After a year of carefree driving, my '13 coupe wa hit last week. Was stopped in a turn lane and a corolla turned into me. I saw him coming and tried to move out of the way, but his right front scraped along my passenger side. Impact was light but door does not close properly and the door frame cracked. Looks like the entire right side needs to be replaced. Anyway $8,300 to repair. After repair will this result in diminished value and how do I determine that?

 

There are companies out there that deal in this, and will write up the report. Just google it and get references. It is basically, what the car is worth if there was no accident, and what the car would be worth with the accident history. The diminished value is the difference.

 

Most insurance cos. max out at 20% of repair cost. In your case $1660.

 

I've had to determine diminished value a couple of times now. It is the difference in value between your repaired vehicle compared to a similar undamaged vehicle.

Both times, I started by collecting KBB and NADA values for my vehicle in both excellent and fair condition. Pay close attention to equipment options when using these data sources as they effect the final "value".

Then I went to the respective dealerships (one was a Nissan and the other was a Chrysler) to talk to the used car sales manager. Both times they were more than happy to give me written "values" for repaired and undamaged versions of my vehicles based on what they've seen in the market place.

After compiling this information, I drafted a letter to my insurance company that included my research and stated the amount I wanted to be compensated for the diminished value.

The first time we were close enough to negotiate a final value between ourselves.

The second time we were too far apart so THEY hired a professional to come out, assess my vehicle, assess the quality of repair, and conduct their own market research. The final report was very thorough and ended up being closer to my number than it was to the insurance companies. I could've lawyered up at that point but decided to settle somewhere between his number and my requested amount.

Be patient if your gonna claim DV and make sure you document and copy EVERYTHING.

Good Luck!

 

Doesn't the topic of diminished value come up more often in the context of older, rarer automobiles?

This is to differentiate, say an '82 Collectors Edition from a "used car" when said vehicle is totaled.

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you might even do a search on here; IIRC, I thought I saw a DV expert from TX on here a couple years ago. these are "consultants" and will either cost you or your insurance co. I like neta's approach above, but it may not be worth your time and effort.

 

$1000-$1500

 

It depends on the state. Their ins co will do what they can to get out of it and it takes months. I used a 3rd party service that cost $3xx, they determined $3300 DV. Ins co and I went back and forth and settled for $2500. This was for $7500 damage. It sounds like your frame is damaged. DV is real though as your car's value is affected. I ended up keeping the Impala for 6 years and new owner didn't care about an accident 4 years ago. Carmax wanted to ding me though.