At what point is totaled? Diminished Value...

[TCAT]

I was on the receiving end of a three car accident in Florida. Car #1 failed to stop and hit car #2. Car #2 hits just behind the driver side door of my 2006 Nissan Titan Crew Cab Truck. Car #1 insurance company accepts liability. I pursue claim with liable insurance company. Days later insurance company forwards an estimate from their adjuster indicating $8,347.08 to make the vehicle whole. It is important to note Car #2 is considered a total loss. First, the estimate to fix my care is lengthy and difficult to understand. Is is unreasonable to request a meeting to have ins. company completely explain the proposed repairs? Also, NADA clean retail of the truck is approx. $16,000-$17,400 according to three local dealers. It seems the repairs exceed %50 of the vehicles value. Ins. company has stated that I'm no where near a total loss...Is this an accurate statement? So if I'm stuck with accepting repairs this leaves me with a vehicle surrounded by black clouds. If I ever chose to sell or trade the vehicle most would review the vehicle's history which would reveal the accident and damages. In my opinion this would substantially diminish the value of the vehicle. Can I recover the lost value? If so how would I determine the exact lost or diminished value? Help...

[ecmst12]

A vehicle may be considered totalled when the repair cost approaches 80% of the value, if it is clear that there will be significant additional damage found on teardown.

You don't need to understand the estimate, only your body shop does. If you want a brief explanation, you can ask your body shop, or you can ask your claims adjuster, but no one is going to try to explain it to you line by line. I don't even understand them all that well and I pay them for a living. I can tell the difference between an order to repair vs replace a part, I can tell where an aftermarket or recycled part is ordered, I can read the number of labor hours expected and calculate number of days from that (5 labor hours per day). I know what the body parts are and the suspension parts. I can tell if the repair is written for the right or left part of the car, and if there's a dent in the photos that doesn't seem to be related to the accident, I can *usually* tell if that's been included in the estimate or not. But I'm not the appraiser or the mechanic so I don't NEED to understand every line and neither do you.

You didn't have a "clean retail" condition vehicle before, either, you had an average private owner condition vehicle. Your value was likely a bit less then what the dealers told you. You will have to purchase a professional valuation of your vehicle both before and after the accident in order to prove there was diminished value.