Long Islander

About 10 years ago, my wife was rear-ended in her MB E350 wagon, which was about 2 years old at the time. I was able to get $1750 of diminished value from State Farm, the other driver's insurer, which also happened to be my insurer. I got a printout online of the amount of diminished value from a company I found on the internet. The diminished value report I got showed $2000 of diminished value. The insurance company offered me $1500. I negotiated them up to $1750. The total damage was around $3800 not including the rental car which they paid for for nearly three weeks that the car was in the body shop. I should mention that the newer the car, the more you will get for diminished value. You will have to argue with the insurance company, but there is precedent for diminished value. There is a Georgia case where the insurance company (I believe it was State Farm) argued against diminished value and lost. The decision was on the books back when I made my claim, and I mentioned this to State Farm when I argued with them. Your own insurer may be able to carve out diminished value payments from their contract with you, but the at-fault party's insurer cannot.