Accident Diminish Car Value? CarFax

[Stargazer]

A few days ago there was ice on a bridge above my house and my truck was parked in the yard. Someone slid on the ice on the bridge and hit my truck's bumper. A police report was done. The truck has a clear carfax history. Now it may end up having something on the carfax report. How much will this diminish the vehicle's value? I done told the insurance company that I will expect to be compensated for the diminished value due to the fact that when people do a carfax report and see something on the report, they either do not want to buy the vehicle or will not want to pay as much for it.

The truck is a 2000 Ford F-150 4x4 Lariet.

 

[Van]

I would guess it depends on what the report says in the details. If I looked at a carfax report and it detailed that the truck was bumped and no damage was done then I would consider it to be fine. On the other hand if the truck as hit and required new paint and body work then I would take that into account on my offer. In this instance you may not be able to get any compensation unless there was no damage but the report lists damage at wich point you could also take carfax to court for misrepresentation or something along those lines.

 

[navychop]

This is a continuing bone of contention with insurance companies. I believe it's been pretty well documented that any accident reduces resale value. Yet insurance companies will only pay for repairs, and not even 100% of that. They simply will not compensate for reduced book value. Hard to compute, anyway.

Granted, values have probably plunged more for pickups due to the shift to more fuel efficient vehicles, than due to this accident. But it's still a valid loss. Even on an 8 year old vehicle. I notice years ago, you couldn't even get Blue Book on vehicles over 10 years old. Those days are long gone- several sources go back more and more each year.

Nice truck, top trim level.

 

[Stargazer]

There are more people getting carfax reports and while everyone does not get one, many people do, and if I need to sell the truck and they get that carfax report, its going to hurt the value. It surely is not going to help. I am going to press them on this and will not let them rip me off. I am not sure what an appropriate amount would be but that would probably depend on the amount of damage that was done. I would think that it would hurt a value at least 5-10%. People will choose a vehicle that has not been hit over one that has been. I know I would.

 

[Van]

If your truck was damaged then a devaluation is very fair but if your truck wasnt damaged then you have an issue. Now if it wasnt damaged and you go after your insurance company they will first laugh at you and second they will cancel your insurance and laugh at you some more so if you really want to do this make sure you talk to a lawyer.

 

[harshness]

Don't worry about the value on an eight year old vehicle. Without being damaged, it is worth less than 25% of what you paid for it and some bumps and scrapes are to be expected.

 

[Stargazer]

My truck was obviously damaged, why else would I be trying to collect for dimished value? Why would you even say it was not damaged after I said it was hit? Am I missing something here?

I just bought the truck around two years ago and I paid around $10,000 for it and it was worth over $14,000. It did not dimish 75% since then.

 

[Van]

Well you werent clear as to wether it was damaged only that the bumper was hit and truck bumpers are good for taking a hard hit and coming away with nothing more than a scratch. A truck my father had took a 30mph hit from a guy in a car and his cars front end was pushed into the engine while the truck bumper had two scratches, a jeep I had got wacked in a parking lot and the worst it had was some paint transfer, a truck I backed into at a kob I had damaged my vehicle but only had a dime size blemish on the bumper.

Best of luck on your mission.

 

[harshness]

I just bought the truck around two years ago and I paid around $10,000 for it and it was worth over $14,000. It did not dimish 75% since then.

According to Kelly Blue Book in my zip code a completely loaded rig is now worth around $7,500 in excellent condition. If the damage was cosmetic and the repair done right, that shouldn't change. If you're not satisfied with the repair, that's another issue entirely.

The value impact from the new 2009 F150 platform will likely do more damage to the value than any fender bender.

We're not talking about a '55 Thunderbird here.

 

[Stargazer]

My main concern is if they think it is worth putting it on the carfax report then they put it on there for a reason. Having that on a carfax report alone is definitely not going to help the value of the truck. I realize once a vehicle gets to a certain age the it will not make much of a difference but I've done been through the carfax ordeal before where they wanted to do a carfax check of a car and it was 12 years old so it does have an impact.

 

[Hall]

In Ohio (I know you're not in OH), up until a few years ago, you could "sue" the insurance company for "loss of value" caused by damage from an accident and 99% of the time you'd get whatever was determined to be the value loss. As of today, we can thank the insurance company lobbyists for getting Ohio's Congress to pass a law against this...

Better check if WV has anything similar and if so, you're SOL, so don't waste your time pursuing it.