diminished value

Posted: Sat Jul 25, 2009 01:29 pm Post Subject:

I have one that runs on bunny rabbits and sunshine.

Posted: Tue Aug 18, 2009 02:19 am Post Subject: diminished value

I review diminished value claims everyday and I have to follow company policy,Customers yell at me all the time for extending an offer for their claim. Of course there based on repair cost and not ACV. When the cosumer is not happy with the offer, a suit is followed.
Since the Texas law is not mandated for a formula,any body could use any formula they wish.

Posted: Tue Aug 18, 2009 12:29 pm Post Subject:

any body could use any formula they wish.

Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2011 01:19 pm Post Subject: OnrlWKFqqkWUY

Texas diminished value 2.. Not so bad :)

Posted: Tue Jun 07, 2011 03:00 am Post Subject: I took on State Farm as a 3rd party and finally won!

I am a licensed P&C agent in Georgia, but I was the 3rd party claimant (consumer) in the following saga…

One day back in July 2010, I borrowed my parents’ Ford Explorer to pick a few pieces of furniture that I had already purchased. They were clearance items and delivery cost would have cost more than the $318 I spent on the actual pieces! They wouldn’t fit in my 2006 Mazda3 5-door hatchback, but they would in the larger Explorer with the 2nd and 3rd row folded flat. So my mom and I exchanged cars for the day.

My mom is a school bus driver and she had a required back-to-school safety preparation meeting that day. She said she didn’t mind driving my car to the meeting, so all was well…or so I thought.

Barely a mile from her meeting location, mom was stopped at a red light behind a BMW X5 SUV. Suddenly, a 20-year old girl rear-ended her at approximately 40-45mph (two witnesses gave sworn statements that she was talking on her cell phone a the time). The impact caused my car to hit the rear of the BMW. The trailer hitch on that vehicle managed to nail the front-impact sensor for the airbag and the driver’s side airbag deployed! The car also has a seatbelt pre-tensioner that “fires” instantly when it gets the signal that the airbag is being deployed. It pulled the seatbelt tight across the upper body of the driver, holding her firmly against the seat back to prepare for the airbag to deploy and prevent any chance of slamming into the steering wheel or dashboard. While it was effective in holding her in place, it also left horrible bruises across her chest (according to my sister and step-dad, I didn’t feel the need to see them). She also broke two toes when her foot slipped off the clutch pedal, broke her right thumb and injured several other fingers and suffered contact burns from the airbag on her hands and forearms. It could have been far worse, but it wasn’t and we are so thankful for that!

She called me immediately and I was at the crash site in 20 minutes. I told her not to discuss anything with anyone except the deputy sheriff that was already on the scene. He cited the girl for three different violations (including an expired tag) and the police report stated clearly that she was at fault 100% for the accident! My insurance company was amazing- they contacted State Farm and had a rental car delivered to my house the following morning. They also dealt with getting my car out of the towing company’s lot and taken to the Honda/Acura body shop where my brother-in-law has worked for 20+ years. He is the only person I’ve ever allowed to do any paint work on my car and, if the car wasn’t totaled, he would be the only one to do the repairs!

I was very surprised to learn that not a single metal body panel had been damaged! The rear bumper was pushed 12 inches or under the rear of the car and the exhaust system was trashed. On the front, the bumper and its supporting structure were also destroyed, the upper grille (attached to the front lip of the hood, was bent and the radiator core support was bent, but that was as far as the damage went on the exterior. Then there was the deployed airbag hanging out of the steering wheel. The leather covering on the steering wheel had several gashes and a small chunk missing out of it, damage from my mom’s fingernails, fingers and wedding ring during the crash! I also discovered that the notch in the seat back recliner was stripped out and wouldn’t hold. It was obviously broken during the crash as well.

The other great thing that AMICA helped with was making sure new, OEM Mazda parts were used for the repairs- no generic, aftermarket or used! They contacted State Farm and told them OEM parts would be used and, if State Farm refused, AMICA would pay the difference and would subrogate to reclaim the expense. AMICA pays for OEM parts on all claims, even if I had been at fault. So there was no question that I would only have OEM parts used on my car!!! The original estimate had been $5,800, but when they switched to OEM, it was around $7,200. When I went to pick up the car initially (after 22 days), they hadn’t replaced the damaged leather on the steering wheel, just the center hub containing the airbag! I was extremely pissed! I refused the car, they contacted State Farm and then the body shop manager (my bro-in-law’s boss) called to tell me the only way to fix it was to order an entire new steering wheel with the leather and it would cost over $500 for the part alone….NOT my problem! I told him to order it and I’d be back when it was installed. Four days later, I returned and the airbag light was illuminated and wouldn’t go off! They had to put it on a flat bed, take it to the Mazda dealer a few miles and they ran ‘diagnostics’ and re-calibrated the passenger seat weight sensor (since they replaced the main airbag control unit, the entire system had reset). The Mazda dealer’s bill was another $800! So that put the total of repairs at approximately $8500, I had a rental car for 32 days and the bill was about $750 plus another $400 or so in towing and storage costs dealing with the wrecker service and having it transported. All totaled, it had cost them around $9,650….and I would have been willing to take $10,000 if they had totaled it! But they refused.

But that wasn’t the end. I took the car to a reputable appraiser who specializes in total loss and diminished value. He holds a P&C Adjuster license in the state of Georgia and also has an Auctioneer’s license to allow him access to auto auction transactions- the only data source with transaction prices for similar vehicles that had been damaged in a collision and repaired. He provided detailed information about how he arrived at his DV estimate of $2300. I submitted the Demand Letter and his 12-page report and State Farm insisted on sending one of their adjusters out to inspect the car. They eventually sent me a check for $179.07, which I returned to them a few weeks later….

I contacted the dealership where I bought the car new and two other Mazda dealers asking for a trade-in quote. Two of them physically inspected the car and I sent a few dozen pics to the other guy. The highest of their quotes was $3,000 below KBB Trade-In Value and one was only half of the trade-in value! They all said that they couldn’t sell the car on their lots because of the airbag deployment and potential liability issues. They would simply ship it off to auction as damaged goods, despite looking almost brand new!? I documented all of their quotes and the discussions I had with them and one agreed to appear in court if I ended up suing in Small Claims Court!

I also advertised the car for sale and priced it about $1500 below Private Party Value at $9,000. I didn’t mention the damage history and repairs in the ad because I wanted interested parties to contact me. When I spoke with or emailed them back for the first time, I fully disclosed the car’s history and high-quality repairs. The majority of potential buyers had no interest in the car after that point! Out of 28 email contacts and 11 phone call inquiries, only eight of them (8 out of 39) made any further contact after learning that the car had suffered significant damage including airbag deployment! I sent a copy of the final repair bill as well as another inspection I had completed to verify that the repairs were done to the highest standard and the car was safe and mechanically/structurally sound. After that, eight prospects were reduced to only three, a college kid, a guy who runs a sleazy buy-here, pay-here lot, and a former Mazda service tech that spent three hours inspecting every inch of the car!

The sleazy used car dealer offered me $5000, which I laughed at. The 19yr old college kid was borrowing the money with his dad as a co-signer at a local bank. He was willing to pay $7,500 (Priva, but the bank would only loan up to $5,200 due to the car’s damage history! The guy who was the former Mazda technician (and now works at an independent shop) figured me out and busted me! =) During the test drive, I went into a store to get some bottled water and he decided to sneak a peek at my notebook with all my notes from the initial listing on Craigslist. He was cool about it, but I took him and his wife out for a nice dinner the following week! Then I managed to save him $571 per year on his homeowners and auto policies, with higher limits of liability and lower deductibles than he was paying for his former coverage with (guess who!?)- STATE FARM! I ended up with a new friend out of this whole ordeal in addition to the DV amount that they finally paid.

With all the data from the Mazda dealership used car managers and my Craigslist experiment; I once again submitted my claim to State Farm. I also included copies of the Carfax and Autocheck reports that showed that show the accident as moderate to severe damage on one and airbag deployed on the other. I increased the amount I was demanding from $2,300 to $2,712 to cover the cost of the two vehicle history reports, my mileage conducting all of the research and an overnight stay in Knoxville, where I bought the car new and revisited to discuss the low trade-in value and to have the car inspected by lead mechanic to certify that it is roadworthy and has been repaired to the highest standard, but he also noted that it was not and would never be equivalent to an un-wrecked car!

I didn’t hear anything from them in the 15 day period that I stated in my
Demand Letter. So I went to the Magistrate Court here in the county where I live (and where the at-fault driver also lives) and I filed suit against her in the amount of $2,984. That is the $2,712 I previously claimed plus the cost of filing the court case, having the papers served and $100 that I was expecting pay one of the local Mazda used car managers to appear as am expert witness. Part of my DV Appraiser’s contract is that he will serve as an expert witness if a case ever goes to court, so that was two pros plus all of my own research.

Three days later, a courier delivered an envelope from State Farm to my home. It was a check for $2,984. I deposited the check and, after it cleared, I had the bank issue a certified check for $100 and sent it back to State Farm. I didn’t have the expense of that expert witness that I was expecting and I do NOT want nor will I accept anything that I am not rightfully entitled to!

Posted: Wed Jun 08, 2011 12:52 am Post Subject:

Congratulations. I plan on using your post for many of my DV customers as an example of what you can accomplish on your own without an attorney and using small claims court.

I spent 5 hours recently in a deposition explaining loss of value to a state farm attorney. I still don't think he gets it, but it was easy to shoot holes through their hired appraisers report.

Posted: Wed Jun 08, 2011 11:14 pm Post Subject:

Good for you, allfiredup! You should have asked for the $3000+ you saved State Farm by not involving an attorney.
8)