Rebuilt transmission increase resale value?

quahaniequahanie Member Posts: 2
edited October 2015 in Ford
I had a Ford Explorer 2002 with 119,000 miles. It needed a new transmission so I had that work done 6 mo ago. Included a 3 year warranty. The Ford was recently in an accident and Allstate totaled it. Other party's fault. Allstate is not willing to compensate for the new transmission. Is that fair? Should having a new transmission with a transferable warranty increase the resale value of the vehicle? Thanks, -Tim

Comments

  • steverstever Guest Posts: 52,454
    edited October 2015
    Interesting question.

    If I'm buying a used car, I expect it to have a working transmission and I'm not inclined to pay extra for a car with a rebuilt one in it. Having a warranty on the transmission may make me more likely to buy the car (although the idea of a rebuilt may just scare me off), but I wouldn't pay extra.

    A family car of ours was totaled and the engine had recently been rebuilt. The insurance company talked to our mechanic and gave us more value for the car because of that. But that was ~40 years ago.

    Check out the comparables tips in Confessions of an Auto Claims Adjuster Unfortunately with an older model, even one not especially miled up like yours, the comps aren't going to be all that great.
  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    Well basically the insurance company's argument is that once installed, every rebuilt transmission then becomes a used transmission, and so value increase would be minimal.

    You can always get your own appraisal done if you don't agree with the settlement. That will often encourage the insurance company to offer more money. If they don't, you still have the right to arbitration, to let a referee settle whether their appraisal or yours is the more accurate.

    It all depends on how far apart you and the insurance company are. If you had to hire your own appraiser, + go through an arbitration, this might cost you an additional $600 or so. On the positive side, usually when you go to arbitration, you at least get something, so you'll break even and hopefully come out ahead.

    You have to decide if all this hassle is worth it.
  • quahaniequahanie Member Posts: 2
    @stever: Thanks for the link. Good inside info there. 40 years ago, even 10 years ago, insurance employees actually made decisions but now it seems they leave things up to computer algorithms. And our new transmission doesn't compute.

    @Mr_Shiftright: Good tip on pursuing arbitration. I'll check into that process. We're still pretty far apart from Allstate's very low-balled amount. There's no way we can find a similar vehicle with what they have on the table.
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