Originally Posted by 2stroked

Here’s how the whole “depreciated value” thing works. When most folks look for a used car, they want one that’s been well cared for and if possible, never have been in a wreck. Why don’t they want one that’s been in a wreck? Obviously, because a repaired vehicle (in most cases) is not as good as one that never needed to be repaired. There are exceptions here. I could see where certain types of repairs (bumper covers, glass, and certain suspension components) can be repaired or replaced after a crash and the car literally is as good as new.

But let’s look at a more serious crash. Let’s say your unibody car gets hit in the right rear and wrinkles up that whole corner of the car. It’s going to need all sorts of structural repair including the straightening of some pieces and the cutting off and replacing of others before it goes to paint. There’s lots of cutting and welding going on here. None of which goes on in a well controlled environment like you find at the factory.

Now as a quick aside, take a piece of aluminum foil from a fresh roll. Nice huh? Now wrinkle it up. Now try to straighten it out – so it’s exactly the way it was when it first came off the roll. Not so easy huh? And you were working with a single piece of foil. You vehicle is made up of multiple pieces of metal, plastic and other materials. Get my drift here? Simply stated, the body shop processes of welding and bonding everything back together are simply not as well controlled as the factory processes were. You might actually end up with something stronger. On the other hand, you might end up with something significantly weaker.

Now we come to paint – which not only makes a car look good, it’s also rather critical to corrosion resistance. I can absolutely, 100% guarantee you that no body shop anywhere in the world can duplicate the factory finish in terms of appearance, hardness, corrosion resistance, etc. Sure, many can make a vehicle look good, but corrosion resistance? Never happen. So if you happen to live in an area where salt happens to come into play, I can guarantee you the repaired area will not hold up as well to corrosion as the factory areas.

Finally, let’s get back to your insurance company. They promised you that they’d repair your car, right? Well, it’s the definition of “repaired” that you’ll find a good deal of wiggle room in. Every insurance company out there is trying to spend as little money as they can repairing your car. They know that 98% of the people out there know absolutely nothing about collision repair and as long as the car looks good when it’s returned, they’re happy. Most folks are just happy to get their car back and really don’t look at the repairs at all. (They hate folks like me.)

Now let’s fast forward to when you trade your “repaired” car in. What do you think happens to the trade in value if the car has been wrecked and repaired? That’s right, it’s automatically worth less. It doesn’t seem to matter (much) whether the repair was first rate and the car is actually pretty close to original condition or not, it’s automatically worth less. Why do you think everybody wants a Carfax report? BTW, how do you think Carfax finds out your vehicle was crashed & repaired in the first place? The insurance companies report it to them!

So this is where “diminished value” comes in. What you need to do is make sure that you got all of the money owed to you in making restitution for your wreck. What you’re doing when you demand it of your insurance company is getting back – up front – what you will inevitably loose later when you trade it in. Are they going to fight you? Hell yes. Did they themselves virtually guarantee you’d get less for your car when they reported the damage to Carfax? Yupper. Nice racket huh?

Originally Posted by Jpaye

You have some good points but I can tell you that insurance companies do not report anything to carfax, at least State Farm does not. How do I know? I work in the claims department here in FL and we do not send anything to carfax. Just wanted to point that out, continue on and good luck with the diminished value claim and I will tell you it is all about proof, provide proof that you have a loss and it will more than likely get paid. I know for a fact that in Georgia every single claim there is diminished value is paid no matter what, no questions asked