Expert Auto Appraisals is your 1st choice for determining the loss of valuation to your car due to an event that your car was involved in. A Diminished value Appraisal is needed for an insured to recover the loss of value that your vehicle has suffered due to an accident or incident in which it has been involved in. We service all areas of Florida.
In recent years, more and more owners of higher value automobiles have been heavily affected by diminished value. When a car has been involved in an event that has caused damage, there’s an impact to it’s value in both retail and wholesale markets. With services available such as CarFax which have very aggressive advertising campaigns, consumers are constantly being reminded of researching vehicle history reports prior to purchase to highlight any type of derogatory history that could affect a vehicle value or a consumers decision to purchase.
If your vehicle has been involved in an accident, to some degree, the value of your vehicle has been negatively affected. The cars that are most affected are high end cars. The value of a 1-3 year old Porsche, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Lamborghini, Aston Martin, or any other brand of like type, that prior to the accident was a top condition vehicle, are the vehicles most affected. Here’s a grouping of cars, that as pre owned vehicle can still trade between $60,000 to over $100,000. I think we can all agree that the buyer paying that type of money for a pre owned car would only consider a top example. For a seller of a car that has been damaged, a low price is that there’s to offer, and even with the low price, it’s a very small market.
The change in value can vary greatly on the type or significance of damage and almost more importantly, the type of car. I’ll use a 2008 Porsche 911 Carrera S Cabriolet as an example. Here’s a car that is a special interest car that many of the potential buyers of this have aspired to buy for a number of years and are going to have to make a significant investment to do so. They are very particular of all aspects of the car and will travel many miles to purchase the right car. This buyer will research ownership and service history, CarFax report, in service date, recall and warranty history all before even seeing the car. The buyer will then either travel to inspect the car, or contract an inspection service such as Treasure Coast Auto Inspectors to ensure the car is as described, free of flaws, and most importantly ensure the car has no paintwork. The real concern of value in this scenario is that most buyers of this type of car will not even consider a car with any type of paintwork or accident history regardless of the quality of repair. After all, there’s no good reason a low mileage, well kept car, that’s only two years old would have any paintwork. A car with a quality repair from a minor accident can expect a valuation change of 5-10% of it’s wholesale value. Vehicles that have been involved in major accidents can see even higher devaluations.
Many reputable dealers make this information readily available to any potential buyer and go to great lengths to ensure that all of their inventory is free of any negative issues. In summary, both a dealer and a retail customer will pay more for a top condition car that is free of any accidents or paintwork. A vehicle with a negative history will have to be sold as “a deal” to a less discriminating buyer for less money than the same car without any derogatory history. The delta between a wholesale to wholesale or a retail to retail comparison will net similar numbers. That’s where Expert Auto Appraisers comes in. We establish what that valuation difference is and supply you the documentation needed for you to make your claim. In most states, in an accident that is caused by another party, you have the opportunity to not only get amount needed to repair your car, but also the amount needed to restore your cars value.
