Posted On: August 27, 2007, 11:09 am CDT

Posted By: Anon

That would make another state that requires payments for immaginary "diminished value".

Several (four that I know of) already do, the problem is that there's little way to actually calculate how much diminished vaule is caused by an accident since the alleged costs will not be realized until the customer decides to sell the car.

If the customer has an accident in it two weeks after purchase the payout would have to assume the vehicle is to be sold at that moment. If the customer keeps the car for ten years and sell it after it has 250k miles on it, oxidized paint, cigarette burns in the floor, and "kid stains" in the back seat the fact it was in an accident a decade before is probably not going to be taken into account if someone buys it.

How do you calculate the loss of value when there's been no actual loss of value? Even if they do sell it immediately after repair there's nothing technically wrong with the car (assuming it's been correctly repaired) just a presumption that it's worth less.

It would be like a homeowner's policy paying out because someone was murdered in a house (or that it's "haunted"). There's a perception that the house will be worth less since some buyers may be put-off by its history but I'm sure when the county does a tax appraisal on the property they're not going to consider how many ghosts are in residence.