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Diminished Value Advice

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I was rear ended today as part of a 3 car accident (I was the front most car) in Maryland today. Wondering if anyone has any advice for getting a diminished value claim and what steps I should take as far as getting an appraisal.
 
I'm in the midst of a DV lawsuit now from a rear end collision last year. PM me and I'll share some details and insights. There's no urgency on your part, however, as the official DV appraisal process typically begins after the repairs are complete. Make sure you have good photos of the damage, though. That helps. And if you have pics of the car before the wreck, that can be useful, too.
 
I'm in the midst of a DV lawsuit now from a rear end collision last year. PM me and I'll share some details and insights. There's no urgency on your part, however, as the official DV appraisal process typically begins after the repairs are complete. Make sure you have good photos of the damage, though. That helps. And if you have pics of the car before the wreck, that can be useful, too.

Thank you! PM sent
 
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So, having done this once before on another car, here are my thoughts:

1. What, we've never heard of that before - Be prepared for the other guy's insurance to feign knowledge of diminished value reimbursement. They will say stuff like "What's that?", "We don't pay that.", "Why would you need that? Your car was fixed, there is no DV?". It's almost comical and you can tell they are practically trained to do it - or even get defensive. Just let them get their spiel out and ignore all that.

2. Realistic Expectations - If you make a case, you can get more than zero, but likely less than what you are hoping for. I went in asking for $4k on a car and got $2K. You can fight it forever, but there are diminishing returns - ha, see what I did there, "diminishing" returns!

3. Online Services - I found an online service that essentially let me plug in all of the specifics about my car, the accident, and cost of repairs and it generated a nice formal DV report. I think I paid $69 for it several years ago.

4. Carfax it - I waited until two months after my car was repaired and pulled a Carfax...sure enough, there was my nice Scarlet letter.

5. Be polite, but persistent and put everything in writing - I wrote a nice e-mail outlining my request for DV and included the online DV assessment and CarFax. I opened explaining what I was asking for (note: I think I had the amount at the end), and why DV was warranted (it's goofy since it is common sense that if there are 2 identical cars and one shows damage on a Carfax and the other does not...the one with damage history will be worth less!) - you are really just showing them that YOU understand DV and it has nothing to do with whether your car is "fixed right". I went into more explanation about how my other car was rare, buyers were picky, etc. but most of that doesn't seem to make a difference. I closed with what I was asking for and referenced the assessment and Carfax. At the end of the day, I think they just took what I wanted, cut in half and that's where we settled. I found they often wanted to negotiate verbally since they could, undoubtedly, later "deny" things, but just deal with that.

So basically, $69 for teh DV assessment, $25 for the Carfax and a well worded letter got me $2k.

As a funny side story, my claim took several months to settle (there were other issues), and I went through three claims adjusters on their side as they would move on, etc. I would have to educate each one on where we were at with the claim as a whole. I remember on the third one I started to recount the history, got to the DV part and before I could say "You guys paid me $2K on that" she blurts out "WE DON'T PAY THAT!"...at which point I think I said "Um, you guys already did...$2K...let's move on". I think she mumbled something like "er, well, um...ok".
 
That doesn't avoid diminished value when you sell. You can sometimes get your car insurance to pay you the diminished value after an accident since your cR is worth less even after the repairs are made.

I had "heard" this is the case but can take quite some time and depending on the carrier you may or may not be granted the delta. Yes, I misunderstood the original question and I do know that GAP covers the delta between the estimated loss vs what may be owed on the vehicle.
 
DV on a Tesla is a pretty major claim. I recommend getting an appraisal somewhere where they will follow through and help you with your negotiation. I'm just finishing up my claim for a quarter panel replacement and it looks like we'll be settling for 10k.

Pm me if you want to know who I used.
 
Thanks everyone for your replies. It's helped clarify a lot of questions I had and I now know to wait until after everything is fixed to file the DV claim. I have USAA as my insurance and was told by their representative that I would be filing the DV claim against the insurance of the third car as it was a 3 car accident (third car pushed second car into me) and they are insured by State Farm.

However, there was no police report filed although the police did come out so I'm guessing one of our body shops/insurance companies will be reporting to CarFax. I'm just hoping this doesn't have to go to court. Taking my car in to the body shop on Monday to assess the extent of the damage.
 
Thanks everyone for your replies. It's helped clarify a lot of questions I had and I now know to wait until after everything is fixed to file the DV claim. I have USAA as my insurance and was told by their representative that I would be filing the DV claim against the insurance of the third car as it was a 3 car accident (third car pushed second car into me) and they are insured by State Farm.

However, there was no police report filed although the police did come out so I'm guessing one of our body shops/insurance companies will be reporting to CarFax. I'm just hoping this doesn't have to go to court. Taking my car in to the body shop on Monday to assess the extent of the damage.
Hey Cerie - I too have USAA and when I was trying to get a quote for my 60D, they only had a 70. no P100DL, no 85DL, no 60 --just a 70.
So I was thinking that my 60 being quoted with a menu bar that uses a 70 is like comparing a 6 cylinder to one with an 8 cylinder to a turbo race unit. Different motors implies different insurance risk. But in Tesla, all are equally expensive to repair. Do you think it is worth the brain damage to try to get battery tier pricing?
 
I just switched to USAA this past week and dealt with the same issue. VIN showed up as a 70 despite it being a 60. I was told that they haven't added the new 60 (with a 75kwh battery) to their system yet. It may end up being a wash cost wise since the new 60 has the larger battery.
 
I just switched to USAA this past week and dealt with the same issue. VIN showed up as a 70 despite it being a 60. I was told that they haven't added the new 60 (with a 75kwh battery) to their system yet. It may end up being a wash cost wise since the new 60 has the larger battery.
yeah - probably better to not rock this boat. I just figured P100DL drivers might have higher premiums because of the car, but they might also get tagged to the Driver by the type of claims submitted.
 
Just a quick note about DV (and accidents in general). Drivers have insurance to protect them from having to pay expensive claims out of pocket. This is not the same as protecting from financial responsibility.

Nothing protects the at-fault-driver from responsibility for financial losses to another party that was damaged in any way. Proving the damage is the responsibility of the claimant of course.

It's often most effective, in claiming damages beyond "getting your car fixed", to make the claim directly to the party that did the damage. They'll say "I have insurance...go through them". And the standard response is "good for you...YOU go through them"... "My claim is against YOU as YOU did the damage". This can often involve a small-claims court law suit. Which is remarkably simple.

Having insurance does not abdicate an individual from being personally responsible for damages beyond getting-your-car-fixed.
 
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Just a quick note about DV (and accidents in general). Drivers have insurance to protect them from having to pay expensive claims out of pocket. This is not the same as protecting from financial responsibility.

Nothing protects the at-fault-driver from responsibility for financial losses to another party that was damaged in any way. Proving the damage is the responsibility of the claimant of course.

It's often most effective, in claiming damages beyond "getting your car fixed", to make the claim directly to the party that did the damage. They'll say "I have insurance...go through them". And the standard response is "good for you...YOU go through them"... "My claim is against YOU as YOU did the damage". This can often involve a small-claims court law suit. Which is remarkably simple.

Having insurance does not abdicate an individual from being personally responsible for damages beyond getting-your-car-fixed.


All well said. If we lived in a better world. The driver who did $30K damage to my MS with an old suv running a red light ( I had witnesses and she was sighted) at 40mph in downtown traffic is not 1. someone that has any assets to pay for the 5K when her insurance policy maxed out at at 25K or 2. someone or a friend/relative/stranger who needs to be prompted to retaliate against my family or police officers of their choosing. Sometimes it is better not to stir the crazies. We live in volatile times.