STATE FARM AUTO INSURANCE TOTAL LOSS DEPARTMENT - TAMPA ACV, ARBITRARY VALUE SET BY INSURER, REFUSES TO USE INFORMATION FROM KELLY BLUE BOOK OR NADA, SAYS THEY ARE NOT RELIABLE, ONLY THEIR MADE UP SYSTEM IS ACCURATE. WANTS TO GIVE ME 46216 FOR A SPOTLESS Internet
A State Farm insured turned left in front of my 1997 Ford F150 and the resulting collision totalled my pickup. State Farm accepted liability for the damages. Then comes the nightmare.
My F150 was purchased from a car collector and had a total of 31K miles on it. It had factory painted running boards, roll up tonneau cover, extra dark tinted windows, tires with less than 5K on them, and all four brakes were redone within the past month. Kelly Blue Book valued the truck at $10250 and NADA was over $9K. State Farm self evaluated the truck at $6216. There are ZERO 1997 Ford F150s with 31K miles in the US to compare it with, so State Farm simply valued it as any old 1997 F150. A search of several websites including AutoTrader.com, for any Ford F150 for sale within 100 miles with less than 45K miles on the odometer resulted in an average of $14K for a comperable replacement, based on some of the original equipment and mileage.
We tried to deal with State Farm and they refused saying they do not care what Kelly Blue Book, NADA, or any other company states the value of my truck is, State Farm only cares about its own "Audatex -Autosource" system to provide a valuation.
We offered a compromise of splitting the difference between State Farm's arbitary valuation and Kelly Blue Books, but State Farm has refused to even consider settling the damages in good faith.
The next step is to file suit against the State Farm insured for the value of the property they destroyed and then State Farm will be responsible to represent their insured in that suit. State Farm will spend more $$ to defend the suit that it would be to correctly imdemnify us, but State Farm simply does not care. I am glad they are not "my good neighbor".