Fair Deduction Percentage for Rebuilt?

[stevec77]

My 1994 ford ranger had been totaled in a prior accident and repaired. The Washington state title said it was a Rebuilt. When later, it was again totaled, the victim of another accident, the insurance company deducted a flat 50% off the Mitchell WorkCenter total loss value.

Is 50% consistent with industry practices? It seems arbitrary and too high.

If it is too high how do I challenge it?

Thank you for your opinion and advice.

 

[djs]

50% is probably about right, in fact, it might be lower if the car was newer.

Salvage cars (rebuilt, whatever name you assign) start at 10% of the retail value of the non salvage price and then fight their way up from there, rarely crossing 50% of the value.

Take a moment and think about it the other way around. How much less would the average person pay for a car that had been totalled in a previous accident? Odds are, in general, if the repairs are done well, you are right around 50% of the value. Truthfully, in older cars, this can be somewhat meaningless though, since a good scratch (cosmetic only in nature) can run well over $2000 to fix, frequently exceeding the book value of a 15-20 year old car.

Dan

 

[stevec77]

Thank you Dan, for your reply.