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NHTSA Calls For Public Comment On Long Range Strategic Planning

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recently called for public comment on the issues and conerns the agency should focus on over the next five year period. Comments are required to be submitted by August 16, 2004 and can be submitted online. Commentary can address one or more of the designated questions or may include input the author believes is appropriate for agency action.

The issue that I am particularly focused on is the lack of collision repair safety standards. While NHTSA mandates vehicle standards for newly manufactured motor vehicles and their parts, NHTSA does not mandate any minimum safety standards for cars or trucks one they have been repaired. In fact, the majority of states do not regulate who can repair a vehicle or how it can be repaired. California and Michigan are two exceptions. In most U.S. states, cosmetologists have higher education, training, and oversight requirements than people welding your car back together.

Now there is a frightening thought.

Long Range Strategic Planning Document NHTSA-2004-17794

You Can't Recover Diminished Value If You Lease. Is That True?

Of course not, but there are some enterprising claims representatives who will tell you that you can't recover diminished value if you lease your car. I heard that assertion repeatedly from claims representatives in Ohio until I presented a continuing legal education seminar and included a copy of the Ohio statue recognizing that a lessee can recover all damage caused to a lease vehicle. I haven't heard that argument from a claims agent in any state since.

It is sometimes difficult to find existing statutes on off-beat topics because they seem to end up in the strangest places. The Ohio statute showed up in the Certificate of Title chapter, not anywhere in tort sections or propertly loss.

Diminished Value and Leased Vehicles: Do Leased Cars Really Suffer Less from Collision Damage?

Who Gets Diminished Value?

If you have been involved in a car accident, your right to be paid diminished value may depend on whether you were the at-fault driver or the person who was hit. Some U.S. state laws, like Georgia, allow both to recover diminished value payments. Other states allow insurers to exclude diminished value payments for their policyholders and this results in only the person who was not at fault being able to claim and recover the decreased value caused to the car. Diminished Value: First Parties v. Third Parties

Understanding Diminished Value

If you have been paying attention to the dualing class actions raging in the midwest, you have probably heard about something called "diminished value". Unless you are involved in auto issues, you are probably thinking, "What the heck is that?" Here's the answer. Diminished value is the phrase we use to describe the decrease in value your vehicle suffers from an adverse event -- typically, when it has been involved in an accident. When people are thinking about buying a car, one of the important questions they have is, "Has this car ever been in an accident?" If the honest answer to that question is "yes", the buyers may simply cross that car off the list or will only consider buying it at a much cheaper price. The bottom line is that after an accident, your car is almost always worth less than it was immediately before the crash. Understanding Diminished Value