Oregon supreme court ruled that diminished value should be paid if the car can not be completely restored to pre accident condition.

Diminished value ruling

 

I feel your pain. I've been down this road 3x. I'm like you, when you go for a trade-in they come out with the "paint depth gauge" and try to screw you on the trade in....hence, the problem. We know that we'll take the shaft because there will be an inherent amount of diminished value with any amount of body work that is found. If you were buying a car and could choose between 2 identical cars at the same price and one had body work done....which would you choose? Thats right, the non-damaged one. The way to compensate is to lower the price on the damaged one. So you and I get to lose our money for someone else's idiocy. Whether the incident shows up in carfax or not, you'll still take a hit. Because of the "laws of the land" and the way our gov't protects "cough" our interests vs. the interests of the lobbyists representing the insurance institutes , you can bet that the common man will take the shaft. The last I remember, the people cast the votes, not corporations but yet gov't protects their interests over ours.....sorry, had to put that in there. Im very bitter about this topic...I've lost thousands of dollars because of this exact scenario.
Depending on what state you live in, the law may prohibit you from collecting any diminished value at all. My lawyer states Virginia is one of those states, so hopefully you dont live in Va. But if you happen to live in a state where you can get some DV you'll find that the insurance companies have banded together to come up with some fantastic mathematical formula that tells you what your DV should be. Well, guess who came up with that forumula..... Anyways, that formula is based on many things and they will come back with a ridiculous number. I've found the best thing to do is to tell the insurance company that they are not working in the best interest of their customer (the one who hit you) and that they need to offer a more realistic number or you will have to hire a professional appraiser, at their cost. That has worked for me and I did pretty well with that, but your mileage may vary. In Virginia, personal injury claims and "double dipping", which is legal and common practice here, is about the only recourse you have for DV. In your case, you probably don't have any injuries based on the $$ amount you mentioned. Anyways, feel free to PM me if you would like more info. Im not a lawyer, but we've been hit 3x in the past 2 years and Im a penny pincher, so I've looked at every way to get my money back from the accidents.
Good luck to you, my personal opinion is if someone hits your car, they BUY it! You bought a car that was not in an accident, you should have the right to keep one in that condition until YOU wreck it. As we all know, there are too many laissez-faire drivers out there.....ughhhh

 

This is the real facts...well said

 

Georgia is one of the few states that actually has a DV law. In most states, the insurance companies will say "if the car is repaired to pre-accident condition there is no DV". I just went through this mess with my wifes car. You can take the individual to court in hope of gaining something, but it's a gamble and your attorney will get most of the $. As a rule...you're SOL!

 

I would take pictures of the scratches and keep them.When you decide to sell down the road,you can show why there was paintwork.As long as it wasn't collision damage,I don't think you will get hurt for scratch repair as long as it is a good match.

 

There are services that do this for a fee in Texas. However if you get this scratch taken care of at a local body shop outside the large dealers, it will be unlikely to be placed on a datbase of any sort. Also, I do not think that it sounds substantial enough for anyone to consider it a wrecked car. Sounds like a purely cosmetic issue.

 

Where in hell do you live if its been wrecked they deduct for it on the trade!!!!
z51vett

 

There was an excellent article in a recent issue of Sports Car Market magazine on this very subject.

Try to see if it might be on their website.

http://www.sportscarmarket.com/

 

I was rear ended 3 weeks ago and my car is in the shop now, about $9K damage. I researched and found Georgia has DV laws. Also found a Rakich vs Nationwide case in Ohio where a Columbus lawyer won an $8K judgement. He emailed me that the case was not appealed by Nationwide and that he charges $275/hour. To get DV, it usually has to be third party, not first party insurance, in other words, someone else's insurance co. not your's.There's a guy in Portsmouth, OH who claims to be an expert on DV--name of Dave Williams. He'll come to your area and for about $800 certify your DV loss. Since your's seems to be minor, the cost to you might not justify the $$ outlay. But for me, I'm seriously considering it, There's a dealer who said they would look at it after the repair and give me an opinion of DV. I believe a lot of it boils down to what kinds of troubles the car gives you afterward. I also believe there's an axiom called the "wise man" scenario i.e. if there are 2 of the same kinds of cars on a dealer's lot, both listed for $30000 and one has been in an accident, which one would the wise man choose? If he chooses the one from an accident, he most surely would try to get the price down. That then would be the DV we all would seek. DV seems to be a moving target, something that really can't be pinned down but only guessed at. Just my .02. Good luck.

 

Brother, do I ever agree with you on this one. See my answer to the OP in this thread.

 

If you go trade a car in w/damage,the cost to repair the damage comes off what the car is worth in good condition.What's so strange?I.E. Cars value good shape-2500.Damage cost to fix-1000 bucks.You get 1500 trade value.

 

Most accidents are listed in such things as a Carfax these days. Also a good appraiser will look for accidents on your car. It isn't hard to find them. Overspray here, mismatched paint there, etc. Someone ran into my Impala on Monday and caused about $7k in damage to the right side between the wheels. It is a 2007 so it is still relatively new. It will never be "new" again so I'm going after his insurance company for dimished value. Sorry, but if I sold that car next year, I would get screwed even if it is a few $k. If I didn't sell that car for about 8-10 years then I probably don't have to worry about it but why should I have to pay for the guys mistake. He is the one that decided to enter a highway when the car next to me was turning right into the parking lot.

I'm doing tons of research about this and there are companies that will help you with the insurance company fight. Of course you end up paying them $400 or so but if I get $2-3k in return then it is definitely worth it.

For 1st party (IE your fault) wrecks then I don't see why an insurance company should pay diminished value.

You can argue the the repairs are like new but will never be new. A repair is not new if they are splicing in a new side (just between the wheels).

A lot of states have thrown out 1st party claims to DV in their courts. An old governor in Utah veteod a bill that would have helped the insured but I'm sure he had some insurers' lobbyists making it clear that he will be paid in return.

3rd party claims are different though since it is not that person's fault. Just sometimes, it is probably not worth the hassle.

If you make the claim against your company then that is 1st party.

 

I don't think insurance fraud would ever be the right the way to go. Even if you got away with it you still have to shave in the morning.

 

If you make a claim under --your-- auto policy then thats considered 1st party. Per a prior entry there is mention of this being a 1st party comprehensive coverage claim. It is my understanding that If the vehicle was hit by another vehicle then its going to take 1 st party Collision coverage to pay for the repair and refinish loss. It does not matter who is or is not at fault. Comprehensive coverage usually goes into effect when you make claim for damage by other than collision. This is a general statement but some states have laws unique to themselves where other rules can apply. As an example In some states you might have a $250 comprehensive deductible, You might also have wording in the policy that says when you have a glass claim there is no deductible. So, in this forum we mostly talk about the common coverages. Glass coverage is usually covered under comprehensive. Glass includes headlites, tailites etc. I know of an accident one time where a person on the way to work rolled his old work car. You might think this is a Collision claim. He only had comprehensive and liability coverage. Even w/o collision coverage he received payment for all the glass and plastic damages under comprehensive coverage. I only mention this to show you that no matter how much you think you know or understand, there can be exceptions to exceptions to exceptions.... Going back to the damage to this Corvette, if the responsible persons company makes payment that will be done under the Liability Coverage of the responsibile persons policy.

 

This was my greatest fear with the corvette. The wifes '08 gt convert got hit with 2500 mi. on it. It does look as good as new, and I really didn't care because we'll be keeping the car long term, and I won't be doing over 100mph in it. In my mind, the corvette is a different story. I know it's just a car and can be fixed to perfection, but it'd always be in the back of my mind, especally at a high rate of travel. My next c6 will be "used" so hopefully I can treat it like a car and not a china dish.