What will I get for my totaled car?

The value is determined by your vehicle’s fair market value (or “actual cash value”) and not what you purchased the vehicle for, nor what you owe on a loan. This means that the car is worth what an identical car could be sold for in today’s market.

Blue Book does not give you complete information.  We recommend using www.cars.com to do a search for similar cars within a 500-mile radius. This will give you asking prices for similar cars. You can also contact dealerships and ask them what they’d list the car for with the same options and the same mileage, etc. 

Bottom line: if the insurance company’s offer is similar to what our own comparables research tells you, then we’d recommend that you accept the offer.  If not, we can negotiate the value upwards for clients by showing the comparables to the carrier and finding some middle ground.