<p>That’s redundant. (It is illegal to not have insurance)</p>
<p>“It is illegal to not have insurance”</p>
<p>Not in NH.</p>
<p>We carry uninsured drivers insurance because insurance isn’t require here.</p>
<p>Illegals refers to illegal aliens. They’re illegally in the country and police usually don’t bother with them if they’re caught. If you’re illegal anyways, why bother with observing a requirement to carry insurance.</p>
<p>I would check out listings for similar used cars. Years ago my 3 year old car was totaled and the comparables were more than blue book. I got the comparable plus sales tax, which of course could not buy a new car of the same make and model, but was not as bad as I thought. I think the market price, which is usually more than blue book is the correct price. Blue book is more of a wholesale or reseller price, and then they add on to sell it to someone else. I am no expert, but a little internet research could help you out.</p>
<p>good luck.</p>
<p>We are having problems with comparable because even though the car was 10+ years old, it was low mileage. We knew the previous owner and maintenance. The things wrong were not critical to the operation of the car but things they could ding you for like really worn leather seats and worn convertible top. . </p>
<p>DH refuses to deal with the miscellaneous shifty folks who deal in cars that might meet comps. You really never know where those cars came from. We are in a metro area where it is not like dealing with the folks down the street. So he only looks at dealers or people we know. For what they are giving us, we have not found anything close. A couple of $1000 more would do it but a more recent year. Not any like ours out there.</p>
<p>If you maintain your car well, it’s tough because the average owner doesn’t and that drags down overall values. The utility value of your well-maintained vehicle may be far more than the market price of a vehicle.</p>
<p>My Avalon has 170,000 and runs like new. I’m meticulous about maintenance and would be pretty annoyed if something like this happened to it. However, the general demographic of Avalon owners is mid-50s and I think that owners tend to maintain them well.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, unless you’ve bought specific “replacement” insurance (which I don’t know even exists for car insurance - it does for home owner’s insurance), you get the current, depreciated value of the car. That’s rarely enough to get a new one.</p>
<p>It happened to us, too - someone stole our older car and then trashed it. We had just put a new transmission in it (that eliminated any thought of fraud involved - who puts a new transmission in only to destroy the car for the insurance money?). We had intended to keep the car for several more years, so didn’t have money saved for a new one, and didn’t get nearly enough for it to buy another one.</p>
<p>And unfortunately, you wouldn’t do any better if you sued the person who totalled your car. You will never get more than the current, depreciated value of the vehicle.</p>
<p>I was reended in NY and as far as I know everyone agreed it was the other guy’s fault. We’d just finished paying for the car, and were looking forward to having no car payments for a while. The new (used) car cost a lot, though I do like it better than the original. Still we are back to car payments, and it’s not a zero percent financing deal this time.</p>
<p>We do old cars routinely in our house. Buy 3-4 yr old used cars for ourselves and college age son. We’ve been fortunate to find reliable cars here in NJ.
Son’s 1997 Mercury Sable wagon was purchased 3 years ago for $2400. The ‘check engine’ light just went on, it’s at 105,000 miles and probably won’t accompany him to grad school in Michigan if that’s where he’s going. But it’s served it’s purpose.</p>
<p>I had someone ‘total’ my 12 year old minivan a few years ago and here in NJ they ‘let’ me keep it after the insurance company paid me about $500. It wasn’t a complicated process. I drove it another 2 years and then donated it.<br>
I think the process varies by state. Best of luck</p>