Three years ago, I was involved in a car accident with another vehicle. While it was my car that struck the other car, I was not at fault. I had been traveling straight on a 45mph road, going about 50mph. Out of nowhere, a car coming from the opposite direction made the slowest left hand turn in history — right in front of me. I slammed on the brakes, but despite leaving almost twenty feet of rubber on the road, I still T-boned the car, and sent both of us spinning to the opposite side of the road. Thankfully, aside from being shook up, bruised from the tightening of the seat belt and the impact against the steering wheel, and a bit of whiplash which made my head and neck ache for a few days, I was okay. And as far as I know, the driver of the other car, an elderly woman, was okay as well.
But the same couldn’t be said for our car (2001 Kia Spectra):
It was totaled. The other woman’s car insurance paid for a week’s car rental, and cut us a check for the KBB value of our vehicle, but let’s face – $4700 didn’t go very far in covering the cost of a new vehicle. It was a down payment on a 2005 Hyundai Sonata, but we struggled for months to make our budget cover a monthly car payment, which is something we never had before (the Kia had been a gift from Dan’s grandmother, after his previous car had been stolen and wrecked while we were living in Pittsburgh).
While our car accident didn’t result in having a car repaired, many accidents do. Even if a car is repaired and restored to its original state, the car now has diminished value, simply because it was in an accident. Advocate Auto Claims of advocateautoclaims.com can assist you in recouping the loss resulting from a car accident and repair: the diminished value. The site has a lot of information on what diminished value is and if you’re entitled to it, as well as a free quote feature that can give you an estimate on what you may be owed.
Heh… coming up on the three year anniversary of your accident…