Diminished value of your vehicle is recoverable in third-party cases only. You can only recover from third-party at fault insurance companies and you cannot make a claim under your own uninsured motorist insurance. The statute of limitations is 5 years from the time of the accident. Iowa Code section 668.

Hawkeye Motors, Inc. v. McDowell, 541 N.W.2d 914 (Iowa Ct. App. 1995)

The law in Iowa governing damages to automobiles is well settled and follows three general standards. Papenheim v. Lovell,530 N.W.2d 668, 671 (Iowa 1995). They are:

(1) When the motor vehicle is totally destroyed or the reasonable cost of repair exceeds the difference in reasonable market value before and after the injury, the measure of damages is the lost market value plus the reasonable value of the use of the vehicle for the time reasonably required to obtain a replacement.

(2) When the injury to the motor vehicle can be repaired so that, when repaired, it will be in as good condition as it was in before the injury, and the cost of repair does not exceed the difference in market value of the vehicle before and after the injury, then the measure of damages is the reasonable cost of repair plus the reasonable value of the *917 use of the vehicle for the time reasonably required to complete its repair.

(3) When the motor vehicle cannot by repair be placed in as good condition as it was in before the injury, then the measure of damages is the difference between its reasonable market value before and after the injury, plus the reasonable value of the use of the vehicle for the time reasonably required to repair or replace it.

The third standard allows for the recovery of the diminution in market value when the repairs cannot restore the car to its pre-accident condition. When the repairs are actually performed on the vehicle, diminution in market value is determined by the difference between the value of the repaired car after the accident and the value of the car before the accident.