Getting an Auto Appraisal from a Certified Auto Appraiser

You've finished restoring your classic car, or your classic has been damaged, and now you need an auto appraiser to tell you what it's worth. Finding a certified auto appraiser may sound difficult, but if you know where to begin looking, it isn't difficult at all. In the following article, you will be given details on appraisers, what they do, how to find one and when you may not need one at all.

An auto appraiser is a person that has been certified or licensed by a state to perform appraisal services for most types of vehicles. Most states require that an auto appraiser be licensed, successfully complete a course in auto appraisal, and pass a state board exam for appraising automobiles.

The Role of Auto Appraisers

Most of the time, independent auto appraisers provide independent appraisal evaluations of used cars. The services of an auto appraiser may be required when you are disputing a claim with an insurance company, or are involved in a lawsuit regarding an automobile accident or a lawsuit relating to damages to your automobile from any other number of circumstances.

Auto appraisers may be employed by either side of a lawsuit. A good auto appraiser can help you establish a reliable value for your used car or truck to use in many types of legal proceedings, or at other times when you need an accurate estimate of a car's worth, and the following are reputable, nationwide appraisers.

Auto Appraisal Resources

Use the following websites and organizations to help get your car appraised properly.

NADA-NADA Guides Online
NADA stands for National Automobile Dealers Association. They are one of the best known appraisers of classic and antique autos. NADA opened for business in 2000, and can give you detailed information regarding how much your vehicle is worth, and how they derived that value. NADA offers pricing information for just about every known make and model of classic cars, from Alfa Romeo and Allard, to Willys-Overland and Zimmer. For more information about NADA, visit their website.

Auto Appraisal Group
The Auto Appraisal Group is an automotive appraisal service that specializes in classic muscle cars, exotic cars and customized street rods. With a nationwide network of certified auto appraisers, the Auto Appraisal Group has been in business since 1989. The owner of the largest collection of exotic, classic and muscle cars, Harold LeMay, uses this group exclusively for auto appraisal services. Values quoted by the group are accepted by courts of law nationwide, for accurate valuations of classic and collectible cars. The group is also certified for diminished value appraisals, when your car has been damaged. For more information, or to schedule an appraisal, visit their website.

Automobile Inspections, LLC
Automobile Inspections is a nationwide network of certified auto appraisers that can inspect your vehicle and give you a full featured report on what they discover, including the certified value of the car. Automobile Inspectors will perform a thorough inspection of the vehicle, inside and out, including the undercarriage. One item of note, inspectors provided by this service won't perform any inspections that require parts removal, such as compression tests. This service also provides a VIN based vehicle history report, along with the full inspection report. This service is also available to Canadian residents. One unique service this company provides is to provide pre-purchase inspections, and if a purchase decision is made, they can also arrange to have the vehicle transported to your destination of choice.

GreatOldCars.com
This service gives you an average value for similar cars. GreatOldCars works only off of information and photos supplied by the customer, and will, within 48 hours, return you a listing of the values that similar cars have sold for at auction. These valuations are accepted by courts, loan companies and insurers. If the valuation provided by this company isn't accepted for whatever reason, they will fully refund your purchase price. For more information, visit their website.

Why Use an Appraiser?

Knowing how much your classic or collectible car is worth is very important when you are looking to obtain insurance for it. Diminished value is when the car or truck is worth much less after an accident, even after the insurer has paid for repair costs. This is just one of several claim scenarios where getting appraisal will help provide documentation that forces the insurance company to pay a vehicle owner for any financial loss that results from an accident.

To figure out whether or not you need an appraisal service, start negotiations with your insurance company now, before you ever file a claim. Talk to an insurance company representative about setting up a value for your vehicle, and if their value doesn't seem quite right, you may want to look into getting an appraisal.

Appraisal Comparisons
Chances are that each auto appraiser quote will be close to the others, since an auto appraiser is trained to be accurate. If the appraisers are good at their job, they're going to come up with figures that will be similar to each other. In the event of an insurance claim, what you want is the one that shows the greatest disparity between the vehicle as it is now, after the accident, and as it was before the accident.

Alternatives to Hiring an Appraisal Service
If a used car owner simply needs an accurate estimate of what his or her vehicle would be worth on the market, you can just go to the Kelley Blue Book site (www.kbb.com), enter a range of information about the vehicle, and get some very specific value estimates. Tools like the Kelley Blue Book site provide values for what the car is worth on a dealer's lot, and what it would be worth in a private sale (when the owner is looking to place a used car classified ad), as well as what it would be worth as a trade-in. Other sites such as this one also help with new and used car pricing.

When Not to Hire an Appraisal Service
In a private party sale, there's usually no need to consult an auto appraisal service. Their findings really won't matter, as it's up to the buyer and the seller to successfully negotiate a price they can agree on. The same is true if you are bringing a vehicle into the dealership. The dealer is not bound to pay a certain price for your trade-in, and so the findings of an appraisal will really be irrelevant.