2016 Ram 3500 Crash / Diminished Value Result

[1Adam12]

This is a follow up post regarding the crash I had with my 2016 Ram 3500 Mega Cab DRW. I was sitting at a red light in August of 2017, and was rear ended at 35 MPH by a Class C Motorhome towing a vehicle behind it. We were not towing our RV at the time.

The truck had $13,500 in damage. After nearly four months and three trips back to the body shop, the truck wasn't right. I traded the truck with full disclosure. The accident was clearly visible on CarFax as well.

The truck had less than 12k miles on it and was garage kept. Before the crash it had a trade value of $52k. After the crash it was $45k, confirmed at four different dealerships. I heard lots of speculation and opinions on diminished value with no clue how it would turn out.

To settle the property damage portion of the claim, our attorney hired a diminished value expert who examined the car at the body shop and completed a comprehensive report.

I was able to recover the value lost as a result of the crash.

There are obviously lots of factors which can change the outcome. I'm posting this information to share a real world outcome, in hopes it may help someone who may find themselves in a similar predicament.

[jfkmk]

Perrysburg Dodgeboy wrote:

As for shops getting paid, I was told this by a bodyshop owner, who BTW refuses to report work.

Again this diminished value is a bunch of BS IMO. A bad body repair will stick out like a sore thumb and a good repair will not cause any problems. Funny how you can take a rusted out POS muscle car and rebuild it then turn around and sell it for big money and NO ONE bats an eye. But have your vehicle get wrecked and all of a sudden it is not worth a dime. I see a whole lot of stupid people posting comments about things they know not a **** thing about.

Don

Your bodyshop buddy may be telling you fibs. Either way, he's not the sharpest pencil in the box, is he? So, he can get a kickback for almost no effort, and he refused to do so??

Muscle cars...take two muscle cars, both look great, but one was restored from a rusted pos and the other was never restored. Which one is worth more? I think the answer is obvious. Besides, an old muscle car is no longer produced. If in demand, of course it will fetch good money, even as a rusted pos.

As for your assessment of people posting....was there a mirror involved while writing that post?

[time2roll]

I believe it also helped to actually trade the vehicle so that you had an actual realized loss. Insurance does not want to pay based upon a perceived loss as it will dilute with time and normal depreciation. Also going back to the body shop several times to get the fix corrected shows a real effort to make it right and it was apparently not possible. And I agree a vehicle is very rarely perfectly the same after a fix.

[Perrysburg_Dodg]

NJRVer wrote:
If you have fire damage in your house you will get lower offers.
There are a insurance companies whose idea of fixing fire damage is to paint the framing with Kilz or equal to block the charcoal wood and kill the smell.

Yep and I bought one, our first home have a chimney fire from a wood burning stove. We never knew anything about it, until one year later. I found it when we added a air tight. There were two roof trusses that were burnt and the fix was to scab a 2x4 onto them. We looked into suing the inspector but were given a cash settlement to go away. That paid for the trusses to be repaired correctly. Still don't think a home can't have diminished value? SMH

As for shops getting paid, I was told this by a bodyshop owner, who BTW refuses to report work.

Again this diminished value is a bunch of BS IMO. A bad body repair will stick out like a sore thumb and a good repair will not cause any problems. Funny how you can take a rusted out POS muscle car and rebuild it then turn around and sell it for big money and NO ONE bats an eye. But have your vehicle get wrecked and all of a sudden it is not worth a dime. I see a whole lot of stupid people posting comments about things they know not a **** thing about.

Don

[NJRVer]

If you have fire damage in your house you will get lower offers.
There are a insurance companies whose idea of fixing fire damage is to paint the framing with Kilz or equal to block the charcoal wood and kill the smell.

[mich800]

I cannot believe this is still being debated. Diminished value for automobiles is a proven fact. This is not some mico concept on one vehicle repaired at a quality shop. This is a macro concept and consumers in fact will pay less for a vehicle that is known to be in a serious wreck. Comparisons between appreciating assets like homes with depreciating assets are not valid. And repairs done by the manufacturers during production or delivery are not the same type of damage discussed. Would you pay the same price for a properly repaired salvage titled vehicle? The consumers have spoken and the answer is no.

[mtofell1]

Perrysburg Dodgeboy wrote:
Does your home now have diminished value? It is no different than a vehicle being repaired!

Houses versus vehicles is a terrible analogy in this discussion. In short, cars move and house don't. Houses can't get bent frames and drive crooked. Houses also don't get branded titles. Houses appreciate while vehicles depreciate.

The island you are standing on trying to defend a ridiculous post just keeps shrinking.

[gkainz]

Lwiddis wrote:
“I'm posting this information to share a real world outcome,...”

In Florida. Other states will have different outcomes. Generalizations are almost always...wrong.

In general, right? 🙂 since the above is a generalization about generalizations 😄

[jfkmk]

Perrysburg Dodgeboy wrote:

As for " Why would you ask the body shop /repair shop not to report an accident if you aren't trying to hide the fact from future buyers? Makes no sense", why the heck should they get paid the report my vehicle? If anyone is going to make money on reporting it then that will be me! As I said, I told the guy that bought my truck about all the repairs done to it and showed (and gave) him every repair order on the truck. I keep a file and everything that is done to one of my vehicles (owed vehicles).
Don

So out of curiosity, I did a search on how carfax works, and what incentives shops have to report to them. I found absolutely nothing indicating there is any incentive for a shop to report to them, let alone get paid for it. In fact, most of what I found indicated a lot goes unreported to them because there is no incentive!

Sorry if i missed it. But can you support that claim?

So let's just say you are correct and a shop gets a few bucks to report a repair. What do you care? They aren't charging you anything differently because of it. Besides, if you go in with the attitude of having them agreeing to not report a repair simply to keep them from receiving an incentive, you're probably not going to be happy with the repair!

Again, could you point to where the shops make money reporting a repair? I'd like to understand how/why I missed it if I did.

[Perrysburg_Dodg]

Some of you would lose your minds if you knew how many vehicles are "repaired" at the factories!!!! My currant truck had the body scraped when it fell off the overhead conveyor causing a three week delay in getting my truck. The factory uses "plastic body filler" AKA BONDO to repair minor damage and then if the vehicle is already painted it is resprayed so there goes the idea of using a "Elcometer will reveal discrepancies in paint thickness" now doesn't it?

So, show of hands, how many have had repairs done to their house from a fire, weather related damage or whatever? Does your home now have diminished value? It is no different than a vehicle being repaired! The only reason this is a thing in automotive is there are way to many inept body shops out there doing shoddy work. But the same is true in the home building trade ssssoooooooo.

As for " Why would you ask the body shop /repair shop not to report an accident if you aren't trying to hide the fact from future buyers? Makes no sense", why the heck should they get paid the report my vehicle? If anyone is going to make money on reporting it then that will be me! As I said, I told the guy that bought my truck about all the repairs done to it and showed (and gave) him every repair order on the truck. I keep a file and everything that is done to one of my vehicles (owed vehicles).

If you have to have an "expert" find a body repair then the repair was done correctly and should NOT be a means of screwing the owner! You can bet a dealer will never disclose if the vehicle was ever wrecked unless you ask and then most they will say I have no idea.

Don

[NJRVer]

dfm wrote:
"I would rather have one that has it's complete bed than one that had a side cut out and re welded in, even if it "looks" perfect. "


Almost all significant damages to a vehicle are now full parts Replacement rather than repair. Labor for repair is more expensive than part replacement

So if your unibody sedan gets wacked in the rear quarter, they give you a complete unibody and transfer all your useable parts on to it? Doubt it.
You get a quarter repair panel welded in.

[Desert_Captain]

No vehicle that has been in an accident is ever worth as much as it was before the crash. The quality/skill of the repairs are totally irrelevant. Compared to another identical make and model the one with no accident in its history will be worth thousands more regardless of how it was maintained. The insurance industry hates diminition of value claims but fortunately for them very few folks have even heard of this issue and even fewer are smart enough to pursue it.

My SIL was Tee boned driving his Prius by a similar sized car doing 35, she ran the light as verified by multiple witnesses. I urged him to pursue his loss of value but the other driver... single mom, under insured, with a baby at home was his first concern and he did not pursue his lawful, rightful compensation from her insurance company. Arrrrg!

He now has a car with a bent frame {that is worth thousands less than it was pre accident}, no question, despite her insurance comany's assurances that his Prius is good as new. Funny thing, when he drives through standing water his car now leaves 4 separate tire tracks... hmmm, good as new? :h I don't think so. :S

If you cannot be fully insured you have no, none, zero, nada business being on the street. IMHO: Uninsured/underinsured drivers should go straight to jail and stay there until full compensation to their victims can be paid.

OK, Rant off for now, but having family members screwed, hell, he could have very easily been killed by this idiot {and partly out of their own ignorance as in not listening to dad... but I digress} makes this a touchy subject for me.

As always... Opinions and YMMV.

:M

[Fordlover]

dodge guy wrote:
Yes, but in the end if it was repaired properly they will both be the same truck!

Which one would you buy? One that was properly repaired with no issues or one with poor maintenance that looks like junk with no accidents?!

With a good eye and proper tools, nearly any body repair is detectable, even really good work. Even if the color is a complete 100% match in all lighting (very rare) a simple Elcometer will reveal discrepancies in paint thickness.

If in the future your vehicle is damaged and becomes a complete loss, the likelihood is high that previous repairs will be taken into consideration and will have a negative impact on insurance reimbursement for the loss.

[1Adam12]

thomasmnile wrote:
One Adam 12: I recall your original post. I understand the diminished value concept and know insurance companies fight such claims tooth and nail. Did your insurance company pursue the claim with the other driver's insurance on your behalf, or did you engage your own attorney and have to go through a civil court action?

Glad things resolved favorably, did your truck sustain frame damage that could not be corrected?

My attorney hired the diminished value expert and negotiated the property damage claim with the at fault insurance company. The attorney will recoup the expense when personal injury portion of the claim is settled. Totally worth the cost of using the expert and totally worth hiring an attorney who knows what they are doing to negotiate with at fault insurance company.

No frame damage according to body shop, although they wouldn't produce scans when asked for them by expert.

[STLUCIEAPPRAISA]

I have prepared more than 3,000 diminished value reports so far and I base my figures on multiple opinions of sales managers at recognized dealerships. Not once have I heard a sales manager say that he or she wouldn't take a deduction on an RV that had been even in a minor wreck.