I was hit by a FedEx truck, and the adjuster is convinced it will be a total write off.
Car is in average condition with 183k. Nada value is between $4400 to $10650 and Edmunds shows about $500 to $1200... So what should I actually expect?

You should provide some details about the value ranges you cite, since they appear to cover the range from "Poor" to "Good."

At 183K miles and your owner's opinion of "average" I would expect the actual cash value (ACV) to be towards the lower end of the range.

I strongly suggest that you do a web search for cars matching yours in your general area to find estimates with which to counter a lowball offer by the adjuster.

I expect you'd have a difficult time selling it (pre-hit) for more than $2K. Unless you can show a bunch of money put into it in recent years making for above average running condition and reliability, I'd likely opt for any settlement north of $2k.

Somewhere north of $2,000 is probably the reasonable number.

Insurance companies look at comparable cars on the market for sale. They do not usually look at NADA (the two companies my two friends work for do not), they have some other valuation system, but I cannot remember what it is called, but it is based on comps. You can always ask the adjuster to send you the comps they used. Usually 3 - 5 cars they have found for sale. If something seems out of line, bring it to their attention and find some comparables of your own on say cars.com, autotrader, etc. Maybe if they have a bunch of 260Es in there or something. The problem is with $2,000 cars the deviations in price won't be all that big.

You should get on a well known auto classifieds website and come up with a rough number of what you think the car is worth so you've got something to think about when they tell you their valuation of the car.


For example a friend totaled his Porsche 996 and he discovered none of the comps had the factory Aero Kit, which was a $6,000 option. He found some Aero Pack comps and ended up getting like $1,500 more. Granted that was a $30,000 car. He showed them tons of receipts for recent work done to the car and they did not seem to care, other than they couldn't dock the car for being in poor shape, but it did not ADD to the value. Others experiences may vary.

When my truck got totaled their comps were spot on, and actually fairly generous (my truck is a 92 V6, they used all 95s and one V8). But I always do ask to see the comps just to see where their number came from.

__________________
68 280SL - 70 280SL - 70 300SEL 3.5 - 72 350SL - 72 280SEL 4.5 - 72 220 - 72 220D - 73 450SL - 84 230GE - 87 200TD - 90 190E 2.0 - 03 G500

Nissan GTR - Nissan Skyline GTS25T - Toyota GTFour - Rover Mini - Toyota Land Cruiser HJ60 - Cadillac Eldorado - BMW E30 - BMW 135i

NADA classic guides suck. I've never seen stuff sell for their numbers. Run a 1994 E320 with the same miles, oldest, closest thing KBB will show and you get $2,043 - $2,318

__________________
68 280SL - 70 280SL - 70 300SEL 3.5 - 72 350SL - 72 280SEL 4.5 - 72 220 - 72 220D - 73 450SL - 84 230GE - 87 200TD - 90 190E 2.0 - 03 G500

Nissan GTR - Nissan Skyline GTS25T - Toyota GTFour - Rover Mini - Toyota Land Cruiser HJ60 - Cadillac Eldorado - BMW E30 - BMW 135i

Average condition and 183K?
Two grand is all the money on that car.

Similar 94-95 E320s are more desireable, and commonly found for not much, if any, more. The W124 price is held down by the low price of the W210.

Now, if you had a low mileage, top condition sedan, well that's a different story......

Jim

__________________
14 E250 BlueTEC black. 45k miles
95 E320 Cabriolet Emerald green 66k miles
94 E320 Cabriolet Emerald green 152k miles
85 300TD 4 spd man, euro bumpers and lights, 15" Pentas dark blue 274k miles

No, I think those are the value ranges that each site is providing. Edmunds is always absurdly low and NADA is always absurdly high.

__________________
"Senior Luna, your sense of humor is still loco... but we love it, anyway." -rickymay ____ "Your sense of humor is still loco... " -MBeige ____ "Señor Luna, your sense of humor is quite järjetön" -Delibes

1982 300SD -- 211k, Texas car, tranny issues ____ 1979 240D 4-speed 234k -- turbo and tuned IP, third world taxi hot rod

2 Samuel 12:13: "David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die."

Agreed on finding local comparables.
Do you carry collision on the car?
If you do, you should have your insurance company look at it and write a sheet. Your own company tends to be a little more generous in their assessment, especially if they know they will be subrogating with another carrier.

When I hit a deer with my 83SD, the adjuster was amazed that it never totaled out... 280k on the clock and it still withstood $1800 in repairs.

I did source out parts for the car myself at better prices than they could find, so when he wrote the sheet, I fed him most of the part prices. I know a few people in the auto recycling business and worked a few good deals. Might have gone differently if he had come up with prices himself.

__________________
On some nights I still believe that a car with the fuel gauge on empty can run about fifty more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio. - HST

1983 300SD - 305000
1984 Toyota Landcruiser - 190000
1994 GMC Jimmy - 203000

https://media.giphy.com/media/X3nnss8PAj5aU/giphy.gif

I appreciate all of the replies. What are my options if they really low ball me?

Negotiate based on facts. If all else fails, register a consumer complaint with your state's insurance regulatory agency.

You really don't have any options. They own you and they own the collision repair industry. You can't fight them because lawyers can't afford to work for the kind of money involved. It sucks but when all of the talking is over they will do whatever in the hell they want to do.

While this I agree with - conventional wisdom. It's not what seems to be happening with totaled vintage MBs. Somehow, many stories are doubling, tripling, or garnering even more from insurance companies, from what the conventional resale examples would seem to dictate.

With a spread of numbers like that, you've got a lot of latitude to work with, if the car is totalled.

$4900.01 first offer, didn't even bother negotiating.

Minus $200 and I can keep it with a clean title.

Anyone have an experience replacing the tack welded core support?

$4,900 is a great settlement, BUT trust me, they OVERALLOW on the CAR, if you were IN it and there is a possibility you/passenger(s) might have been hurt, they LOVE to overallow on CAR settlements if there's a good chance that by doing so, the owner will NOT mind, or will accept, a pitifully low FINAL settlement for injuries, especially soft tissue stuff like whiplash, that the nature and extent of is tough to determine, or the injuries are permanent ..


When I was an auto insurance afdjuster (many long years ago) I was AMAZED at how many policy holders actually cared about, and fought for, getting their damaged cars fixed and not totaled out, after a bad collision, and at the same time, accepted a pittance or nothing at all, for their injuries and possible future problems to their OWN BODIES!

Insurance companies, in the auto BI adjusting departments, exploit this a LOT.

They are pretty cynical, they take advantage of people and save HUGE amounts
of money when they encounter policyholders/claimants with that mind set.

Once the check is signed, the check is cashed, that's THE END.

Your neck starts hurting bad, 3 months later, TOUGH LUCK.

It said on the back of the check, "BY endorsing the check, this is a FULL AND FINAL release of any and all claims of any nature arising from this claim".

You are out of luck.

You cashed the check.

__________________
1991 560 SEC AMG, 199k <---- 300 hp 10:1 ECE euro HV ...

1995 E 420, 170k "The Red Plum" (sold)

2015 BMW 535i xdrive awd Stage 1 DINAN, 6k, <----364 hp

1967 Mercury Cougar, 49k

2013 Jaguar XF, 20k <----340 hp Supercharged, All Wheel Drive (sold)

I did not receive or cash the check. I turned down the $1000 dollar offer for the injury settlement. I was almost intrigued just to get it over with but Ive been having a nuisances of a back pain for the last few days... which is great in my line of work. Im not really interested in taking this to the whole next level with lawyers and a lawsuit, however I would like to be compensated for future medical and therapy treatments and for the simple fact I now have to live and work with this for an unknown period of time.