Accident depreciation?

[Rob R]

How much does an accident devalue a bike? I had a almost mint condition AE and was hit while at a stop. Even though a dealer will restore bike to new, can I ask for additional depreciation funds? The FJR took the hit rather well from the rear quarter. I landed on my now most valued possession, my helmet. I would assume they will replace that also.

Rob in Vero Beach :glare:

 

[extrememarine]

Dealing with this on my wife's van. She was hit by a another car about a week ago (no injuries). I learned from my insurance adjuster that since the vehicle had never been in an accident previously, and my wife was not at fault, that we will rate a diminished value check as part of our settlement. He told me that diminished value is based on 15% of the pre-accident value of the vehicle (not sure if it's KBB or NADA, etc) in our case because 3 body panels will need to be replaced. It's only 10% if it can be repaired without new panels.

I found this website that offers a service of getting settlement checks for accidents up to 2yrs old.

Not sure if this applies to motorcycles, but I would push for it. Good luck.

 

[Rob R]

Thanks for reply Extreme. Dimished value is least of my concerns now. I stoped at a crosswalk stopsign in front of Target Store. A car hit me quickly from behind when I was stopped that caused some scraping damage as well as me falling off. Florida cycle insurance is not required in Florida which I cancelled months ago due to unreasonable increase. My rational was that I drive defensively and would not cause damage to anyone, nor other vehicle.

The POS that hit me has no insurance. I was told by local sherrifs dept. that now is a civil matter. I will just repair bike myself, shop for parts. I am so glad that I wasn't pushed into a family of kids especially not having insurance myself, I would be person to go after regardless of fault since I have some assets and person at fault has nothing. I better shop for insurance.

 

[keithaba]

Wow, that blows....

Call mike at University Motors in Fargo.

 

[Rob R]

Target Store has a video of the car hitting me at stop sign. Tomorrow getting Yam dealer repair estimate. I always liked looking at motorcycle racing crash vids.

 

[Murph]

Get a copy and post it!

 

[Rob R]

Got first estimate from huge multi brand dealer to fix bike with new parts. Damage is all cosmetic. Bill for Parts come to $4494. and labor is 541. I need another est for court data. Some of the pricey replacement parts are.......... Fuel tank, 548, Lower body panel, 409, 1 Headlight Sub Assy, 447, muffler left is 680, each hard case is 655. Upper cowling is a bargan at 150. Cool, end grip is only $9.00. I was impressed with the service tech, he said bike is safe to ride, rear tire took the hit.

 

[Checkswrecks]

EBay, here you come!

I got a Duck ST2 that the insurance company considered to be economically totalled. I did the body work on some fairings and bought the others, plus a seat, got a car painter to paint the plastic like stock, then got years of compliments on the bike in my avatar.

The final bill was hundreds, not thousands.

Bob

 

[Bob Hughes]

It would be a pain in the butt to do it but I bet that you could part it out on ebay and do pretty well towards buying another that did not have dimisnished value due to a wreck. I live in Florida too and found Allstate to be the best if you have good credit (don't ask me why that matters) they quoted me $600 to $1,400 for the ST and VFR depending on credit score and "other factors" that they claimed not to know. Anyway we did well and the FJR costs me $300 per year with 100/300 and $400 for the VFR, the FJR is $100 more than the ST so now I pay $700 per year.

 

[clutchless1]

Thanks for reply Extreme. Dimished value is least of my concerns now. I stoped at a crosswalk stopsign in front of Target Store. A car hit me quickly from behind when I was stopped that caused some scraping damage as well as me falling off. Florida cycle insurance is not required in Florida which I cancelled months ago due to unreasonable increase. My rational was that I drive defensively and would not cause damage to anyone, nor other vehicle.
The POS that hit me has no insurance. I was told by local sherrifs dept. that now is a civil matter. I will just repair bike myself, shop for parts. I am so glad that I wasn't pushed into a family of kids especially not having insurance myself, I would be person to go after regardless of fault since I have some assets and person at fault has nothing. I better shop for insurance.

Rob R, I know what you mean. My wife had a Honda (cage) Civic EX in perfect shape and a hair more than two years old, she did the same thing with the insurance. She hates paying insurance in the first place and took the collision off as soon as she paid the car off, which sucked because less than one month later she was T-Boned. Once the Police got there and said it was no-one's fault, plus the insurance company insured both vehicles they said each driver pays for their car (how screwed up is that?). We found out the other vehicle had no collision either, so they were out of luck as well. The only people who made out was the insurance company.

I wasn't a happy camper when she told me there was no collision on the car, now we had a car that was 26 months old and had sustained over $6000.00 in damage that and couldn't be driven anywhere. I found myself going to Honda and because I had a business that delt with auto repair I got the parts at cost, this still cost me quite a penny. I did get the car fixed and back on the road three months later, but lost any value the car had as re-sale went. Lesson learned she now keeps collision on her newest vehicle just in case that ever happens again. Myself, I always carry full coverage on anything that I can't replace for less than a few thousand bucks.

Unfortunately paying for full coverage insurance is like someone deciding they don't need to wear a helmet because they haven't been in an accident. As soon as they take that helmet off. BANG! It happens. I know it's expensive, but you almost have to figure it's just part of the cost of riding, especially if you have a beautiful 06 AE (exactly like mine too). I'm glad you came out basically without a scratch, but I can't help to think of that ***** who hit you and didn't have the first penny of insurance. Hopefully this dude stays around long enough to face the carges and pay the fines (and you too of course). Good luck to you, ride safe.

 

[DailyCommuter]

I would think that you are def. entitled to a payment for diminished value.

 

[AethonFJR]

Don’t forget the damage to your helmet!!! In many states you would be entitled to recover any loss that you incurred due to the other person’s liability, including personal injury (which thankfully you did not have)[if you had been injured, you would be entitled to medical cost, loss of wages etc.]. As it stands, you should claim loss of use of the vehicle during repairs, compensation for any time you have to spend in getting the estimate on the bike and transport to/from repairing entity, diminished value, and any LEGAL fees required to recover your losses.

 

[BuilderBob]

I feel you pain, Rob, but by now you already know that you didn't save anything by not having insurance on your FJR. I carry insurance on all of my vehicles & toys for the rare event that something would happen and someone would want to sue me. Saved my *** when my then teenage son did something stupid in his sister's car.

I'm paying about $600/year for full coverage with high limits on the FJR. In Florida, that's about the best I can do. It's worth it for the peace of mind IMO.

 

[jekirby]

I had an issue with that after my nissan truck got hit head on while it was parked on the correct side of the street--go figure. The damage was extensive enough, but not enough, to alter how is handled but not total it. The auto shop did a very good job of putting it back together, but--it wasn't the same afterwards, so much so that I felt that I could never get a fair price if I ever sold it. Add the phenomenon of Carfax and any major damage is detected immediatly. I entered in to a long battle with the insurance company. The term for the diminished value caused by an accident is (if I spell it correctly) diminution of value. A few years ago this was a hot topic in the insurance community-so says an auto dealer friend of mine. I understand that this is a growing trend among savvy, well informed consumer.

 

[Rob R]

I filed a small claims suit against the driver and uninsured car owner and won the judgement. After they defaulted making no payments I turned to Fl. Dept of Financial Responsibility which resulted in both drivers liscenses being suspended as well as the car registration, lic. plates also. Both the driver as well as car owner will not be able to drive legally- also register or renew tags for the life of the unsatisfied judgement. This clearly will present problems if they decide to sell the car.

I used the funds from not renewing my insurance (no insure required in Fl for cycles) to buy the needed replacement parts and repaired the FJR myself... University Motors had the best prices.

I now ride more aware and watch approaching cars when stopping. Almost time to retire- 10K+ for stock Z6's.