Effective negotiation strategies state farm insurance when car totaled?

They ran a list of alleged comps. The first one, was price dealer paid at auto auction. They are not offering retail, nada, blue book. Ideas welcome and appreciated. 2003 Cadillac 64750 miles Condition: Clean One Owner. Florida. Garaged. No prior accidents. Base price $47,209. Has white diamond paint. Won't cover $699 dealer fee. Only offer $35 transfer. Help.
Additional Details
Thanks insurance adjuster.
Can they cherry pick or is the database selected for them by audatex?

My car has a special paint.

Seems like the comps are not selective enough..they got rental cars, wrecked cars.

Appreciate the answers.

I want to be "made whole".

Any special terms to use?

Will getting an appraisal help?

Kizzy

A lot depends on who your dealing with. Is this your carrier or the liable carrier (of the person that hit you)?

With your own carrier you have some leverage due to being a 1st party claim. They don't 'make you whole' again. They owe actual cash value for the vehicle. For special paint to even be considered, it has to be within a certain period of time and you must present a receipt. You can try to locate your own comps and then negotiate the amount. Also, most policies have an appraisal clause which you can invoke.

If this is with the liable carrier, you'll have a difficult time budging them. They are not contracted with you and literally don't give a hoot what you think your vehicles worth. They locate comps and usually that's the bottom line.

Good luck to you!!

MSAD

No insurance company is going to cover the dealer fee. They don't owe you that.

What you are owed is the Actual Cash Value of your vehicle. That means what the car reasonably could have sold for given it's age, condition and mileage.

Ask them to send you a copy of the market survey they ran so you can review it. If it did not pull up enough suitable comps - they can run it again with a larger search radius. This should result in more vehicles being used to base the market survey value.

EDIT: the market survey program I use (Total Logic) - I can't select the cars. It picks cars that have sold (dealers and private sales).

The paint job...is this something that you paid for? If so - give them a copy of the receipt. Most market survey programs will let you add in for this type of thing. You put in the date of the item and the cost. The program gives a credit based on this info.

A special paint job may not add to the value of your car. Cars are not investments. Many things that are done to them to customize the car...you do because you like it. In most cases you don't get your money back out of it. But, if you have the receipt - see if they will run the market survey again considering that info.

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