kilroy

It looks like my car will be getting repaired after a major accident that destroyed my front end. I thought the car might be totaled, but its an 05 and the adjuster said it would have to have about 21k worth of damage to total it. It looks like I have about 15k worth.

So here's the question - Have any of you sold or traded a car that has had extensive repairs.? I will likely trade my car in, and I recall when I traded my last car they asked me if the air bag was ever deployed in accident. I assume they use that as a benchmark for the seriousness of the accident.

I won't lie about it, and I have to believe this will loose me a couple thousand dollars.

Nandito28

Try way more than a few thousand!!! Sorry to hear that man.

cblackburn

I got in a wreck when my car was about 8 months old (damn female drivers). The chick caused about $6,000 of damage to my car. After all was repaired, I got a nice $3,000 check from my insurance company due to lose of value. Get your car appraised after the repair to determine lose of value. The insurance company will pay up if you stay on them.

Initially, they tried paying me $200 for lose of value, however once I sent them a certified letter saying I'm willing to take them to court over it.... they called me back a few hours later agreeing to pay the full amount.

jjh1234

You probably loose ~$5000. I tried to trade-in my 1999 Mercedes SLK230 after ~$7000 in damage was fixed and everywhere I went they dropped the trade-in value ~$5000 after they figured out it had been wrecked. Sucks big time! I bitched to my insurance company "Since the accident was not my fault, why should I eat the deperciation". They said tough luck.

jjh1234

PS - I still have it because I can't bring myself to eat that money + it's only got 26,000 miles on it.

jjh1234

Very lucky!!!!

HiTEC

In the insurance world it's called "Diminished value" and you bet it's worth less.

Here is State Farm's take on the issue.
http://www.statefarm.com/media/dimvalue.htm

cblackburn

Get it appaised and have the apprasier determine the lose of value. Once that's done, send them a certified letter which documents the wreck, the repairs, the appasals. At the bottom of the letter, tell them that the letter is acting as your notice that you intend to take them to court within 7 business days if the issue is not resolved. Be willing to go to small claims court. (hopefully too much time hasn't past)


It's in the insurance companies best interest to pay you off rather than go to court. Once my insurance adjuster received my letter, he called me and said we was going to re-submit the claim (the intial submission was when they offered me only $200). He called back 4 hours later and said he was cutting me a check, I picked up the check a couple of hours later.


The insurance companies will screw you over every chance they get. If they think they can just tell you 'no', and you will go away, then that's exactly what they will do.

aznkikaz

iTrader: (2)

I recently got into an accident too, 100% not my fault and is takig 4+ weeks and $5,000 dollars to fix. It has been a nightmare following up on the opposing insurance company telling them to give me my check to pay the collision center and the check for my rental car. It seems like all the insurance company wants to do is delay whatever you want and give out as little as possible. I want to try submitting this loss of value claim but I don't know where to start.. all I can say that is getting hit is a bitch!

kilroy

This whole thing sucks!! I have to find out for sure if I have to disclose this to a dealer in Michigan - none has ever looked my car over very well. I would like to trade it in as soon as its fixed, but I don't want to take that loss right now.

I could easily absorbe the loss if I got market value for it, but an additional 4 or 5k just makes it too painful.

Frankly, If I could buy some kind of insurance in the future that would definately give me dimished value, I would pay extra for it. As far as I am concerned, if someone can tell that its been repaired (after driving it a few thousand miles so the new parts get dirty) by putting on a lift, then it has not been restored to it original condition.

HiTEC

One of my friends had Country Companies insurance. He had this add-on to the auto insurance called "The Keeper"

His wife was involved in a head-on collision in their Lincoln Navigator. It was not her fault, but the other dude didn't have insurance nor a license. So their insurance had to take care of the accident. Well they had this Keeper add on, and basically within 7 days they got a check in the amount to buy a brand new Navigator. They went to the dealer and bought a new car, done deal.

The KeeperSM – With The Keeper, we’ll pay the full cost to repair your newer vehicle after an accident, even if it exceeds the value of the car. If the estimated repairs exceed the cost of a new car, COUNTRY pays for a brand new car or light truck, same make and model.

kilroy

If everyone who worked in the insurance industry came down with a disease, and I alone had the cure - I would wouldn't give it to them. The world would be a much better place without them. At least the tobacco industry gives you warnings on the label.

If you want to see why I feel this way, Google Allstate and read some of the respones. They are PURE EVIL - at the child molester level.

Not that I have stong feelings about this.

miiipilot

I was involved in a MINOR scrape of my passenger-side front fender. It was just a refinish/repaint. Total cost was @$800. That included a new rim which was just scuffed-up, not bent.

Anyways...
I went to my local Honda dealership, where I used to work, and I was trying to trade it in for the new '06 Si. I forgot about that little accident. They were hooked into CARFAX and informed me of what they found. I told them what side it was. After a few minutes they came back and said the repair work performed was great, BUT UNFORTUNATELY, "Diminished Value" had to knock off $1500. I thought this was a trick also to get more money and make me think my car was worth less that what it is. I told them, "I'm paying FULL PRICE for the Si, you guys can do a little better on the trade." Wrong!!!!!!!!!!
Within 2 minutes I was on my way home. Normally they will go back into the sales managers office and negotiate. NOT HERE.

Sorry for the bad news, but this "Diminished Value" is the real deal. And this was also 100% not my fault.

miiipilot

Purdue WRX

Make sure you aren't getting screwed...

You HAVE to look at how close they are to totalling it. I had a WRX in a MAJOR t-bone collision and what the insurance company did was over value the car and WAY underestimate the repair. That way, it wasn't "totalled"!!! My car was worth nothing because of the amount of damage after. Luckily, we figured out they basically are running a scam and they gave us way more than it was ever worth to keep us quiet. If you want details, PM me. Good luck!

MR1

More Bad News

I think it really depends which state you live in. My MDX was hit when just over one year old. $8K in damage repaired close to perfect. Diminished Value is Not paid in CA I was told.

A year later I took the MDX in to the dealer for unrelated work. Less than 5 minutes they were asking about the accident . I guess all factory parts have a UPC sticker on them, OEM replacement parts don't. They can always tell it has been repaired.

I am keeping my X for a few more years. At least the insurance co. and body shop are responsible for any related repairs as long as I own it.

jjh1234

Sounds like a nice cop-out on their part. I love it when they say that rates will have to go up to provide this coverage.

jjh1234

Thanks for the idea, but this was about four years ago now. I wish I knew about this back then. We had a hard enough time just getting the other insurance company to pay for the damage even though the other driver claimed full responsibility and I had multiple witnesses. I'm from PA and the Accident happened in CA, so that made things worse. My insurance company had to sue the other because they said that the accident was 10% my fault. My agent is a long time family friend, so I believed him when he told me that I had no recourse about the loss of value. Oh well, I guess it saved me money in the long run because I never bought the Corvette that I wanted to trade the Mercedes in on.

jjh1234

mickey3c

I was told if the car is repaired properly that it would not lose any value. I a in the boston area and our insurance pays for the damage only. I cannot see them paying for 6000 in repairs and then another 3000 in depreciation... That would drive our rates much higher then they are today!!!

Adobeman

Of course it is worth less. If you were the buyer and you noticed body repairs would you want to pay the same as a care with no signs of any repairs? Of course not. When you see the repairs you can not be sure of exactly what happened to the car. (even if a nice little old lady said it was just a minor dent). So, this means you are assuming some "risk" if you buy the car since you don't really know how bad the accident was. You can only guess based on what you can find. Your risk comes at a price to the seller. The demand for a repaired car is also less which plays against the seller. How much really comes down to many factors that can vary greatly. So in the case of a trade, see yourself as the "seller" and the dealer as the "buyer". You don't know what they will do with the car (sell, auction, etc) but it is probable they will in fact get less for it than a "clean" car.

Fl-TypeS

I just traded in my 2004 TL last week on an 2006 Pathfinder, specifically because I was in an accident six months ago, sustaing $9,000 worth of damage (my fault). The car looked ok, but was never right, vibration at highway speeds, etc. Before trading, I ran a Carfax which didn't show the accident. I was expecting them to offer me less than Kelly Blue Book which was around $21,000. However, they gave me $23,700 after taking off $500 because it needed tires. They never mentioned the accident, but they did a very quick appraisal and it was dark. I don't think they realized it was in an accident. Once I heard what they were giving me for the TL, I stroked them a check for the price difference of the Pathfinder and walked away with a smile.

However, with as much damage as you have, you're going to get killed when you trade it. No individual in their right mind would buy it knowing the extent of the damage unless you were basically giving it away.

quake97

My accident also doesn't show up in CARFAX. I had an at fault accident about two years ago in my 2004 TL. I ran into the back of someone on a highway. The repair was about $12k. I assumed the car devalued, which is why I'm going back and forth on whether I want to return it after the lease or keep it. I went to the "authorized" repair shop the dealer mentioned and the shop did an EXCELLENT job. We'll have to see.

Joe

kilroy

Did your airbag deploy?

Fl-TypeS

No airbag deployment.

Fatal_Ice

If it's a lease, why not just give it back so you don't have to deal with any issues later.