I wanted to ping the forum to see if I could hear about some experiences with collecting diminished value after an accident.

As background, my car was rear-ended while stopped in traffic in mid-October. The driver of the car that hit me was insured and has sufficient coverage. His insurance company accepted liability for the accident.

That's about all the good news, though. For the last two and a half months, I have been fighting with his insurance company for a fair resolution. They've been extremely difficult to work with and have downright lied to me repeatedly about what they are doing (I have written documentation that proves this.) Ultimately, I have opted to have my own insurance company repair the car and subrogate back to the at-fault driver's insurance company.

While my insurance company will cover the cost of repairs, they will not cover diminished value or loss of use of the vehicle.

The at-fault driver's insurance company is not offering loss of use beyond November 24, which is the date that they made their first unreasonable offer to settle. They are offering nothing for diminished value.

After reviewing my options, I have retained an attorney and am prepared to litigate if necessary to recover my losses.

What I am asking for here is help from the forum in fairly establishing the diminished value as a result of the accident. I would be interested in hearing from anyone who's successfully collected diminished value. I would be interested in hearing from anyone who has experience establishing the value of a car that's been repaired (maybe someone who negotiates trade-in values of used cars.) I would be really interested in hearing about links to actual for sale or sold cars that reflect a diminished value history.

Here is some information about my own car:

It's a 2008 triple black Convertible with 26400 miles. 3LT, Z51, NPP, Nav, Chrome Wheels. Prior to the accident, it was in very good to excellent condition.

In the accident, the car was hit from behind and pushed into the car in front of me. Repairs to the front consist of replacing the front bumper skin and badge, and repainting the hood. Repairs to the rear are more complicated. The rear crossmember has to be replaced. The trunk tub is epoxied to the crosssmember and has to be removed. To do this, much of the back half of the car needs to be disassembled and reassembled. The rear bumper skin and NPP exhaust need to be replaced. The rear deck lid needs to be repainted due to scratches when broken glass from the car behind me flew over and into the car (my top was down at the time of the accident.) And of course the new bumper skins need to be painted to match.

The total cost of the repairs is around $18,000.

Thanks for any information or suggestions.

-Wade
I

 

Suggestion: go to search, advanced search, upper left, type in "diminished value", limit to C6 General. threads will come up over the past 2-3 years.

 

Wade,

I am in the insurance business and also do vehicle appraisal as a side job. DV claims are not hard to prove, just need to invest some time and a little money.

What company are you dealing with? and what kind of money are you thinking your going to get? You can PM if you like.

Not seeing the estimate or photos of your vehicle it sounds like the repairs are nearly 50% value of the vehicle. Loss of use, they own reasonable loss of use, if the shop said it will take x days to repair then they owe for x days. -/+

If you take your vehicle to a dealer to trade it in, they will ask about prior crash history and will value your trade in less because of that, how much is the 64k question.

If you had 2 2008 vette side by side on wrecked and one never wrecked how much more will a buyer pay for the non wrecked one?

I have been able to get clients DV money based on appraisal of vehicle and % of value lost due to repairing the vehicle.

You may need to hire a independent appraiser, or even file a small claim suit against the driver. Were you injured?
Jc

 

Someone hit my 07 Impala SS over 2 years ago and caused $7.5k of damage on the right side between the wheels. I went after his company for DV thru a 3rd party company. The 3rd party company had an appraiser come out and do a fair appraisal. I submitted my claim based on the instructions provided by the DV company. Back and forth for about 2 months and I ended up with $2500 - about $350 for their service. Insurance company was saying cosmetic damage isn't diminished value. I had structural damage though.

 

I was under the impression that diminished value is capped at half the damage to the car in some states. I would go for that - 9k.

 

Thanks Cj,

I've sent a PM.

 

Excellent answer. I, too, have had instances where I have helped customers get DV adjustments, and agree that your advise is spot-on. I'm not in the insurance business, but work for a highline car dealership and have given customers just the kind of side-by-side comparisons you discuss.

And being in the car business, I can tell you as important as it is that you get an adjustment on a used car, it is critical to get it on a new untitled vehicle that has been damaged, i.e. when a service customer bangs up a loaner, or someone wrecks on on a test drive. NO ONE is going to touch car that vs. a new unbent one without some serious discounts.

 

DV claims are the most difficult part of adjusting a claim. How it SHOULD work, would be when the car is expected to sell or trade.

If, early on you have crash history that was significant enough to warrant DV, then the claim may have some validity.

If on the other hand, you have a significant crash early on, get it fixed,keep the car for 5-6 years and pile on 100,000 miles, the original DV claim means nothing.

Problem is, insurance guys, is you know you can't hold the claim open for years until the sale.

Been in the aviation business for 30+ years. It for the most part, isn't even a factor for consideration until these claims get into million dollar aircraft and up. Then by the time loss of use (temporary expense for use of another aircraft - like a 25 mil G5) at that point, whats another million for DV?

I'm surprised auto companies even get all tangled up in DV claims. Waste of time, IMO... and filing small claims suit seems more fruitless.

Have just been far too involved in aviation that arguing for a couple hundred, maybe a thousand bucks seems so trivial in the big picture of things...