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.

Some people here really are leading you off the topic and bsing you, I hope you don't/didn't let them, I had to learn the hard way in the past.

It is common knowledge that your car suffered an immediate depreciation and/or its value diminished/lost as a a result of the accident. Its 2011 and let me tell you nobody buys a car without a carfax, and nobody with half a brain is going to give you for your car what they would have without an accident on its history.

Who reports to Carfax(?), mostly just the insurance companies, in this case the people who should owe you a decent amount of money. Money for the loss you suffered as a result of the accident caused by their insured driver.

You can check the Kelly Blue book and they have a tool to evaluate the grade/condition of your car. You will notice no car thats been in an accident even qualifies to be above a certain point.

Do a Kelly Blue Book value of your car for either private sale or trade in for the condition it was in prior to the accident. Be honest. Then do the same thing based on the conditions after the accident and repair.

Some people have told you its a matter of quality of the repair and this is a lie.

There are a few competiting perspectives,
-the body shop perspective
-the insurance perspective
-auto buyer/car dealer perspective
-car owner perspective

Ultimately those who determine price are the last two. Any body shop and insurance will tell you the car should have the same value...of course to suggest anything less or otherwise would be an insult to the quality and integrity of the work they do and service the provide.

Take your car to any buyer. They'll take you to bottom line real quick.

Nobody knows how bad an accident was, or how good the repair is. It automatically reduces the value, and it should to a certain extent. When a car is in an accident it is not taken down by machine and inspected at every screw, a hit to the rear bumper travels and can truly impact and change the entire car. Repaired well or not, frame damage or not. Some problems will be immediate and likely repaired as such and others vague and haunting in which you the owner may never even know or have a solution.

Bottom line is your car is not what it was before.

And what was it before? A car that had never been in an accident...in history or reality.

My car has lost about $4k as the result of an almost exact situation and I refuse to take... 'live with it', 'sucks to be you', or 'it shouldn't matter' as my answer. Especially not knowing what I know after selling my fiance's garunteed repaired Lexus from the shop recommended by the dealer. She lost about $8k off of her car, which was brand new.

And for all the people playing dumb thats $8k off the value of the car at resale, not purchase cost. For instance my Volvo would have sold for around 16k and now I can expect to get around $12-14k. It is currently being repaired at the best Volvo repair shop in the State.

In the end its a car with an accident history, thats been repainted, had parts replaced and that dont match. Like a new bumper, 1 new headlight, and I suppose blend painted fenders etc.

Anybody who is informed who is looking to buy your car will notice, have the information on your vehicle and will know that they can offer you less for one simple reason YOUR CAR IS WORTH LESS MONEY AFTER AN ACCIDENT NO MATTER HOW WELL IT IS REPAIRED.

You as the victim of the at fault driver according to law should not bear the burden of loss and they and their insurers are liable to cover the costs of injury suffered both financial and otherwise.

It should not be for lawyers to determine or even be involved and should be claimed with the insurance.

A car with a repainted/repaired/replacement fender is worth less than a car with an original painted fender. period.

..and for the record it is not "if you don't want to risk getting your car hit to not drive", it is "if you don't want to pay to repair the damage and loss of my property then don't crash into it with your property."

You break, you buy

It is unacceptable. Why should you have to suffer losing money or waste your time when you try to sell the car and can't get what you would have and should have. By then who's gonna care.

Nobody and I mean nobody is gonna give you what your car would have been worth had it not been in an accident come time to sell and thats not your loss its their responsibility to pay.

anybody who tells you that the repair is so good it won't effect the value on resale is lying thru their teeth or ignorant. You'll literally have to sit for months and maybe never sell your car waiting for the one idiot who would and thats not your responsibility and shouldn't be your problem. All you did was obey the law and as a result you suffered an injury and damage to your property from an at fault party. they are liable for your suffering whether that be financially, physically or even emotionally.

hope you and anybody else who has this problem benefits. Thankfully there were some good comments here but not many I saw.

Hi I will like to know if my BMW will loose value because
I have to fix a deep scract on the door because someone did this damage and purpose and I need to charge him not just for the damage but also for the depreciation of my brand new car after this damage thank you

I have a 2002 Lincoln Navigator and it was in a accident that caused $12000. It was 3 years old and had 30,000 miles. I was part of a class action lawsuit against Nationwide for depreciation values. Nationwide settled and I received an $1100 check for the depreciation of my Lincoln.

I got hit yesterday from the back due to no fault of my own and Allstate told me they will recover the depreciation. My car was brand new also, and I had for 3 months.

This is my logic:
If you run a carfax report now versus before the accident it will show that your vehicle has been in an accident.
If you decide to sell the car, the person making the purchase (dealer or private party) will determine how much they can offer you based on this item on the carfax report. It may be $0 less or 20% less.

The only way to find out is if you take it to the dealership and ask them how much they would be willing to pay you before vs after the accident.

You have 2 identical vehicles with identical miles at the same price, one has accident history and one doesn't... which one do you buy? Of course accident history effects the value, It may be a tough pill to swallow when you are the seller, but as a buyer it's an easy decision. Why do you think Carfax and Autocheck exist? The real question is how much does it effect the value? I've been in the auto industry for 20 years, I've seen buyers walk off the lot over accident history and walk out of the bidding lanes at auction for the same reason. It absolutely has an effect!

I own a 2011 Cadillac that has a blemished past by a passenger side collision in 2011 ... Car was repaired professionally in 2011 and now trying to trade or sell this vehicle in 2016 is extremely tough.... trade evaluations are down 4000.00 from a vehicle with a clean past and anyone interested walks away as soon as they see the Car Fax ... even though the car is in extremely good condition and priced way below market value.

Well, that's what happens when a car has an accident.

It doesn't have a clean past, so there you go.

Did you take the KBB value sheet with you?
If they low ball you, show them that.