Trustee wants my vehicle appraised

[OhioFiler]

Brilliant,

I wish I lived in NV I would hire you, you are really looking out for the consumer and taking those extra steps. That has inspired me do the same upon valuing my car in my 13, I will have to share that with my eventual counsel.

Wouldn't the dealer appraisal already include the net effect of needed repairs?

[BKDefender]

I've had a dealer appraisal that didn't include a reduction in cost for replacing the shocks which had 60k miles on them, the cost of aligning the front wheels which were wearing the outside of the tires prematurely and it pulled to one side, fix the parking brake that wouldn't hold (it was a manual transmission vehicle), fix the syncho gear in the transmission (it was hard to shift), and replace the CV joints which were in need of replacement.
The problem with dealer appraisals is that they are mostly trade-in value and do not reflect 'fair' private party pricing which is what the trustee wants. I generally just pull up the kelley blue book value (kbb.com) and if the car owner knows actual mechanical problems then I'll call a mechanic friend and get an estimate on what it would cost to fix it and reduce it by that much. I've only had to do that once because we have such a generous vehicle exemption in Nevada ($15k equity) that was the only time we were close to that amount.

--William

[Dst1]

Wouldn't the dealer appraisal already include the net effect of needed repairs?

No, that is not SOP in the auto industry.

In some states dealers are required by law to fix problems that affect the safety of the vehicle if an ordinary inspection reveals them. But the amount of "reconditioning" varies from nothing to a great deal depending on the make, model, and year of the car. This reconditioning cost is typically passed on to the next retail buyer of the vehicle, not deducted from the price the dealer pays to the original owner.

[pcn]

AL has NO vehicle exemption.