Why dosnt fully comp mean fully comp?

JFC_2

My son crashed his (Vauxhall Corsa 1.2 life New model (2007) with A/C) in January.

He was fully comp and the garage said it would cost £6100 to repair so the insurers decided to write it off.

My son paid £7230 for the car 4 months ago. The Insurers first offer of £4800 after £600 excess was deducted was rejected, but the 2nd offer of £5600 = £5000 (after excess) is still no better.

My son has accepted the 2nd offer as he needs his car for work. The insurers said that they found an identical car to my sons on autotrader for £5600.

I have looked and cant find one on there anywhere...in fact the only one I found was on ebay for £6999. My son will manage to get a car with the money, but I wonder how the insurers get away with this. I wish we could tell them we will pay the excess if they can get a car the same as my son had.


Anyway...what I wondered is, if you can advise a good site for used cars that might have a good deal on for corsas or fiestas.

Thanks for reading...just needed to vent!

JFC_2

also he had 4000 mileage on his car

vikingaero

Ask the Insurers for proof of this Autotrader car. If they can't find it then place the burden on them by asking them to source this mythical car for you. As a consumer you will have to pay retail prices for cars. The flip side of the coin is that depreciation on most cars is pretty savage and people are shocked about how little they are worth.

If you are still aggrieved you can take the matter to the Financial Ombudsman:

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/

JFC_2

Thanks for the advice vikingaero, unfortunately my son has now accepted the 2nd offer as he may lose his job if he hasnt got a car soon and the accident happened the 1st week in January. His boss is getting fed up with having to pick him up each morning and keeps reminding him that a condition of employing him in the first place was that he had his own transport. Unfortunately because he has tools (he is an apprentice electrician) he cant travel on public transport. The places they work cover a wide radius so a car is essential for him.

As cars have depreciated so much, I thought we would be able to pick a cheap similar car up but it appears not to be the case.

Is there a good site you can recommend that sell reasonable priced cars.

Many thanks

JFC_2

One thing I am grateful for though, and that is that no one was injured in the accident.

I am going to look into taking out GAP with his next car. Apparently it costs an additional £250 but covers the difference between the insurance pay out and the actual cost. Wish we had done it the first time round. I am not a driver myself and so we were muddling through this ourselves.

dacouch

I have seen this post before and when I looked at Autotrader the price you got was about what the vehicles were for sale at. They may be for sale at one price but will actually sell at a lower price.

Second hand car prices have dropped massively over the last year and its not uncommon for someone to have bought a car and then been shocked by how much it is worth a few months later.

Hintza

JFC wrote: »

I am going to look into taking out GAP with his next car. Apparently it costs an additional £250

If you took insurance out on everything you would be in the poor house. I imagine he is quite young so it might just be worth it.

But if he has another big accident I suspect gap insurance will be the least of his worries. Getting insured at all will be the problem.

Is he that bad a driver though?

JFC_2

dacouch wrote: »

I have seen this post before and when I looked at Autotrader the price you got was about what the vehicles were for sale at. They may be for sale at one price but will actually sell at a lower price.

Second hand car prices have dropped massively over the last year and its not uncommon for someone to have bought a car and then been shocked by how much it is worth a few months later.

Thats reassuring then, as it means I am likely to be able to find a similar car.

Hes not that bad a driver, but an inexperienced one, he passed his test in September after being told he had to drive to be accepted for his apprenticeship. He also took Pass plus and attended the govenrment Course on safe driving. His accident was a freak incident caused by averse weather conditions. (police officers words). He called the police as soon as it happened and they were wonderful with him. They said that it was a credit to the safety aspects of the car that no one got killed or hurt in the crash.

Looking at the car though, you cant tell that there is so much wrong with it. Apart from the headlights hanging out and the nose of the car a bit crumpled.

No other vehicle was involved. No one was hurt. But I do worry when he goes out in the car. Unfortunately no car for him means no job.

tuggy12

JFC wrote: »

I am going to look into taking out GAP with his next car.

I could be wrong but I always thought GAP insurance was offered on new cars only, i.e. to cover the gap between the current insurance value, at the time of write off, and the prevailing new cost.

JFC_2

I wonder if its offered on cars under 3 years old purchased from a garage. The only reason I say that is because, when we chatted to the salesman at the vauxall garage he was suprised that the CSMA hadnt offered us Gap when we purchased the car (it was a year old at the time we purchased it)

nomoneytoday

Gap insurance can be cheaper online, rather than paying a garage salesmans commission...