Four months after her car was damaged in an accident while at a Halifax car dealership, Karen Warner is still trying to wrap her head around what happened and what it means to the value of her car.

Warner, who lives on the Eastern Shore, bought her 2013 E300 class Mercedes from O'Regan's in 2014. In December, she had it towed to O'Regan's on Kempt Road in Halifax to try and figure out why it was losing power.

The car was repaired, but during a road test by an employee of the dealership, it was hit by a tractor-trailer, causing $14,000 in damage.

Repairs to the vehicle, however, were put through Warner's insurance. She says O'Regan's should pay for them since the car was under their care.

O'Regan's says the accident was 100 per cent the other driver's fault (something confirmed by the police report) and as such they were not responsible for the cost of repairs.

Warner says the dealership even wanted her to pay the $500 deductible on her policy, but she refused. O'Regan's says that was an error that was corrected.

Who should pay?

Nova Scotia insurance law changed in June 2013 to cover what is called direct compensation for property damage. It means all accidents go through the damaged car owner's insurance, even when it is the other driver's fault.

Warner worried putting the claim through her insurance would increase her rates. However, lawyer John McKiggan, who specializes in insurance claims and auto accidents, says that should not happen.

Warner also said she was never given a choice about which company would repair her car and only became aware that she could choose when she went to pick up her repaired car and saw a note from her insurance company to O'Regan's that said: "The owner has the option to have the repairs done at a facility of his/her choice."

"At no time did anybody say do you want the work done here or should we have the car taken somewhere else?" she said.

A spokeswoman for O'Regans, Susan Johnston, disagrees and says Warner gave consent on the phone to the director of collision operations.

Many unanswered questions

Warner said the dealership did tell her the accident was 100 per cent the other driver's fault but it did not disclose the amount of damage or the circumstances surrounding it. When she went to pick up her vehicle in January, she was shocked to discover repairs totalled more than $14,000.

She was unable to obtain a copy of the police accident report until March because it was not submitted to the Registry of Motor Vehicles as required.

It was only when she asked her insurance company for information last month that she learned her car had been hit by a tractor-trailer. She says that major accident is now attached to her car and means it's worth less than when it was towed to the dealership in the first place.

"There either has to be coverage on their insurance policy that picks up the diminished value of a vehicle or they should have to say listen, we'll take your car and we'll give one of the same value or something along that line," Warner said.

"If they're not willing to put it through their insurance to cover diminished value, they should be doing something."

O'Regan's says it's not aware of that kind of coverage anywhere in the country.

Owner worried about diminished value

Warner said all she wants is for O'Regan's to replace her existing car with a car comparable in value to her Mercedes before the accident.

Johnston said an O'Regan's general manager spoke to Warner and asked if she would prefer to trade in her vehicle rather than take the repaired Mercedes back.

"He said he would evaluate her vehicle at current market value, based on condition and mileage, with no reduction from the collision. She declined the offer," Johnston said.

Warner said that conversation never took place. She said she would have jumped at the chance to make an equal trade based on the value of her car before the accident.

She's left with the option of either hiring a lawyer or taking the at-fault driver to small claims court in an effort to collect the diminished value of her car.

But proving diminished value can be tough, according to McKiggan, the insurance lawyer.

"If you have two vehicles that look exactly the same with the exact same parts on it but one of them has been in accident, would you pay the same price for those two vehicles? I think most of your listeners would probably say that they wouldn't pay as much for a vehicle that was in accident," he said.

"That's the principle of accelerated depreciation or diminished value. The challenge is proving what that value is."