What effect accident has on future car value

[Bc2005]

My 2021 M340i was rear ended last month and it is currently in the shop being repaired. The car has 20k miles and is in excellent condition, and repairs are being done by a Mercedes Benz dealer body shop. I expect it to be a quality repair.

Since this repair will always show up on carfax, I wonder if I should plan to do something other than keep my car for another 2-3 years. My logic is that selling it in the next year while a vehicle like this is hard to find might get more out of it than waiting until later when the supply chain issues are resolved. It’s a well-optioned Black Sapphire / Oyster x-drive that would do well on the used market if someone isn’t scared off by the accident repair.

[DanG]

Hopefully Virginia has diminish value laws. In my state you can get an appraisal of the value before and after the accident. The at fault insurance company is then suppose to pay the diminished value due to the accident.

As far as selling it, now is a good time if you can find a reasonably price replacement. Replacements are hard to come by in most areas of the country.

[Westside Guy]

I would take whatever loss you incur now while the used market is so high as long as you can find a replacement that works for you.
There is an old saying in retail, "your first markdown is your best markdown"!

[DocL]

Selling the car immediately after an incident would be a red flag to me. Is there still something wrong or were the repairs done poorly? If you keep it for a few years and drive it as usual, I would be more inclined to buy it because obviously there weren't any issues. I've bought cars that had previous damage, but the Carfax didn't have multiple multiple entries for repairs afterwards.

It doesn't hurt to see what a dealer will give you right now, but it's going to be less because of the incident.

[UPSROD]

Unless the police were involved, making it public record at may not show on a Carfax.

[chad86tsi]

Originally Posted by UPSROD

Unless the police were involved, making it public record at may not show on a Carfax.

I got rear ended 6 years ago, didn't get police report, but did claim on insurance and reported to DMV (required in this state). Had $6k in damage repaired at propper facility paid by insurance. Went to sell the car 2 years later, it never did show on carfax. I did disclose and pointed out the evidence of damage and repairs to the buyer, he didn't' care because the work done was pretty good. Panels were replaced, no bondo. Car was good as before accident.

[m3boost]

Originally Posted by UPSROD

Unless the police were involved, making it public record at may not show on a Carfax.

Insurance payouts are what gets reported.

You can crash a car and if it doesn't get claimed by insurance it will say no accidents.

[UPSROD]

Mine was not reported by my insurance co. or the body shop, maybe different in some states.

[///MPhatic]

I'm in the insurance industry, and this is called diminished value. Unfortunately, very few insurance companies compensate for it.

Remember, insurance doesn't promise to get you back to zero, and they never will. Anytime you have an accident that shows up on CarFax, or anytime an eagle-eyed appraiser looks at your vehicle, you're going to lose money.

https://www.bankrate.com/insurance/c...d-value-claim/

[BMWCCA1]

Originally Posted by m3boost

Insurance payouts are what gets reported.

You can crash a car and if it doesn't get claimed by insurance it will say no accidents.

Just not true. We've had tons of cars traded with bad Carfaxes and the owner barely remembered a parking-lot incident that got reported to police where they never even had to fix anything and yet the incident shows on CarFax. We've also seen plenty of incidents where there was no police report and the CarFax was generated by the shop that did the repair. Just look at a CarFax and notice that it shows every dealership oil-change or even just a "wash and detail". It depends on what the shop reports and whether or not they report anything to CarFax. My car has a 2-inch scratch low on the rear apron that was touched-up with a tiny brush and some paint. Still shows on the CarFax. My Toyota pickup was totaled by my insurance after a deer hit but I kept it and repaired it. Decades later it still shows no CarFax incidents. We've had cars traded in with "clean" CarFaxes but an incident showed up on a CarFax over a year later. Carfax is far from a science, or even trustworthy. If it shows an incident, check the car. If it shows a clean CarFax . . . check the car even more carefully.

[Bc2005]

This got reported to both police and insurance because it was initially a hit and run. However, as she was driving away I thought quickly enough to record the license plate, and insurance/police tracked her down and her insurance accepted liability. It happened about 4:00 in the afternoon and I still don’t know why she failed to stop.

Repairs are being done by a Mercedes dealer body shop that was recommended by my insurance, and I expect it to be a high quality repair. Other than body damage, the only issue I had after the impact was with the proximity sensors in that side of the bumper. I have parking assistant plus and it always reminded me that’s it’s capabilities were diminished because of the broken sensors. The full birds eye view still works because the rear camera is in the trunk lid.

[10"]

Well that depends on whether that MB shop doing the repairs decides to turn it into a mid-90s C-Class instead! 🤣🤣

Should be fine. Minor decrease in value, no big deal. People worry far too much about perfection these days—accidents are a part of car ownership, in the past nobody even cared.

[Opie55]

How much it matters depends on the buyer. In my case it depends on whether I have information I trust about the accident. If I bought from you, and you seemed like a straight shooter, I probably would not be too bothered unless it was extensive damage. It also depends on how rare the car is. If I can go next door and buy one with no damage, then I will expect at least some discount from you. The cars I would never buy are the eBay salvage/rebuilt sellers of nearly new cars who claim the car had "light" damage but have no photos. If insurance totaled an $80,000 car with 5,000 miles on it, the damage was not all that light.

[Bimmer Pleaser]

Originally Posted by m3boost

Insurance payouts are what gets reported.

You can crash a car and if it doesn't get claimed by insurance it will say no accidents.

nope, main body shops (not mom and pop ones) report accidents to Carfax; I believe it is done automatically through the software they use to manage the repair.

[Allen Aquino]

Seems