grane

Has anyone had success or lack of same with diminished value claims? How did you proceed to collect?

Diminished value is covered under tort law. If an asset losses value because of someone else's negligence, e.g. you got rear-ended, even if you had the vehicle repaired properly, the car is not worth as much on the used market as one that was never hit. These incidents are either reported to Carfax or to an "secret" insurance company data base that will also increase your car insurance rates EVEN IF you were not at fault. Therefore your insurance rates will go up, at least with the companies I have applied to. So you lose value there also.

I've had some MB dealers tell me they would give me less in trade for my car and it may not qualify as a CPO car so they would wholesale it. Thus it losses more value.

Your policy may state that your insurer will NOT pay you for a DM claim nor will they represent you against the culpable party or their insurer to collect such a claim.

Comments and experiences? I have a suit pending in NH with my CL55 so I will report back.

Grane

MTI

One of the hardest parts of proving a "diminished value" claim is providing the evidence of the loss, which would only be realized when the vehicle is being sold or otherwise tranferred. As time goes on, the overall value of the car will continue to diminish, even if it had not been in an accident. Therefore, you would need to extablish, likely through the opinion of a qualified expert. Even then, the opinion of the expert will depend greatly on how his calculations factor in the actual date when the loss will be fully realized.

DIMINISHEDVALUE

Purely from an appraiser's point of view, the few cars we've researched for diminished value due to the Mercedes-Benz emissions situation show that affected vehicles have lost little value as a result. The Class will need to prove that those vehicles are as unwanted by the buying public as repaired cars that underwent unibody repairs or had air bag deployment.