[dradernh]

Originally Posted by Maynard

I thought the agreed upon value policies let you set that? Is it still up to their valuation, even if you declared a higher value?

If you talk with an agent at one of these companies, I think they'll tell you that in the event of the car being totaled they're only going to pay out the actual cash value (market value) of your car. That's regardless of the value you chose that was used to establish the premium.

Another reason to speak with them is to get their input about valuing any modifications you've made. For example, how should a $4K Stoptech BBK that's seen twenty days of track duty be valued? The general advice I received was to take the amount of money I spent on significant upgrades, divide it in half, and add that to my estimate of the market value of the car to come up with a final value for the policy.

I didn't go down the full list of my mods with the agent, but coilovers seemed to be an example of a mod that holds its value, while wheels and tires were considered to have added little or no value. We didn't spend time going into detail, but I would imagine that high-end forged wheels with fresh, expensive rubber would change that calculation to some extent.

When it comes to the mods' increase in the value of a wrecked car, you'd probably end up negotiating. Same thing for the car, too, if you thought that the adjuster was undervaluing it.