If you are attempting to recover damages as a supervene of diminished value, you will as a matter of fact be required to prove your loss. This can be very difficult for the median emergency victim. Knowledge of the allowable methodologies and form for presenting valid supporting data eludes most laymen. As a licensed adjuster and owner of a claim services company, I can attest to how hard it is to document diminished value in a credible manner.
Let's face it, the only way to document diminished value on a vehicle that has been in a collision and then repaired is to explore the shop for that vehicle and secure as much data as potential about how an emergency history affects the value of the vehicle as seen by consumers and sell auto dealers. Adjusters will ask you for real data that supports your claim, not just the plan of some so called expert. That should be easy enough, right? You can bet that if you take your vehicle in to a dealer to trade in on a new vehicle, the dealer will run a title history check and will physically examine the vehicle for signs or evidence that the vehicle has been in an emergency and repaired. If it is discovered that your vehicle has an emergency history, the dealer will as a matter of fact reduce their trade in offer.
Damage History
They will cite problems such as their inability to certify the vehicle due to repaired parts, or the fact that they are required by law to disclose emergency history to prospective purchasers, or issues relating to the voiding of manufacturer's warranties due to damaged and repaired components, or protection related components such as air bag modules which cannot be economically tested for reliability after being substituted or repaired. The dealer will reduce your vehicle's value dramatically if it has been in a wreck. You know what is strange, though? They don't want to admit that they do that in writing. They will verbally tell you all day that they will reduce the value of a vehicle and can tell you exactly how much they will reduce the value. I have even had dealers discuss diminished value with me on specific vehicles for 30 minutes or more and information to me the manner in which they decree trade in values on a previously wrecked vehicle. They are very well-known with the plan of diminished value and generally utilize it to make great deals on trade-ins, but most won't put it in writing!
This is where the documentation qoute comes in. Dealer quotes would be great documentation for diminished value, but it is approximately impossible to get enough dealers to quote a diminished value so that an median can be determined. I understand that dealers don't want to look bad, but they have to pick a side, you know? On one hand, you can't reduce vehicle values because of damage histories if you don't publicly want to admit that you do it. At the very least, I think that if the dealer is going to reduce your vehicle's value due to an auto accident, they should also document their decision in writing. It seems like coarse sense, but in my experience, it is like pulling teeth to get a dealer to go on record about diminished value. In fact, I have had dealers give me information and opinions on vehicles with the comprehension that I was going to use that information in legal reports. Then when they see the information in the record with the threat that they will have to testify in court, they retract or dispute their statements.
Seriously, as soon as it seemed like they might be called in to testify on a court case, they began to backpedal and make statements like "I didn't give specifics", or "I only discussed diminished value in normal and didn't give a quote". One fancy for this is that the dealer's plan of actual diminished value is approximately always less than what they will as a matter of fact reduce from a trade in. I recently had a case where a Range Rover was damaged. The damage was little to cosmetic issues with the front bumper and one fender. The total damage was barely 00.00 and most of the cost was for labor. When I spoke with dealers, they advised me that a cosmetic issue like that would reduce the value of the vehicle, but not so much that it would be a huge loss. Out of 7 dealers, the top estimate one would likely deduct because of this damage was about 00.00. After documenting the median diminished value and writing the legal record that incorporated some of the opinions, the owner of the vehicle was not happy and felt the diminished value was much more because when they as a matter of fact tried to trade in the vehicle, the dealers they dealt with wanted to deduct between K and K because of the damage history. What the owner doesn't know is that they have to negotiate! The real diminished value is much less than the dealers are quoting them. Come on guys! It's the rule of negotiation, start high, decree in the middle, you know? The point is that dealers won't put their opinions in writing, they don't want it to be exposed that they start way higher than they as a matter of fact believe when it comes to deducting for diminished value. The dealer will do anything they have to in order to avoid being put in the spotlight when it comes to quoting how they decree diminished value.
So what's the solution? How can you document dealer diminished value data? Here's the solution we came up with and why our reports are the most credible around...
1. We feel dealers and discuss diminished value on specific field vehicles.
2. Since we've had some unhappy dealers because of litigation threats (no real suits), we now recommend the dealers that we will not disclose their name or where we have obtained our data unless the data is subpoenaed as part of an officially filed lawsuit.
3. We agree that the data we secure from the dealer is just that, data, not quotes.
4. We agree that if litigation results that includes our legal report, then we will testify that the record is our plan based on actual shop research, but will not testify that the dealer quoted us any specific value, just a diminished value range.
5. We construe the litigation process in information to dealers. They normally do not understand that even if they are required to testify as to their opinion, the plan is not a quote and that they are not going to be held responsible for as a matter of fact purchasing a vehicle based on our record findings.
6. We certify our findings on an legal record written by a licensed adjuster in accordance with suitable practices and submitted in the most widely suitable form by guarnatee companies.
It is time consuming and hard work to get colse to the dealers' anxiety about providing written diminished value quotes. It requires some begging for information and a lot of slick talking to convince dealers to assist consumers by providing shop data to our company. We also verbalize our shop data and update it as necessary, but many times, we have already conducted explore on your specific model of vehicle and have ready to use data for our reports. Use these tricks to document your diminished value, and you may be able to get paid without employing a professional. If you are informed, then you are a threat! Sometimes, it's just in the petty details!
Auto Dealer Quotes and Diminished Value - The solution
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