On Friday, my son was involved in an accident, lady changed lanes and struck his drivers side: driver and passenger doors are toast. Her insurance has accepted responsibility and his requested Ford repair dealership has submitted their estimate of 5K for repairs. We fully expect grief from them, per the body shop.

I have reached out to a member here who has experience in this area and does this for a living, but have yet to hear back. So I wanted to find out from others the process for making this claim, what did you have to provide and when did you ask for it?

Any personal experience or pointers regarding making this claim would be helpful.

Thanks

 

Is this in your 13 f150? If not what was he driving?

 

2014 Limited Explorer

 

You get estimates, insurance sends an adjuster to inspect and approve, repairs made, shop paid and hopefully everyone is happy.

 

The Ford Dealership gave you a quote most likely using all brand new OEM parts. Most insurance companies will only approve quotes using recycled parts(Scrap yard parts), and aftermarket parts when available because it is cheaper. OEM parts usually cost more and are used when no parts are available any other way.


This is why the dealership body shop expects grief from the insurance company.

 

It depends upon your insurance company, policy and state law. Most states have laws governing the specific requirements for the use of CAPA parts such as disclosure prior to repair, customer acceptance. identifying the manufacturer of the part on the repair order, etc.

 

Thanks everyone, what I am specifically looking for here is information regarding diminished value claim. How do we determine DV and at what point do we bring it up?

 

DV is really hard to establish. The ins company owes you for incurred costs and to make you whole again. If you're planning on selling soon, you may have a case for DV, but if you don't sell for 10 years the value at that time is likely not diminished. On what is a 3 almost 4 model year car it's not nearly what it would be for a 2017. The hardest part will be establishing preaccident value, unless you had an offer to sell it prior to the wreck. It's hard to turn back the clock to let someone evaluate preaccident value. You can't possibly bring it up until repairs are made. If the person evaluating says it can tell the car was repaired, the ins co will point at the shop for shoddy repair. DV is a really uphill battle and unless this car is on its way to be sold, I think it's very hard to establish. That said, some states nearly mandate it on certain age vehicles, so it depends on the state precedent, amongst a whole bunch of things that are very difficult to evaluate and prove. Good luck.

 

It does depend on the state and insurance company. My 2015 F-150 was hit about 6 months after I purchased it and had 6k miles on it. There was only 1600 dollars worth of damage (they had to replace the door skin), however, from my understanding it can never be a certified Ford pre-owned vehicle which does decrease the value.

I was also seriously contemplating selling it before it was hit. I had did the KBB instant cash offer and it came up around 29,500 (I think). After it was hit, the dealer would only offer me 27,500 because of the claim.

I called the insurance company and stated that I wanted diminished value. They first said no, but I was persistent. They finally said, "500 is our final offer." I again, was persistent but stated that wasn't appropriate. Finally, they offered to have a 3rd party do a DV appraisal. That claim came back at 1500.00 so I accepted it.

 

$1500 on a 6 month old truck with less than 6k miles...start doing the math and on an almost 4 year old vehicle...it's not much.