Curly Sue

Recently I was rear-ended by an out of control Cadillac Escalade which caused $8500+ in damage to my 1989 964 coupe. After repairs, Circle Porsche offered me only $25,000 in trade. I know that my car was worth at least $10K more than that before it was damaged. Does anyone have advice regarding how I can collect diminished value from the other driver's insurance company?

964Carrera4

I went through a similar situation last year with a different 964 that I owned at the time.

I would recommend hiring a professional "car appraiser" in your area to determine the pre-accident value of your Porsche and to calculate the diminished value amount. It's worth the $250-$350 charge for that service, to possibly recoup many thousands of dollars.

J richard

I think you may be too late if you already signed off on the repairs and had the work done. The time to deal with that is while you're settling...

JJJMCD

Keep in mind that trade-in prices are usually 10-20% less than market value.

LPMM

And even lower @ Circle Porsche. My wife was thinking of trading in her car for a Macan and she was shocked by Circle's offer compared to other dealer's. No Macan for her.

OP - With that said, I agree with what others have pointed out: it may be too late if you have already settled, you would need to find an appraiser to get a true before/after market value, trade-in values have nothing to do with it.

HoBoJoe

How low are the miles on your car?

Curly Sue

42,400 miles an my car. I have been reading up on independent appraisers that do diminished value. Most have multiple negative reviews. I would hate to get taken at this stage of the game. I learned that the statute of limitations for making a diminished value claim is two years so that's good.

Grazie

Diminished value aside (I see you have some angles on that) I suspect you can do better selling your 964 via routes other than trade-in. Given how hard it is to find coupes especially these days I bet you can find an enthusiast who will pay more than a dealer once you back out the trade-in "funny money" stuff. GLWS.

Curly Sue

I agree with you but I wouldn't be interested in selling my car. One of the body shop managers recommended that I hire The St. Lucie Appraisal Company from having past experiences using their diminished value service. I spoke with them and they sound like straight shooters. No bad reviews I can find either. Thank you for providing your insight.

-nick

I believe that State Farm has a division for diminished value claims. I was re-ended and had about the same amount of repair work done a few years ago. Other party's insurance was State Farm. I had to jump through entirely too many hoops, but I finally got them to send out an appraiser and they cut a check for the loss of value. Check was realistic, about 20% of the total damage or so.

I would call whoever's insurance paid for the repair, and talk to them about a claim. They may require one of their own appraisers to come look.

Regardless, I'm not surprised at the dealership's offer, even without an accident history. That's why they're dealers after all.

Curly Sue

Received my diminished value report from St. Lucie Appraisal. Six Porsche dealers opinions came to an average of $7,700.00. Very thorough job. Now comes the hard part!