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How to Determine the Salvage Value of a Car

Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Related Tags: salvage | vehicle | car | kelley | percentage
 

Instructions

  • Step 1:
    Look up the vehicle's retail value at Kelley Blue Book's website (see Resources). This is the value assigned to the vehicle through a car dealer, assuming the car is in near-perfect condition.
  • Step 2:
    Determine the vehicle's wholesale price or trade-in value by looking it up through National Automobile Dealers Association (see Resources).
  • Step 3:
    Add the two figures and divide them by 2 to get the car's current market value.
  • Step 4:
    Determine the percentage used by the insurance company deeming the vehicle a "salvage vehicle." Sometimes this is 75 percent of the market value, but each insurance company can choose its own percentage.
  • Step 5:
    Multiply the vehicle's current market value (from Step 3) by this percentage to get an estimated salvage value.

Tips & Warnings

  • If you do not know which insurance company is involved, use a few percentages (70, 75, and 80, for example) in the equation to get a range of possible salvage values.

Resources

Photo/Video Credit

http://www.sxc.hu/photo/921217

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