In need of value Estimates

My V has been rear ended:mad:
Good news is that it is not totalled:yeso:
The insurance company is replacing the cladding on the back door and the rear bumper which were damaged in the crash. Again great news that they could even find the pieces and new at that. However now my 2 tone Puter V is 3 tone. To any obvious person this devalues the vehicle. I need to prove that is the case and exactly how much it is devalued by only replacing the two pannels and not matching them to the rest of the vehicle.:mado:
So with 112,473 miles with Dick Siepec pollished rims, a $5,000 custom installed Audiobaun sound system. In the clean condition that the car was in how much would you pay and how much would one pay with the mismached pannels.

Thank you all for your help in restoring my V and bringing her home as soon as possible:happyface

Am I missing something or is the difference as simple as the cost of a paint job and/or matching any fading in the cladding?

I want the insurance company to replace the cladding all the way around and they refuse. stating it is bettering my vehicle and they are not responsible for this. I feel that the way things are it is devaluing the car.

What is Puter?

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Originally Posted by vt_maverick

What is Puter?

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The over all paint color. The dark silver that they replaced the '99 silver with

I think he means "pewter" color which would prolly mean an Astral or Kaiser.

I think your SOL as far as getting them to pay. Best you can do is try and get the rest of the panels to match.

How messed up is the lower fairing? I could use one as a mock up for rear skid plates. Of course I wouldn't pay any more them shipping

Attachment 1297

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Originally Posted by rowhard

I think your SOL as far as getting them to pay. Best you can do is try and get the rest of the panels to match.

How messed up is the lower fairing? I could use one as a mock up for rear skid plates. Of course I wouldn't pay any more them shipping

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Bad enough that it has to be replaced. Believe it or not I was able to get an estimate from the body shop for cladding all the way around it is 1670. I would bet that is about how much of a hit I would take on the car if I tried to sell it the way things are now. Would you agree?

Have you tried treating the faded panels with Back to Black, Trim Shine, or anything else yet? I have to agree with rowhard, getting internet opinions is not likely to sway the insurance overlords. But maybe you can make it match on your own? I mean eventually you're going to be using those products anyway, so it might be worth a shot.

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Originally Posted by vt_maverick

Have you tried treating the faded panels with Back to Black, Trim Shine, or anything else yet? I have to agree with rowhard, getting internet opinions is not likely to sway the insurance overlords. But maybe you can make it match on your own? I mean eventually you're going to be using those products anyway, so it might be worth a shot.

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That is a good point. But the back to black is only a temporary fix till it rains or snows and then the mismatch is like a target.
I do have some dealerships in town working on estimates but they suggested that I get some estimates from the "cult" following of the vehicle. Thus my current situation

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Originally Posted by vt_maverick

Have you tried treating the faded panels with Back to Black, Trim Shine, or anything else yet? I have to agree with rowhard, getting internet opinions is not likely to sway the insurance overlords. But maybe you can make it match on your own? I mean eventually you're going to be using those products anyway, so it might be worth a shot.

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Agreed

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Originally Posted by vx2darescue

Bad enough that it has to be replaced. Believe it or not I was able to get an estimate from the body shop for cladding all the way around it is 1670. I would bet that is about how much of a hit I would take on the car if I tried to sell it the way things are now. Would you agree?

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I wouldn't agree. We see VX's sold every day with varying degrees of cladding streaking / fading, and the driving factor in their sales price is generally all the same: age (obviously 01's are worth more than 99's), mileage, and accident history. I think it's fair to say that you lost far more value from the accident being put on your CarFax / AutoCheck vehicle history than you'll ever gain back by getting matching cladding. In fact, if there weren't any injuries or property damage, you might have done better just to not report it at all and buy the parts from a junkyard - then no one would know the difference when you went to sell it, and the cladding would be pre-faded.

From the pic you posted, I'd say treating the rest of the cladding with Refinish Restorer, or "R/R" as its commonly called here would match things up quite well.

Of course we all have our fave restore products for cladding, a search for posts about cladding restoration would benefit you better than trying to beat up the insurance man.

Mild thread jack here, but do you have pics of your custom Audiobaun system? I have to believe $5K would go a LONG way to building a pretty kick-*** system.

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Originally Posted by vt_maverick

In fact, if there weren't any injuries or property damage, you might have done better just to not report it at all and buy the parts from a junkyard - then no one would know the difference when you went to sell it, and the cladding would be pre-faded.

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Very good points Mav.

You are absolutely right.
Thank you for all your help guys.:)

Good luck, let us know how it turns out!

I will keep you all informed. :yesy:

you could always tuck the VX away in a garage and send the back cladding to me (in Phoenix) and I will keep it out in the sun... that way in a couple years, the new piece will match all the originals... :bwgy:

I would be down for you to do that. But that would leave me with a half naked V to drive. She is my daily driver.

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Originally Posted by vx2darescue

That is a good point. But the back to black is only a temporary fix till it rains or snows and then the mismatch is like a target.

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Take a look at the gatorback product. It is what GM was using to fix their cladding fading issue.

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Originally Posted by Luna X

you could always tuck the VX away in a garage and send the back cladding to me (in Phoenix) and I will keep it out in the sun... that way in a couple years, the new piece will match all the originals... :bwgy:

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HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I will give you 20 bucks for the VX with mismatched cladding...use that in your negotiations:bgwb:

If all the cladding matched, I would give you at least 50 bucks, so over 50% depreciation.

LOL! Thanks for keeping it in perspective Marlin. I really needed it today. I got bad news. The Isuzu dealership in town that promised me the two estimates have now said that the owner will not allow it.

I am calling in all personal favors that I might have outstanding with my Denver auto connections.

Here is to holding my breath and hoping I don't turn blue before I get what I need. :rollb2:

Here is the latest...I now have the Autobody shop searching Nationally for used cladding parts that will closely match my originalls. Hurray for small victories.

Does any one have rear door and rear bumper cladding that they are willing to part with? You could name your price I don't care at this point.

Question: Why is YOUR insurance company handling this? Was the person who hit you uninsured?

I've seen ads on TV recently for legal firms that specialize in civil suits to get compensation for the de-valuation (izzat a word?) after an accident. That may be a better option for you than to keep beating your head against that insurance company's brick wall:_brickwal

If you are going to keep going after your insurance company to make it right, a better arguement would be to have them professionally match the faded cladding to the new. If they won't do that then you will absolutely have grounds to take them to court for compensation.

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Originally Posted by vx2darescue

Here is the latest...I now have the Autobody shop searching Nationally for used cladding parts that will closely match my originalls. Hurray for small victories.

Does any one have rear door and rear bumper cladding that they are willing to part with? You could name your price I don't care at this point.

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The price is one million dollars

I like the idea of them having to pay 1 million dollars. that would make the new ones seem cheap. I will be getting the parts that I need from VX Crazy. thankfully he/she had what I needed still on the V they are parting out.

As for letting the insurance company deal with finding the parts that I need I have waited for a month now to get the right parts. I finally gave up on their abilities to seach and started my own. I am sure they were waiting for me to give up and go away. Funny how that does not happen with those of us in the "cult".

As one savey driver told my mom "There is no way I am giving this car up and you would only understand if some one was willing to relinquish the keys just long enough for you to test drive it."

Glad to see your getting it worked out man! I hate dealing with insurance companies. what is happening to your current rear bumper cladding? Got any pics of it? I have an experiment I want to try out and would hate to cut up a perfectly good piece before I know if it'll work like I want

Here's another thing to consider that will help you:

In the auto insurance industry, there's another component of the "damages" in a car accident...a component that almost nobody realizes and rarely asks for...
it's called DV...diminished value.

I had a pearl white Audi S4, got side swiped, incredibly hard paint to match since it's got so much pearlescence and the amount of mica flecks in it make ti look different shades depending on the way the light is hitting it. Got the best paint shop in town to do the repairs, in fact, shop decided to do it a 2nd time cuz he wasn't satisfied himself, AND he did entire side of car so it would all match when same light angle hit the side...(even though the actual damage was only about 8" long)
The result....still could tell a few hues difference in certain light angles.

This fact AND the simple fact that the car was in an accident causes some measure of diminished value $$, despite being fully repaired...it can NEVER be restored to pre-accident condition .....it just can't!

That's exactly what you're dealing with here with the cladding being a slightly different hue.

So, I retained an expert in assessing diminished value. I paid him about $300 for a full report, submitted it to insurance company (of driver that hit me of course) and fought with them for a while, until I got them to give me an extra $2,000.

Also, don't forget to fight for some value for the simple fact that it's been in an accident and that's "diminished it's value" slightly. In many states you must disclose any accident/damage when you sell, and I argued that since I now had to disclose the repair (separate and apart from the paint issue) and I determined that lowered the value of my vehicle come resale time....so I sought compensation for that too.

One other point, since I handled claims/lawsuits for a living, I did all the communicating and negotiating with the insurance company myself directly...... I realize that's not necessarily possible for everybody else to do.
But I used it to my advantage by repeatedly pointing out that I did NOT retain any attorney so I was saving them defense costs so they were more willing to consider my demand for DV.

PM if you want more info.

I've stared at your sig pic forever and resisted to posting this, I couldn't hold out any longer


http://i583.photobucket.com/albums/s...rZ/icame-1.jpg


I have WAY too many cat photos on my computer

considered the deminished value avenue but desided with the help of several atternies that it was an up hill battle. Due to the vehicle being 10 years old made it to old and not old enough all at once.

I decided to try to get the insurance company to work with me....get me cladding that matched the originals that are on my car. I am relatively confident that I have found them.

The body shop is going to warrenty the work and parts for the life time that I own my vehicle.

It comes down to I just want my V back. It is coming up on snow season here and I really don't want to ride my bicycle to and from work on the bad days that we get in Denver.

Oh that's great, that it's at least been looked into, most don't even get it considered.

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Originally Posted by RamAirZ

I've stared at your sig pic forever and resisted to posting this, I couldn't hold out any longer

http://i583.photobucket.com/albums/s...rZ/icame-1.jpg
I have WAY too many cat photos on my computer

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Well at least yer consistent Dallas! Apparently you couldn't hold out any longer....earlier either...:laugho:
http://www.vehicross.info/forums/sho...37&postcount=9

holy crap, I didn't think I posted it before, now I feel retarded :(

Always loved this sig pic... :yesy:

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Originally Posted by VX KAT

Oh that's great, that it's at least been looked into, most don't even get it considered.

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If I had not found the parts the next steps I was going to take were getting an appraiser, calling the local news station, and calling Tom Martino. The berdan of proof had fallen on me. While I am willing to spend the money I would rather save it and put it towards my suspention lift. So I suggested that they look for used parts. Of course they can't find them cause they don't know about this awsome source of knowledge that you all provide. So I found them.

Thanks agian to everyone for all your help:bgwo: