Got rear ended yesterday. Need diminished value advice

I was rear ended on the interstate yesterday. Impact was at probably around 15 mph. I'm not sure if I have frame damage, but hoping not. I expect to hear from the other driver's insurance adjuster next week.
My truck has less than 4,000 miles on it.
I think I should reach out to a diminished value company, but dont know which ones are reputable. Any advice is appreciated.

 

Here is the truck that hit me

 

Nothing to contribute here, other than saying that sucks!

 

the chrome part of the rear bumper is plastic?

 

15 mph hit i doubt theres frame damage the crashbar under the bumper may of bent though

 

Yep! I took it to the dealership where I bought it to have them take a look and that is exactly what the Toyota service guy said. Now I am thinking that I will have the tailgate replaced, but take the rest of the settlement check and get an aftermarket bumper.

 

sounds good to me

 

I recently took delivery and installed a Brute Force Fab rear number and love it. I actually just got around to installing the cube led lights in it yesterday! Very well built!

 

Lol yup! Better check your frame, the new frames are made to collapse a little to easily imho. I understand its a safety thing.

 

Dude i would be livid, sorry!

 

I'm a claim adjuster and have paid out at least 200 diminished value claims. What you need to do is check with the responsible party's insurance adjuster. Find out what the standards are for "DV" claims in your state. Some states don't even mandate insurance companies pay DV claims, like the states I handle. However, we made a business decision to pay them anyway. May not be the same in your situation, so check. Then, if they do honor DV claims, find out what supporting documentation is needed. We used to require the filing party to present a DV appraisal and then we'd review it, see if we agree with it, if not, negotiate the settlement. Now... we don't even require that. We'll look at the NADA values and compare clean vs average or clean vs poor depending on the extent of the damages, year - make - model - mileage of the vehicle.

Hope that helps.

 

Yes, that helps. I'm in NC, so I think I should be able to file the DV claim.

 

I believe they do honor DV claims but I'm not positive. NC is a licensing State so if you don't hold a license to adjust claims in that State, you can't handle one of their claims. So even though I get claims in that State for my customers who have polices in MD, VA. DC... I have never worked one. So yeah, talk to the tortfeaser's (at fault dude) insurance rep and find out. Good luck and so sorry you got rear ended, esp given how new your truck is... I know how that feels, happened to me in a 2 month old vehicle once.

 

Sorry to hear this about your truck. On another note I'm amazed at how that bumper took the impact. You'd think that it wouldve just dented instead of breaking.

 

Everything nowadays is plastic, Meant to crumple and distribute impacts. Pretty sure not just the chrome covers are plastic (reason for breaking/cracking), but the majority of the rear bumper. I was under my truck yesterday trying to remove those damn covers, and that's what it looked like to me.

 

Good thing it's a 3 piece bumper, you'll only have to replace the right side! Hopefully a diminished value company can give you good news.

 

Having the SpareBumper might have helped.

 

Or made things worse. The hitch is bolted to the frame, with no absorption components like bumpers have.

If the force was low enough it might have helped. If the force was high enough it would have been worse, ie actual frame damage.

I'll bet a good lunch the OP won't have any actual frame damage. Just the superficial stuff and energy absorption bits.

 

On first glance, I'd say you won that little boxing match!

 

Can someone explain the concept of a 'diminished value' as opposed to just filing a normal claim?