My 09' G37s was just involved in its first accident. The other driver was at fault. I contacted autoloss.com about filing a diminished value claim. To make a long story short, they want to charge me $249 to write up the report to send to the insurance company. They told me i should receive $4500 for the lost value of my car.They say they guarantee my money back if i do not get any money from insurance. Does anybody have any experience with this company(are they legitimate) or a diminished value claim? Is this something i can do on my own or do i need a third party involved?

 

To my understanding, diminish value varies by state. I was told it doesn't apply in California.

 

Im in north carolina and the autoloss.com is located on the west coast. I just dont want to be out of $250 If its a waste of my time to do it.

 

I've never had to do this, but it seems when most talk about diminished value they go speak to a dealer and get a quote on the difference in trade in value from pre-wreck to post-wreck status and send it in. That should be free I'd think, or a smaller fee less than $250. I'd ask your insurance if they would recognize the report from autoloss.com as well.

 

Just sue the driver who hit you in small claims court.
Since they caused the accident, they& the insurance will have to pay, unless you live in a state that allows diminished value,you will need a 3rd party adjuster.

IMO, hire a local adjuster, they can do the same valuation you will need to prove your loss.

Btw, you have a Rock solid case.

Insurance companies always fight diminished value claims, it's worth it.

When I traded in my last car, I lost about 4k because it wasn't a clean history.

Normally I'd call bs, but my good buddy is a sales manager @ a dealership. M

He told me its common, so if I were you get the persons info & sue.


Good luck , sorry for your trouble.

Hope it works out for you.

 

Thank you everyone for your help. I am going to do some research before i make my final decision.

 

This is good info I didn't even know about this.

 

As others have mentioned, I'd start with speaking with your insurance agent and next with a dealer.

Diminished Value Claims | eHow.com

Telcoman

 

Same here. Never heard of this before.

Some quick research, and it turns out New York does not require Diminished Value compensation from insurance companies. Bummer, but still good to know the answer. Now I need to find out for sure with my particular policy.

I don't have an issue, but I like being informed. Good thread.

 

As much as it stinks to have something happen to your car, I'm skeptical of the idea behind establishing such a "value" to a depreciating asset, like a car.
Talk about a subjective evaluation.

 

If they did I would have made some serious bank.

1st incident was 4500 in damage (how much loss in value)
2nd incident was 15k in damages (car was ruined after that)

I lost a good 5/8k in value, NY laws are pro insurance.

If I lived in a stare that has diminished value, I'd Bo on that like a fly on a turd.

 

You don't have to be in a diminished value state for it to work. I got paid out on a claim in Feb 2012 in California when somebody rear ended me. Total damages (repaired) were roughly 1.5k but I got 6k+ out of the DV claim.

Best part was that it was easy to do myself so I didn't have to pay somebody to write up some report for me...

 

There is a legitimate point in terms of the fair value of the car.

For example, your car is worth 30k pre-accident and after somebody hits you (with all repairs done properly) you can sell the same vehicle for only 25k. You have actually suffered a 5k loss. It's not necessarily that subjective when you consider the market price for your car before/after accident.

Maybe you keep the car for 2-3 years and try to sell it later and have a hard time because it doesn't have a clean accident record. This will impact you in 2-3 years for a slightly lesser amount, however, it will still have an impact on you.

 

So how do you exactly do it yourself? In my experience, insurance wants proof that you suffered a loss in value. You can either take it to a car dealer and get a quote (no dealer wanted to give me anything in writing, BTW).

Or you can pay some guy that specializes in DV about $600 for his report. This kind of person is usually a former insurance adjustor and has qualifications to show in his report. The catch is, they don't guarantee anything and they want either cash or check for their services - I guess they are protecting themselves from potential CC disputes.

So how did you exactly make your case to the insurance company? Also which company did you deal with? I hear that American Family, Geico, and Allstate are all very cheap and will fight you very hard to the last cent.

 

Note:Allstate isn't as tough as you think.
I sued them for some damages they claim were not accident related.
A single email to Allstate's atty.,$1200 in damage settled it only cost me $20 to file the papers.