Real-Time ACV vs. Dealer Surveys

Is your dealer-survey total-loss value too low?

An insurer dealer survey is a handful of quotes solicited on one afternoon — opaque, and it can run low. We price your actual cash value from what cars like yours are actually selling for right now, with every comp shown and dated.

"A dealer survey is three phone calls from one afternoon. We use what cars like yours are actually selling for right now."
Dimension
InsurifyAI report
Insurer dealer survey
Where the number comes from
Live listings + real transaction data pulled at claim time
A few phone/email quotes an insurer solicits from dealers
How fresh the data is
Real-time — reflects today's market
One-time, whenever they called
Sample size
The full set of comparable listings for your vehicle
Often just three quotes from one afternoon
Who it's built for
The car owner — independent
The insurer paying the claim
Transparency
Every comparable shown, sourced, and dated
Opaque — you rarely see the raw quotes
Which way the number tends to move
The defensible, current market number
Depends on which dealers were called

"Dealer survey" refers to the practice of soliciting dealer quotes to set a total-loss value. Comparison reflects how each valuation is typically produced.

Why real-time wins

Real-time

Priced from live market data the day your claim is worked — not three calls from one afternoon.

Independent

Built for you, not for the insurer paying the claim. No incentive to trend the number down.

Transparent

Every comparable vehicle is shown, sourced, and dated. A dealer survey's raw quotes rarely are.

What a dealer survey actually is

Understanding how the number is built is how you push back on it.

The dealer survey
  • A few dealers called on one afternoon
  • Quotes you never see in full
  • Snapshot frozen at that moment
  • Solicited by the party paying you
The InsurifyAI report
  • The full set of comparable listings
  • Every comp shown, sourced & dated
  • Priced the day the claim is worked
  • Independent — built for you

Prices move every week — so a one-afternoon survey can miss the current market. A timestamped, sourced report is what stands up when you push back.

A flat fee, not a cut of what you recover.

A percentage fee comes out of whatever extra the insurer pays. Our fee is flat, so it stays the same however much you recover. Compare what you would keep.

From $500 to $25,000. An estimate, not a prediction.

Claim type

On $4,000, you keep $3,651 with InsurifyAI, and $2,680 with an attorney.

  • Attorney

    Typical fee: 33% contingency

    You keep

    $2,680

    They take $1,320

  • InsurifyAI

    Full Claim Kit: $349 flat

    You keep

    $3,651

    You pay $349, flat. No cut of the recovery.

If your claim recovers less than $500 after using the Full Claim Kit, we refund your purchase in full. Guarantee terms

Typical fee ranges are industry estimates and vary by provider and state. Attorneys often charge about 33%, and some add costs. Confirm any provider’s terms directly.

Sources for the typical ranges, not any named provider’s fees: published contingency rates of diminished-value recovery services, and the one-third contingency common in attorney fee agreements.

Those options handle the claim for you. The kit gives you the valuation evidence and letters to respond to the insurer yourself.

Results vary. Not legal advice.

Car owners

See what your car is really worth today — with the real listings to back it up.

Run a real-time report

Body shops

Hand your customers a real-time ACV with every comparable shown and dated.

Become a partner shop

Related: CCC ONE valuation vs. real-time market value