It’s mostly cosmetic damage but now this car will show a minor accident on the carfax and will undoubtedly be harder to sell. How do I know how much to ask for?
For what it’s worth I was just sitting at a red light when a distracted driver just railed me from behind so it’s definitely their fault
He did what?? 🤣🤣
I’m an insurance agent, so I’ll preface my advice with that info. I’m pretty qualified to give an answer re: insurance.
I had my own vehicle hit by a guy that was pulling from a stop sign. It was very minor and mostly cosmetic.
Take pictures of the damage. That tells the story when you decide to move on from the M4. The dealer or party you sell to will want to see them, as the vehicle history will probably just show a minor accident. I’d also recommend keeping receipts and paperwork form the body shop that repairs the bumper.
Keeping documentation for the next owner/dealer will help you avoid taking a big depr hit. Once the next owner can also prove that the accident was very minor, it’ll make it easier for them to sell for a decent price.
As far as diminished value, you can run an online estimate on one of the car sites. Plug in 0 accidents, then plug in 1 minor accident. It’ll give you an idea of how much you’d lose on a trade in. That’s probably a decent place to start.
If its cosmetic, have reasonable expectations. Once you have run a few different online vehicle value estimates, average them out (or take the highest one) and start there. That way when the insurance company asks about your demand, they will see you’ve done your homework and the figure has some thought put into it.
From there, just be reasonable. Have some data to backup your demand and things will go smoothly.
I just had this exact thing happen to me in my M on Labor Day (I posted the video). I took my car back to the dealer for repairs. The body shop sent their documents to the general manager and she ran it through a program on her computer that calculated diminished value and put it on the dealers’ letter head. You may ask your dealer if they’ll do this too. Her comment was that if it were a regular sedan, it wouldn’t be worth it, but since it was an M…
You might be surprised at the cost of repairs. They replaced my diffuser, repaired the bumper plus some minor incidentals and it cost about $2k. I still have to have the paint protective film replaced and I’ll submit a diminished value claim of about $2.5k.
Just as a side note, my dealers’ body shop won’t work with the company touted by Flo. They had me go through my insurance then subrogate.
Keep in mind that not all states allow for diminished value claims. I live in MI and they do not allow for them here. I was rear-ended a few years ago and my car ended up getting $27k in repairs (2016 Touareg) and I was unable to get any compensation for diminished value.