How much for diminished value?

I want to say how useful this post has been for me. I was in an accident that caused over 13.5k in damage to my Prius and am currently awaiting their DV offer. With some of this information I can get a ballpark of what they will offer and what I am owed. (Along with the help of half a dozen free DV claims estimate forms I've filled out.)

Just to touch on the subject a bit more, I was also surprised they paid out anything for DV when the damage was purely cosmetic. I have heard that State Farm is a pretty straight shooter when it comes to their claims process, and am glad they did pay out and fairly it seems.

I personally will not be keeping my Prius that has had major structural damage. I would not feel comfortable putting a baby in the back seat because the crash test ratings are no longer valid for my situation. The entire trunk floor plan was cut out and replaced, along with a piece of the frame. I think anytime there is severe structural damage, even if it doesn't meet the 70% or 80% of the cars value, it should be totaled. Just because it CAN doesn't mean it SHOULD be fixed.

As for not at fault accidents, insurance rates and DMV records I am not proudly a good candidate for comparison. I am now 28 years old and have roughly 4 claims made in the last 5-7 years on my insurance record. 3 not at fault accidents and 1 incident where someone scrapped along my bumper causing about $600 worth of damage. I have never had any tickets and our insurance each month is $93 total and that is for 25/50/25 full coverage. That includes myself and my better half as the 2 insured drivers on the policy for our 2012 Prius.

Again, thanks to all who posted in this thread, it was a major help!

 

Update for my situation:

State Farm sent out a diminished value inspector, however he was not an independent appraiser, but one that works for them. He called me from downstairs saying "I looked at the car and everything looks great, so if you have no issues I'm going to go ahead and go." Which was shocking because the reason he came out in the first place was because the repairs that were done were not "brand new" standards.

When I got down there (with a page of 2 dozen "issues") he was not the least bit friendly and when I started going over blemishes, and other issues with the repairs he would quickly take his $50 camera and snap a photo. Which is fine he wanted to get it done with, but some of the photos I took of the "issues", with my $300 camera, took me a few shots to get because they were in an awkward spot and wouldn't focus correctly.

He spent a lot of time telling me it's a great looking car, and explaining away some of the issues I pointed out to him. All the while I would shrug or disagree. Honestly I think it was a waste of his time and my time because in the end I sent in a 16 page doc with my own photos to the claim rep stating exactly what I am stating here. The inspector was useless and on top of taking into account frame damage, they needed to take into account all the flaws in the repairs when working up the DV offer.

Now we wait to hear back from the claims rep about DV.

 

12/26/12

The car has yet again been taken back to the shop to get some of the repairable fixes fixed, like the different shades of paint on the body and some "dirt and grime" build up cleaned. Hopefully after this round of fixes State Farm will take my next list of "cosmetic issues" that I present them with as simply a list of things to keep in mind when coming up with my DV amount. We are going on about 11 weeks of repair.

 

1/11/13

The long wait is over. The car came back with most of the paint "issues" fixed, but it still left about 6 things to be considered for determining diminished value. Imperfections in body work etc. I resubmitted a new list to the insurance rep and she came back with an offer of $5k, but we settled on $6k. She admitted she had a range of $5k-$6k and thought $6k was fair, it was very honest of her. I thought it was still a bit low based on my numbers. Before the accident the car was worth about $26k, now I will be lucky to sell it for $18-$19k, but the $6k will help in paying down this one and getting myself and my better half into a new unsmashed one. Again the repairs were over $13.6k and there was structural damage, rear end damage and front end damage. Hope this helps someone in the future!

 

This has been a very interesting and informative post, as I had never heard about DV. It's definitely good info to know.

 

The only time you can't claim DV is when the accident was your fault. Except in the state of Georgia, and maybe 1 other state, they allow you to claim DV in at fault accidents.

 

You're looking at it wrong. The car is worth less because it was in a wreck, regardless of how good the repairs are. It's worth MORE if the repairs are perfect, but still less than one that's 100% original. If the repairs are obvious then it's worth even less. It's not the dealer's fault the car was wrecked, so why would they be expected to pay you too much for it just because their shop repaired it??

 

Wow - I've been anxious to hear how it ended for you. $13k in repairs, $6k in DV payout, hundreds (thousands?) paying for weeks of rental car for you, paying the various appraisers to come out and evaluate and re-evaluate the car.....they paid out way over $20k on your accident so they would have saved both themselves and you a lot of hassle by just totaling the car.

 

The dealership didn't do body repairs. They had to "unlock" the hybrid system for the body shop and do the alingment. Thats when they found the rear axle was bent and instead of towing it back to the body shop and them fixing it, and then again back to the dealership, the dealership fixed the axle and then tested the hybrid system.