I recently got into an accident, its on the org, but i was sitting in my house carless pondering how much does an accident, given its not considered totalled but considered 7g's worth of damage, hurt the cars value in resale. My car will be paid off next december, and i want a new maxima, but will this accident hurt the value greatly? Any comments appreciated



-brandon
2k Max

 

There will be a blemish on the car's record if someone runs Carfax on it. I could be wrong, but at least your car will still have a clear title and not a salvage title which would really affect the value.

 

It all about luck when you sell your car. don't worry about it enjoy it and worry about it later. the worse that can happen is you looseing about 2k or less. I think you should worry about the depreations of the car. that will shock you.

 

do no sell it to carmax if you've been considering it. they are able to tell if the car has had paint work done and it will affect their appraisal of the car.

 

Not necessarily. My old '95 Altima was in 4 accidents and NONE of them showed up on carfax.

 

Actually, the only way that carfax can find out if an accident occured is through DMV I think. Right after the accident, if police was involved, they give you a police report. A few days following the incident, you will get a form in the mail and you are SUPPOSED to mail it back to the DMV notifying that an accident has occured. If you haven't done that, then the DMV will not have a record of the accident.

I think the other way that Carfax will find out is if your insurance reports that you were involved in an accident.

If neither of these occured then you have nothing to be worried about.

Its actually a shame that accidents are not recorded properly, because next time when you are shopping for a used car, you have to rely on that POS carfax report which is pretty useless when it comes to accident history.

 

This isnt necessarily directed to you, but does anyone know who i can contact to check my vin number... i had 2 members saved that said they would do it, but i got a new computer and dont have the list... Thanks

 

Did you hit his (or your) insurance up for diminished value? Good chance you're right (although a private buyer may not notice / change their offer), so the insurance company can be made to cover the gap between previous and current value of the car. Probably hard to agree on what that gap is, but you should at least try and work it - I would.

 

Yeah, apparently that is the law now here in Georgia at least. They gotta give you something to cover that gap now.

 

Insurance companies are smarter than we make them out to be... Read your policy Brandon, make sure there are no exclusions prohibiting you from pursuing a diminished value claim. Most insurers will summarily deny a diminished value claim, especially in instances where the law/their policy is ambiguous about this.

Insurers are only looking out for the bottom line of their CEO's, Presidents, and everybody above them in the corporate ladder.

p.s. what news of the claim. veh in shop for repairs yet ?

Fernando

 

I wouldn't sweat it

 

Make sure you sell it privately, if you go to trade it in a dealer will more then likely make you sign a document that the car has never been in an accident. I had to sign one when I traded in my Max. It was never in an accident, but the front end was vanadlized and needed new headlights/bodywork and paint.... oh the technicalities

 

exactly, don't sweat it. You are not going to loose 2 grand, maximum you're talking $200-500. Just make sure that it has been repaired properly, the paint matches up, all OEM parts, smooth surfaces, and you'll be OK.

 

If a car has been in an accident but not "salvaged", and has been repaired correctly it should take no more than 10% of the value off.
If the title is salvage then it looses at least 50% value.

 

Nissan screwed us with the 2000 model because they change the body style so quickly so your car with high mileage and a accident with definately hurt your resale BUT WE got screwed from jump by them bring out the 04 model 2 year ahead of schudule.... SO enjoy your car while you have it now and dont worry about the resale value....