• If the other driver was at fault and their insurance company is paying for the repairs to your car.
• If you did not receive a ticket.
• If you are the owner, or buying your car. Leasing does not count. It would be the Leasing company that would be awarded the Diminished Value.
• If your accident was less than six years ago.

YOU MAY HAVE A CLAIM!

Beware some of the spin doctors on the Internet who may say:

• You can’t file for Diminished Value if your car has less than $3500. damage. Usually this is Attorneys that are looking for the big wins.
• Your vehicle must be six years old or newer. WHAT??? What about a 2001 Corvette? Think they’ll still pay $22,000 for a ‘vette with a history of $12,000 damage? HAH!
• Your vehicle has been in an accident before you don’t qualify. It still may have diminished value. Call me for a free consultation. We may even be able to claim the first accident.

Ken Nix

When looking for an Vehicle Appraiser, you of course want someone with experience. Ken has over 20 years in the automotive business. He has sold Porsche, Volvo, BMW, Mercedes, Volkswagen, Honda, Toyota, GMC, Pontiac, Chevrolet, Ford, Dodge, Chrysler, Kia, Hyundai, Mini Cooper and many other vehicles.

Ken is also the Founder /(previous) Owner of VolkswagenOwnersClub.com, MyFastGTI.com, JettaJunkie.com and Clik Local Internet Marketing Firm. From a early age, Ken Nix was thrown into business. 15 years younger than his brother, he always had something to prove. Spending his time as a child between odd jobs at his Uncle’s Chrysler dealership where his mother was Office Manager, and helping his father maintain the Kenworth, Peterbuilt and Ford trucks they used in his father’s trucking company, Ken was hooked on anything with wheels.

Early own, Ken was groomed to follow in his cousin’s footsteps to be an attorney. But Ken’s love of Cars and Computers kept beckoning him.   While working toward his parents dream of Law School, Ken realized what “he” wanted to do was work with computers.   Ken enrolled in Computer Science at Texas State Technical College where he met his wife of 20 years. Computer programming wasn’t paying the bills, and with a baby on the way, Ken used his dealership experience to land a position with a Chrysler-Plymouth dealership in central Texas. Wasn’t long until Ken was offered a position with Val Strough Chevrolet in California. Then tragedy struck and Ken and his family moved back to his hometown to take care of his mother when she had heart surgery. Ken immediately went to work at another dealership he spent a lot of his childhood in, Glass Chevrolet, where his Aunt had been the office Manager. After developing some unique trucks like the ZR-10 S-10 pickup for the dealership, Ken went on to help Mr. Berka, the Ford dealer next door, realize his dream of putting a Ford and Chevrolet Dealership in one building. Ken moved back to California and eventually migrated up to Coos Bay Oregon. Working for both the Toyota and Honda Dealers in Coos Bay, he later moved to Beaverton where he has resided for the past 12 years. Ken is known very well in automotive circles around Portland, as his last employment was working for Reynolds and Reynolds,the largest automotive company in the world helping dealers nationwide with marketing and customer service.

When it comes to Trucks, SUVs, Volkswagen, Honda and Toyota, Ken’s the man. With over 400,000 unique visitors to his automotive sites per month, Ken knows imports front and back. Ken’s knowledge of cars has earned him praise from his peers for years. Most of  the dealerships Ken worked for saw him as the go to person when it came to product knowledge. Ken has also worked with many of the largest auto groups in the country including Champion, Lanphere, Crestmont, Autonation, Penske Auto Group,  Maita, Van Tuyl Group, Ron Tonkin, Fletcher Jones, Red McCombs and AAA. Ken is also an avid motorcyclist, and understands the value of added accessories to your motorcycle.

Ken has many connections in the industry to help you achieve the most accurate appraisal no matter what type of Car or Truck you may have.

Many insure companies have attempted to utilize a formula called “17c Formula” to calculate diminished value. While appearing sound initially, the formula is severely flawed. Below is the actual formula and explanation. Beware, as most insurance companies model their DV formulas parallel to this.

17c Formula

ACV – Actual Cash Value. For purposes of our calculations, lets use the NADA retail value.

BASE LOV – Base Loss Of Value – 10% of the ACV is normally used as the starting point in most LOV formulas.

DAMAGE SEVERITY MODIFIER –  This represents the extent and nature of damages based on the actual physical damage on the vehicle without the cost to repair as the basis.

MODIFIER EXTENT OF DAMAGE

1.0     Severe damage to the vehicle’s structure.
0.75   Major damage to the vehicle’s structure and panels.
0.50   Moderate damage to the vehicle’s structure and panels.
0.25   Minor damage to the vehicle’s structure of vehicles.
0.0     No structural damage and/or replaced panels on the vehicle.

The modifier can be adjusted as necessary to fit the damages.

MILEAGE MODIFIER – 20 years ago, most cars generally had no realistic market value after 100,000 miles. Insurance companies like to keep this tidbit thrown into the mix to depreciate your vehicle as quickly as possible. Of course some vehicles still fall within these limitations, but others, like some Hondas, Toyotas, BMW’s and Mercedes hold their value well above the 100,000 mile limit. The modifier is a factor of the milage of the vehicle and the mileage where the vehicle would no longer be considered for retail sale. This can be from 0.0 to 1.0.

THE MILEAGE MODIFIER

0              1.0
20,000     0.8
40,000     0.6
60,000     0.4
80,000     0.2
100,000   0.0

The modifier should be adjusted to reflect the actual mileage based on the following:

MODIFIER MINUS MAXIMUM MILES FOR RETAIL SALE MINUS ACTUAL MILES
MAXIMUM MILE FOR RETAIL SALE

THE APPLICATION OF THE LOSS OF VALUE FORMULA
10% of ACV x Damage Modifier x Mileage Modifier = Loss of value

This is why the 17c formula is NOT an accurate measure of the lost value:

According to the documentation formula,

Most Value Books calculate mileage in their results (go to www.kbb to see for yourself). The formula states ” … including additions and subtractions for ….. mileage.” So why should the insurance company be allowed to further reduce the settlement based on mileage ?

Most Automotive price guides consider mileage during the price assessment, essentially calculating the retail price based on, mileage and deducting accordingly. To again consider mileage within the DV formula is like receiving double taxation. Deducting mileage twice only serves to benefit the insurance company by further reducing the amount of the settlement.

The other area that falls short is the Modifier Extent of Damage. They don’t even take in consideration the cost of the repair.

“A basic guide for the damage severity modifier is below:

MODIFIER EXTENT OF DAMAGE

1.0     Severe damage to the structure of vehicle.
0.75   Major damage to structure and panels of the vehicle.
0.50   Moderate damage to structure and panels of the vehicle.
0.25   Minor damage to structure of vehicle.
0.0     No structural damage and/or replaced panels.”

Let’s get real here. If the car has paint damage, there is no way it can be brought back to factory specs. From chemical to the type of paint booth or machine used to apply the paint is going to be considerably less effective than a multimillion dollar factory machine and paint booth. So how can no structural damage and no replaced panels be zero dollar diminished value? Someone’s gonna pay, and if the insurance company has a say in it, it’s gonna be you.

Below is an example of the 17c formula.

“17c”: “APPLICATION OF LOSS OF VALUE FORMULA
10% of ACV x Damage Modifier x Mileage Modifier = Loss of value”

Our Example:

2010 BMW 750i  pre-loss value = $80,000 with 2,500 miles incurring $30,000 in
damages.

Applying the formula above:

$80,000 x 10% = $8,000 initial DV
$8,000 x Damage Modifier 1.0 = $8,000 (severe damage)
$8,000 x Mileage Modifier 1.0 = $8,000 (low mileage – no “deduction”)

Loss of Value = $8,000.

Okay, Excuse my language, but who in the hell in their right mind is going to pay $72,000 for a 7 series BMW that has had $30,000 in damage done to it even if it was repaired by BMW’s factory specialists? That’s absurd. Most of the dealers I know in the area wouldn’t even put the car on their lot. They’d be so scared of the liability of an unknown problem, they’d just shy away. So who sells this car? Well, actually the owner is probably going to be the owner for a LONG time. Anyone who could afford to pay $72,000 for a BMW is not going to want one that’s had $30,000 in previous damage.

No Damage $30,000

Previously Damaged $24,000

The cars above are identical in every way but one. The bottom car has had 8,000 worth of damage fixed on it.  As demonstrated by the Newton’s Cradle below, inertia travels to places that may not be initially visible. So even though a car has been fully repaired, welds, bolts and general structural integrity could have been compromised. Add to this the perception of the normal person that a wrecked and rebuilt vehicle is not only worth less, but also less safe, and you have diminished value. Recent Oregon legislation has passed House Bill 2190, which could assist you in receiving a fair value for your car. One of the main prerequisites is an Unbiased Appraisal of your vehicle.