish, back and forth we went from a 16k offer to a 20k offer.  Make sure their comps accurately refelect the options on your vehicle and its condition.  

It does not sound like anything safety related was damaged, just cosmetic bits and the stuff that holds the radiator in.

Volvo body panels are pretty expensive, though!

If it didn't blow any airbags, it should be pretty easily fixable with no compromised structure and be just as safe to drive as it was before the accident. When airbags and belt tensioners blow, they're usually not worth fixing- although I have done it once but never again!

CJ said:

At this point, my wife is not convinced the car would be safe after it was repaired, so we would be selling regardless.  If I can get around $6K and avoid Craigslist and Markeyplace. I would be fine.

You have to use the "honey, it's pre disastered, the chances of this car ever being hit again are astronomical!" line from The World According to Garp. SCENE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3TuoGVNbBs

(Yes, it's a logical fallacy, I know, but it's funny.) 

I know the used car market is whacked, but $6 Large for a 12 year old Volvo with 170+k miles sounds reasonable to me, especially if the vehicle in question is the primary family vehicle.   As in... a good down-payment on a replacement that was going to be on the horizon anyway.

Here is a very quick nationwide search to buy a 2012 Volvo XC60 with 175k-ish miles

191K asking $10k

183k asking $8.5k

172k asking $8k

169k asking $9.5k

Around here, a 2006 xc90 with those miles is a $7000 car, but those are $CDN.  Do some shopping before you accept any offer.

John, thanks for that.  Its a little surprising what a change in zip code can do for values.  With the options, mileage, and condition, Kelly BB lists the value around the 95531 zip code to be about $6.5K.  I think it is possible the lower local prices have something to do with having both nearby Volvo dealers go out of business or dropped by Volvo as dealers.

Calteg, sent you the VIN as well.

Thanks all.

Some quickly FB search more out your way.

Sacramento 2012 w/ 162k @ $8.5k

Irvine 2011 w/ 198k @ $7.5k

Portland 2013 w/ 177k @ $9k

Fight the insurance people on principle. 
My last loss was initially offered $834-500d. They tried to give me $334 for my daily. Scumbags. Fight the scum. A few weeks of back and forth and I got $1500 in my pocket. Still not enough for a replacement, but better than the first or second offer. 

I love these threads. So full of half-right advice. The guy above just called me a scumbag, which is nice.

Volvos are expensive to fix and total easily. I would not keep it. There is no shortage of high mileage Volvos out there. You can use KBB.com to get a reasonably close idea what your car is worth on the market by looking up Private Party value (what it's worth as a private individual, with a for sale sign on it). Not retail (a dealer asking price not rooted in reality). 

You can't just "keep it for the repair value".  The damage estimate is just that--an estimate. Once we reach a number that makes it a total we stop writing. It could easily cost another $1000 to put the thing back together.  Additionally, insurance is entitled to the salvage value it will bring at the auction which factors into what the total loss threshold is. 

If the value was generated by CCC Information Services (what 80% or more of insurers use) it will have comparable vehicles on the report. Unless it's some oddball vehicle, the values are usually pretty accurate. Proving them wrong means you have to find comparable vehicles for sale in your same region that are the identical year, make and model with very similar odometer readings.  A car six states away with 20,000 less miles is not comparable. Or one model year different. Or a different trim level.

We do not "lowball" the first offer. We don't have time or energy to play those games. If the value is truly too low it's usually because of incorrect information. Some cars do not VIN decode very well and a sloppy appraiser will miss options or packages that add value. That is the part of the valuation you really need to review.  Where Hondas are generally one-size-fits-all when they decode,  European cars can have numerous individual options or mysterious packages that are easy to miss. Domestic cars fall somewhere in-between.

In reply to ddavidv :

It won't let me edit, so I'll clarify. 
Not a personal attack on anybody in the insurance industry. Everyone has to work and do the best they can. Sorry if it came out that way. But the industrial machine, I have strong feelings. The idea of disaster coverage is fine, but mandatory, lifelong payments run me wrong, and being on the receiving side of frankly insulting offers is just the icing on top. 

ddavidv said:

I love these threads. So full of half-right advice.

You're not wrong.

But on the insurance hate, many of us have been on the receiving end of some pretty bad experiences. My insurance company twice paid me less for a repair when I told them I was going to take the cash and do it myself, which was illegal at the time. They knew it, I was young and stupid, and they did it to me knowing that. I've had other negative experiences. So whether it's incompetence or not, it still leaves a bad taste in people's mouths. My last accident, the service was atrocious, but the first offer was so good I didn't counter, and accepted it.

You never know what you're going to get, which I think is part of the problem.

ddavidv said:

If the value was generated by CCC Information Services (what 80% or more of insurers use) it will have comparable vehicles on the report. Unless it's some oddball vehicle, the values are usually pretty accurate. Proving them wrong means you have to find comparable vehicles for sale in your same region that are the identical year, make and model with very similar odometer readings.  A car six states away with 20,000 less miles is not comparable. Or one model year different. Or a different trim level.

 

Nothing but love and respect for you David, and if all insurance people were as straightforward it would not be an issue.  CCC is exactly who did the valuation on my wife's car.   For the record 2017 Ford Flex Limited with 70,000 miles.   Their top 3 comps were a 2017 Limited with 165,000 miles, a 2017 SE with 72000 miles and a 2018 SE with 75000 miles which was local enough I went to see it and it was rode hard and put up wet.  Their other 4 comps were outside a 150 mile radius.  So all the things you said, similar miles, same trim level were what they did NOT do.  It took me about 20 minutes online to find 4 comps which were comparable and my agent took another 20 minutes and found 8 more.   Everything is a negotiation, including insurance payouts.  They only time I haven't negotiated an total loss payout was when my H2 got totaled, the determination was dragged out for 2 months so I needed the money to replace it and they did offer me about $5000 more than I paid for it.  Was it worth more?  Probably.  But Im not greedy, it was a reasonable number and it put me in a new(er) truck.

Yup, these threads are always fun.  I was in the business for over 27 years, including being part of senior leadership.  There are no games played, etc...  Adjusters don't have time for that E36 M3, trust me.  It's not a perfect science, so yes negotiating is often part of the process.  OP, let me know if you have any questions. 

"Was" in the business? When did you get out?

I will say, the business is no longer fun for me. Since Kung Flu, so much  has changed, and not for the better. Plus, modern cars are absolutely awful to repair and I'm sick of dealing with them. $5500 headlamps on the new BMW electric whatever-it-is.  I only have 3 more years to go, thank goodness.

I had an old Mustang that was totaled because of a minor fender bender.   The adjuster said I could deduct the salvage value from the settlement check and keep the car.   So that's how I kept that car..     I ended up buying another Mustang and transferring the engine and other "go fast" parts to it.  (1970's)

ddavidv said:

"Was" in the business? When did you get out?

I will say, the business is no longer fun for me. Since Kung Flu, so much  has changed, and not for the better. Plus, modern cars are absolutely awful to repair and I'm sick of dealing with them. $5500 headlamps on the new BMW electric whatever-it-is.  I only have 3 more years to go, thank goodness.

I retired in May.  Now living the dream as a performance driving instructor.