My daughter had a 2015 Infiniti QX60 with ~115k miles on it. It's been a great car for the 18 months she's driven it.

We just recently shopped for my 2nd daughter and had a hard time finding anything comparable to that for under 10-12k and most were more than that.

Her's had a pretty good scratch on the rear passenger door and a back taillight that worked, but had a crack in the plastic and needed to eventually be replaced. Otherwise, nothing that I would even think to need to "fix" or replace.

She ran into a friends truck a few weeks ago. His truck was fine, but it crunched the front passenger side of hers pretty good. Body shop gave Progressive a $5,800 estimate, they totaled it and offered us about $7,500 (before removing our deductible). That feels crazy to me, but I'm doubting I have much recourse. Alternatively, I can get paid out around the body shop estimate (again, before deductible) if I want to just take possession again and get it fixed.

What recourse do I have (if any)? Am I completely over estimating a fair price for this thing? Most of the listings I find are more than that price even with 30k+ more miles on them.

Will it change the state of the title (salvage, etc.) if I do ask to just get the car and the payout vs the total loss?

Several threads on this, but long story short is you do have recourse. Dig in your heels, provide comps and all the evidence you can regarding the condition of your daughters vehicle. Regarding the title, taking the payment and keeping the vehicle may or may not result in a salvage title, that one seems to be a roll of the dice, but if you plan to drive it forever it probably doesn't matter

Thanks - that's what I was thinking on the title - it may not matter. I doubt we'd ever expect to sell it for anything other than scrap. I read that it may limit what providers will cover to liability only, but I wouldn't expect to put any additional coverages on it at that point anyhow.

I'll dig for some other threads as well.

You should certainly be sending them any and every comp you come across.

When my truck was stolen, I preemptively found comps and sent them ~20 pages worth of receipts. Their very first offer came in to be more than fair.

When our Infiniti M37 flooded during Harvey I was happy w/ the payout quote but asked how they came to it. They said a company pulls comps so I asked for them and got a list of 5 comps in the area. 2 of them were still online but higher than the listed comp price (dealerships probably realized how tight the market would be and jacked up prices) so they increased it like $2,500.

Possibly easy due to 500K cars being flooded and all the wrecked houses overwhelming insurance folks.

Make sure you get comps in your area. I've seen multiple cases of comps from the InsCo in a random part of the US…always felt it was to provide the lowest values

Finally got to see their comps. Basically, every car on the list is between $9500-14000. All same make/model, all similar mileage.

They're just adjusting the hell out of most of them down because of things like trim level and entertainment package.

There are 2 that are almost identical comps that went for $9900 (a few miles less than ours) and $7800 (a few miles more). Those were both after doing like 5-10% adjustments.

The other 4 comps were all adjusted down between 30-45%. So the cars that are bringing the average way down (final estimates around $6500 on 2 of them) both started at $12k+.

Going to push back on those even being considered "comps". Also going to push back on the idea that a DVD entertainment system is a $1k difference on an 11 year old car.

We'll see what happens.

Have you compiled your own data with similar vehicles in your market for sale right now?

There are only 2 I can find within 100 miles.

One is $9900 with about 10k fewer miles. The other is $9000 with 20k more miles.

I expect the'll do the same thing with those 2 try to reduce them by 30% or more, but I will include them.

They have to make you whole has always been my understanding.

If a car similar to your make/model/trim/mileage is selling for $9,000 then show them that comp and refuse any offers for less. Also, it has to be with in 50-miles, so they can't usually take comps from 2-states away.

A few years ago, we had 4 cars totaled within about 1.5 years. (not our fault)

I fought this battle each time. Sometimes I'd get the offer up slightly, but usually not what I thought was fair, based on comps I found.

All State was the worst of the bunch. They basically said, if you dont like what we're offering, file with your own insurance company and see if they'll pay out higher (subrogation).

They know you don't want to do that, so they just stick their feet in the mud.

Good luck.