months ago i got hit in my F250. i was driving down the road going 45, and an expedition pulled into the center lane, but she didnt straighten up before i passed. so she hit me as i was passing by. put a small dent in the back left corner of my bed, smashed the ***** out of her front end.

so after months of procrastinating, i finally got to the point where the insurance people called me today. the truck was considered a "total loss". after going through all the stuff my truck has, they gave it a value of $2500 (1500 more then what i got it for). which would be if i sell the truck to them, they give me the 2500. i told them i had other plans for my truck, so they said that price, minus the salvage value or something like that (i was half asleep, i dont remember exactly what it was called), was what i would get. and that the insurance people would have to come and take more pictures.

so my question is, how do i get the most money for my truck, while still keeping it? my thinking is, the lower the salvage value, the more money i get. i have a non-functional ZF5, if i swapped that in place of my T19, then duct-taped the shifter on, would that "lessen" the value of my truck? i also have a spare tire, could i deflate one, then hide the other? how about loosening the exhaust pipe to touch the ground? i also have all of my old accesory belts, which are mostly cracked and worn-out looking....

 

I went through this a few months back with my GMQ. Clean the truck up and fix any little things like a hanging down headliner. When they looked my car over they nit picked everything, they even checked the oil, so make sure the oil is at the correct level. What the adjuster is doing is trying to dock the truck as much as possible, you would be surprised what little it will be decreased though. In my case they only took about $250 off the overall offered price of the car so I kept the car and they gave me the check for $250 under the total value.

I am not big into fraud so I would say leave the truck like it is but make it look as good as possible. They docked me for "soiled" carpet and dash but ti was only a few dozen dollars. I also have the infamous $99 paint job done with rollers I think I lost maybe $50 for that over the nice shiny factory paint. They will also deduct for rust and give credit for things like newer tires or an AM/FM/CD radio. They will then take the info and find some comparable sales within several hundred miles of you and try to determine a value.
Also they never had me start the car or work any of the windows or anything.

I'd just guess if they have already valued it around $2500 you will get a good $2K of that along with keeping the truck. Mine was valued at $1725 IIRC.

 

You're basically asking for advice on how to commit insurance fraud. You're already making money off of this, how greedy can you get? You should be thanking the powers that be that you're even getting any money at all. You're also lucky that the other lady had insurance in the first place, or didn't run off after she hit you.