Book value?!

peterq2

yeah, thats the frustrating part of it all, when I turned down the offer I sent various ads from autotrader and parkers and also from the actual Peugeot dealership where I origionally bought the vehicle, they all ranged from between £2000 and £4000 more than the insurers offered. I asked how they had reached their decision and was told that the engineer had come to that decision based on his own research I asked for proof and what I received were autotrader ads which were of a lower spec than my vehicle and the one ad that was the same spec as my vehicle was priced at £16,750 I said I would reluctantly accept £16,750 as that was the only ad provided matching my vehicle spec/mileage and also I noted that all the ads sent were 300 or more miles from my house!!! So I made a point of that fact too!
This has been dragging on now for weeks and when I rang to complain they said that they could make an interim payment to my finance co and still dispute the final offer - i agreed to try and keep the finance co off my back but they sent £750 short of the agreed interim payment!!!
Dont really know what else to do

Astaroth

As I say, the dealership price "wont count" as it is private sale price they will be looking at to give you - a dealership will always be able to sell a second hand car for more than a private sale (and often by quite some way).

If you have hit stalemate then you can ask for their final response to be put in writting as you intend to request the FOS to review the offer. Depending on who the insurer is dictates whether they immediately change their offer and to some degree how likely the FOS is to rule in your favour or not. Car valuation is an art not a science but the FOS has known insurers systems it likes and ones it doesnt.

skiddy2k

website to give book-value for your car: http://www.parkers.co.uk/ (on left of page, in "free used car valuations")... i think you have to pay if you want the price adjusted for the mileage, so just use it as a basis

peterq2

Thanks guys, having just looked on that parkers guide to buy the equivalent vehicle it is still showing a good few thousand pounds difference....looks like I will be going down the FOS route after all! Oh well nothing ventured nothing gained eh!?
I just want to be treated fairly, I have never made a claim before and it seems like the insurance co are being a bit economical!

Astaroth

Hmm... were you economical when deciding which insurer

Different insurers use different methods of calculating total loss settlements - some work out in customers favours at times some will give too low a result to some. One insurer used to just give 80% of the book price - great if you had a real dog of a vehicle but terrible if you had kept it in A1 condition... but for those that were ripped off the insurer couldnt defend their process to the FOS so tended to lose almost all cases.

peterq2

lol, no m8 my policy was costing me a fortune (I had to pay extra cos it was a business vehicle - private hire car) - I just dont see how a vehicle could depreciate in value to the tune of £9000 in one year! I know there were 30000 miles on it (its my work vehicle) but it was fully serviced in immaculate condition (which it has to be to hold its plate, any defects -even a car that might need hoovering in this city risks the council removing your plate) and even vehicles for sale with comparative mileage come up more expensive than the insurers offer. it just looks like the FOS is my last hope really.

darky

peterq2 wrote:

lol, no m8 my policy was costing me a fortune (I had to pay extra cos it was a business vehicle - private hire car) - I just dont see how a vehicle could depreciate in value to the tune of £9000 in one year! I know there were 30000 miles on it (its my work vehicle) but it was fully serviced in immaculate condition (which it has to be to hold its plate, any defects -even a car that might need hoovering in this city risks the council removing your plate) and even vehicles for sale with comparative mileage come up more expensive than the insurers offer. it just looks like the FOS is my last hope really.

Sorry to hear about all the trouble you are having with this. The Insurance Company is obliged to pay you a sum of money to replace your vehicle with one of a similar age and mileage - however this means they don't have to pay dealer prices to do this. If they have offered considerably less that the amount needed to replace the car you have a case with the FOS. If you need to avoid this situation in future then you can take out GAP insurance through a dealership although it is quite pricey

Good luck!

peterq2

Thanks m8, I did try to get gap insurance but wasn't able to (being a private hire driver) :mad:
But I was paying exhorbitant rates of insurance (even though I had no claims) I think its got something to do with the amount of cabbies/ph drivers putting in "false" claims so all of us in the job get penalised, and can't get gap insurance for the work vehicles anymore.

I am ringing the insurers again today to ask for their final response to be sent in writing so that I can approach the FOS for a review of the case.

Thanks ppl for all the advice.