Insurance companies differ on their way of determining actual cash value of a vehicle considered a total loss. So insurance companies also differ on how they take into account recent repairs made to a vehicle before it was totaled. Insurance companies' guidelines as well as state laws are what usually dictate how they factor in these repairs.

The overall condition of the vehicle is usually examined by the insurance company's claim adjuster. If some of your recent repairs to a vehicle were major, like a new engine or transmission, you might be able to have the insurance company take this into consideration and offer a higher settlement amount.

We checked with an Insurance Company's claims manager and this is what we learned:

• Unless the damage was significant and impacted the title, (rebuilt), we usually do not take repair work into consideration. A vehicle with a rebuilt title could have the ACV reduced 30-50%. The ACV can be negatively impacted by poor or shoddy repair work, but it doesn't impact it significantly.

How to Deal with Insurance Adjusters is an article in our Learning Center you might find of interest if your vehicle has been recently declared a total loss.

Comment Update: Unfortunately, it is a very arbitrary process for each insurance company and there are not set rules in place that dictate a rule or guideline. There is a negotiation involved in the process of settling claims, whether there should be is a different discussion. You should keep the recent repairs receipts and discuss that with the adjuster. Once they determine the ACV, you have the opportunity to dispute their judgement and add your thoughts about the ACV determination AND how well they took your recent repairs in their valuation. If you review some of the sites that give vehicle value estimates, you will notice that they do not look at recent repairs as a factor of their valuation. Rather, they look at the overall status of the vehicle condition.