Car valuation dispute - what next?

Badger_Lady

On 13th August, I had to do an emergency stop in the rain and slid into the back of another car, resulting in Total Loss (financial only). It took 2 months for my underwriter to sort things out and send me a valuation. In the meantime, I went out and bought myself a replacement car - same make, model and year as the old one - using credit cards.

The car was insured for £2,500 - I bought it for £2,500 in October 2007 at a bit of a bargain on eBay. It's a 1996 Honda CRX VXI Del Sol, so a good car with very little depreciation, that also seems to be holding its value in the downturn due to rarity and popularity. Mine was a very good example - low mileage, working transtop and perfect body. I bought my replacement (double my previous mileage but lots of extras) for £3,500 on August 15th 2008.

Now the valuation came through at £1,700. I know this is the way its played so, rather than be offended, I sent them:
- 4 current "For Sale" adverts for Honda CRXs 1995-7, all on at £3,000.
- Copy of the receipt for my replacement car.
I stated that I expect my £2,500.

Just had the letter saying, "sorry, we're sticking with the original valuation".

Now, it's clearly not a reasonable valuation for allowing me to buy a replacement, so what are my next steps???

smo

Unless your car is less than a year old you won't get like for like replacement and hence cannot expect them to pay you whatv you paid for your old car, as depreciation etc has taken its toll.

Your best bet is to continue to dispute the value with them - insurance companies are bullies and crooks and you'll have to fight tooth and nail to get any more -the last resort is to continue to refuse and itll end in a court judgement from which you may get more, or possibly less than originally offered.

dobbie82

Hiya, I dont mean to sound harsh, I mean to be helpful honest!

Don't look at classifieds, look at completed listings on ebay, there have been 23 crx's on lately, as for N/P reg ones, one at 1300 no bids, one 1550 no bids, one sold for £1300 onefor £1400 (admittedly 1994 models)

as hard as it is to take, I feel £1700 for an at fault accident isnt bad. I am just wondering why you paid so much for your replacement car?

I have a honda accord (1998) and whereas I bought it for £1200 at auction when they booked at about £2000-2200, just 12 months later I would be lucky to get £700-900. I therefore have to either keep it for everor take a loss.

Keep trying with the insurers though. you may get a sympathetic call centre person, but normally they only seem to back down to the third party who has been wronged.

RobertoMoir

What would the Glass's guide valuation be?

aceades

the cheap crx's were probably a load of crap

its the looked after low milage ones that fetch the money and obviously that are desirable


I crashed a CRX and got back £2300 of my £2500 it was insured for and thsi was only as i admitted it had been keyed down the side.

I replaced it with a nice new one @ £3K less that 50K on it so well worth it


CRX's do not dereciate so there is no reason for insurance companies to try to rip you off, i once bought a mk2 that had been garaged for 8 years with just 23K on the clock, left the old women smiling when when i gave her £1750 it - i used it for a year (put 15k on it) then sold it for £5K - CRX's are brilliant !

cogito

Did you dig up this old thread just so you could brag about ripping off some old dear?

Badger_Lady

Man makes good points though

Actually, since it's been resurrected, here's my update: Never got an increase. Bought a replacement CRX for £3,500. Wrote the replacement off 3 months later and claimed from a different insurer who paid out £3,300.

Bear in mind that the replacement had 50,000 more miles on the clock and was 1 year older :rolleyes:. Though it was immaculate. And yes I realise that I have increased the rarity value of CRX's quite significantly over the past year. Sorry.

greyteam1959

Beat me to that comment Dan Thomas...........

Badger_Lady

Well at least the second one was a proper category B structural right-off!

lisyloo

Hi Badger_Lady,

Have you considered getting some further training /coaching?
Apart from the injury aspects, it might be a good money saving move as accidents usually result in loss of NCD and premium rises.

Don't know the circumstances of the second accident, but the first was avoidable (by always being able to stop in the distance you can see to be clear bearing in mind the conditions).

There are a couple of charities that can help you with this relatively cheaply (and ultimately probably save you money).

Badger_Lady

Thanks Lisy but I'm really fine The accidents were both immediately following my Pass Plus training, in fact! And they're the only accidents I've ever had in 9 years of driving.

The first accident was a real aquaplane - I've always been incredibly vigilant about stopping distances but the car just kept on going. I was doing barely any speed when I hit the vehicle in front, which suffered no damage. If the insurance company had recognised the value of my car, it wouldn't have been a total loss.

The second accident was a tyre blow-out whilst doing 75mph on the motorway. I span across all three lanes, took out 20 feet of crash barrier and ended up in the central reservation blocking the outside lane. It was a miracle no other vehicles were involved (and that I wasn't injured!) but was completely unavoidable.

In actual fact I no longer have to drive to work and am therefore selling my car to get a small motorbike. Yay!