Have you ever been in a car accident where it involved your own car? Was it a fairly new car? Getting into an accident is a pain in the neck. You have to exchange insurance information with the other driver, file a police report, get your car towed if the accident is bad enough, arrange to get your car worked on, arrange for a rental car, talk to the insurance adjuster, and then finally arrange to pick your car up from the automotive repair shop.
Of course this isn’t everything that you might go through, or it is more than you go through depending on the accident. In either case fast forward into the future and you have your car repaired and you have driven it for a few years. Now you come to the point to when you want to sell your car. You may find that what you want for your car and what anyone is willing to pay you for it are not even close. Why is this, well for one major reason you may have a car that suffers from Diminished Value.
What Is Diminished Value?
Diminished value is the loss of value that happens to a car that has been in an accident. Consider this. Let’s say for example that you are considering buying a new used car and you find the exact same make, model, year, color, and condition etc. but you know for a fact that one of the vehicles was in an accident. Which car would you purchase if they were both priced the same? Well for me, the answer is obvious - I would pick the car that wasn’t in the accident.
Okay, next question. Is there a price that I would pay for the car that was in the accident? Perhaps, but it is going to be reduced quite a bit. When you have a car fixed that has been in an accident how do you really know how well the repairs were? How do you know if the car is as safe as it was before the accident? Exactly, you don’t know in either case. So, if you didn’t know these things it makes sense that you wouldn’t pay nearly as much for the same car from above that was in the accident as you would for the non accident car.
The difference in what you would be willing to pay for the car that was in the accident compared to the price you would pay for the non accident car you can think of as the Diminished Value of the car that was in the accident.
What Does Diminished Value Mean To Me?
Diminished Value is something that you may be able to collect surrounding your car’s future loss in value due to an accident. If you have a car that has been in an accident the chances of selling that car in the future for anything close to what you should be able to sell it for are between slim and none – unless you lie about the car’s previous history.
If you are in an accident you will want to ask your insurance company about their diminished value policies. Some companies have a department to help you with this, but in most cases you will have to find an attorney to represent you to sue for your car’s diminished value.
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