Edgewood

Please give me the appraiser from Atlanta with good BBB reviews because I bent over backwards and only found appraisers in Georgia with BAD BBB reviews. I ended up using a company from Florida which worked out great but you seem to have found someone local when I could not. I found appraisers with horror stories on BBB.

enoren

In my 2IS, I was hit by someone and it took about $6k in damages. Getting ready to buy my 3IS, I took it to CarMax and they offered me $4k below market value (at the time, $16k instead of the $20k-$21k KBB).

I contacted the other party's insurance company and they had me fill out a diminished value form and I asked for the full $4k. They wrote a check for $600. They didn't tell me how they arrived at that amount, but I was able to sell the car for $21k on CraigsList and I let it go.

You can't get around diminished value if you trade it to a dealer. Many of them won't sell cars that have a bad CarFax -- they just wholesale them. You can get around it if you sell privately, but you have to demonstrate good maintenance and show the receipts for the work done.

This is also another benefit of leasing. You can turn the car in at the end of the lease and won't suffer any diminished value.

TyGreeny

KBB isn't market value, it's an arbitray guide to valuing cars. KBB will never purchase your car and will never sell you a car.

enoren

I agree completely. But it's just one more benchmark that helped me make my case to the insurance company. A lot of good that did me.

skrules

Edgewood, sent you PM with information.