My poor Model Y got rear ended while parked on the side of the street. Luckily the other guy is unhurt and insured. His insurance is progressive. They aren’t sending out adjusters due to covid, and after seeing the photos of the car, they’re estimating only $9-10k needed for repairs. Dropped my car off at a Tesla approved body shop and they think it’ll easily be double that estimate and will check for internal damage in a few days after opening it up more. It happened here in Texas and I’m trying to research about diminished value as while the car may require a certain amount of money to repair, I’m worried it’s going to crush the resale value. Any advice on how to pursue this? Thoughts on the car’s damage? They’re estimating two months just to fix this so I’m stuck driving a Toyota Camry rental. Sigh...
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Diminished value claim?
- Thread starter johnson184
- Start date
Glad everyone is ok.
I hope its totaled. That damage looks like it might be. I had progressive insurance on a total loss claim for a model 3 performance with 2k miles, not my fault.
Once the approved body shop digs into it you’ll obviously have a better idea.
I know it’s tough but you’ll be spinning your wheels until they give you the final number. No point of wasting your time and energy until you have all the facts.
That sucks about the Camry.
I hope its totaled. That damage looks like it might be. I had progressive insurance on a total loss claim for a model 3 performance with 2k miles, not my fault.
Once the approved body shop digs into it you’ll obviously have a better idea.
I know it’s tough but you’ll be spinning your wheels until they give you the final number. No point of wasting your time and energy until you have all the facts.
That sucks about the Camry.
jf64k
Member
I don’t know how it works in OK, but in CA the rental can be for a “similar” car.
EX: I had a 2008 Audi Q7 that got hit, and while it was in the shop, the other insurance initially wanted to give me a Nissan Versa or something. I said, “That’s OK, I’ll rent a Q7 and send you the bill”...they quickly rented a M-B GL through their contract with Enterprise.
Point is: Maybe they can at least get you a nicer SUV while you wait for your MY to get fixed.
EX: I had a 2008 Audi Q7 that got hit, and while it was in the shop, the other insurance initially wanted to give me a Nissan Versa or something. I said, “That’s OK, I’ll rent a Q7 and send you the bill”...they quickly rented a M-B GL through their contract with Enterprise.
Point is: Maybe they can at least get you a nicer SUV while you wait for your MY to get fixed.
Progressive is crazy. There’s no way that’s only $10k. It’s probably totaled.
If they do decide to fix it and you are going to pursue a diminished value claim, please pm me. Progressive is the absolute worst about DV claims but we successfully won one after a north Texas accident. It went all the way to a jury trial. Our success was largely due to the excellent DV appraisal company that provided the expert witness who testified on our behalf at trial. I can give you all the details.
If they do decide to fix it and you are going to pursue a diminished value claim, please pm me. Progressive is the absolute worst about DV claims but we successfully won one after a north Texas accident. It went all the way to a jury trial. Our success was largely due to the excellent DV appraisal company that provided the expert witness who testified on our behalf at trial. I can give you all the details.
OakvilleMYP
Member
Lol 10k!
Good luck with that. Looks totalled, glad everyone is good. Cars are replacable, you’ll get the replacement with more range and laminated glass
Watts_Up
Well-Known Member
@johnson184 the major problem is the quarter panel which needs to be replaced.
The quarter panel is a single piece from the A pillar to the rear of the car.
So this piece will need to be cut at about the middle of the rear passenger door from the floor up to the roof.
The rear wheel house will need to be replaced at the same time.
The trunk lead, the bumper beam, and also the whole rear panel body underneath will need to be replaced.
Expect at least $20k repair cost (1/3 parts, 2/3 labor) and about three months of work,
not including waiting for getting the parts and the body shop having an available spot.
From my own similar experience, expect the repair to last about six months.
Try to find a Tesla certified body shop fixing other luxury brands like Bentley, Aston Martin, Jaguar, MB, BMW...
Don't hesitate visiting several body shops, and avoid major companies like Service Kind, even if they are Tesla certified,
as they are mostly working on Toyota and the like, and they will cut corners to please the Insurance.
I would recommend getting an alignment check at a tire shop to look for any possible chassis damages.
Also check the doors still close correctly or is there any abnormal gaps between the top and the bottom.
If there is a structural damage affecting the whole geometry of the car, the best would be to get it totaled
than getting fixed and getting a diminished value, but in your case with a low speed impact,
it might be difficult to get it totaled.
The diminished value is mostly the fact that you lose your clean title. Insurances try to minimize the DM,
knowing that if you try getting a lawyer, to get a little bit more, a lawyer will take a big chunk of the DM.
The Carfax report is BS and provides very little information, mostly tell if the car was salvaged or not.
Some companies like Carvana might deduct few thousand dollars,
but the major point when selling a car is its age and mileage.
The quarter panel is a single piece from the A pillar to the rear of the car.
So this piece will need to be cut at about the middle of the rear passenger door from the floor up to the roof.
The rear wheel house will need to be replaced at the same time.
The trunk lead, the bumper beam, and also the whole rear panel body underneath will need to be replaced.
Expect at least $20k repair cost (1/3 parts, 2/3 labor) and about three months of work,
not including waiting for getting the parts and the body shop having an available spot.
From my own similar experience, expect the repair to last about six months.
Try to find a Tesla certified body shop fixing other luxury brands like Bentley, Aston Martin, Jaguar, MB, BMW...
Don't hesitate visiting several body shops, and avoid major companies like Service Kind, even if they are Tesla certified,
as they are mostly working on Toyota and the like, and they will cut corners to please the Insurance.
I would recommend getting an alignment check at a tire shop to look for any possible chassis damages.
Also check the doors still close correctly or is there any abnormal gaps between the top and the bottom.
If there is a structural damage affecting the whole geometry of the car, the best would be to get it totaled
than getting fixed and getting a diminished value, but in your case with a low speed impact,
it might be difficult to get it totaled.
The diminished value is mostly the fact that you lose your clean title. Insurances try to minimize the DM,
knowing that if you try getting a lawyer, to get a little bit more, a lawyer will take a big chunk of the DM.
The Carfax report is BS and provides very little information, mostly tell if the car was salvaged or not.
Some companies like Carvana might deduct few thousand dollars,
but the major point when selling a car is its age and mileage.
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It is always an emotional event when you have to have a car in a body shop. It is time to be logical. Even if they repair it completely it will always be damaged in the mind of the consumer. CarFax is very thorough in its assessment. I am in the car business and I buy cars. I can tell you factually that you will face a significantly diminished value. Get yourself an attorney fighting for you. Your Y has now lost a lot of value if they repair it. I have a MY so I understand how you must feel. I am speaking from years of experience in the business. I hope the best for you. Don't settle for just getting the car repaired. You are owed a lot of money for loss of value.
Every state is different in regards to Diminished Value. The first thing to make sure of is what the laws are in YOUR state. For example in mine (Colorado), if you file the claim with YOUR insurance company and then they collect from the other one, DV is not possible. However if you file it directly with the OTHER insurance company it is. Note this has nothing to do with fault etc, just how you pursue the claim itself. Your own insurance agent may want to help you out by going through your insurance co which would not raise your rates or anything but would then disallow any DV claim. But again, it is different in every state.
Get your body shop to tear more stuff apart to find more damage. Inquire with them about their warranty, and if it's lifetime insinuate that you will obviously return to them for any little rattle or sound or whatever for the rest of your lifetime. They will do what they can to get the car above the totalling threshold. I wouldn't want it back and I certainly would not value it nearly as highly as a used car compared to any other non-accident vehicle.
Semi-unrelated but locally an RV didn't stop for a red light a few weeks ago and took out approx 20 cars and caused one fatality in the process. An acquaintance was in a BMW X5 that suffered fairly severe damage but didn't pass the threshold, in the end BMW told the body shop they would not have the parts available for over six months and that then caused the insurer to just pay the claim off in full instead of covering a rental car for the duration along with the damage. She's now in a new car.
Good luck but research your state's laws. And yes, as someone stated above it would be worth it to use one of the DV companies that specialize in that to figure out the value reduction.
Get your body shop to tear more stuff apart to find more damage. Inquire with them about their warranty, and if it's lifetime insinuate that you will obviously return to them for any little rattle or sound or whatever for the rest of your lifetime. They will do what they can to get the car above the totalling threshold. I wouldn't want it back and I certainly would not value it nearly as highly as a used car compared to any other non-accident vehicle.
Semi-unrelated but locally an RV didn't stop for a red light a few weeks ago and took out approx 20 cars and caused one fatality in the process. An acquaintance was in a BMW X5 that suffered fairly severe damage but didn't pass the threshold, in the end BMW told the body shop they would not have the parts available for over six months and that then caused the insurer to just pay the claim off in full instead of covering a rental car for the duration along with the damage. She's now in a new car.
Good luck but research your state's laws. And yes, as someone stated above it would be worth it to use one of the DV companies that specialize in that to figure out the value reduction.
STLUCIE
Member
FYI, many folks whose cars have suffered significant damage but find that their insurer wants to repair vs. total the car, can obtain Diminished Value Reports and even Loss of Use Reports prior to authorizing repairs. When insurers realize that they could be on the hook for an additional $10K-$20K in diminished value payments and sometimes just as much for Loss of Use, they often relent and agree to total the cars. Works almost every time which is good because once your car has an accident history, even for a minor scrape, no insurance company will pay for diminished value on a car that had a previous occurrence. You'll need to litigate.
rxlawdude
Active Member
They will try to screw people by saying the (other party's) insurance only covers 30 days of rental, by providing a non-like substitute when the vehicle is in for repairs, and denying DV claims.
As mentioned above, if the other driver was at-fault, you are entitled to be made whole: repair/replace, rental should be at least equivalent to a MY, and should pay DV because you will lose money when selling it down the road.
Just a correction from a post I saw above, if the vehicle is repaired (not totalled and salvaged), title remains clean. That's what Carfax is for.
That’s pretty bad, but it’s definitely not totaled. My 2017 BMW X3 was rear-ended by an idiot who was texting while driving - the damage looked very similar to yours, and the repair ended up costing around $17k. Had to have the tailgate, bumper, both quarter panels, and quite a bit of the exhaust system replaced.
I had a shop affiliated with a BMW dealership do the work; first thing they did was take the affected areas apart to check for hidden damage and make sure State Farm took everything into account when they did their appraisal, including stuff like replacing the drivers seat and seatbelt (active head restraint and seatbelt pretensioner fired).
I was leasing, so I wasn’t super concerned about diminished value - then again, I lost a few grand because I could have sold the car for a bit more than the buyout amount since it was otherwise in great condition, low mileage, and in high demand, so maybe I should’ve gone after it.
I had a shop affiliated with a BMW dealership do the work; first thing they did was take the affected areas apart to check for hidden damage and make sure State Farm took everything into account when they did their appraisal, including stuff like replacing the drivers seat and seatbelt (active head restraint and seatbelt pretensioner fired).
I was leasing, so I wasn’t super concerned about diminished value - then again, I lost a few grand because I could have sold the car for a bit more than the buyout amount since it was otherwise in great condition, low mileage, and in high demand, so maybe I should’ve gone after it.
Hmmm.. I dunno about that. Body shops don't make a lot of money by totalling cars. They might charge a fee for the process, but they make money repairing cars, and the worse the damage, the more they make. It's really quite the opposite of what you say. Body shops will try to low ball the cost of repair so they get the job. Then after they have done a lot of work and billed the insurance company for most of that estimated amount, they magically find more "hidden" damage and go back to the insurance company to ask for more money. At that point, the insurance company is between a rock and hard place since they have reached the point of no return for totalling the car. In the meantime, the body shop is in the catbird seat because they have already made some good profits, so if the insurance company does total it then, they still got paid.
I had a body shop do that exact trick with the Jag that I was planning to sell when getting my first Tesla. They were some highly recommended, high end body shop, and they made sure it didn't get totalled, and then charged the other guy's insurance more than the car was worth in the end.
Total loss thresholds vary by state. In Georgia the salvage value (likely about 50% of ACV) is factored into the calculation and if it’s cheaper to total the vehicle and resell at auction than pay for repairs, that’s what the insurance company does. I can’t speak for Texas but do know Texas has some crazy total loss threshold like 99%.
rxlawdude
Active Member
The problem with this is (assuming you are not at fault) that you enter a contractual relationship with your insurance company. If your policy provides for x days of rental, you may be stuck with your company's limitations.
In my experience (and I am not a plaintiff's attorney), one's own insurance company didn't want to provide the rental for the period necessary to find and obtain a like-replacement, even if the other party was at-fault. And one's insurance company will not be aggressive in pursuing diminished value.
In contrast, directly engaging the insurance of the at-fault driver gives you much more legal leverage if you know what to ask for to be made whole.
FWIW.
