Has anyone here experienced a diminished value claim after being in a wreck? I am get ready for what I anticipate to be a battle with the other guy's insurance and looking for any advice. My wife's 2013 JK was in a wreck almost 2 months ago. The other driver was at fault. Final bill was $20,000 in repairs including frame damage, which of course the other party's insurance paid for. I have already obtained a 3rd party diminished value report, which they estimate $13,000 in diminished value. Just curious if anyone else has experienced battling an insurance company on this before. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
TXBeach

 

Hope you got a comprehensive report from an appraiser who obtained dealer quotes and not based on a formula, algorithm or auction results. The second appraiser we hired did it right, St. Lucie Appraisal from FL, after we wasted $400 on a different guy from OR. The insurance company told us that auction results were too generic so they wouldn't accept the report. It was worth spending the extra $225, though because we had no problems thereafter.

 

I claimed one a few years back after my brand new Range Rover Sport was side swiped by a speed metal guitarist (no joke). Insurance wouldn't total the car (too expensive), they put $33K into repairing it and gave it back. It was actually in better shape than when I drove it off the dealers lot (Range Rover is notorious for body panel alignment issues). I paid an insurance investigator guy $500 to research the expense and value of the vehicle before/after the accident. He gave me a 100 page report, very thorough. Gave that to my insurance company and they didn't even bother to argue, cut me a check for $13K, exactly what the investigator put in the report.

 

Thank you all for the input. I used Autoloss.com for the report. It seemed pretty thorough. They got dealer quotes on similar vehicles before the accident and even obtained feedback and quotes from dealers for trade in on a vehicle with frame damage. Many of which stated they would not accept vehicles with frame damage. One thing that stood out in the report was that a lot of their comps and quotes were from dealers all over the US. Not all were from the Houston area (where I live). I can see the insurance company making an argument for that.

 

To make matters worse, it appears the body shop lost the VIN plate as well... Great.

 

How did they loose the vin plate? Isnt it bonded to the dash?

 

Apparently they had to replace the dash and didn't replace theVIN plate. They asked me to bring it back up there so they can look at it. I'm sure they probably threw it out with the dash.

 

The vin should also be on your insurance papers

 

I have the VIN, they just didn't replace the dash plate. From my understanding, it is very difficult to get the VIN plate replaced (at least in Texas). I have been told by some that the vehicle will have to basically get a new VIN issued by the state. Others say I might be able to get a duplicate plate but need to make sure the paper trail is there from the state verifying such transaction (especially if the vehicle is sold later on). At the end of the day, the vehicle has frame damage and what appears to eventually be a "clouded" title. I'm sure I'll be screwed trying to sell it down the road, at least for market value.

Anyone else that has experienced this issue as well, please feel free to chime in. It would be greatly appreciated.