Fyi, my friends pickup was hit and his check for diminished value was $3400. Not saying that’s what you’ll get, but it is worth pursuing on your own if the vehicle had no prior accident damage.

Is their sending someone out to inspect common practice? Or are they just trying to slant it in their favor from the beginning?

In 2011 an uninsured driver rear ended my girlfriend on the highway pushing her into the car in front of her. The car was less than 6 months old and had 5,000 miles on it. Repairs were just a few hundred dollars away from it being totaled.

I asked about diminished value, and my agent (who I know and trust) said there would be no impact. Finding that odd, I called my salesman (who I know and trust), who said the same thing. He said to have it towed to the dealership, it would be fixed correctly, and it would have zero impact on its value down the road. He said it would be repaired to factory spec and if I ever sold the car back to them wouldn't even be a consideration.

Fast forward to 2016, now at 250,000 miles. She was hit again and this time it was totaled. State Farm paid us $2,000 more than I thought it was worth. Seems that previous accident didn't matter to them, just as they promised me years before.

quote:

Originally posted by chongosuerte:
Is their sending someone out to inspect common practice? Or are they just trying to slant it in their favor from the beginning?

Slant.
Why else would they need to have a look if the repair shop they chose or at least signed off on did the repairs properly?
Keep in mind that most claims representatives live to argue and become very good at it. I work for an old claims guy. Nothing he enjoys more than an argument. Use the leverage of your medical claim and the fact that they want it closed to your advantage.

quote:

Originally posted by a1abdj:
In 2011 an uninsured driver rear ended my girlfriend on the highway pushing her into the car in front of her. The car was less than 6 months old and had 5,000 miles on it. Repairs were just a few hundred dollars away from it being totaled.

I asked about diminished value, and my agent (who I know and trust) said there would be no impact. Finding that odd, I called my salesman (who I know and trust), who said the same thing. He said to have it towed to the dealership, it would be fixed correctly, and it would have zero impact on its value down the road. He said it would be repaired to factory spec and if I ever sold the car back to them wouldn't even be a consideration.

Fast forward to 2016, now at 250,000 miles. She was hit again and this time it was totaled. State Farm paid us $2,000 more than I thought it was worth. Seems that previous accident didn't matter to them, just as they promised me years before.

Was the vehicle listed on Carfax as being in an accident after the first one?

It’s better to take the diminished value money on the front end. Yours was a best case scenario. It usually doesn’t work out that way in the world of auto insurers, accidents and insureds.

quote:

Originally posted by Powers77:

quote:

Originally posted by chongosuerte:
Is their sending someone out to inspect common practice? Or are they just trying to slant it in their favor from the beginning?

Slant.
Why else would they need to have a look if the repair shop they chose or at least signed off on did the repairs properly?
Keep in mind that most claims representatives live to argue and become very good at it. I work for an old claims guy. Nothing he enjoys more than an argument. Use the leverage of your medical claim and the fact that they want it closed to your advantage.

I filed my claim and had my car repaired through my insurance, USAA. It is the other person's insurance (or his mom's since he was a 40something that had a revoked license driving his mom's car) that I'm trying to get a settlement from. AAA insurance.

AAA insurance is wanting to send out someone to inspect my car before they will discuss diminished value. Their specific words were "to make sure you got it fixed". Which sounds hinky as hell to me. It was a brand new Jeep. Damn right I "got it fixed".

I used to do this for a living. I handled auto liability claims and I got conned into handling DV claims as well, which was a huge pain in the ass.

Sending someone out to confirm repairs is not uncommon. It doesn't happen all the time but it isn't abnormal. As said, it's to make sure you actually had the vehicle repaired, which some people don't.

Also as someone else pointed out, if 100% OEM parts were used then it is unlikely that the insurer will pay anything for DV, since technically your vehicle was brought back to pre-accident condition. If aftermarket parts were used, you're probably only looking at a few hundred dollars for DV, especially if there was no frame damage which I'm sure there wasn't if the repair cost was that low.

You can use one of those third party DV calculation websites but be warned, they often just come up with some wild BS number, and they usually cost a few hundred bucks. More than once I would have someone send me one of those and I'd look at it then throw it away, or maybe give them a few bucks more. But rarely what they were asking. Remember, DV is a perceived loss in value, it's rarely an actual loss in value. Unless you plan on trading the car in tomorrow and you get money taken off.

Finally, don't cash any bodily injury checks until you're sure you're 100%. Because once you cash the check, you release the insurance company from future payments if your injuries don't get better. Especially with your line of work, don't take any chances. But, if you do feel you're back to 100% and you're ready to be done with it, talk to your bodily injury adjuster, if it's a separate person, and tell them what you want to settle your BI and DV for and if it's as low as you said, they'll probably jump on it and tell the DV adjuster to cut the check and shut up.

If you have any other questions let me know.

quote:

Originally posted by chongosuerte:
I filed my claim and had my car repaired through my insurance, USAA. It is the other person's insurance (or his mom's since he was a 40something that had a revoked license driving his mom's car) that I'm trying to get a settlement from. AAA insurance.

AAA insurance is wanting to send out someone to inspect my car before they will discuss diminished value. Their specific words were "to make sure you got it fixed". Which sounds hinky as hell to me. It was a brand new Jeep. Damn right I "got it fixed".

Now that you explain it, it makes complete sense.

If you had taken it to a AAA approved shop, they wouldn't have blinked at whatever the shop wrote...that shop has a vested interest in staying on the "Approved List."

Nothing hinky at all with them wanting to make sure that the repairs were completed

Nothing hinky about them inspecting it. Several reasons:

1. make sure the vehicle was repair, duh

2. make sure there is not repair related diminished value (IE, the shop did a good job fixing the vehicle and you're not trying to claim DV cause the shop butchered the work)

3. Court. If it goes to court, they will certainly have someone to testify they they inspected the vehicle, determined the repairs to be done satisfactorily and that their determination was based upon a visual inspection. Showing up to court without someone who physically inspected the vehicle being there is almost an automatic loss.

Ok, that makes more sense. I've scheduled their inspection.

Now I'm just waiting for USAA to pay out on the med claims and for my Voya accidental insurance to pay out on the Dr. visits. BOTH of them are over the time estimates on getting this done. So goddam aggravating. WHY can't people do their jobs???