Okay gang, so I finally got an offer on Diminished Value from the insurance company for my rear-end damage that happened in August. As a refresher, the damage was low speed when a kid in a lifted Jeep bumped me in a McDonalds drive thru. Because it was so lifted it basically decimated the rear decklid. Here's a picture to jog your memory:



The decklid was replaced, the top of the bumper was refinished and the color was blended into the quarter panels. The repair is excellent:





The insurance offered me $2,400 in diminished value. What do you guys think?

 

It's a lease. I thought if you returned it in good condition you would be fine. Do they look at accident history and make you pay a diminished value based on that? If so, shouldn't the financial company be in discussion with the insurance company?

 

Thats assuming I return it, which isn't what I will do. It will be bought out by me or traded.

 

But if you just returned it would you be responsible for paying anything?

 

No, its a closed end lease so the market value at the time doesn't impact the disposition of the car

 

That's what I thought. I guess I find it strange that you can make money off of this. Good for you, though.

 

I know that if you had a high end car, Porsche, Ferrari, that type, any time such vehicles change hands they're gonna go over it with a paint depth meter, and as soon as any body work is found, there will be a large deduction or many just don't even want the vehicle. But I don't think that's the case with a LS....I know when I owned a Porsche this happened, I had been hit from behind, and this kid hit the left quarter and gave the cops fake info. Wasn't anything I could do about it, one guy even told me to gtfoh, it was a Nissan dealership in Queens. I guess back then there was no carfax so when he asked me if it had ever been hit, I figured I'd just say no. I was young, what you gonna do?

 

I ain’t asking questions lol

In all reality though, I am actually damaged by it because turning it in at the end of the lease was never an option. I’d have to pay huge mileage overages.

 

I think diminished value is always so difficult to determine and justify something quantitative. Especially from a public consumer data perspective. So that they even gave $2,400 instead of putting the weight back on you to come back with some sort of determination on appropriate value that can then stand up to their inquiries/audit is already a win in my opinion.

 

Will the leasing company include the diminished value in the assessment of the residual at the expiration of your lease. If not you will be saddled with a significant loss on the impairment on the market value of the vehicle from this unfortunate accident.

 

Getting any kind of diminished value is already a win from insurance companies. I'd take it.

 

Sounds like the way to go is to accept it, then try to get the best possible repair job since the vehicle will be kept. Wait, it's already been repaired. In that case, I think $2,400 is fair!

 

Yeah, I'm inclined to take it. I did a Carvana online assessment and they took $3,500 off for the accident history, but their estimate in general was WAY less than AutoTrader online with the same disclosed history in general. It'd be great to try and get an extra $1,000 out of them using that Carvana estimate but may be better not to push my luck lol

No, it wont impact the turn in of the vehicle at all, its a closed ended lease. It only impacts the trade in or sale value, which is what the diminished value claim is for.

 

I say take the money and run....$2400 is probably a reasonable figure. With the kind of money that you and your wife routinely spend on vehicles, getting an extra $1100 would be nice, but would not be that big a figure.....and probably not worth the hassle trying to negotiate it. As has often been said in Car Chat.....Life's too short to haggle.

Have you ruled out a new S550 or 7-series? You were seriously interested in both not long ago.

 

Yeah I emailed him and told him we had a deal.

Still thinking...probably a 7 Series, but I'm still up in the air