Had my PDR guy look at it yesterday. He's a wizard. Flatly told me he couldn't fix any of the damage, all of it needed body work.

Golf ball sized hail, both front fenders, hood, broken front windshield, roof, A pillar, roof rails, C pillars, passenger doors damaged.

It's a 2006, booking at $23,500 or so. I'm concerned about two things...

1 Damage isn't enough to total it, how do I try to claim diminished value?

2 If it close to total, how do I convince Insurance to total it?

3 If it does get totaled, what else to replace it with?

This is an all original panel/paint car. It looks like it's going to get a complete body respray plus all the other panels replaced if its not totaled. Porsche people in particular are sensitive about paint/panels. There's no doubt in my mind that after this accident the car will basically be unsaleable. What have you guys done to get a diminished value claim paid?

If possible I'm leaning more towards trying to get this thing totaled. The flip side of that is I love it. Porsche's are very ala carte and it took me awhile to find one used that had the options I wanted and was missing the ones I didn't want.

So what else could I replace it with? It's my DD, ski machine and tow vehicle. I can't get a huge SUV as it won't fit in my garage under my lift with my M3 on it. I'm leaning towards a '08-'09 Cayenne Turbo or a '13-'14 Cayenne Diesel...

Get another one. It was what you wanted.

Yeah, no sense in monkeying with thr status quo. My only consideration would be toureg/q7 v10 tdi because holy torque batman

TBSS plus piles of cash? Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT?

The Jeep can't tow. My cayenne has a 7700lb tow rating and I pull ~4000lbs with it, M3+trailer.

Anyone have experience with a diminished value claim? My feeling is it'll be close to getting totaled but might not hit the mark...

1. You don't. Diminished value is very likely excluded in your policy. With limited exception, it's typically a third party claim (i.e. someone hit your car and you think your car is worth less so the at fault party is required to make you "whole").

2. Not a lot of convincing per se. The numbers have to fall where they do. Make sure all damages are known and accounted for. Porsche parts ain't cheap, so it could hit total loss threshold quickly. Best suggestion I would have to this is to ask them if the car would be considered a constructive total loss due to salvage value. For example, say the car was worth $25k, but it had a salvage value of $15k because it still ran/drove and had a ton of usable parts. If they total the car, their net spend would be $10k ($25k minus the $15k they recover in salvage). Therefore, if the estimate is $12k, even though that isn't even 50% of the cars' value, it's still cheaper to total it. This situation doesn't happen a ton, but it does happen.

3. That's a whole different thread.

Sorry to hear about your loss. My Nissan Leaf got totaled in a hail storm about 2 years ago. Fellow board member Sonic (who also works in auto claims) had his BMW nearly totaled in the same storm.

Gotcha. I just made a list of what I think is damaged. I need to take it to the "Hail Center" they have setup tomorrow for evaluation. It's a 3rd party company that they've farmed the work out to.

I'll be showing them the list and walking around the car with them. I'll be sure to tell them I already had a PDR person evaluate the car. I figure it's gotta have at least $15k worth of damage for them to total it.

Besides the salvage value does the insurance co look at what they'll be spending for a rental car as part of the complete total value? I'm sure it'll be over $1000 in rental car fees they'll have to pay out...

I've successfully claimed diminished value on a vehicle. My understanding is that it is typically only paid on a relatively new car that had been damaged early in its life. You are probably SOL on a 10 year old vehicle, but check your policy. All I had to do was ask my insurance company and they paid it, although it was only a few hundred dollars. If you can claim it, you will probably have to do a lot of work to justify any kind of significant number.

docwyte wrote: Besides the salvage value does the insurance co look at what they'll be spending for a rental car as part of the complete total value? I'm sure it'll be over $1000 in rental car fees they'll have to pay out...

Yes, that goes into the equation too. You probably have some kind of a limit on your rental. Typically it's something like $30/day for 30 days. Lots of variations on this, but that's the general idea.

Basil,

Do you live in Georgia? That's one of the very few states where 1st party diminished value is paid. In most other states, it's specifically excluded in the policy language.

I live in Colorado. My rental coverage covers a large SUV, so I think it pays out something like $40-50 a day.

If it needs conventional repair, replacing panels and body work it should easily be totaled. Should be pretty easy to convince them. My friend is actually in Colorado Springs for PDR because of the storm. We have purchased newer less damaged cars that were totaled at the insurance auctions to flip before.

If its as bad as you say the panel cost alone OEM will be more then 15K. Plus doing the roof and windows. Let alone paint. Go find another one as good as yours and make them pay for it.

I was unaware that Cayennes fell into the Porsche-weenie-owner spectrum. The Cayennes that I see are owned by people who wanted fancy Caravans and are treated accordingly.

Resale value should not be affected by bodywork, it's a utility vehicle not a GT3.

>?Basil,

Do you live in Georgia? That's one of the very few states where 1st party diminished value is paid. In most other states, it's specifically excluded in the policy language.<

Nope, Texas. But it was some years ago that I made my claim and maybe the insurance companies have pulled it out of policies since then. FWIW, the insurance company was USAA on both sides of the accident, including the PYT that crashed into me while studying her phone.

docwyte wrote: The Jeep can't tow. My cayenne has a 7700lb tow rating and I pull ~4000lbs with it, M3+trailer.

The older models with the center exhaust were rated at 3500lbs but according to Jeep, the current SRT has a max tow rating of 7200lbs( http://www.jeep.com/en/jeep-capabilities/towing/#GrandCherokee3Tab*) so not far off from your Cayenne.

And the Trailblazer SS max towing is 6700lbs, so it would handle your trailer/M3 pretty handily too.

Hmm, I'll have to look into a newer Jeep SRT. When did that model change to the higher tow rating.

Base and "S" model Cayenne's yeah, people don't really care. Turbo/Turbo S Cayennes people get particular about. Oh yeah, don't call me a weenie. A caravan won't do what my Cayenne does.

docwyte wrote: Hmm, I'll have to look into a newer Jeep SRT. When did that model change to the higher tow rating.

2012 was the start of the new ones.

IMHO, avoid any insurance-company-recommended shops. Find the nit-pickiest, enthusiast-recommend, Porsche-specialist, longest-waiting-list body shop you can that still accepts insurance work and take it there. If you want the car to be totaled, you want to make sure they find and estimate all the damage up front, not keep adding supplemental estimates after the insurance company is already committed to paying for the initial stuff. Plus, if it does go through, they'll actually fix it right, rather than screwing it up.

FWIW, I would be surprised if you could do a high-quality repaint with complete panel replacement on a Cayenne for $20K. That's what a good body shop quoted me to strip & repaint my FD, just for paint (no panels or glass).

Basil Exposition wrote: Nope, Texas. But it was some years ago that I made my claim and maybe the insurance companies have pulled it out of policies since then. FWIW, the insurance company was USAA on both sides of the accident, including the PYT that crashed into me while studying her phone.

That was exactly his point. You aren't going to get diminished value from hail, because their was no other vehicle at fault. That only applies to situations when you get into an accident with someone else, you're not at fault, and their insurance is paying for your repairs, which is a pretty specific scenario. Your insurance company will certainly not pay for diminished value on your car.

What's the buyback? I'd take the payout after its totaled, buy it back, slap in a new windshield, get a "rebuilt" title on it, and drive it til it dies.

slefain wrote: What's the buyback? I'd take the payout after its totaled, buy it back, slap in a new windshield, get a "rebuilt" title on it, and drive it til it dies.

Yeah. This.

Not sure yet. I'll know more tomorrow. I have a friend who wants to buy it from me if it gets totaled, so I'll most likely buy it back period.

That'll give me the chance to either keep it or use it until I find something else I want then sell it to him.

You know what you need to do...

In reply to slefain:

Can you get full coverage on a rebuilt title? I'd be fine driving a >2k vehicle with liability, but I don't know that I'd be okay with a 10k vehicle.

lnlogauge wrote: In reply to slefain: Can you get full coverage on a rebuilt title? I'd be fine driving a >2k vehicle with liability, but I don't know that I'd be okay with a 10k vehicle.

Yes, you can. Obviously the value if it were to be totaled again would be significantly less than if it had a clean title.