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Any vehicle but this is a pickup - wreck diminished value damage multiplier and insurance arbitration ?

S

schiker

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Location
Pendleton, SC
I was rear-ended in a wreck. No injury just damage to my truck. Insurance has been a pain to work with and IMO now lowballing the diminished value.

So I see one of the most common formulas for diminished value is the market value x .1 as max diminished value. then multiplier for milage then multiplier for damage.

The damage multiplier I see goes as:
  • 1.00: Severe structural damage
  • 0.75: Major damage to structure and panels
  • 0.50: Moderate damage to structure and panels
  • 0.25: Minor damage to structure and panels
  • 0.00: No structural damage or replaced panels

The insurance company used something like .25 as their multiplier described above as minor damage to structure and panels.

Damage is to a truck bed. The side panel had to be replaced along with the floor/wheel well on that side ( the floor was slightly buckled up at the rear corner where the tailgate closes. Requiring spot welding new side floor panel and side onto the bed. Isn't the floor considered structural or is that only for a unibody? I don't think the new panel seam is good as the factory seam. The bed does look fine from the outside. I don't think it is a bad repair just what is normal.

Shouldn't the damage multiplier be at least 0.5 because the panels were not repairable? Also, I obtained a carfax report and it lists damage as moderate to right-rear and right side of the bed.

What do you think? I would think minor damage would be a dent able to be worked out then only requiring a small amount of body filler to blend body lines. But once a body panel seam was pulled apart and reglued and welded I feel the damage is at least a 0.5 multiplier.

Or do I have it backwards since the panel was replaced it should be like new and they are saying the remaining damage to the seam is a 0.25 multiplier?

If this was a bolt-on body panel I might agree but not a spot welded seam.

Did anyone go to insurance arbitration to argue for a different diminished value?
 
This is a 2020 long bed srw . I think the inner wall of bed side is one piece to include wheel house and floor pieces in front and rear of wheel house or wheel well. That is what was replaced not the center floor section of bed. I think the bed floor is 3 pieces (center and 2 sides floor pieces connected to inner box wall).
 
schiker said:
I was rear-ended in a wreck. No injury just damage to my truck. Insurance has been a pain to work with and IMO now lowballing the diminished value.
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Ummmm, I don't follow. The insurance from the person who hit you trying to pay less than a full repair to make you whole again?

Then make them pay for their stupidity and hire an attorney. Otherwise insurance companies are experts at taking advantage of individuals to save 15% or more on an accident payout.

An oddity of the pandemic: The value of your truck may have gone up significantly lately.
 
Always..always.. always...get a lawyer and sue...you will almost always get more.. especially with a truck that is only a year old..and never let your insurance deal with it...when you win they get to pay your lawyers fees also...if they have the same insurance company as you, then DEFINITELY get a lawyer...
Hell every time I drive I wish some idiot would rear end me lol... Make idiots pay out the ass for being idiots..
Just my opinion
 
Addendum:. If they hit you in ass hard enough to mess up your box which I believe would mean they crushed the bumper hard enough to get to the box then I can't believe you don't at the least have whiplash...
 
The impact was high from a colorado pickup he hit the curb and kareamed sorta upwards smashing bumper corner and the bed right-rear light pillar smashing up the rear quarter of bed panel beyond repair then he went off the road. According to SC tort law, I believe they owe me repair cost, loss of use during repair, and diminished value. Insurance paid for the repair. But Insurance delayed repair assigning an adjuster that went out of the office a few days then delay while determining liability. Insurance claiming they hadn't talked to the drivers (another car involved but not contributing to the collision) for 2 weeks. Their client at fault called the insurance agent within 2 hours of the accident. I started the claim within 2 hours of the accident, had my insurance estimate the same day, but repair took 56 days some of which is due to the insurance controls what parts they will pay for new vs used. They could have paid to paint a like-new take-off bed (a couple were available) with lights included but chose to buy bed parts then delayed some wanting a take-off bumper. The truck is a new model that took longer to get bed panels and other parts (some of which would have been included in the take-off bed). A like-new take-off bumper was not available. I want reasonably high diminished value because the truck was still like new just under 15K miles and now has a CarFax that says it was in a wreck sustaining moderate damage (I think that is the smoking gun). And will impact value when I try to sell later. The market is all jacked up due to demand and supply so the water is muddier than usual right now.

The difference in what I think is fair and what they are offering isn't major money. A lawyer I know said take them to arbitration yourself it is not really enough money to get a lawyer involved.
 
Is CarFax the only source that reports on recordable insurance damage?

I know of NADA, KBB, and Truecar that estimate market value but aren't they all on an honor system for entering conditions?
 
Did you have a rental for the 56 days?

Regardless what in $ or whatever do you feel is not making you whole? CarFax saying it was in a wreck?

And what are they offering on top of damages for you to settle if anything?

Noting wrong with a sanity check.
 
I have never been in a wreck or made a damage claim. I naively thought they would be fair.

When I started my claim Allstate said on the phone they would pay $36 dollars a day for a rental but I had to pay for it then they would reimburse me. You can't rent a car for that so I started doing research on what they should pay. The one time I bumped someone in a parking lot I paid for them to rent similar to what they drove while they had the dent fixed.

Plus I was hoping the repair wouldn't take long so I waited 18 days. In that 18 days I read a lot and learned they should pay for a rental truck and diminished value. Actually, the SC Department of insurance website says they should pay for the loss of use of my vehicle while it was being repaired what is fair and necessary. Normally renting similar to what I had would be considered equivalent for use so most get reimbursed the rental bill.

Allstate paid for the repair. I waited for the wreck to be reported to carfax so I could determine what the damage would be reported and have the Carfax report to submit with my claim. I had called the dealer I bought the truck from and he said he couldn't give me a loss in trade in comparison estimate without knowing the damage reported.

I asked to settle with
The cost of rental gave them the receipt.
Cost getting the rental (time and distance to get rental) + (time and distance going to bodyshop)
Time reimbursement for the hour at the wreck, minutes filing claim and obtaining estimate, talking on the phone with insurance and auto shop doing follow ups. ( ~ $300)
My loss of use for the 18 days ( I added up my payment, insurance, taxes, registration) $36/day
And diminished value. I used the formula = market value x .1 x 0.5 (the damage modifier I considered reported). Carfax listed my damage as moderate so I used 0.5.
for market value I pulled NADA, KBB, 3 ads from autotrader and averaged them all out.
$61,181 x .1 x .5 = $3,059.

Allstate paid rental truck bill and offered $1,700 for diminished value. They did not offer any loss of use for the other 18 days and said they don't have to pay for inconveniences. Note they took 3 weeks to pay the rental bill. They waited 2 weeks and emailed me for the receipt again for the rental. That was a delay tactic IMO because the receipt was in my claim I emailed and you know they keep all documentation. I talked to a lawyer I know and he said take them to arbitration for loss of use and claim rental truck cost as equivalent if they don't pay.

I resubmitted a request to settle
18 days of loss of use 18 x $65.19 (allstate's rate to rent a truck)
diminished value $3,059 and fully explained how I arrived at my number.

Allstate did not respond to email in a week plus day and half. I called to follow up and asked for the status they did not respond to voicemail so 3 days later I filed for arbitration.
 
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Delivering the summons to the county police I called the insurance agent number on accident report and asked if they could give me owners cell number that I wanted to give him a heads up I had to file for arbitration and if he had any questions I could answer.

The agent said they couldn’t give out info. I told them I understand and it’s your client you might want to give him a heads up. The secretary said they would pass msg to their boss but couldn’t say whether they would call their client. I looked up his number on 411 and left a msg on their home phone.

Note ask for multiple ways to contact other drivers. They don’t have to comply but they have to give you ID info I believe.

Conincidentally the special diminished value Allstate person called me 2 hrs later after I talked to agent’s office. Diminished value specialist said that they had problems with voicemail. I had left 2 allstate people msgs. The adjuster and this diminished value person. Adjuster never called. The Dim Val person said she hadn’t seen email. But she opened it while on the phone. I asked her why our diminished value was significantly different. She couldn’t say that she would respond. She ordered an evaluation and the report came back at $1,625 value. The report was dated after our call, Weeks after my claim request. Smells fishy to me.
 
schiker said:
and asked if they could give me owners cell number that I wanted to give him a heads up I had to file for arbitration and if he had any questions I could answer.
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Loose lips sink ships. The last person I would be calling is the dip$%&^ that hit me. They got no ability to help you - it's up to the Insurance Co now and the arbitration process.
 
To file arbitration in SC you have to file against the liable person. Then the insurance is suppose to indemnify the insured. I was trying to be neighborly with him just to let him know. I was going to ask if he had any preference to receive the summons. I don’t have a beef with him yet it’s the insurance company.

I really feel like I was treated in bad faith not responding to the line items in my claim. Not answering yes or no to paying claim in full or what they would pay for whole loss of use vs my request. Also seeming to stall and separating who to talk to about different losses. I thought you were suppose to only have to deal with the adjuster as the insurance rep. It was a crap show from the second week given a different claim number and the general run around. Slimey tactics telling me to file with my insurance and be reimbursed. That would mess up my good driver cash back for never having made a claim (until reimbursed which might take a long time). if his limits run out I would expect it causes a claim on my insurance that will increase my premium and also mess up my cash back. This would be unfair as the overage amount probably wouldn’t be much and I could choose to keep cash back and pay out of pocket or take loss then recover with 1 or 2 checks cash back. We have an insurance bundle so yeah it is a big deal. And I am suppose to trust 2 insurance companies to work together in my best interest. To do so in a timely manner not to interrupt my cash back. Yeah right. That would just double my work to keep them honest.
 
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Sux to here. I had similar fights in the past.

Some people don’t get why road rage gets so bad-
It isn’t just the fact of someone being carless with your life for their convenience. 30 mph smack can cause thousands in damage, and a couple months of problems to which you never get paid back for.
Seen the innocent person get the blame because the other person had a friend act like they were strangers and tell the cops a lie. Then Imagine going through this like 6-7 times.
Dash cam can save you.

Be happy if most the people around you actually have insurance. I’ve had family and friends get smacked and no insurance. So they loose out because of it. A person with no insurance gets sued but when they have nothing- blood from turnip. Better yet is like my brother had- totaled his little Datsun pickup & put him in hospital for a week, they didn’t speak a lick of english. He was broke, so didn’t have full coverage insurance so he was just out everything. Took him years to pay of the medical bills and wrecked his credit which hurt him trying to get a good job in his area working for the casinos that require good credit so you aren’t a theft risk. Literally made him abandon his dream career.

He Joined the Air Force soon after and stationed in So Cal, guess what happened again? He wasn’t hurt as bad only in hospital 2 days- but got listed awol for a minute. This time he had bought a huge boat of a ford ltd2 4 door car jic. I busted his chops how nothing in the ford was worth a darn and he should have bought a chevy. Funny enough the turn signal from those: ford later used in escorts, then AM General used in hummers. I have replaced 2 so far from kids breaking but is common problem and have a spare on the shelf! Haha.

Give it a year and if this just becomes another story- its when ya get hurt when things are a real problem.
 
That puts it in perspective. I did not mean to play the blues - whoa is me. You know how it goes you ask a question but the devil is in the details.
 
Arbitration still in processing. They are sticking to their evaluation. They claim SC does not have a formula for diminished value so % and modifiers don’t matter to them. So I guess it is total negotiation and market investigation.

I went by carmax and have a buy offer for comparison. Offered $58,000. Top nada trade in is $ 3750 higher, avg nada trade in is $2900ish higher. Mine should be clean above avg.

50 Miles away a similarly equipped used truck with 20k more miles is being advertised at $71,909. Have a call in to dealer but no reply. This market appreciation is crazy.

What else can i do to argue my case?
 
Receipts for any work or uprated components You may have installed.
Insurance co once told me they was going to total a 93 GMC i once owned. Told them, okay I’ll jerk out the fresh rebuilt transmission and transfer case then they can pay me.
After showing receipts they decided to fix my truck.
 
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