2014 Silverado Collision Repair/Loss of Resale Value

[aseibel]

10 minutes ago, mikeyk101 said:

I purchased a 2005 Chrysler Pacifica on Ebay,

 

instead of the $8000 or so I was expecting, I was only offered about half.

That sucks. But also a good reason not to buy a car on ebay. If you had bought from a respected dealer, that should not have happened.

Just wondering what data you had to support your expected value of 8,000? a loss of 50% is drastic, but were you accurate with your personal valuation? Dealers never offer sh!t for trade-ins regardless of condition. That's why everyone is always upset when they compare the cost of a vehicle for sale on the lot vs. what the dealer wants to pay for their old one.

1 minute ago, mikeyk101 said:

Dealers are going to pay only a fraction of what it would be worth had it not sustained any damage. And they know that the different reports are out there (carfax, autocheck,etc...) and readily available to the public which will be used when he tries to resell it to haggle down the price. So he has to anticipate the profit that he will be able to make when taking that vehicle in on trade. And like I mentioned, many times, a dealer wont even bother putting that vehicle out on his lot as they want to only sell the best used that they can. It will immediately go from his dealership to the auction house to get what he can from it. Then it will probanly end up on one of the many used car only dealer lots that buy those cars as cheaply as possible.

This could be true. Until he talkes to the dealer we don't know the facts. If it is true, he should immediately go trade it in and make the at fault driver's insurance pay the difference to get him in a new truck. Until he completes the sale of this "damaged" truck, the loss is only theoretical. I look forward to hearing the results of SeanSmith's research and compare the value of his truck the day before the wreck to today.

[aseibel]

1 minute ago, mikeyk101 said:

And KBB, NADAGuides, and even Edmund's might be a good resource but isnt what the dealers use and will usually show an inflated value from what a dealer would be willing to pay. 

I agree they use data that is not available to consumers. But I sold two vehicles in the past few years. The dealer's trade-in offer was basically spot on what KBB said my trade-in should be. I was able to sell both of them private party for a better price.

[mikeyk101]

I had used KBB to come up with the trade in value for that Pacifica. And the dealer told me that if that accident hadnt shown up in the report, I wasnt too far off on what they were prepared to offer me on the trade in.

 

Also the loss is not theoretical. Whether it is traded in or not, the value is always going to be different. Vehicles will always depreciate which is a constant until they get old enough to be considered collectible and then could actually start increasing in value. But a fully 100% repaired vehicle will never command the same value as one that is accident free. It will always carry the damaged label until it finally gets scrapped and crushed.

 

And I used to agree with you about a vehicle that was 100% completely repaired. If it is repaired, it should be good as new. Unfortunately, that isnt reality and I learned the hard way.

 

Also just trying to go to the at fault insurance company and asking them to cover the difference is not a good tactic and will most likely fail. He will need documentation showing the actual difference in value. And just the documentation from the trade in dealer will not be enough. A diminished value claim will take some effort and a lot of documentation to be successful. It needs documentation and values from several independent sources to prove the actual difference. Vehicle values are not determined by any single finite method and will vary fgreatly fom different parts of the country and always open to interpretation.

 

I do agree though that if he has a buddy that works at a dealership or has access to someone, he should really reach out to them and get an idea of what he is dealing with and hopefully post back here with the results...

[wforrest08]

Just so you know almost every state has different laws pertaining to diminished value. 

 

First and foremost you’ll need to figure out what they are and if it’s even worth messing with. 

ie. title already has a mark for the repo, are you going to have to go through a lawyer to file the claim or pay for a third party inspection?, ect. to get back 200 bucks for 50 hours of your time...

 

Second the trade in value of a reprocessed frame swap truck in a already saturated used truck market  is really going to be a major disappointment to you/anyone. It is what it is as the years go by the gap between a clean one and this one will decrease dramatically. So real question is how long will you keep it anyway if it’s another 10 years it ain’t going to matter much anyway.

 

 

[JimCost2014]

41 minutes ago, mikeyk101 said:

And KBB, NADAGuides, and even Edmund's might be a good resource but isnt what the dealers use and will usually show an inflated value from what a dealer would be willing to pay. It may be good for pricing out your vehicle  for a private party sale but not so much on determining trade in value. The dealers use a different resource for pricing the trade ins. They actually use the Black Book which is not publicly available and shows the latest sale prices from the dealer only auctions to decide on a trade in value. It is constantly changing and updated.

That's why I suggested if he knew someone he could trust at a dealership, he could get a "ballpark figure" and then decide what he wants to do in the future, or maybe right now.