Mike Romain wrote:
> Don't forget about taxes! You are entitled to the taxes also if they
> are charged in your area. You had to pay them on the first vehicle, so
> they are part of replacement. Same for dealer prep and gas.

My car was "totaled" after it was stolen and stripped for parts. The
value of parts gone was probably less than the value I got, but then
there's the labor. Also - a lot of stripped cars tend to have tiny
problems that seem to go on forever. I got a list of local for sale
offers for similar cars, which were used to arrive at a value. The
adjuster was telling me that the offer was likely more than I could
have realistically sold it for. I thought I might have been able to
sell for $4500, but I got almost $7000 from the insurance.

I haven't heard of sales tax in private sales. That's basically what
my offer was based on. I was thinking of selling it anyways so I
didn't have to put out the effort.

> Also don't forget that the adjuster doesn't get paid until your case is
> off his desk. It gives you a bit of leverage.

How's this for irony? Not only did I get the total value, but my
insurance company paid for my registration fees (pro-rated of course).
Since my car was no longer insured, I also got a pro-rated refund of
my insurance on the car. It wasn't that much, since I had two cars
and there's an incremental amount for the second car. It was still
a few hundred bucks.