Valuation: Cars with "minor" accident record

For me, the problem with so called "minimum damage" accidents is that the seller is extremely motivated to underreport the damage and conceal as much as they can. Unless there's is documented evidence that the damage was in fact minor, I'd steer away from cars that are being sold with such history unless the purchaser is willing to take that risk for a decent discount.

 

Interesting how there are never any pics of the minor damage. Or pics of during the repairs

 

Documentation is the key. My Diablo came with an accident history. Only after the owner gave me a copy of the repair bill ($6,500) did I feel good enough to negotiate on it. I ended up getting 20% off (about $15,000) but he was a little desperate...I think 10% for a $6,500 bill would have been more accurate.

BTW, I had CarFax go in and add the cost of the repair to the report and change the description from "accident" to "minor accident". That move alone will probably save me $20k if I ever sell the car.

 

In my case, it was a rich guy with a $6,500 repair....not much motivation to take pictures

 

depends , if you are buying or selling.
imo
if selling , carfax adjusted valuation will stink . you will get stupid low offers and only multiple pictures will help mitigating really really low offers.

if buying , you could potentially land yourself a really nice ride at a discount. hopefully there are pictures and or do a good look see.

 

Even if you have good documentation you are still talking about a 20-30% hit in value. Problem is its always going to be a story car. Doesn't matter how minor the damage was, or how well it was repaired, there is a story that needs to be explained, that the seller needs to believe. Right off the hop you lose a good chunk of buyers who just don't want to deal with it.

 

Depends on the damage and documentation....if you think I'm giving some random a 30% discount ($75,000 at today's value) for a $6,500 repair, no F'in way.

These days, I might even be more concerned a cars with "clean" CarFax since alot of repairs are done "off the books" now. At least my seller was honest.

 

Sometimes with the real low production cars you dont get much of a choice in selection.
There is a pretty silver 16M with underreported damage but if you want a silver 16M another may not come along for years.
Which is why I dont buy "colors". I buy cars.

There was a salvage black 16M for sale awhile back for 160K.
I saw the before pics of the rear quarter damage. Not really all that bad and no frame bending.
I should have bought that car in retrospect.