Vehicle depreciation due to accident

This (Du Pont paint for BMW specs...not aftermarket) is what I thought to be the case. Otherwise, the paint job would be a mismatch in some way..density, shade, texture...metallic vs flat, etc). The aftermarket paint job on a BMW would be as plain as the nose on your face.

This advice about aftermarket paint and/or body parts may confuse this issue. Perhaps, this might be the pactice of an indepedent (or irreputable) body shop on some non-luxury vehicles. In fact, I had such a thing occur to a body shop repair on a 2000 Toyota Camry, In the case of this body shop being a BMW shop, it obfuscates the issue.

No.

the BMW shop is likely associated with a local paint supplier.

DuPont is the biggest and flashiest.

any premium paint applied with talent would be fine.

(unless BMW has a national contract, which is possible)



my beemer friend has a new boyfriend, so I don't really know...

It's impossible to completely, 100% match the paint that comes from the factory. Any trained eye can usually point out a repainted body panel, so even if it's done at a BMW dealer, it's an aftermarket paint job, OEM parts and all.

My old boss ordered a brand new Mercedes SL500 when the current body came out about 6-7 years ago or so. He went to pick it up at the dealer, and noticed the driver's door was a repaint...on a BRAND new, $100K+ car. Somewhere in the shipping process it got scratched or whatever, and they just repainted it...he noticed and waited for another one. Even the dealer he was picking it up from didn't know about it. He owned the dealership I worked for...an average joe wouldn't have noticed, but if you tried to trade that car a year later it would have affected it's value.

If this BMW was a full repaint, or half of it was repainted, the depreciation on a newer $60K high-end car would be huge. A bumper usually isn't a huge deal though. And the bumper is repainted, because the replaced part doesn't come painted.

Right. I talked to our lead guitar player about this topic(he paints at a car dealership) and he told me even bumpers on a brand new car don't match the paint job on the body. Something about it being a different material.

Yea, the bumpers are plastic, body is metal...

Thats not true, my wife was in a accident and the rear of the car was damaged. The other driver was at fault and issued a ticket. The car was repaired by Nissan Auto body repair to keep the warranties in tact (It was a 2006 Nissan Maxima only one year off the lot). When I went to trade it in at another dealership they still notice the car was repaired, by the car fax record and also by how the car paint looked brighter in the areas it was re done. They depreciated the vehicle by $7,000 less than what i would have got if it had never been in accident. I called the at fault insurance company and showed them the print out from Car Max auto dealer ship Showing the difference and they finally cut me a check for the difference. So you can get the difference back and you dont need a Lawyer!!!!!!!!

Your anecdotal evidence proves how lucky you were that they did the'right' thing. That is by no means something to be attempted by the faint of heart.

Only one answer really addressed the question, but I will add to it. Having worked in auto industry a bit, being a car guy, and with friends in the insurance business, here is the deal:

It ABSOLUTELY reduces the value having been in an accident. The newer the car, the worse it is. When trading in a car, the first thing a dealer looks for is paint work. Any sign of repaired damage (even repaired well) drops the bottom line. In a private sale, people will generally ask rather than be able to deduce it themselves, although accident reporting to carfax is changing that. If they do not and it is repaired well, and you do not tell them, it would not make a difference, but that is not my style.

Now how much and if you can do anything about it is debatable. It depends greatly on the amount of damage, how well it was fixed, and year/make/miles/condition of the car otherwise. And therein lies the problem. There is no way to calculate it and so no way to prove it to an insurance company. They will generally fight giving any depreciated value, usually successfully. This is your only chance though. You must get the money then prior to any damages agreement and settling the claim. Once settled, you are out of luck. The way I would go about proving it is by taking it to 2-3 dealers and getting a trade in value, then asking how much teh accident affected it. The number you get will be on the high side since they try to get the car as cheap as possible using any justification to do so.