grundel

my car got crunched on monday and the repair bill is climbing. nada values a 1997 993 C4S at around $31,000. this is far from the $49,000 market value i found in the January Excelence magazine market update. my car was well cared for and i had 58k miles. prior to the accident i would never have sold it for $31,000 therefore that was not its value... does anybody have any real life recent market experience they could share with me. if you have either sold or purchased such a car recently i would love to have the details. i welcome any solutions to this dilema

face-ache

Forget nada, gold book, excellence etc, you have to look at local sale ads , similar cond, options, miles etc.. remember they are "asking prices" and usually sell for less. your car may indeed be a total, It's all down to economics for the ins co, if the repair bill is anywhere near the net loss, ie (actual cash value less salvage) its toast. You may be able to get a deal on the salvage if you really want it? Have the insurance company given you a value yet? you might be jumping the gun a little. give em a chance and see what they come up with. lots of other cars out there. If the value is close to fair, move on and start from scratch, do you really want to keep a car with a major repair tag on it?

Stealth 993

They have to find out what they sell for with in 150mi of your home, so do a search on 97 C4S's with 58kmi & see what you find. If there is nothing, then they can extend the range. But it has to be a 97 & same miles.

The other thing is to find a private appraiser & have the car appraised.

993_Pilot

Collect all the data you can. Actual sales in your area are the best, but I would go nation wide if that's what it takes. Also bring your adjuster the Excellence article and any other info to help support your case. If you have enough info to support your case, they might change the valuation. If all else fails and you really want to keep it, you can always buy it back from them if the price is right. Just beware that it would now have a salvage title which would drastically effect the value, probably make it harder to sell, and maybe even to insure. Like already someone said, it might be smarter at that point to go find a replacement... they aren't that rare yet. Good Luck!

cdmdriver

Very good point. Do you really want to keep a car with that much damage? Remember the accident will show up on a Carfax.

kjr914

Ouch, yuck... Hate to hear about squished 993s.

Do a search in the archives, as this topic was extensively covered just within the last 6 months with a lot of good inputs.

If they are low balling, just ask them to find your same car (model, miles, condition) at that price, buy it for you and you'll be happy to take the car they've found. Best of luck getting full value!

Warpig

In the future, if you get a replacement 993 you may want to look into a policy with a declared value. I saw that NADA & other "books" had a very low value for these cars compared to "street prices" and went to my insurance company and made them write me a "declared value" policy. I have my value declared right on my policy at the price I paid for the car. I pay a little more in premium because now they are insuring for the "street price" not the "book" price but the difference in premium is literally less than $100 per year. A small price to pay IMO for that fuzzy feeling that "if" something happens I won't loose the ~$15K dollar difference. Good luck, I hope everything works out.

Nick

JPS

You have to do the legwork. It isn't so bad. They assume people will go with whatever they say the value is, or at least hope they do. I did the legwork and got my value up about 40%.

Panorama, autotrader, cars.com, PCNA appraisal letter (free), also dealers such as Holt, Weissach, Sloan, Premier, Willhoit, craigslist. I gave them a spreadsheet of values, plus ALL receipts, plus statements talking about how much I cared for it, wasn't typical, etc. I also documented options on the car, etc.

Worth the effort. But do talk to the mechanic about the damage. If it is frame damage, think carefully. However, you likely will not come out 100% even if you have a bunch of aftermarket stuff. For example, they valued my JIC/Cross suspension (4k installed with corner balance, etc) at $650.

Good luck.

aj986s

I used the valuation info from Excellence to help boost the value of a totaled 944S2. Excellence is based upon a lot of market data, and published annually for many years. GEICO found it to be reputable and it helped me get a very fair settlement (several thousand $$ over any KBB, Edmunds, etc. figures).

4sound

I've been involved with customers in this situation several times. Most of this depends on the adjuster, his boss, and the boss to the adjusters boss and so on.
You need all invoices of all work done. Have the tech who works on the car write up something regarding his opinion of the value and condition.
If you know others with the same type of car, get copies of their appraisals ( if they have one. If they don't, I'd suggest they get one and give a copy to their insure company) Find ad's and any publications that will support to it's value.
I own an independent shop and also have my Calif Dealers license. From time to time, I will receive a random phone call from companies asking my opinion of the value of a certain type of car. These independent companies are hired by insure companies to do value research for them. Last call I was asked what I thought the value of some type of American car was on a specific range they gave me. I have no idea what the value was and nobody asked me if I had a clue regarding values of American made cars. ( I work with Porsche and BMW)
My point is this...you need to do research to get a fair value. By the way, they also should pay you sales tax and pro-rate the amount for the registration left. Do not talk about this until you agreed on an amount of the cars value.
Remember, you need to be reasonable with the amount you want, but this doesn’t mean you should take less that a fair amount.
A suggestion to all with cars that are a few years old, like the 993. Get an appraisal, give a copy to the
insure company. If something down the line happens where it's decided the 993 is a total, you will be in a much better position. If you have any further questions, you can contact me.