Diminished Value claim after collision

5484 Views 13 Replies 7 Participants Last post by garyveganj, 3 mo ago

MadMax

Discussion Starter · Mar 30, 2016

So I got sideswiped last week by someone not knowing how to check for traffic when pulling out of a backed up lane into mine. Not very exciting collision picture, drivers door has to be replaced, body work the rest of the way down. more then 90% of the damage was caused by her tire poking out of the wheel well. Only one small section where the bumper actually contacted my car.

To my question. I know this car is going to have diminished value once this shows up on the carfax. So if for instance I wanted to trade the car in at the end of the year, it's current Edmunds value is say at about $19,000 tradein, maybe $22000 retail, CPO is $23245. I'm going to submit a claim to the at fault insurance carrier for diminished value. But what do I go by?

For instance, my old maxima was on Edmunds around $8-9k. I had offers for trade around 8k, then when they pulled the car fax the offers dropped to around 5k. Final trade was $5500. Down almost 3k as it too also been sideswiped. I would estimate that around 30-35% lost value. Is that the same goby I should be asking for now? How would any of you handle this?

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Scynthyace

· #2 · Mar 30, 2016

I would ask your insurance company what they would value the car at post accident, and then check with your neighborhood KIA to do a trade appraisal. You can then take that, versus what it was worth pre-accident to figure that out. You could also get it appraised by CarMax, they'll probably offer you auction price last I checked auction Price for a Cadenza w/ no accident on record, but repaint was $18k.

My father's BRZ was involved in a wreck when a dump truck dumped tons worth of boulders on the highway. After the repairs the car which had 503 miles on it went from a value of $29,500 was worth $17,500. That's a huge hit!

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sh30469

· #3 · Mar 31, 2016

With our cars already suffering from terrible value loss I would assume it would be worth even less. Provided you do trade your car within the next several years I bet you're going to take a pretty good hit from depreciation, not to mention your car's now tarnished title. Good luck on it.

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MadMax

Discussion Starter · #4 · Apr 4, 2016

I did get a response from the at fault adjuster...he wants to wait until repairs are final, they will go through the motions, and we'll negotiate a value to the lose. Car's in the shop as of today, couple weeks they said to get it done. Of course it will be probably a couple weeks after that. I will let everyone know how that goes.

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sh30469

· #5 · Apr 5, 2016

A couple of weeks? What the ****. When someone took off the front end of my Nissan Rouge (arguably probably much easier to get parts for) the shop only took 1 week. That included new metal front quarter panels, whole new front bumper, rear bumper (somehow blew off the back bumper), hood, and painting almost every panel except rear doors and trunk lid. How is your shop estimating several weeks? That's insane...

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MadMax

Discussion Starter · #6 · Apr 5, 2016

Take it easy man, you'll blow a rod! It's a busy shop, they get a lot of cars in. In fact I had to wait 2 weeks just to bring it in for them to start on it. and to be fair he said 7-10 days. I don't mind it taking a little longer as long as all the things are done right.

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MadMax

Discussion Starter · #7 · Apr 11, 2016

It's easily going to be 2 weeks now. The door they got was damaged, and they've had a hard time getting a replacement with the weather up north where it's coming from. ...is what it is.

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sh30469

· #8 · Apr 12, 2016

Still can't believe it would take that long.

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k5OUN

· #9 · Apr 12, 2016

As far as how to work a deal on the diminished value, check your area for independent vehicle adjusters. While its not a free service, it may be worth your money.

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jrlennington

· #10 · Apr 13, 2016

So I happen not only to be a Cadenza owner... but I also work as an auto insurance claims adjuster.

People tend to make a big deal over depreciated value claims, when in fact there isn't all ways a means to an end.

Your adjuster that you are likely working with is most likely going to have you present a depreciated value claim to their company. As such you will likely need to hire an independent appraiser to review the estimate initial provided to you, the items repaired, the total cost of repair, etc. This is likely to cost you $500 to $1000 depending obviously which agency you chose.

Keep it mind that obviously the physical amount that was paid out regarding these damages is more important that the fact that your vehicle is damaged. For example people all ways think that a $300 rear bumper cover claim causes $2500 in depreciation and there frankly no mechanism for that. People by damaged cars all the day and are none the wiser.

However lets say the damages to your vehicle are between $5k and $10k you likely have an amount that could actually impact the resale of your vehicle.

Depending on which insurance company is handling the damages to your vehicle they are likely to use aftermarket or like kind quality parts... and in some cases used parts. I doubt that they would use OEM.

This is an important bargaining chip for you when it comes to depreciation as all in all these aren't OEM parts. Period. Point blank. End of story. Yes aftermarket parts meet the same manufacturing criteria as OEM... but they aren't called OEM for a reason.

You will likely have a hard time coming up with local comparative vehicles, since the Cadenza is not a mass marketed vehicle. It might be beneficial for you to do some independent research outside of your own area to figure out what vehicles similar to Y/M/M to yours are selling for and in the past I have seen dealerships help customers in this process.

I have gone through my own depreciated claim. A heads up if you have a lien holder or still make payments to a financial institution be aware that the insurance company may be required by law to issue the check in your name and their name. I had something similar happen to me where basically Toyota Motor Credit created an account for me to hold my depreciated value check. If I returned my lease Toyota got to keep the check. If I bought my vehicle I got to keep the check.

I know this is alot of information. I hope this helps.

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rmorris7

· #11 · Apr 13, 2016

Same thing happened to me when I totaled my 2014 Kia Cadenza. I still owed money on it and my insurance cut me a check for about 22,000 which went straight to my financial institution. And Gap insurance covered the rest. Never seen any physical check though.

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sh30469

· #12 · Apr 13, 2016

At least you thought ahead and had GAP

It's law here to have it on all leases so I'm covered.

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Scynthyace

· #13 · Apr 13, 2016

Any damage reduces the value of the car, I had some paint done on my doors because of shopping cart damage, and because of that when I got it valued for trade, they felt the rough edge and even without a wreck on its history, offered me $18k versus the $23.5k it should've been worth. So because I took the time to correct damage to make the car look new again, and used a reputable shop, I lost in the end.

Which is why I still have the car today.

A shopping cart + $1300 in paint/repair work resulted in almost $5k in depreciation... No bueno. I have GAP coverage because I refuse to get screwed when my insurance decides the value of my car is less than it should be.

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garyveganj

· #14 · 3 mo ago

Scynthyace said:
I would ask your insurance company what they would value the car at post accident, and then check with your neighborhood KIA to do a trade appraisal. You can then take that, versus what it was worth pre-accident to figure that out. You could also get it appraised by CarMax, they'll probably offer you auction price last I checked auction Price for a Cadenza w/ no accident on record, but repaint was $18k. My father's BRZ was involved in a wreck when a dump truck dumped tons worth of boulders on the highway. After the repairs the car which had 503 miles on it went from a value of $29,500 was worth $17,500. That's a huge hit!

i know it’s years later but i would go directly to the insured’s insurance company. you have a better chance to get better value as your car was never damaged. and also get your deductible.

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