Getting your car appraised!!!

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DadGum_Teen

DadGum_Teen

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I think they need a sticky for this one, to keep the good Auto-lovin people from getting scammed by the insurance companies. Just a thought though.

I am here to ask about car appraisals. If we put our heads together we might be able to accomplish a list of things to do, and not to do, when you have your car appraised.
Besides the initial Kelly Blue Book, what do independent appraisers really look for? Do they check underneath the car for neatness? Do they look for poor craftsmanship? Is it possible that they lower the value of the car when ugly Nick-knacks get in the way, such as your O'Reilly coolant overflow tank? Or tacky wiring jobs in plain sight? What really matters when it comes to appraising a car?
And are you suppose to mention that you have a big meaty cam with your Trick-Flow heads (just a reference) hidden beneath the valve covers? Or your recent re-build with only 1,000 miles?
What about little things? How much value can you gain for replacing that cracked dash top? Or removing the fine swirls in your paint and wheels?

And finally, how are you suppose to go about bringing value into the investments you've made if you have no receipts to prove what the parts are worth? On average, do these people know a little bit about after-market prices? Or is he going to call your $150 Tach, worthless and unnecessary?

I cannot find anything on Google about what the average car appraiser looks for in a car. Therefore I am lost, and I'm sure I'm not alone.
Thanks for any input!
 
res1vw21 said:
ask JR. Thats what he does
(360scamp)
Click to expand...

Make sure you offer him bacon lol
Truthfully, he knows his stuff and is the go to guy with no b.s.
It's his living, so he has to be good and to the point.
There was a thread on this awhile ago. Maybe do a search and you will find it.
Tom.
 
I know a guy that owns a car appraisal company, he's been in business for years, actually getting ready to retire. He told me there are guidelines set by the appraisal industry that all professional appraisers use to rate a car and give it a score, and they look at everything inside and out. He explained to me how they do it a couple years ago, I'll try and explain it the way he explained it to me, hope I remembered it correctly.

lets say they look over your car and give it a score of 75. Then they will look at what cars like yours have sold for at auction recently, (like BJ) and compare the scores.

Lets say one sold at auction for lets say $20,000 and had a score of 100, another sold for $19,000 and had a score of 95, another sold for $17,000 and had a score of 85, they will use that to value your car. Your car scored 75 so they will take that and compare it to the ones that sold at auction and figure around $15,000 then they look at other points of the car and will usually write it up with a value of $14,000-$16,000 and will probably ad some notes to cover modification values.

The more receipts you have the better because he has more to work with to add value to the scored value but not completely necessary for an appraisal.
 
idk what they did but my dad had his 63 valiant sedan appraised at 8k only way the car insureance ppl paid for the repairs when he got a front end wreck
 
Doing auto appraisals for 13 years has it's advantages, like when this happened to my 73...

http://s88.photobucket.com/albums/k199/360scamp/Aug 1st 2009 10am/?start=all

Allstate sent their "adjuster" out to look at my car (in my driveway, NEVER let them take your car from the scene of the accident if there is a way YOU can get it HOME) and he was going off about how these old darts aren't worth that much and there may not be too much that they can do. I stopped him, handed him my card, opened the garage door so he could look at the 48 and told him that I have the documented history of my Dart since it was sold to the first owner whos son I bought it from.
He turned out to be a very nice guy that wrote me a very nice check so I could fix my car.:-D
 
I bought mine and Hagerty (ins. co) asked me what it was worth. I told them that it booked for $6500, so they insured me full coverage, no deductable, for $182/year.
 
The last appraisal i had done cost me $250 and it was done by an independent guy with no affiliation to any insurance company,he did a very good job,checking everything on the car glass,stainless,bumpers,condition of paint,underside of car,interior,wanted to know exactely what was done to the motor/trans and rearend then took some very nice pictures of everything,i thought it was worth the money spent especially when i sold the car and everything i had done to it was documented with pictures....
 
stroked 340 said:
The last appraisal i had done cost me $250 and it was done by an independent guy with no affiliation to any insurance company,he did a very good job,checking everything on the car glass,stainless,bumpers,condition of paint,underside of car,interior,wanted to know exactely what was done to the motor/trans and rearend then took some very nice pictures of everything,i thought it was worth the money spent especially when i sold the car and everything i had done to it was documented with pictures....
Click to expand...

Keep his number! Guys like that are getting harder to find. That is how we do it, we are independant appraisers and work for and against insurance companies. We charge $300 for a single car (there are buddy discounts), more than one car we drop it to $250 per car, the more cars the cheaper it gets, if we have to goto court it is $150 an hr from the time we leave the house until we get home.

It helps to have a car guy look at your car!
 
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