Someone crashed into my brand new car (only 12k miles on it), no structural damage. I decided to file for devaluation and get an assessment to give my claim the best chance. Upon visiting their office, they explain they must measure the paint thickness, take pics etc. 1hr later they 'prove' what I told them, consistently with the shop records which I procured (repairs, damage cost etc). Days pass and no report. I email them: 'the master appraiser' (the owner) likes to take his sweet time to produce it, requiring 7 business days. When I get the report, I see the 'before accident' value is a bit lower than NADA guides for this particular car, model with options. 'After' value is the same range as what they gave me on the phone before the inspection ($275, demanded upfront btw). In the report there's a list of criteria supposedly documenting the condition of the specific vehicle. Exterior: body, tires, lights, paint, wheels, undercarriage, glass, trim/chrome, top Interior: upholstery, panels, dash/instruments, trunk/cargo, carpet/mats, spare/jack Mechanical: engine, equipment, test ride General: options, originality, market personality Their condition code is 5-excellent, 4-very good, 3-good, 2-fair, 1-poor, 0-no rating Now, get this. I'm anal about this car. It's been garaged both at home and at work. I park it in distant locations to avoid dings. I wrap it in a sealed envelope when I travel. It just did its second ever service, at the dealer. Not a scratch or ding, or glass flaw, or undercarriage issue, chrome fade, interior problem; car super, super clean and meticulously maintained. Electronic bells & whistles, engine in tip top condition. They gave an understandable 3 for body and paint (since it has undergone repairs, now long fixed). But also less then excellent ratings for things not affected by the accident, like glass, lights, wheels, undercarriage, trunk, jack/spare, equipment, options (3), trim/chrome, top, carpet, panels, dash, upholstery, engine (4). When I called to ask why they reported flaws/or even ordinary tear and wear in these areas they said, laughably, that 'the car had endured molecular damage in this areas due to the accident' and that their appraisal was 'conservative' to 'help me negotiate with the insurance company'. The big boss, upon a phone conversation, admitted that he entered data from average market condition, rather than the specifics of my vehicle. Then he proceeded to bs me about how the lowballing was good for my negotiation. So if you think you are paying for an actual service, THINK AGAIN. 1. All the data logging, photo theatrics, pointless: they give you stuff you could have already gotten for free by looking at KBB and NADA. 2. They drag the 'writing process' out to give a false impression they actually provide value. Having visited that office in person I can tell you time stops STILL in there. They're not in a rush one bit. 3. They couldn't care less if you have what you need to negotiate successfully. In what parallel universe is a conservative appraisal a good negotiation starting point? It makes me wonder if they're not in cahoots with insurance companies. If you knew you can work for big companies regularly, and some people like me come and go, whose interests would you care for? They gave my vehicle an overall rating of 'Sound', which in NAAA terms is a vehicle with normal tear and wear (scale 3, instead of a 4, after the accident, which would be much more appropriate). https://www.naaa.com/standards/vehicle_gradingscale.pdf To conclude: SAVE your money. I would absolutely not recommend them because they failed to do what they advertised: a report specifically tailored to the condition of my vehicle and because of their overall unprofessionalism. Incidentally, I gave them a chance to address the issue before I shared experiences and they couldn't give a damn. Apparently they've heard it all before and refused to fix the issue. I wish I could have seen the other reviews that state similar problems. What they did about those? DENIAL, DENIAL, DENIAL, blame/discredit the customer, doctor the reviews. Larry knows his stuff alright -40 years of experience, is it? Do your customers get 'emotional' a lot? I wonder why. read more

I purchased this pre purchase review as a results of a referal from my insurance company Hagerty. I would have preferred to check out the classic car myself but time wasn't available. The person that checked it our gave a very thorough report, probably checked more things than i would have a gave me a pretty good picture of what I was planning to buy. I would use this team of professionals again. Worth the money spent. read more

This outfit is likely the most unprofessional business you will every encounter. I had them do an appraisal on our cars in 2015 to follow up on the appraisals my father had done with them in 2009. Upon receiving the most recent appraisals I evidently had the audacity to call out the discrepancies in their work (i.e. missed equipment, valuations, and condition of the vehicles) and was treated very poorly in the initial contact by a fellow named Justin and then even worse when the appraiser called me back a week later. Don't waste your money with these people. They obviously don't know what they are doing and seem to have contempt for anyone who questions what they do. I would guess the obvious chip on their shoulder comes from the fact that so many of their customers think they are dishonest and less than competent in conducting their business. read more

I used their pre-inspection service. I was satisfied with that part, but they state on the website that if you contract them for that service, for an additional fee of $75 they will provide you with an additional official appraisal if you end up buying the car. I bought the car and admittedly almost a year had passed before I contacted them for the appraisal cert, They informed me they would not honor the original price of $75 and that the car needed to be re-inspected for $350. I offered to provide updated pics and an odometer statement showing since the inspection only 200 mile were driven to no avail. I can appreciate their position of the passed time, but that was in no way represented at the time of sale and is not posted anywhere on the website. They refused to work with me at all to resolve. read more

The owner of this group Mr. Batton advised me they use the trade in value as a starting basis when appraising a vehicle for diminished value loss. I had 2007 Honda S2000 with 20K miles, garage kept, that was in 8 out of 10 condition before being rear ended. I contacted his auto appraisal group to establish the loss of value from the accident. Now I ask anyone: why would I base my starting value on a dealer trade in value? He used that value to determine the loss was12%. 12% of 15k is a whole lot less them 12% of 20k which is the private party valuation. It was a mistake to think since I hired the company they would use a fair value for me the client. I suspect the company does a lot of work for insurance companies. read more

It has been almost a year since I tried to get an estimate from this group. I am glad to see that they are still doing a terrible job. In my case, they had one representative covering NY, NJ and CT and not only was he difficult and would not return the dealer's calls for an appraisal appointment, but when I contacted him he send me a series of misspelled and insulting emails. I cannot understand why they are still in business, but reading the customer emails since (with the exception of Jim D. who comes across as a shill for the company) it would appear that they are still offering terrible service for an inflated price. STAY AWAY FROM THESE GUYS. I ended up taking the car to a garage I trusted and they gave me an honest appraisal of the condition (brakes, engine, body etc.) that I could compare to statistics from KBB (the former Blue Book.) Anyone who experiences what many of us have with this group should contact their state's BBB. I wish I had. I am giving them one star because this review cannot get posted without at least one, in actuality they deserve -3 stars! read more

I would never again get their value range appraisal over the phone or internet. They provided a range without any substantiating information (they would not even provide a single comparable to show that they have given a value range on the correct trim of a car). The value range they gave me is at least $10,000 higher than anything I've found in my research; it is the value range that I've seen for a higher trim of the make and model car I own. To get any proof that they did research on the correct model car, they told me that I would have to pay for the more extensive, expensive appraisal. read more

Larry B. is correct that I work for a dealer. A dealer that caught them in blatant lies to customers to intentionally keep anyone and everyone from buying a vehicle. Here is how it works: If you pay them to do an inspection and you buy the car and they missed something, you could sue them. If you don't buy the car, they don't have to worry about that. We caught them telling people that cars weren't numbers matching despite every number on the car matching. We caught them telling people a V8 car was originally a 6 cylinder car despite the VIN code CLEARLY decoding to an original V8 car. We caught them telling people cars had been wrecked because a rear valance on a classic Mustang didn't fit perfect. Anyone who knows anything about classic Mustangs will know that those didn't fit right from the factory, that has nothing to do with a wreck. They said one car that was a DOCUMENTED MUSEUM piece IT'S ENTIRE LIFE had been restored and repainted. This car had documentation to prove that it had an original 200 miles on it and had never left a museum and was all original. Not to mention another appraiser said he saw NO SIGNS that the car was anything but all original. These guys lied to make sure people didn't buy cars from us to cover their own butts. We allow every other appraisal company in the WORLD into our buildings to appraise cars. That says a lot for the 1 company we won't allow in our buildings. People are starting to see this, as is shown by a 1 star rating from everyone who has rated them here. You can give a good honest appraisal, almost everyone else does it and stays around. For some reason AAG has decided not to do that, and now when people tell us they are going to use AAG we simply tell them to save their money, they're not going to buy a car that AAG appraises. read more

This service is a complete waste of time. I received a range of 8K-12K for my vehicle in an email. I was expecting a professional document with a general statement on it. Save your money and just put 10 vehicles off the internet on an Excel sheet and be done with it. read more