How do I calculate the diminished value of my car after an accident?

My new car was recently in a very bad accident. The car is a Nissan Altima SL and has 7000 miles on it. I did some after- market upgrades to the car, (tinted windows, sound system, satellite radio). The damages to my car totaled $14,000 in repairs to the front end and I need the insurance company to compensate me for the diminished value of the car. How exactly does one calculate diminished value. I paid $29,000 for the car 4 months ago.

First..unless you are in GA, the only way you will collect the dimminished value of your vehicle is if your claim is with another parties insurance and they are at fault. No other states I am aware of require your insurance company to pay this (possibly KS..and I know it was discussed in HI..but to my knowledge its just GA for now).

Second..keep in mind the aftermarket items dont mean anything when it comes to diminished value. Honestly, the case can be made by most dealers that things like this diminish the value more to resale than the car being in an accident (sure, painting flames and putting a loud muffler and high spoiler on your 97 Olds Achieva may sound like a smart investment...but is it going to make the car more valuable to someone else at resale, or just drive away most potential buyers).

Finally as mentioned before, dimminished value is subjective to the time of resale. If you were to keep your car 5 years (assuming its new, and you have a 5 year loan, keep it till paid off) the fact that it was in an accident 4.5 years ago will mean little to nothing when trading it in 4 years from now. Now if you were actively trying to sell it at the time of the accident, totally different story..you will have suffered an actual loss there, and the damages would warrant a higher payoff (of course the other insurance company can probably verify very easily you werent planning on selling the car, as evidencened by the fact you were personalizing it by adding aftermarket things). My best guess, if the offer is between 500-1,000 take it..thats about the max depreciation you can hope for. You can pay between 100-400 for some report made up by a company online that will make up a reason why your car is now worth 800-3,000 less, but honestly it will fool no one. Insurance companies have seen these before, and they will not accept it...most of these companies dont even inspect your vehicle, so there is no way for them to know what diminishment is there.

Formula 17c
http://www.collisionconsulting.com/17c.html

You have to be able to prove diminished value and then they still will not pay. The best idea I can come up with is get something in writing from the dealership stating the difference in trade in value due to accident. When I worked claims we never paid it. What is hard to prove is what the true diminished value is. It may be 5k today but when you sell the car in 10 years it would be $500. I would be very surprised if you were able to get diminished value paid - good luck

also depends on the company...

Good to know you came out of the accident OK!
The only way to make your car whole again is to be VERY VERY picayune on all the repairs that the adjuster listed. After the care is fixed go over the car & list with a fine tooth comb, then if things are still not right, then ask ( demand ) for a 2nd adjustment. Be sure you have a list of EVERYTHING wrong that is not on the 1st list. They should then be prepared to cut you another check to have your items listed fixed. When you are ready to have them done, you will have the check in hand.

get some estimates on the value of your car compared to book value. but in general think about 10 percent of actual value as a rough rule of thumb. I would ask for 5000 and settle for 3000.

It's hard to calculate - it has NOTHING to do with how much you paid for it brand new. Best thing to do is go to a dealership, ask the sales guy how much it would cost your friend to buy the same car, used, before the accident, and after the accident.

My guess is, the dealer is going to sell BOTH cars for the same price.

Many insurance policies exclude coverage for dimunition of value; good for you getting a policy that doesn't!

Enter Your Message or Comment

User Name:
User Email:
Post a comment:

Archive: Forum -Forum -Finance - Links - 1 - 2 - RSS - All RSS Feeds
The Causes and the Results. 0.014
Copyright (c) 2011 Financial Crisis Sunday, May 27, 2012 - Terms of use - Privacy Policy