I say always negotiate with your insurance company. My father's 89 740 gle was totaled a year ago, and the initial offer was only 4,000. By the time he had finished it was 10,000 (all canadian so you'll realise why so high). His final tactic was to tell them to find him the same car with about the same milage (in his case only 150,000 km) in the same condition (mint). After they took a look they upped the offer to what it should have been in the first place.

I agree raise hell. A 87 740 with only ONLY 270,000 miles on it was just getting broken in. As Volvo owners we are often pnished because we feel that a little bit of maintanince is much better then a car payment. I would simply ask them to replace your car. This worked for me once. I Told them to find me the same car, in the same condition mine was in, with the same maintance records. This is really what you want anyway right, your car back. It worked for me. They ended up giving me 4600 to the orignial offer of 3,000

Good luck

Don't cave in, as some other posters suggest.

my 87 760 turbo was also just totaled. the insurance companys first offer was 1,600. they said 13 year old car, >200,000 mi. plus wear(badly fading grey paint, small dent right front),

i said 13 year old VOLVO, listed work i'd done in last year, they wouldn't budge on price. i asked them to learn to multiply by 4 and hung up.

i waited a bit before contacting them again. this time i had done more homework. reminding them that they are required ( in usa anyway) to pay replacement value for your car in your local market.(should be somewhat above trade-in value from kbb.com)I quoted going price for simular cars in the paper and online. (aprox 3,800-6,200)they're next offer was about 3,300.

then i brought out recipts for work done in last year(not regular maintenance, but stuff like supension work, radiators, wiring,headgaskets, ect.) you should expect to increase the settlement by about 25-50% of work done.

also if you want your car back the going rate for retaining salvage is 10-15% of totaled value(15-20% on euro cars like volvo's and bmws)

also if anybody was injured they usually want to settle both claims together, DON'T.

settle for your property first, they will usually be nicer because they want you to be freindly when they settle on the injury later.

ok back to mine.

after litlle arguing and homework my final settlement was 4,000 for the car and i bought it back for 600, it still runs good and tho only real problem is the hatch wont open and the tail lights need fixed.

hope this helps and remember the first offer is just that a FIRST offer. they can do much better.

$2000 is good price for old 87 although the right buyer may have paid more, realizing the shape the car was in. Difficult if not impossible to prove this without a boxload of recent receipts on what was put into the car. I have an 87 saab 90t with 240K and a rebuilt engine/trans with 35k on the engine trans and it's in the shop for new front fenders and some minor rear end damage repair...I'll NEVER get what the car is worth to me when some clown hits it, but I'll repair the rust anyway. It's not an economically justifiable ride.

Your best bet may well be to take the $2K and buy another 90 or newer wagon with low mileage, so what if it costs $6K, and get on with life.

Maybe you can buy it back from the insurance company and get all those high priced parts back. Get another 740 wagon like it. You will need room to dismantle the car and store the parts for future use. You could then have the body towed to a salvage yard.

Was the interior and exterior exceptionally clean?

Has the transmission been replaced recently? (270K is definitely near the end for that area.)

Piston rings and crankshaft bearings are probably showing measurable signs of wear.

Clutch, turbo, engine oil seals...?

Brakes, tires...?

If most of the car is original or less than very new, then your car fits in with all the other Volvos, making it "average" in value.

The head gasket is "normal wear" and the wiring harness is something that shouldn't go wrong with any car in its lifetime (a Volvo boo-boo).

The one thing you might be able to fight for is replacement cost, to buy a similar year and model vs. "Actual Cash Value" used by insurance companies.

I checked the Kelly Blue Book (www.kbb.com) and you can probably convince them that the value is closer to $3k. Use both trade and retail to get your value.

At 270,000 miles, your 740 was nearing the end of its useful life. However, you probably would have got at least another 30,000 miles out of it if the rest of the car was in decent mechanical condition. Personally, I would take the $2000 and RUN. But if you were really attached to the car, you could buy it back and, depending on the severity of the accident damage, repair it with junkyard parts. Most of the body parts on that car (rocker panels, fenders, doors, etc.) are "bolt-ons." If you husband is mechanically competent enough to repair a headgasket, he could probably fix the body damage if you can find the right parts at the wrecker's.

But again, my personal opinion is that the car served you very well for 13 years and a quarter million miles, and it did what it was designed to do (protect you in a collison), and you are being offered what I feel is very fair value for the car. If it had half its current mileage, it might be worth fighting the insurance co., but at 270k it is questionable how much life is left in the car, even with a new headgasket. I have an '84 240 wagon with 287,000 miles. It has been a very reliable and dependable car, but if it got totaled tomorrow and the insurance company offered me $2000 (which I doubt), I wouldn't even have to think twice.

If you are really in love with this car, you might think about putting the money towards a newer 740 or 940 turbo wagon. The 940 has the same powerplant, but is more "refined" and doesn't have the same issues that the 740 does (e.g. wiring harness failure). I doubt that the insurance company will be very flexible about this, but if you feel cheated, one way to get more for the car (especially considering the money and effort that you and your husband have put into it recently) would be to buy it back from the insurance co. and part it out. That is, disassemble the major parts of the car and sell them individually. This is usually what the wrecking yard will do with most totaled cars. You could probably get $500 for the engine + turbo alone. Not to mention the ECU, fuel pumps, brand new wiring harness, distributor, exhaust, etc. This kind of items are in high demand for cars of this vintage and are sold on EBay all the time.

Just my $0.02. I'm sure others will chime in.

If you have all the time in the world, tell them their offer is unacceptable, and to give you a call when they grow a brain. Eventually some supervisor somewhere is going to get unhappy about the old file, and maybe they will be more reasonable. The other possibility is to find every Volvo ad in the universe and show him what the cars really sell for, and how mileage does not affect a volvo the same way it affects a Chevette.

The third possibility would be to avoid beating your head on a brick wall, take their check, and tell them to go f*** themselves. The third option might be the least painful in the long run.