Thread: Door Damage
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      02-12-2013, 03:19 PM   #16
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Drives: Smog machines
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Austin, TX

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Quote:
Originally Posted by qkbrian View Post
Has anyone had success submitting diminished value claims with their insurance? Given that the repair costs on this are around $1200 bucks, would they claim the damages were not large enough? I assume this will show up on Carfax which in my opinion diminishes resale value.
Yes, it's a pretty easy claim to make, your agent will likely already have a base amount that provides a basic guideline for the value differential of a car with no collision damage and one with repairs.

Your repairs will likely show up on CarFax (but they don't always). Unless you really luck out and the area can be repaired with PDR and you don't need paint, just the fact that you'll need the door and surrounding area resprayed will make it very easy for any dealer or knowledgeable buyer to tell that there's been damage. If you replace the door skin, that's one more stand out, since not all numbers will match.

Just for your edification, if I were buying a used car, any paint work would cause me to either walk away or offer significantly less, certainly more than $1,200. I can double check, but I think I got between $4k and $5k for diminished value when my M Coupe was rear ended. That was just what they offered, I didn't have to haggle. The beauty of that is that the cars were so rare, it didn't take nearly that much of a hit in resale, but that's a rare exception.
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