I bought my 2007 Prius for approx $28,500 in July of 2007. About 3 weeks ago, I skid on some black ice and ended up taking the Prius 4 wheel driving -- unintentionally -- of course. In case you were wondering, Prius don't do well when driving off road. I walked away unhurt -- thank goodness!! Very lucky.
I filed with my insurance company. They have determined that the car is a total loss (damage throughout the underside of the car and the axels) and are compensating me with $27,000. I believe they determined the value of the car by looking at the blue book value of the car. Two observations:
- The blue book was written in advance of the current market "recession" and massive decrease in car and home prices. I really wonder if I could have sold my car for the blue book value ! ;-)
- Makes me wonder about what other weird asset valuations are going on as a result of the timing of the publication of "blue books". Are home appraisers giving accurate reflections of housing values during all these re-fi's? What do you think?
