so...after 6 months, the arbitrator finally ruled the 100% fault to the lady that hit me. i am trying to figure out how much diminshed value my rtruck suffered so i can file the claim on her insurance. How much depreciaition is suffered when a brand new vehicle has been wrecked? in other words, all things considered equal, my truck was worth $xx,xxx on the day of the wreck when i left the house. 1 month later when it was finally repaired, i suspect thta amount was less, due to it being involved in an accident.

can anyone tell me, or tell me how to figure out what that amount is?



they replaced the passenger side of the bed, passenger side leaf spring, passenger side rear door, and passenger side rear half of the cab. oh yeahm and one new rim.

 

i called the chuckleheads that i bought the truck from. apparently, the guy they put on to "help me" was a drop out from clown college. after i explained it to him 15 times and he got increasingly rude i just told him "forget it, you have been far lerss than helpful" and hung up. i was trying to ask him if there was a standard deduction on resale if a vehicle has been wrecked.....maybe i can try carmax?

 

Hi, I am a dealer. This is a tricky question. It depends on if you tell the dealer if it has been wrecked. Sometimes, depending on the quality of the repair, it is obvious it has been wrecked. But if the repair is really good, and we can't tell it has been wrecked, and the customer doesn't tell us, we don't deduct anything. If the repair is real good, and we know, I'd say $1,000-$3,000. If the repair is not that good, a lot more, but that all depends on how bad it is.

 

I don't think you'll ever get your question answered. There is no chart or scale saying if X happens, then the value drops so much. The final answer will alway lie with whoever is making the purchase and what they are or are not willing to pay.

If the vehicle is fixed right, and not reported on carfax, the loss will be 0, but there's obvioulsy allready a big paper trail on this one so if anyone does any homework, it will be passed up for one that has not been wrecked.

From the looks of your pic, this wreck wasn't that bad. Don't forget it's only a truck, and emotional value will always be zero. I've seen many cars wiped plum out and a month or two later look brand new.

 

$0 if it wasn't totalled and repaired properly.

 

You coud really spend a lot of time and effort trying to figure this out - or you could just drive the truck. If you're planning to trade it in, you're going to loose a lot on it anyway (I could buy a brand new '06 CTD quad cab 4wd auto here for around $34k right now) so you may just want to drive it a few years and then trade. If it's not "right" then get with your insurance agent and body shop and have it put right.

Good luck - sorry about your accident - and glad you are okay!

 

Please don't give up too easily. Everyone needs to know Diminished Value or sometimes called plain old loss of value.

Since 2000 that has been one of the biggest insurance buzz words.

If anyone on here is in a no-fault accident please do not forget these words.
Say dimished value in every sentence that you speak to the enemy.

Whitebuffalo the standard is "full cost of repairs plus 11%"

Unfortunately I've been here, but hey they paid up without even blinking. They have no choice now days. Most of the big carriers if you search for the words you can read up on it.

 

Luke - if the vehicle is taken to the dealership for repairs they will enter the repairs into the computer. Right?
This is how carfax makes their money.
My question/statement is, you don't have to tell the dealer / they will know as soon as they run the vin.

 

I would have to go with what Luke S said. around 1000-3000 I asked my neighbor who is a dealer. good luck.

 

thanks Luke, you were actually who i was thinking of when i asked for dealer input. i'm sure mine will show up on a carfax, since it was repaired through a dealer

i've been reading up on it and it sounds like its very hit or miss. as far as being worht zero (rickcj)....are you saying if you had 2 identical trucks side by side, 1 had been wrecked and the other not, you would pay the same for both? i darn sure wouldnt.

new2ctd, thanks for the tip. i have heard everything from 25% of the value of the vehicle at the time of the accident to 25% of the repair bill. i plan on keeping the truck for a long time, but this lady's insurance has been a real PITA, dragging their feet, lying to me, etc. i did not claim to be hurt or anything like that, i just want what is rightfully mine.

thanks for the tips everyone

 

If it was repaired properly, just as good as new, and you couldn't tell! and a carfax wasn't run on it, yes it would sell for the same price. Most people don't pay to have a carfax run! Since it wasn't totalled you don't have to tell about any repairs. A totalled vehicle, salvage title, will sell for 30% less. A lot of used vehicles have had a body repair at 1 time or another.
If your happy with the repair job and are planning to keep it for a very long time the value won't matter then.

 

Is anyone 'ever' happy with repairs? I mean I dont care if it went back to Mexico and they did the repairs. We still aren't happy that our truck was wrecked! So you never get over it. Your hear a creak and it doesn't drive the same, so on and so on.

But here is my bigger question. Do most of you all sell your vehicle to an individual or trade it to a dealer for a new one?

If you go to the dealer folks they look the truck up on the computer. They don't use carfax. shoot, they are carfax's database. So unless you sell to an individual a 'carfax' is run on every vehicle.

 

i just went through this with my trailer, but that is apples to oranges though, but because of the "disclosure" laws in Canada, it would have worked out to
-10% of what market value was. thankfully hidden damage was found to fullly write it off, and even then i still had to fight for retail cost instead of wholesale cost for replacement.( but that a whole other story.)

 

whitebuffalo,

If you go and trade this truck in to dealer you better inform them of the damage. BTW the disclosure laws of every state are different about what has to be reported in regards to damage, in Oregon at the time was any thing over $250.00 and in Iowa it’s $5,000.00. Back to what happened to me.

I traded in my wife’s van in Portland, OR and they asked if it had every had any damage or repairs over $250.00 I said no it has only had warranty repair work. A year later I get a letter from a attorney for the dealer I traded in to telling me I had to buy back the van for $16,200.00 because it had been repainted and had possibly been in a wreck and that I did not tell them about it when I traded it in. I had to go through a lot of crap to prove the van had been totally repainted under warranty by Dodge and that I did not lie to them when I traded it in. Being I had told them I had only had warranty repair work and also being that they were a Dodge dealer I was off the hook and did not have to buy back the van.

I'm glad I won as the dealer got screwed when they bought it back from the person who bought it from them. The person who bought it claimed it had been wrecked and that they could prove it had been repainted and this was not disclosed to the buyer. I saw the van in one of their security lots and it had been thought hell and trashed by who ever bought it. I think they did not care about it being trashed as they thought I was going to pay them a lot of money because they thought I lied to them and that I was on the hook to buy it back from them.

So now you can see why you don’t want to lie about it being in a wreck and it having X amount of damage.

 

Carfax doesn't get the repair info from the dealer who repaired it. They do get accident info from police reports (via insurance companies?) tied to the VIN. You'll see a synopsis of the the police report on the Carfax for your truck. It won't show up immediately, and may not even show up until the truck is sold, then purchased again (issuing a new title seems to be what triggers a refresh of the history).

That was my experience anyway. Long story....

Wouldn't hurt to have the dealer who repaired it (or the one you bought it from) run a Carfax report on it just for kicks. They pay a flat subscription fee, so it wouldn't cost them anything.