B4V Value?

macksemil

Member
Joined
Oct 3, 2016
Location
Oregon
TDI
1996 B4V
Going through this process myself due to some body damage.. insurance company wants to total it and pay me $2300. Having a hard time finding comparable vehicles that aren't e-bay or forums, etc. NiceCars will do a qualified appraisal for $500, but that's pretty steep. I'd do it if it was the only option, could pay out in the end, has anyone used them before for this?
 

Diesel_Aggie

Veteran Member
Joined
Nov 3, 2005
Location
College Station, Texas
TDI
1996 B4, 1996 B4V
In 2010 I tried to get Nice Cars to provide documentation/appraisal. I had no luck. At that time their phone sometimes worked, sometimes did not. For quality documentation of real sales I would have gladly paid $3-500. Actual sales get adjusters attention the best.

macksemil are you familiar with how to do a nationwide search on searchtempest.com? That's where you will find the most B4s for sale.
 

Diesel_Aggie

Veteran Member
Joined
Nov 3, 2005
Location
College Station, Texas
TDI
1996 B4, 1996 B4V
I realize their reputation and ethics are questionable. I certainly wouldn't want to buy a vehicle from them. In the situation of trying to fight an insurance company when a B4 is totaled they would have sales/appraisal data that would be extremely helpful in getting an insurance company to pay correctly. If you can document actual sales from a dealer backed up with contracts that carries 10 times more weight than internet asking prices and ebay sales.
 

kooyajerms

grocery getter
Joined
May 5, 2004
Location
Pomona, Southern California
TDI
97 B4V (mine), 11 x5 35d (hers) 04 V10 (that one you want), 2014 Q7 (mom's) 74 Shasta 1400
No one wants to work with them considering their reputation for selling. But is anyone here going to help you get a fair valuation on your rare (now) b4v? Who's going to get Diesel Aggie the bump he needs to not get shafted by the insurance company ? Anyone raise their hand yet?

I used nice cars for my insurance claim. My situation was more in my favor regarding a third party appraisal since I also had so much documentation and receipts to backup my own stupid high valuation. This and sales tickets that Nice cars had made a big difference . My wagon isn't exactly stock.

He was showing the adjuster actual sales he had done vs comps that most appraisers would find. That was the big difference. If you've spoken to him on the phone, well, you know what he can do ;)

Not many specialized tdi sellers out there (wild rose hasn't sold in ages), so you gotta do what you gotta do. eBay ads aren't going to sway an adjuster .

My initial offer was $1500 Comp vs a green sedan(green!!) . 6 months later with the appraisal, second appraisal, arbitration and umpire ($500 +$250) I got my final valuation at $12,500.

You wanna fight?
 

macksemil

Member
Joined
Oct 3, 2016
Location
Oregon
TDI
1996 B4V
Thanks for the info. Part of the reason I ask is because of their reputation. I probably wouldn't use them if I saw another way to keep from getting a salvage title due to minor body damage. Glad to hear this worked for someone in the past. The adjuster didn't care about the eBay, craigslist or forum listings and they nor I have been able to find any comparable vehicles for sale through dealerships.

As an aside, anyone know where a guy could get a green front driver's side corner panel? :)
 

Bob S.

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 17, 2006
Location
Central MD.
TDI
A B4V, some ALHs & BRMs
Do not hesitate to push back, and push back very hard, on the adjuster. Politely, very politely and professionally push back. Do your homework and due diligence. Do not accept their low offers. The insurance companies want to close their claims files as quickly as possible, and a minimum cost. Time is on your side.

If you are having difficultly assembling the needed documentation, retain the services of a Public Adjuster if they are permitted in your state. Get and appraisal. Use Nice Cars as it makes sense and they are near you in the same market area. Alternately, retain an appraisal from an appraiser with a personal property &/or automotive certification.

What is wrong with using comparable sale data from Ebay (& similar), forums, & specialty venues:confused:? They are valid market places. Is the adjuster refusing to accept such? If that is the case, file a complaint with his/her supervisor.

Go public with the name of the insurance company if they are treating you poorly. They hate bad press as it counters their many $$$ spent advertising what trusted, fair, & nice companies & people they are :rolleyes:.

Also, do not hesitate to call file a complaint with your state's insurance commissioner's office, especially if you believe the insurance company or adjuster is acting in bad faith.
 

TDIL3dad

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 21, 2012
Location
N. VA
TDI
96 B4, 96 B4V project
Get on the ins company website and give them thumbs down on their feedback.
Also, send in an email through their website saying something like you need a senior manager to get involved beyond local adjuster. Explain that B4 TDI are uncommon and have a following and a higher re-sale value. Finally, ask in your message the rhetorical question, what do I have to do get you to pay attention to details of my case? start posting negative feedback on blogs?

After I posted one such negative feedback on a blog using unemotional factual language, and saying something like there are other insurers out there that I can use, I got my insurer's attention and they paid for my damage appropriately after initial shabby damage appraisal.
 

macksemil

Member
Joined
Oct 3, 2016
Location
Oregon
TDI
1996 B4V
First valuation from dealership was too low, I disagreed. Second valuation from calling multiple dealerships was also too low, I disagreed. Then they hired an appraiser, who called me and basically asked what I paid for it, and if I would be happy with slightly less than that (difference was a few hundred dollars). I said I thought that would be a fair offer. Today insurance called and offered exactly that amount, I accepted, now they will pay for all the damages and I get to keep my clean title.

Took about 1.5 months to go through the process. If their hired appraiser went too low, my next option would have been to hire NiceCars. Progressive said they would have reimbursed the expense of that if my hired appraisal came back with a higher value than theirs, so it would have ended up costing me nothing. Thankfully, they made a reasonable offer before that was necessary.

Anyway - if you're in this situation keep disagreeing until you get something reasonable, apparently that does the trick.
 

kooyajerms

grocery getter
Joined
May 5, 2004
Location
Pomona, Southern California
TDI
97 B4V (mine), 11 x5 35d (hers) 04 V10 (that one you want), 2014 Q7 (mom's) 74 Shasta 1400
Glad it worked out!, Now you have to tell us the valuations, that check won't bounce if you do. Promise.

Help the other members here with what it looks like to disagree.

First valuation from dealership was too low, I disagreed. Second valuation from calling multiple dealerships was also too low, I disagreed. Then they hired an appraiser, who called me and basically asked what I paid for it, and if I would be happy with slightly less than that (difference was a few hundred dollars). I said I thought that would be a fair offer. Today insurance called and offered exactly that amount, I accepted, now they will pay for all the damages and I get to keep my clean title.

Took about 1.5 months to go through the process. If their hired appraiser went too low, my next option would have been to hire NiceCars. Progressive said they would have reimbursed the expense of that if my hired appraisal came back with a higher value than theirs, so it would have ended up costing me nothing. Thankfully, they made a reasonable offer before that was necessary.

Anyway - if you're in this situation keep disagreeing until you get something reasonable, apparently that does the trick.
 

macksemil

Member
Joined
Oct 3, 2016
Location
Oregon
TDI
1996 B4V
The value I accepted was $5000, note here that mine is a swapped 96 GLX wagon. I think that I could have gotten a higher value going through NiceCars, but once we got above them totalling it it wasn't going to affect the outcome so I accepted.

The process of disagreeing was pretty low key. It went something like this:

Adjuster: "We got the value back from the dealership, they put it at $2400."
Me: "Well, I bought it for more than double that, so that's not going to work for me."
Adjuster: "If you can find a comparable listing, go ahead and show it to us."
Me: "These things are rare and don't go through dealerships when they are sold usually."
Adjuster: "I'll make a note on this that you disagree with the value and pass it off to your claim manager, no problem."

Repeat for the second step when they contacted two dealerships and offered $2200 the second time. Then they hired an appraiser. That went like this:

Appraiser: "All right, we're starting over, tell me about your car."
Me: tells him all the normal stuff about the car, mileage, features, history, etc, what I paid for it
Appraiser: "So if I could support a value of around $5000 would you be happy with that?"
Me: "Yeah, I think that would be a pretty fair offer."
Appraiser: "OK, I'll put the right value on your car don't worry."

Adjuster calls 2 days later

Adjuster: "Turns out your car is repairable now!"
Me: "Great, what did they put the value at?"
Adjuster: "$5,000."

Note the damage was estimated at $2,800 for a door smash, dent in rocker and fairly crumpled left fender. Anyone that has leads on a left fender I'm all ears :). The door I'll just pop out and touch up the chipped paint, rocker I'll just touch up the chipped paint. Turns out a 55 gallon barrel full of water doesn't mess around when rolling downhill. Just glad I wasn't between the two objects. Car easy to fix, broken legs not so much.
 
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TDIL3dad

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 21, 2012
Location
N. VA
TDI
96 B4, 96 B4V project
I just had an accident driving my 96 B4V home from work on the Interstate near where I live in N. Virginia. A large white SUV came to a complete stop for no reason, the next car was a small Honda that managed to stop just short of hitting the SUV and I hit my brakes but hit the rear of the Honda causing a good amount of damage to my front end. Minimal damage to the Honda rear bumper shell. The white SUV then took off.


Now I have a double hassle on hand. The police report says I caused the accident by driving too close even though both me and the Honda driver both stated that a third car, the white SUV, stopped completely for no reason and then sped off. I will hire a lawyer asap.

Then of course there is the insurance hassle. My hood crumbled, my left fender is dented and my grill and grill surround plus one headlight are smashed. And to make it more interesting, both my car and the Honda are insured by GEICO so I can guess that GEICO will try to pay as little as possible for the entire event by low-balling my appraisal.


Any hints and recommendations are welcome. Links to recent sales in your local areas, Craigs list etc would be helpful.


Also, any leads on a blue hood, blue left fender and blue grill surround would be appreciated.


I will also contact Nice Cars TDI and see about obtaining a professional appraisal. I have spent the last 3 plus years upgrading the car to GLX specs with VR6 suspension using nothing but genuine VW parts that I went to great lengths to source from Germany when NLA in the US.
 

Steve Addy

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 7, 2002
Location
Iowa
TDI
97 Mk3
I just had an accident driving my 96 B4V home from work on the Interstate near where I live in N. Virginia. A large white SUV came to a complete stop for no reason, the next car was a small Honda that managed to stop just short of hitting the SUV and I hit my brakes but hit the rear of the Honda causing a good amount of damage to my front end. Minimal damage to the Honda rear bumper shell. The white SUV then took off.


Now I have a double hassle on hand. The police report says I caused the accident by driving too close even though both me and the Honda driver both stated that a third car, the white SUV, stopped completely for no reason and then sped off. I will hire a lawyer asap.

Then of course there is the insurance hassle. My hood crumbled, my left fender is dented and my grill and grill surround plus one headlight are smashed. And to make it more interesting, both my car and the Honda are insured by GEICO so I can guess that GEICO will try to pay as little as possible for the entire event by low-balling my appraisal.


Any hints and recommendations are welcome. Links to recent sales in your local areas, Craigs list etc would be helpful.


Also, any leads on a blue hood, blue left fender and blue grill surround would be appreciated.


I will also contact Nice Cars TDI and see about obtaining a professional appraisal. I have spent the last 3 plus years upgrading the car to GLX specs with VR6 suspension using nothing but genuine VW parts that I went to great lengths to source from Germany when NLA in the US.
I am very sorry to hear about your accident. I know how long it has taken you to get that car to where you wanted it to be and now to have to deal with insurance is no fun.

Hopefully you will be able to find replacement parts that are in good shape.

I don't know what's going on but driving around here has also gotten to be risky business, people are driving like crazies and there's no real reason for it.

Steve
 

Abacus

That helpful B4 guy
Joined
Nov 10, 2007
Location
Relocated from Maine to Dewey, AZ
TDI
Only the B4V left
Sorry to hear about the accident. Contact TDIDaveNH asap as he is parting out 3 B4’s in various states, and 2 of them were GLX’s. I’m not sure what he has left. I’ll PM you his contact info.
 

tdidieselbobny

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Apr 4, 2005
Location
Stafford,NY (WNY)
TDI
'03 Galactic Blue Jetta TDI, '15 Silk Blue Golf Sportwagen TDI
Too bad you didn't have a dash cam. Get hold of member Jetter Sprinta, I think he had some Windsor blue B4's in various conditions at one time , not sure if he still has them. At least your ok, and that's all that matters.
 

TDIL3dad

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 21, 2012
Location
N. VA
TDI
96 B4, 96 B4V project
Too bad you didn't have a dash cam. ....... At least your ok, and that's all that matters.

Thanks for the kind note. Yes indeed this event made me a believer and a dash cam is already on order.

My son recently had a glancing hit as he was driving minding his own business. Initially both his insurance and police department blamed him for the accident and damage to his car. His dash cam video that he provided to his insurance company and police department turned things around in his favor. You can guess what he told me after my mishap?
 

TDIL3dad

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 21, 2012
Location
N. VA
TDI
96 B4, 96 B4V project
GEICO my insurer decided to total my B4V, however they were willing to accept a market value private appraisal when I pushed back. As someone above suggested, I contacted NiceCarsTDI and paid for their appraisal service. They asked me for extensive pictures and documentation of maintenance, repairs and upgrades which I provided. I then submitted the private appraisal to GEICO and today they accepted it and decided they will pay to repair the car.

Some parts needed for the repair / restoration are still available from VW USA and other parts will have to be ordered from VW Germany.
 

torahtom

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 24, 2007
Location
Elizabeth, CO
TDI
1996 Passat Sedan, 250K
If you want to replace it I have a cherry marroon one with so many mod's I can not list them all here. Call me if you are interested as I don't check this forum much. Thomas at 808-346-8743 808-855-0537. I also have 12 bins of parts for this car that will fit either a 96 or 97
 
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