Local Appraiser for Diminished Value Claim

[mike884]

Curious if anyone does auto appraisals for diminished value in NE ohio, or has used someone with good results in the past?  Thanks!

 

-mike

[Bad324]

Stump might know. Think he was looking into this in the fall

[BadTrainDriver]

Mike,

 

I have looked into this in the past, and by the time I payed an appraiser to assess both the before and after values of my car and had to pay for a lawyer and take the time to file a lawsuit, any money I received would have been very small...less than $1000. Hell, if I billed my hourly rate into the work to get it done, I'd be in the loss. The insurance company isn't going to pay you unless you take them to court(period).

 

My incident, situation:

2003 Subaru WRX, I purchased it from the original owner in 2009 w/ 24k miles on it. Damn near showroom condition. This was arguably the cleanest/lowest mileage "bugeye" WRX in the United States at the time, and a very rare 1.5 year color, Sedona Red Pearl.

Less than 5k miles later, I was sideswiped on I270, sustaining $7,200 in damages.

It was a fight to not have the car "totaled".

I researched the diminished value route, and that's what I learned.

I'm interested in hearing what happened to you/your situation.

 

This was the day I bought the car, driving it home:

 

This was after the accident. Everything from the front bumper to rear bumper, and everywhere in between...as well as more than 70% of the car having to be painted.

Edited April 4, 2014 by BadTrainDriver

[mike884]

I had a similar situation, but a snow plow doing a lot pulled out into traffic and caused roughly 7k in damage, on probably a 9-10k car. (2010 focus ses). I argued that it was nearing being totaled, but they assured me it was worth more than I thought it was and advised me to go the diminished value route after it was repaired. Now, obviously the value has tanked and as we all know hit cars are never the same.  So i guess I can do my own valuation and do some trade in quotes and go from there. 

[STLUCIEAPPRAISAL]

Hey, your post popped up in my email. Here's what you need to know. First, you don't need a local appraiser for inherent diminished value, only for repair-related DV where poor repair quality caused the car to lose value. Your car is worth less simply because its got a bad Carfax. Second, use an independent appraiser who has an appraisers license from any state, not a "certified" or other type of private organization's designation, last, be sure to use an appraiser that bases the diminished value on quotes from Ford dealers, six of them at least, not appraisers that use formulas or auction results.

 

Note: Even with the best appraisal you might still have trouble with the insurance company - they do not like paying for diminished value. Sometimes it takes a lawsuit but most often not. I just testified in a case where a 2013 Honda Passport had only $1600 in damage, DV was $2000, Safeco offered him Zilch. Turns out that Safeco ended up paying the $2K, the cost of my appraisal and expert witness fee, the attorney's fee + the cost of their own expert and attorney. Ouch!

Edited April 4, 2014 by STLUCIEAPPRAISAL