My precious got rear ended....

[Kate]

Wow what a nightmare. Glad it all "worked out" in the end but Im sure that was a lot of work and stress for you that was completely no fault of your own.

Fun little tid bit....Its been a little over a year since I got my stinger. First new car purchase of my life. Brought the car home that Saturday afternoon. Sunday morning, not even 24hrs later I am driving on the highway and a jackass in front of me driving like an ahole ends up rear ending a car stopped on the highway directly in front of me. I emergency braked and was able to stop in time but then I am sitting there parked on the interstate behind this crash and just start to hear brakes lighting up, tires squealing, see people next to me getting rear ended and a car rapidly approaching from behind. I felt so damn helpless and basically just braced for impact. Somehow though everyone behind me was able to stop and I came away unscathed. Well, basically had to change my pants but other than that all OK. 25 minutes later I arrived where I was going and my heart was still racing and hands shaking.

Reading your post here brought back that terrible memory and really reminds my how lucky I was. I can't even fathom having to go through all this, especially not even 24hrs into owning the vehicle. Like a poster above, not only would my Stinger have been damaged but I likely would've ended up with some sort of assault charges!! Anyway, good luck with the car going forward. Be safe out there people!

Wow, that would have shook me to the core--so glad you came out of that unscathed--and your car!

Yes it was a nightmare! I was SO mad when they initially rejected the DV claim. For all the stress, sleepless nights, inconvenience, loss of use of my car...it's the least they could do! I'm so glad it's over. Now whenever there is stopped traffic ahead of me and I have to brake quickly, I'm CRINGING just waiting for someone to slam into me. I'm sure that's the case for you too!

 

[Devin]

Following up on this mess...happy to report my car has been completely repaired and looks good. I hired an EXCELLENT appraiser to put together a diminished value claim. The report included me going to (2) dealerships and getting written offers--purchase from CarMax (which really was wholesale to the auctions because they don't sell cars that have been in accidents) and a trade in value from Lexus (I pretended I wanted to get a Lexus ES 350 F-sport). They were $24k and $30k respectively. He did other research, used a 17c formula that insurance companies use, and NADA values, and it was a very comprehensive 40 page report. His value came to about $27k with the accident, and $33k without accident, for a difference of $6,689. The insurance company flat out rejected the report as "speculation" and would not pay on it unless I SOLD the car and then came back to them. It is not the law that you have to sell your car in order to prove DV (couldn't afford to if I wanted to!), so I pushed them and said I would sue their insured if they did not pay this claim. They said they would do their own appraisal, and they came up with about $5500 in DV, and agreed to meet in the middle at about $6k. I got my $$, and so happy this is DONE! I hope more people for their sake find out about DV and if it's allowed in their state, and don't just take the hit on the value of their car lying down!

Congrats! Good to hear that you were made whole eventually. Thanks also for sharing your info. I can imagine that insurance companies get away with screwing people out of value on a daily basis.

 

[JVsGT]

Following up on this mess...happy to report my car has been completely repaired and looks good. I hired an EXCELLENT appraiser to put together a diminished value claim. The report included me going to (2) dealerships and getting written offers--purchase from CarMax (which really was wholesale to the auctions because they don't sell cars that have been in accidents) and a trade in value from Lexus (I pretended I wanted to get a Lexus ES 350 F-sport). They were $24k and $30k respectively. He did other research, used a 17c formula that insurance companies use, and NADA values, and it was a very comprehensive 40 page report. His value came to about $27k with the accident, and $33k without accident, for a difference of $6,689. The insurance company flat out rejected the report as "speculation" and would not pay on it unless I SOLD the car and then came back to them. It is not the law that you have to sell your car in order to prove DV (couldn't afford to if I wanted to!), so I pushed them and said I would sue their insured if they did not pay this claim. They said they would do their own appraisal, and they came up with about $5500 in DV, and agreed to meet in the middle at about $6k. I got my $$, and so happy this is DONE! I hope more people for their sake find out about DV and if it's allowed in their state, and don't just take the hit on the value of their car lying down!

Sounds like it all worked out. Did you run a vehicle history report to see if the accident is on there? My report was clean so even though I filed for diminished value and received the compensation, essentially, I had no lost value because it was never reported/updated.

 

[MerlintheMad]

Following up on this mess...happy to report my car has been completely repaired and looks good. I hired an EXCELLENT appraiser to put together a diminished value claim. The report included me going to (2) dealerships and getting written offers--purchase from CarMax (which really was wholesale to the auctions because they don't sell cars that have been in accidents) and a trade in value from Lexus (I pretended I wanted to get a Lexus ES 350 F-sport). They were $24k and $30k respectively. He did other research, used a 17c formula that insurance companies use, and NADA values, and it was a very comprehensive 40 page report. His value came to about $27k with the accident, and $33k without accident, for a difference of $6,689. The insurance company flat out rejected the report as "speculation" and would not pay on it unless I SOLD the car and then came back to them. It is not the law that you have to sell your car in order to prove DV (couldn't afford to if I wanted to!), so I pushed them and said I would sue their insured if they did not pay this claim. They said they would do their own appraisal, and they came up with about $5500 in DV, and agreed to meet in the middle at about $6k. I got my $$, and so happy this is DONE! I hope more people for their sake find out about DV and if it's allowed in their state, and don't just take the hit on the value of their car lying down!

Kate, the fighter. I love to read about a win.