Diminished Car Value from Accident

So recently I was hit by another driver (post on this thread http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/sho...16#post5903816)

My concern is the diminished value. I am going to make an effort to pursue for the diminished value but I have been told that I need to get some paper work of approximately how much less my car is valued.

So for dealers, or maybe a body shop, would you mind PMing me your contact info and if you are willing to put down on letter head what your estimate would be? So if you were to sell my car (after the accident) how much less would you get then from a car that was not in the accident.

So far the damages are all cosmetic. BMW dealership is performing an alignment/balance. A suspension check will be performed, but from what I am told this should be fine.

Other then this accident the car has never been in one, and it is in near perfect condition (definitely no mechanical problems).

Presently still under CPO

2006
330xi
Auto
Heated Seats

Good luck with that. My understanding is DV is only in some states. Illinois is not one of them. My philosophy now is get it fixed and trade it before it shows up on the history report.

A few thoughts that you should consider.

-Are you trying to make the DV claim from your insurance company or the other party's? Your insurance policy probably has language that says that they are only responsible for actual damages and therefore they will not pay you DV. You would have to go through the other party's insurance policy to try and make a DV claim.

-The insurance company would want an appraisal from a reliable source that has seen your car. There is no "one size fits all" diminished value amount-- it depends entirely upon what type of car you have, what condition it is in otherwise, what type of accident you had, and how well the car was repaired. An expert needs to see and touch your car to be able to accurately determine what it is worth and how much DV you have. You can't just get someone online to say "your car is now worth $2,000 less" and then put it on letterhead and expect the insurance company to pay.

http://www.vehicleinfo.com/diminished_value

is one company that specializes in this. I have never pursued a diminished value claim, so cannot vouch for them.

I wasn't hoping for a blanket statement, though for typical damages of X nature what am I looking at roughly. I plan on asking the body shop to help, if they do that. The problem I am running into is the local dealerships say they don't do that - which may be true, but I am looking for an expert opinion. Who better to give one then a person who sells used cars for a living.

I am going to ask the other insurance company to pay up.

It all depends on what state you live in and what insurance company your dealing with.Some don't recognize DV In my case I had bad luck with both even though the repair was done by a Certified BMW Body Shop.Good luck
cheers
vern

You could always sue the insurance company.

I've pursued a DV claim before, and based on my experience, I'd suggest against it, especially looking at the relatively minor damage on your car. Here's what I went through:

I took delivery of my brand new 2004 325ci, February of 2004. In October, I was hit by a car on the highway and sustained about $15,000 damage in repairs. No frame damage, but almost every single body panel had to be repaired as the car hit me on the right and pushed me into the middle barrier going 70MPH. Anyway, the point is, I had $15k in repairs on a $34k car which was only 6 months old. I read about DV and thought I'd be the perfect candidate.

I had a DV specialist examine the damage my car sustained and he also examined the repair work. He put together a 40 page report detailing every subpar repair, the effect of each part of damage on resale value, and comparisons to other cars. It included dozens of pictures and was extremely thorough. This report cost me $150.

After obtaining this report, I submitted it and requested a DV payment from my insurance company (USAA - an outstanding company). I received a check for $250, definitely not worth my time and money. And this is from USAA, I see you're trying to get a DV check out of State Farm. State Farm won't pay it's own customers claims, there's no way they're going to pay you a DV claim without you taking them to court.

So in the end, I spent many hours researching, getting the report, paying for the report, and I came out $100 ahead. I'm sure I could have negotiated some more out of USAA, but I doubt I would have received any amount which would have justified the amount of time (and headache) I spent pursuing this.