[Tobster3]

Originally Posted by blinsc

It depends on the insurance company that is covering the repairs.

A few years ago I had a (at the time) brand new AMG C63S get side-swiped. The car was like 4 months old. I had dents and scratches along the entire driver side and the total repair cost billed to insurance was $14k (about $3k of that was because they had to replace half of the XPEL wrap, and the body shop marked that up 25% even though they outsourced it to the place that did it originally).

I hired someone that specializes in diminished value and they prepared a document and I also got three separate appraisals (CarMax, a Mercedes dealership, and another place I can't remember) to show that the vehicle lost between $8-12k in value.

GEICO, who was covering the driver at fault, did not really care at all about any of that, and wouldn't even look at the documents and appraisals. Instead, they sent their own person out to examine my vehicle post-repair. I threatened to sue them and they offered me $1000. I rejected it and called a couple lawyers and long story short, I went back and accepted the $1000. The guy I hired cost me $450, which in retrospect was a mistake.

That’ crazy!