Diminshed Value Claims

rgatijnet1 wrote:
Actually diminished value came about primarily because the auto industry switched from vehicles with frames to unibody construction. With a vehicle with a frame it was easy to tell if a vehicle was repaired properly. With a unibody type vehicle they will cut off entire sections of the body and ATTEMPT to duplicate the same rigidity that the factory obtained with their robots and in a carefully controlled environment. When a unibody type vehicle is sent to a repair shop, that is working with the insurance company and has time limits and a budget, there is almost a 100% probability that corners will be cut and once put together and covered with body filler and paint, you cannot tell if ALL of the welds were done and if they meet the same(they don't) quality as those that came from the factory.
I am sure there are some here that work at body shops that will swear that their repair is just as good as what came from the factory. That is a myth put out by the insurance companies to convince owners that their vehicle was properly repaired. There is not one single body shop anywhere in this country that can cut off a section of a unibody vehicle and install a new section that is as good as what came from the factory, with the amount paid by the insurance company. There are too many points of contact that cannot be properly attached/welded by a human after the vehicle has left the factory. They can look pretty after the repair but the damaged vehicle will never be the same.

That has exactly what to do with diminished value? If we are going to accept your theory as accurate, which it is not, then at a certain level of damage every unibody vehicle should be destroyed and we start over. While this would be very expensive for insurance costs, it would at least protect the consumer from a potential death event when the car is wrecked the second time... by your theory. The current process of arbitrarily awarding the owner 10% of value would seem to be simply a windfall event for the greedy owner and attorney.

I owned body shops as part of new car dealerships for decades. In the process, I witnessed far more repairs of modern vehicles than most people will ever see. While I absolutely never tested a repaired unibody vehicle to determine its post repair integrity, I also never saw one come back because of the vehicle "strength". To assume that if a body shop repaired it "corners were cut" is to disparage a number of good people. It would be ludicrous to assume everyone but you has no
pride of workmanship. As a warranty provider for a number of manufacturers, we sure did get the opportunity to correct many mistakes created by your revered "robots and controlled environment"!