No. The insurance company paid her the full value of the car (assuming the insurance company isn't cheating her by paying wholesale rather than retail). Her problem is that she was upside down on her loan. If she had paid cash for her car when she bought it she would have gotten the same $13,000.
I just checked Kelley Blue Book and they listed $11,249 as the private party sale value for a Focus SE (since I didn't know the exact model). $13k doesn't seem like a ripoff settlement.
If it WAS a Focus SE, turning it into "scrap metal" is impossible; it came from the factory as scrap metal!
HOWEVER, if it was a 2009 Ford Fusion, then she's screwed because the new design sucks, and the 2009 (old design) was a far better design, and you can't even buy the new Ford Fusion with a V-6 engine anymore...you get a 4-banger, or a turbo 4-banger instead as the only choices....I'd sure be pissed if it was MY 2009 Fusion....
You’re upside down to the tune of thousands of dollars the instant you drive the car off the lot. That’s why people (and lien-holders) insist on “replacement value,” not “cash value.”
Ultimately, the likely damaged party will be the lien-holder, not the chick.