I just joined the unpopular "I got rearended club" . Evo IX MR, I was sitting at a yield sign waiting for traffic to clear to merge in I and got hit pretty hard- enough to where the car stalled (it was in neutral) and wouldn't immediately restart- assume a safety switch for the FP? It started after a few seconds and clicks. It's the other guys fault, he admitted it, and is insured; the accident report will be written to reflect it was his fault per the investigating officer.

The damage is pretty severe to my car, trunk pan and tail lamp panel pushed in, quarters are bowed down and out about half an inch (but no paint damage or kinks), bumper and bar destroyed. I'm supposed to get an estimate this wk and figure it'll be >>$5k depending if they'll have to change the quarter panels.

Anyway, on to the diminished value talk, I've googled quite a bit but it seems there are 1000 mentions of people telling others to seek it, but I've only found ONE post where someone said they received a check, and of course that is suspect because he mentions a 'net service he used for paperwork, so who knows if it's valid or a free ad for that site.

So, has anyone here received $ for diminished value after an accident where the other party was at fault, and if so what route did you take to recover $? I realize this varies by state, but from what I've read as long as the accident wasn't your fault you can try and recover DV- but again, accounts of people actually doing it seem non-existant. TIA.

 

Disclaimer: I'm an expert in neither insurance nor law.

Anyway, I know a guy who has been an insurance adjuster for over 20 years, and I asked him about diminished value when my car (not an Evo) was rear-ended a few years ago. IIRC, he told me that he's almost never seen it awarded, except in cases of damage to literally new cars.

Still, if you want to try it, I'm sure your insurance agent can walk you through the process, and advise you as to whether or not you have a chance of it being awarded.

 

Wow, brings back horrible thoughts from so long ago.

Back around 98 I was driving a 96 nissan truck that a 16 yr old completely demolished.

His insurance would not total the truck and instead cut the entire driver's side off and welded new pieces to the cab and bed.

Long story short, after 3 months in a rental and a truck that looked amazing after the fix, I got a whopping $500 diminished value check to call the deal closed.

 

im dealing with this now. if you have frame damage you car can be worth up to 10k less. i got offered $600 and i told them where to put that haha. you have to go to a dealership and get the retail value of the car and what its estimated after the accident, based upon the damages created. you will end up settling on a number. but you have the right to the diminished value since its not your fault. but you can be screwed if your car has previous accidents and age/mileage. good luck! pm me with any other questions.

 

I went through this with my wife's car. She hit someone but thy cut her off. Anyways, insurance was offering less then ideal for the diminished value, I searched online and found a company that for $300 would write the paperwork and handle all of it. End of story was I got the money for the diminished value, 5k I think it was on top of the already established pain and suffering. Paid the car off and had some cash left over. Happy ending.

 

It's funny because insurance will tell you that they fixed it to "as new" (or as before collision) condition, therefore by definition there is no DV: it's just like before you got hit. But, if you look up retail value on KBB, the second thing it says under excellent condition is "never had any paint or body work". So by that definition (the one that counts as it's what a buyer uses) even if it looks "perfect" once fixed, if it's had even a fender changed from where someone backed into it at 2mph it's no longer in excellent condition and worth less no matter how perfect the job. And the difference between excellent and good is ~$1300 in this case. I would not expect to get DV for a typical parking lot fender bender. But this car will definitely spend time on a frame machine. Anyway, thanks for the help, I'm going to send a PM or two to some of the above replies.

 

Yes you should definitely seek extra money for frame damage. That will lower the resale value a lot. I like the guy's post of paying another company $300 to get a just value. It would be nice npt having to act like you're going to sue but this is a rich person's world and they don't give a crap about you.

 

I got it on my 03 WRX I was hit by someone running a stop sign. The car was 9 days old bought 12-16-2002 wrecked 12-25-2002. I got the diminished value pretty easily i believe it was like 600 I think they even had some kind of formula based on car value and cost of repairs. Good Luck doesn't hurt to try cause in the end your car is worth alittle less.

 

Depends on the type of car. I doubt with an Evo you can get much. I had a G35 Coupe no accidents a dumb batch on her blackberry crashed into me and caused 7k of damage. I wrote a letter to the insurance company and they cut me a check for 2k. Also depends on the insurance company. Her insurance was Travels. I heard State Farm doesn't do diminished values, but everyone knows state farm is cheap.

 

bump
any tips or updates on filing dv claims from those that were thinking of doing it?
Thanks

 

i got close to $5k when my 07 sti took a hit in the side. no frame damage and the car was 3 months old. i just had to get the car appraised after the repair.

 

Welcome to the club. I didn't get diminished value when I got rear ended. Btw, when i got rear ended, it cost about $8000.00 to fix , and by the sound of it, I got hit slower than you did, so expect the other guys insurance to pay over that haha.

 

Thanks for the input and sorry for ur losses fellas.


so u pretty much just got an appraisal from the dealer and showed it to the insurance co.? no lawyers involved?

 

i approached the insurance company about it on my own. they said i need an apprasial to get things going. i went to a classic car appraisal service and told him what the deal was, he wrote what he thought the pre and post accident value was (he claimed $6k loss or so). i took it to the insurance company and they offered about $4k. i told them it was unaceptable and negotiated to meet in the middle. they sent me a check a week later. no lawyers or anything. the person that caused the accident had american family and so did i. i was deemed an innocent bystandard in the accident (someone ran a light, hit a car and the car that got hit slammed into me while i was stopped at a red light)so that helped. having a good insurance company makes all the difference. i would rather pay $100 more a year and know they are going to pay up. state farm and american family are known to pay, most others weasel their way out of anything they can.

 

Yikes! Your appraisal wasn't prepared the correct way. We obtain six dealer quotes to determine diminished value and the insurance companies aren't giving our customers a hard time for the most part. An appraiser can't just dream up these figures, he (or she) needs to back them up.

Here's another FYI. A diminished value appraisal figure based on either a formula (severity of damage, air bags, etc.) or automobile auction results won't work too well. How do I know that? People who have already obtained diminished value reports from other appraisal companies call St Lucie Appraisal to prepare second appraisals because the formula/auction results route just gets them lowball offers from the adjusters.