Diminished Value - anyone familiar with it?

[mdl]

When it rains it pours!!
Finally warm enough today to run some errands at lunch.
Rear-ended while completely stopped at a stop sign.
Tore the rear bumper off my car, creased the quarter panel, did something to the undercarriage too.
What sucks is I just got it out of the shop two months ago from where a deer ran across the front......that was $6500...
No telling what this is going to cost.
Its going to kill any re-sell, even though I am not planning on selling.
I love my car - its a 2008 Acura TL that I bought long before 13......
From what I am reading, it is a calculated value based on what the car was worth prior to the wreck.
How hard is it to get it out of the other driver's insurance - USAA?

[LadyInTheRed]

I didn't even know that existed. I sure wish I did when I was rear ended when my car was less than a month old!

I just did some research and it may be difficult to get the insurance company to pay for diminished value. If it isn't included in the first settlement offer, insist they update the offer to include it. If you don't think their offer is high enough, you may need to get an appraisal and maybe even go to court.

Here is a pretty informative article regarding the law and valuation methods: http://automobile-diminished-value-a...r-alabama.html The article is by a diminished value appraiser, so it is obviously designed to convince you to hire an appraiser. But, it does seem to give a good overview of valuation issues and related case law.

[frogger]

I know that Progressive does it, without being asked (in my case). The money is out there, don't settle without it.

Good luck.

[ksgirl38]

I had an accident in August and started researching diminished value. Basically you have to have the car fixed and then you can sue the driver. I believe you have 12-18 months after the accident to do so. It varies by state. You have to have your car appraised after the repairs to prove how much value it lost due to the accident. In my case I kept pushing my insurance company to total it and threatening to sue for diminished value and they eventually totaled it. It didn't hurt to be nice at the guys at the body shop either. They helped by finding more repairs and called the appraiser back out. I only had my car 8 days so there was no way I was taking it back after I was hit. There are a few companies online that for about $300 will claim to get you diminished value, but they looked kind of scammy. I talked to one and maybe as a last resort I would have gone that way, but ended up not needing to.

Being that you've already had one accident with this car it's going to be hard for you to prove you've lost additional value. Once a car has been involved in an accident it's going to lose value, so I'm not sure how a second accident with matter. Do some research on diminished value in your state, but you'll probably have better luck going after the driver. Neither my insurance or hers would touch it in my case.