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How much for diminished value?

Discussion in 'Dealers & Pricing' started by LatteDrinkingLiberal, Aug 26, 2011.

  1. LatteDrinkingLiberal

    LatteDrinkingLiberal Junior Member

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    I was rear ended yesterday sitting at a light. The other driver was ticketed and their insurance company, State Farm, is paying for the repair. In Georgia we definitely get diminished value compensation. I mentioned it to the adjuster and he said it would depend on the repair cost. INitial estimate is $1200 to replace bumper and paint liftgate, but it may go up once they get it up on a lift and see all possible damage. Vehicle is a 2010 with 10,000 miles. Perfect condition....I was still parking it out the hinterlands away from other cars whenever possible. What should I expect for diminished value compensation?
     
  2. JimN

    JimN Let the games begin!

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    My advice is to talk to an expert--the dealer. If you are replacing the plastic bumper cover and touching up a panel it doesn't sound like you have any damage that is going to diminish the vehicle's value. How much value do you believe your 1st door ding or paint chip is going to knock off?
     
  3. LatteDrinkingLiberal

    LatteDrinkingLiberal Junior Member

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    You are offered 2 cars. They are equal, but one has never been in an accident and one has been rear-ended. You would pay the same for both? I would definitely expect a price reduction on the one that had been hit. I can't see any argument against the fact that value is diminished with an accident and Georgia law definitely provides for it. I will ask the dealer...just wondering if anyone has any other experience to contribute.
     
  4. stevemcelroy

    stevemcelroy Active Member

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    I agree that an accident damaged car is worth less, but that would apply to cars that have had significant damage. In this case the damage was minimal - similar to what you could have done backing into something in a parking lot at 5mph. It does not hurt to ask, but I can not imagine you getting much.
     
  5. ETC(SS)

    ETC(SS) The OTHER One Percenter.....

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    Your car's diminished value will easily be four figures. State Farm should be able to quantify this value just about to the penny, but they're probably going to low ball their guesstimate.
    Think about it. Look on eBay.
    The minute your VIN# got associated with the word "accident", your vehicle's private resale value probably took about a $2000 hit. It's like the words "social disease" on a dating site. Doesn't matter how bad, or how often. Nobody wants to pay market rate for a vehicle that's been in an accident---and that's all the CarFax report is going to say..."accident".
    State Farm's job isn't to make you whole in this matter. It should be....but it isn't. Their job is to make you go away, and to retian as much profit as they can for their investors (that's what they do with the premiums.)
    See if there's an third party agent that specializes in diminished value claims in your area. LEAN on your adjuster for this data, but back check his/her info!!
    If SF balks then you may have to litigate.
    YOUR job is to make you whole after this accident, and a little bit of leg work on your part can make this happen without you having to resort to the neck brace and slimy, sniveling, bed-wetting attorney routine....and let's face it. Nobody wants that.
    Good Luck!
    Let us know how it shakes out.

    My personal guesstimate: (current market value < $0.02) is $2500-$3000.
     
  6. qbee42

    qbee42 My other car is a boat

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    ETS makes a good argument, but I suspect it will be hard to get much for what most will consider cosmetic work.

    Tom
     
  7. SageBrush

    SageBrush Senior Member

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    Appraisals are supposed to be based on local market values, so see what your car is worth on trade-in, compared to similar cars that do not have your repair history. The difference is your diminished value.
     
  8. LatteDrinkingLiberal

    LatteDrinkingLiberal Junior Member

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    I seem to be in a stronger position in Georgia than people might be in other states. My final repairs were $1600 and I am picking up the car today. I did speak to someone I found on the internet who provides DV appraisals. He gave me a dollar value I should expect. If State Farm won't agree, I can get a letter from him for $95 and then I ask for his estimate plus the $95. He said I should hear from State Farm within 48 hours, so I will let you know.
     
  9. Paul58

    Paul58 Mileage Miser

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    Don't know if this will help or not, but my wife backed into our son-in-laws Sububan while backing out of our garage. Yea, I know, she had three mirrors, a back-up camera, and sensors and still didn't see a Suburban! Trust me she feels bad...

    Anyway, the repair cost was over $5000 (2010 Lexus HS250h, damage to the Suburban = 0) and our insurance gave us $1600 for diminished value. Prior to this incident I didn't even know this existed. Thankfully, with her good driving record, we had accident forgiveness and we didn't take a hit on our insurance.

    Sorry to hear about your accident, hope you are alright and your Prius is perfect when you get it back. Just curious, who did the repairs? We had Nalley Collision (behind the Acura Dealership) do ours and they did an awesome job!
     
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  10. web1b

    web1b Active Member

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    Body repairs requiring repainting will diminish the value somewhat especially if it is reported to to CarFAX or another similar service. However, it will be less the longer you wait to sell the car. If you sell a 2010 in 2011 with a repainted tailgate and replaced bumper cover, it will make much more of a difference than if you wait until 2017 to sell the same vehicle.
    If you have photos of the accident damage and you sell to a private party, you can show them the actual damage, because the will likely imagine that it was worse than it was if all they know is that it was "in a wreck"
     
  11. LatteDrinkingLiberal

    LatteDrinkingLiberal Junior Member

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    I had in my mind that, if offered my car pre-accident or post-accident, I would expect $1,000 off the price. I did a free online estimate from Diminished Value of Georgia and they called me with their number.....$1,000. So, the State Farm adjuster never called me, so I called State Farm today and the adjuster called me back. At first he just said he would calculate it and I would get something in the mail next week. I told him I didn't want him to just send me a check because we might not agree. So, he said he would do the calculations and call me back. I was surprised how close he came...he offered $902. I held out for the $1,000...went into how much I have been inconvenienced by this whole thing and I got it....actually, $1015. I guess that extra $15 has to do with his calculation software. The fellow I spoke to from Diminished Value of Georgia said most people don't know to even ask for DV. He also told me (you will all love this) that someone shopping for a Prius is going to be educated (yes we are!) and will get a CarFax, so my value would definitely take a hit. The repair looks great. I had it done where I bought the car...World Toyota. The only problem is that they scratched my front bumper during the service I had done after the repair, so now I am getting a new (free) paint job on the front bumper, too.
     
  12. LatteDrinkingLiberal

    LatteDrinkingLiberal Junior Member

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    Good idea about the photos. I would never have thought about it that way, but, you are right. In the heat of the moment, it looked horrible to me when it happened, but when I look at the pictures, it doesn't look that bad.
     
  13. LatteDrinkingLiberal

    LatteDrinkingLiberal Junior Member

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    World Toyota..where I bought it. They did a good job and I got a Prius as a loaner. BUT, they scratched the front during service and are painting the front bumper. The loaner this time is a Corolla....boy, does it remind me how much I love my Prius!!
     
  14. JimN

    JimN Let the games begin!

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    Are you going after the dealer for the diminished value on your brand new bumper or can you only play that once per part?

    Prius shoppers can't be that well educated since used cars are often misidentified as 2 recent buyers will testify.
     
  15. Pinto Girl

    Pinto Girl New Member

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    I don't know much about diminished value, but if the repairs total $1,600, I don't see how the diminished value can be more than that. Otherwise, everyone would profit from being in a relatively minor accident.

    Glad it wasn't more serious and good luck with the settlement!
     
  16. 32kcolors

    32kcolors Senior Member

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    Diminished value really only comes into play if it gets reported to carfax and the dealer is not going to report damage they caused themselves. Otherwise, the would-be buyer isn't guaranteed to know about the damage.
     
  17. web1b

    web1b Active Member

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    So, it might not be more than that, but do you want to lose $1600 at resale? You still lose value even after the repair is fixed especially if you are trying to sell a car that is close to new. People don't want to buy near new cars that don't have all factory original paint.
    If you sell the car 8 or more years down the road, a repainted body panel won't make much difference. However, if the buyer is unsure of how bad the original damage was, they may avoid buying the car just to be safe and that would still hurt resale.
     
  18. Paul58

    Paul58 Mileage Miser

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    This is true if you are selling to a private party, but being as OP had her selling dealership do the work, if she were to trade it on another Toyota at that dealership, they would be indicating they had no faith in their own body shop if they gave her any less on trade due to the accident, and I would be sure to bring this up if they tried...
     
  19. web1b

    web1b Active Member

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    Simply having the accident history attached to the car makes it less attractive for resale no matter how well it was repaired.
    A car that was repainted "very well" is not the same as a car that never had an accident requiring new paint. People are picky about buying very late model cars. They will simply choose a different car if they are expected to pay the same price for a repainted car as one that was never damaged.
     
  20. Paul58

    Paul58 Mileage Miser

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    I agree 100% with you, what I was saying is the dealership taking the car on trade should not devalue the car if they did the repairs. What's that saying about their body shop?

    Selling it is a totally different process and at that point it has become the dealership's problem, not the prior owner's.

    Dealerships have plenty of leeway on what they give on trades and if they wanted to maintain me as a loyal customer, I'm sure they would give me full trade-in value (as if it's never been in an accident) and make up the loss in other ways...