A couple of questions about claim for reduced resale value.

[Djratrap]

Originally Posted by qqzj

After thinking more about it, I became more confused. Suppose you got a quote of $4500 from an expensive body shop, the insurance company could simply tell you to go to fix the car there. So in the end you do not end up with the check yourself.

If that is the case, I would then prefer to repair the car the cheap way, because that is also the minimum offensive way. To do it the expensive way, you have to saw off the who quarter panel from the car and redo everything. I just cannot let my car go through that.

So I am very curious how come you can end up with a check of $4500 on your hand (not in that expensive body shop's hand.), because the insurance company can easily screw you up as they know if you do not get the money yourself, you won't go to that expensive shop. So they really do not have to pay your that $4500.

Tell them you want to start the claim ASAP, there is a time limit on diminished claims. When some douche hit me i contacted his allstate (contact allstate corporate and not his agent) and they started the claim right away. You will also have to fax/email allstate the finished repair order. You generally can't get the claim until the repairs are made. Allstate went to a private appraiser and he gave me a very fair value on my damage. If your uni-body is damaged at all (qtr panel, pillars, etc) you're looking at at least $4000-5000 in diminished value. My vehicle went from being worth 25k to 19ish and they compensated me for that so i can't complain too much. When i asked my own agent (state farm) he played dumb.

[buddy32]

I had this happen on my previous car as well. I had about 5k in repair costs, and the insurance adjustor first offered 500, and when I said "that's a lowball and a joke right?!" he tried to give me another offer with the 17c formula. This formula is widely used, but not a set standard by law. Used a few independent diminished value estimators and every single one gave me back a north of $1800 quote. I got a lawyer, but just used google and he sucked. The insurance company did offer 1800 in the end though to just settle out of court. After all the fees and such, I still got back more than their initial two offers.

When I traded the car in, I realized carfax categorized it as a "medium impact accident", which the dealer said "no authorized dealer will want to use this car for CPO which takes your trade in value down even more". I would take the repaired car to a dealer, and ask for a trade in value on paper. Then use that instead of getting a lawyer. Slightly less PITA IMO.

It depends how far you want to go with it. It's not going to be a humongous amount of money, but for me, it was the mere principal of them trying to screw me. So if they wanted to make it that painful for me, I wasn't about to just take it. Hope this helps!

[ntron1]

Do you have a loan on the car or do you have the ttile in hand?

[qqzj]

Title in hand. Does it make any difference?

Originally Posted by ntron1

Do you have a loan on the car or do you have the ttile in hand?

[ntron1]

Yup, Find the body shop certified to repair Ferrari's.

[qqzj]

Another quick question. Does a quarter panel damage qualify as a 'frame damage'? I thought my accident would be called a 'fender bender' accident. However, somebody mentioned to me that rear quarter panel is considered part of the car's unibody. If so, it would be a major blemish on carfax report, right? So the diminished value is a lot? Now the repair cost is about $2100. I thought $800 in DV would be fair. But if it is a 'frame/unibody damage', I would lose a lot when selling it later, right?