Has anyone dealt with your vehicle devaluation payoff from an opposing insurance company? First time dealing with this and looking for some advice.

Hello, an idiot ran a red light and smashed into my truck. I have a dashcam and had him dead to rights.

The claim ran through his insurance company which has paid to fix my car, rental etc.

All good.

The dealership I got my car fixed, told me about pursuing a 'devalued' claim, since my truck is a sought-after model and was in pristine condition before the accident they said it was a 'textbook case for devaluation claims'.

I filed that claim with his insurance company and they came back to me with an offer of $1k.

I looked around and got some appraisers who supposedly specialize in this and they said according to their research my car has been devalued by $5500.

They advised if the insurance company does not offer a similar amount I can pay for this paperwork, and then file the case with a small claims court.

They said usually at this point an insurance will up their offer and settle because they do not want to pay legal fees for small claims court.

Now, I call back the insurance company. I am not a litigious person and I do not want to go down this route, I tell them the paperwork I have shows a figure of $5,500 – i hope we can come to some agreement as $1k is far too low.

They immediately jumped to $2k without missing a beat, saying its the final offer.

after discussing it with them, their valuation has some discrepancies;

1) they told me they use KBB and valued my car as 'good' condition, which denotes cosmetic damage (such as car door dings, scratches etc). My car was pristine. It stays in my garage, i work from home, and I am very protective of it. I argued it is in the 'excellent' condition category.

2) when they valued it they did not select the options my truck has, moon roof, premium wheels, and larger offroad tires.

End result KBB says my truck is worth 33-35k, and their valuation when omitting options and lowering the condition comes to 30k.

So they ask me to send receipts of the add-ons I got as options (which you can see in the photos of the vehicle, but alright I'll play ball).

I then get a phone call back and they said their manager is allowing a final offer of $2.5k. Take it or leave it.

Now, on the one hand – i feel like i cannot be bothered with this and i will just accept.

On the other hand, i feel like they know i am owed more money and are seeing if i can be bothered to go down the litigious route.

Has anyone went the route of small claims court? is it as simple as showing up yourself with the appraisal documents? or do you need to hire an attorney?

As if I'm being offered 2.5k but then have to pay for an attorney, it pretty much mitigates the requirement to go to court as i would just be wasting time to gamble on either getting 5k, or even potentially walking away with less than 2.5k.

IDK, i have just never been confronted with this issue before – and have no idea what to do.