True Value of car? Any lawyers out there?

Adidas · 07-18-2010, 12:44 PM

Hellow all. Sure this question may be posted in wrong section but I'll give it a shot. Probably more of a legal question. What determines the "true value" of a car. My brother and his wife has seperated(his wife moved out without warning). She took the car. The car is titled in BOTH of their names. She has since contacted him and stated that she wants to keep the car. We have agreed to sell her our "half" of the car at a "fair market value". She has responded with a low trade in value that was given to her by our local CarMax used auto dealer. After doing some research on the web using the Kelley Blue book and NADA book values(all car dealers use these) we have found that the retail value of the car is $5000 more that what she is offering! How is a fair market value determined in a case like this? It's obvious we want more. Is a lawyer needed? Any ideas on a strategy for our response to her? Thanks in Advance. BILL

Macroni · Macroni's Garage

This needs to be handled by the attorneys or arbitrators of the separation and divorce. Sorry for the pain and troubles.

Noah930 · Noah930's Garage

Tell her to sell the car at low-ball value, then split the proceeds 50:50. If she wants it back that badly, she can go buy it back.

Otherwise, what pastaboy said, above.

Dueller · 07-18-2010, 01:20 PM

Agree on KBB fair market private seller price...be realistic about the condition the car is in (i.e., most cars are NOT "excellent'). Brother does have leverage...she can't do a thing with it or he can get get it himself since both names are on the title.

In any event hey're only $2500 apart...may be a small price to pay to get rid of the beyotch.

ToddM · ToddM's Garage

I would tell her it was worth more and tell her to look under the car to see how immaculate it is, then I would jump in and run the B___ over with it, but that is just me. I am in no way recommending this is a good idea or solution.

Dueller · 07-18-2010, 03:22 PM

To illustrate my advice, I plugged in a mid range 2007 Accord on KBB...

Trade in was $14,700
Private Party was $17,100
Retail was $20,000

She's a dumbazz if she thinks she should use trade in unless your brother is trading a car with her.
He's a dumbazz if he thinks he should use high retail unless he's a dealer selling it to her..

Use friggin' private party of a car in "good" not "excellent" condition. I don't care how clean it is unless he had a complete fluid change service, put tires, belts, detailed it and touched up every ding or rock chip yesterday, it ain't an "excellent" per the book.

So they're likely just $1200 or so apart.

Trust me...there are plenty of cars in your brother's future. Don't let this stand in the way of him moving on.

JeremyD · JeremyD's Garage

I wasted about $1000 on two attorney's arguing over a grill that on a good day wasn't worth $100 - I told her she could have it - no - she wanted me to have it - but also to cost me $1000 worth of stuff... I ended up winning in the long term because I no longer had to deal with the psycho biotch

tcar · 06:57 PM

He needs a Separation Agreement as I understand it. The car, among other things, would be dealt with there, or in the Divorce.

Dueller · 07-18-2010, 06:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tcar

He needs a Separation Agreement as I understand it. The car, among other things, would be dealt with there, or in the Divorce.

Certainly...but how do you set a value on the items to be divided? Either come to some sgreement between yourselves or turn it over to three strangers in the form of a judge and 2 $$$$/hour lawyers who will likely come up with solutions nobody is happy with or can live with?

If he were my client I'd say "She wants to use low trade in and you want to use high retail...you two need to compromise and value it at middle private party." Or say well if you think the car is only worth $14,000 then the living room furniture you want is worth the $11,000 we paid for it 5 years ago.

My answer would be different if she wanted to value husband's business to be divided at $500,000 and it was only worth $100,000. We're talking about a real swing of $1250 here.

I see so many people wasting tons of money fighting over this kind of crap. Its stupid on the part of the litigants and tantamount to malpractice by the attorneys who facilitate such disputes.

sobamaflyer · sobamaflyer's Garage

I assume since the OP posted in our Porsche 911 tech forum the auto in question is a 911. One first needs to know what car and what vintage (I'm going to go out on a limb and say it's got water running through it's veins)

My thought on this aside from the reasonable assertions above about the arbitrators/attorneys is that depending on what it is book values may have nothing to do with the actual (sellable) value.

EX: I plugged an '85 911 Coupe into NADA, it says a low retail of $17k and high of $27k. There's no way anyone with sense would pay $17k for a sub-par Carrera these days (I'd call that about $6k too high).

So, without more information this question is unanswerable not to mention these folks certainly have much bigger problems (and I'd say more arguments present) than a $2500 disparity over the value of a car

twistoffat · 07-18-2010, 11:45 PM

Buy her half out. If its really 5k under retail and shes using the CarMax valuation the pay up and sell it on if need be but the reality is its the woman and not the car you got to get out of your life. Good luck whatever you do

KCTarga3.2 · KCTarga3.2's Garage

If it is titled in both their names, how can she just take the car and say she wants to keep it? If that's the case, he should "take" the house and let her keep the car.

Carmax should be considered "trade in value" not private seller. Carmax lowballs their offers so they can re-sell for profit. I took my acura there many years back and left laughing at their offer.

As far as a lawyer is concerned, she is going to need more than one estimate to determine what your half should be. My suggestion would be to go get your own estimate from a local porsche shop and ask them to highball it. With a high and low est. value - you should be right where you wanted to be.

racer · 06:42 AM

The car has your brothers name.. and his wifes name, yet you refer to "we have" decided what it is worth. Are you a "silent" partner of the car in question?

If your name isn't on the title, I don't think you get a say

Sounds like its time to "lawyer up". Division of property.