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The TV reality show Big Brother has a catchphrase line, “Expect the unexpected.”

This line can be applied to all components of life.

Accidents can, and do, happen.

This is the reason why we carry policies to protect us from mishap, whether it be home, car, disability, or life insurance.

Ideally when a policy is called upon, the individual wants to be made whole again (i.e. restored to pre-mishap levels).

But a lot of individuals who file a claim on an insurance policy neglect to address all the subtle nuances of what being made whole is, and thus they leave money on the table.

This is often the case when it comes to a car insurance claim.

A little background.

At the end of October, 2021 my daughter turned 16.

I knew I was getting her a car for her birthday and decided to go over the top, purchasing a brand new Tesla Model 3 with the Full Self Driving (FSD) option.

I know, I know, I am going to be chastised by the FIRE community about dropping so much cash on a car for my daughter but it was something I wanted to do, I had the means to do it, and so I did.

[Although I paid for the car in full with cash, I sometimes second guess this decision given the devaluation of the dollar occurring now with inflation, thinking it might have been smarter to have financed it.]

I was actually quite fortunate with the timing of my order, which I placed July 14, 2021 because the original delivery date, which would have been a few weeks before her actual birthday, kept getting pushed back due to supply chain issues (at one point I was told it would be January 2022 before I got delivery).

Thus my daughter and I were quite surprised and pleased when we got a call saying that, because of a ramp up in production, her car would now be available for pickup October 30, just 2 days after her birthday.

My daughter absolutely loved the car.

There were multiple reasons why I loved her driving the Tesla:

• I knew that Teslas were the safest cars on the road.
• Her car joined my car on the Tesla app on my phone and I could essentially keep track of all sorts of data and information:
  • Tesla’s Safety score which ranks multiple factors such as forward collision warnings, hard braking, aggressive turning, unsafe following, and forced autopilot disengagements (which occur when the driver is not attentive and does not provide periodic feedback to the system by turning the steering wheel, etc).
    • My daughter’s score, at the time of this writing was an 89, which put her well into the safe range
  • I can keep track of the location of the car whether it is moving or parked.
• With 8 built-in cameras throughout the vehicle it was like a having a dash cam on steroids to record any event.
• Full Self Driving, when it becomes fully implemented, will make her commute a breeze.

 

A December to remember…

Exactly 6 weeks from when we picked up the car my heart sank.

I had been in the backyard doing some work when I came in and saw multiple missed calls from my daughter, never a good sign.

I called her immediately and I could tell right away something was wrong by the sound of her voice.

She said she was involved in an accident.

I first asked if anyone was hurt and she said no.

Given that she was a relatively new driver I automatically assumed that my daughter was at fault.

However when the details emerged I was relieved that it was indeed not her fault but the other driver’s, who was in his early 60s.

Apparently my daughter was pulling into a parking space at a store when the other driver just backed into her, damaging the driver’s side rear quarter panel and rear bumper.

Luckily the store clerk saw the whole thing and came outside after calling the police.

The policeman arrived and filled out an accident report which, thankfully, stated that the 2nd driver (the older man) was at fault and that he had backed into my daughter without checking first, causing the damage.

I thought the event would also be captured from the Tesla Model 3 cameras however we later found out that because the event did not meet a certain threshold impact, there was no automatic saving of the data.

In order to record this incident, my daughter would have had to do a manual capture to save the data.

Unfortunately my daughter did not do this at the time and the footage in question got overwritten by the time I checked.

I contacted Tesla customer service and they also said that the lost footage could not be salvaged.

But fortunately the police officer’s report was the smoking gun that my daughter was free and clear of fault in this incident.

When I finally got to see the damage the next day, when my daughter came back, my heart sank again.

 

I felt for my daughter because I knew she must have been taking it hard to see her baby damaged as well.

The next steps…

My daughter gave me all the information she collected (driver’s license and insurance policy of the other driver) and a copy of the police incident report.

I then went online and filed a claim with the other driver’s insurance company (State Farm).

State Farm asked me to download an app which instructed me to take pictures of the entire car in various angles and to include any other descriptions I wanted to add.

I did not feel it necessary to contact my insurance company (Liberty Mutual) about the incident since I fully expected everything to be taken care of by State Farm.

I was shocked when later that week I got an email from my insurance company stating that a claim had been filed against me.

It kind of made my blood boil because apparently the 60 year old guy thought he could try and turn the responsibility for damages over to me, requesting the repair of his vehicle under my policy.

I emailed my insurance agent, described the incident, and submitted corroborating documents, most notably the police report, stating that my daughter was not at fault.

I also mentioned that I already had a claim being processed with State Farm who had already indicated that their client was at fault and accepted responsibility.

I got a reply from my insurance agent that he agreed with my assessment and was closing the claim with no intention to pay for any damages.

I am fortunate that the police was involved at the time of the accident otherwise it would really have been my daughter’s word against his.

And like me, most would assume that it was the inexperienced driver who would be at fault and not the older person.

The claim process.

One of the downsides of owning a Tesla is that there are limited options for repair where I live.

Any damage beyond minor cosmetic issues cannot be repaired at the Tesla dealership but instead have to be performed at an authorized Tesla body shop.

There were only 2 such repair shops within a reasonable distance from my home (about 60-90 min drive).

I selected the one that had the highest reviews and told the State Farm agent that I had picked this particular location.

She then proceeded to tell me that State Farm has a Select Service program and that this repair shop was not in that program.

She then said if I still choose to go ahead with this repair shop that I could be responsible for any costs they feel is in excess to what a Select Service repair shop would provide.

She then sent me a document that outlined the same thing, I believe in an attempt to get me to switch repair facilities.

 

 

I certainly did not want to go with a non-authorized Tesla repair shop and insisted on keeping my original choice.

I later found out that Tesla does not even send body panels to unauthorized repair shops so her attempt to get me to switch was even more futile.

Armed with this tidbit, I had a solid argument about not having to pay anything out of pocket like she originally hinted at.

The waiting game.

Because of the repair facility’s schedule, need to get a body panel shipped from Tesla, and my own schedule, the date I was to drop off the car was pushed back to Sunday, Jan 9, 2022, which was over a month out.

Because the only damage to the car was cosmetic, my daughter continued to drive her vehicle to school and around town.

I originally had a rental vehicle set up by State Farm, but through one of the biggest bonehead things I have done in ages, we ended up not being able to use it.

I will sheepishly explain.

That Sunday my daughter drove me in her car to the rental place, about a 90 min drive in awful driving conditions (heavy rain).

When we finally arrived I went to the Enterprise counter to get the rental so that we could then both drive to the repair shop, drop her car off, and then come home.

Much to my dismay, when I opened my wallet I could not find my driver’s license.

The rental agent would not give me the rental without a driver’s license in my possession.

Because my daughter is 16, she could not get the rental put in her name.

For the life of me I could not remember why the driver’s license was not in my wallet until it dawned upon me.

I had taken my driver’s license out to photocopy it the day before when I was getting together documentation to renew my daughter’s passport.

I figured I must have left it in the copier at home.

I apologized profusely to my daughter who then drove all the way back home in the same miserable weather.

Sure enough when I got home I found my license in the copier.

I kept kicking myself and feeling beyond stupid.

Because the repair shop expected my daughter’s car to be on site to start work Monday, we then had to take my car and her car to drive back (Enterprise would have been closed by the time we arrived there the 2nd time).

We finally were able to drop my daughter’s car off and came home in mine (essentially adding a little over 3 hours of extra driving because of my mistake).

My daughter was gracious in accepting my apologies.

I still felt bad for wasting her time and gave her $40 as my penalty for the added ordeal.

She’s back!

The repair facility worked on the car for a week and it was ready to pick up the following Saturday (the manager was actually kind enough to come in on his day off as the shop was closed on the weekend, to accommodate our schedule).

I have to admit, the work was amazing and it really looked like new.

The final cost of the repair was a little over $3500, which was fully covered by State Farm.

Diminishing Returns.

But wait, there’s more!

Sure I could have been happy having the car returned back in pristine condition and leave it at that.

And to be honest, a lot of people would indeed be satisfied and stop right here.

However there is a potential additional claim that can be requested to be paid by the insurance carrier, a diminished value claim.

Although the car was considered completely restored to original condition, it now carried a ding in its vehicle accident report.

Even if the damage was purely cosmetic, this vehicle could be penalized on the resale market.

I know for a fact when I was looking for a used car I would automatically exclude any vehicles that have had accidents reported or that were salvaged.

If I did this, I am sure others did as well, thereby limiting the potential pool of buyers for my car and thus reducing its value.

I felt that this potential reduction in resale should be compensated for appropriately by the insurance company which is why I proceeded with a diminished value claim.

Online research revealed a lot of law firms that were willing to do this, making it seem like it was a complicated process that required legal expertise.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

I essentially went online to get some guidance on how to file a diminished value claim.

The first step was to determine the value of the car at the time of the accident.

I went to Edmunds car value calculator for guidance.

 

Next I wrote an email to the State Farm insurance agent with the values I derived and using the methodology outlined above in the diminished value claim calculator.

And that was it.

I went with the lowest market value (Trade In) because I would have only netted $65 more if I went with the highest value and I thought there would be less of a fuss raised by doing so.

A few weeks later I received a phone call from State Farm stating that they accepted my diminished value claim and would pay me the amount I requested ($1,456.30).

The only stipulation was that I had to go on record stating that, with this additional payment, the claim I had from this incident was completely satisfied.

I received the direct deposit the very next day.

A few things to consider.

Your right to have a claim on diminished value depends on the state you live in.

Some states like mine, fortunately, allow a diminished value claim to be enacted.

Also a diminished value claim can only be made if you were not the driver at fault.

 

 

Note:

If you are in search of financial help, please consider enlisting the service of any of the sponsors of this blog who I feel are part of the “good guys and gals of finance.”

Even a steadfast DIY’er can sometimes gain benefit from the occasional professional input.

 

 

-Xrayvsn