Insurance company write off bartering???

Ash_Vanguard

Greetings wise brothers and sisters
i recently had my beautiful '99 yaris written off (no fault of my own) and have been offered 1500 for it, now what i want to know is how i squeeze a bit more out of them as i paid 4000 for it. i know this is possible by the way the insurance company's mechanic was asking me how high i value the car etc. it was in real good condition (apart from minor paintwork issues)
you help is most joyously welcomed
much love

jaydeeuk1

Find similar ones on autotrader and see what the going asking price is (just remember that asking price is usually higher than true value)

If its a 1.0l, with mileage around 50-70k, then £1.5k doesn't sound too far off the mark. Plenty of 2000/2001 reg at that price. Can try push for £1750

bezzza

My little 12 year old Rover 100 was written off last week and I was offered £500 initially. I said I wasn't happy as the accident wasn't my fault (parked outside house when a new driver mounted pavement and smashed into it) and that I had maintained it really well (only recently spending just under £300 to replace the starter motor, cold start sensor, crank sensor and distributor so it was guaranteed to start during the terrible winter weather we had - it started every single day even under a foot of snow), as well as really low mileage (just over 44k) and I also had to push the point of how attached I was to the car and how much I personally valued it - it was acknowledged that I was emotionally attached to car and they increased offer to £650 and allowed me an extra 2 weeks use of the courtesy car.

People on the forum also advised me to look on autotrader for similar age, model and mileage cars and present this to the insurance company but in the end I was happy with offer (just not happy with how come the person who crashed into my car left the accident, offered no apology until I saw her over a week later and then her husband has now gone on the offensive saying she did stop and knock after accident but that's a whole other story!)

Hope you get close to what you want - fingers crossed xx

Ash_Vanguard

ahhh i may try the 'emotionally attached' approach, i could say it was the car i lost my virginity in
my car has 115k on the clock and there are cheaper ones on autotrader but im still not happy
coincidently my insurance company has provided a hire car for me, how much longer will i get it for?

bezzza

Ash_Vanguard wrote: »

ahhh i may try the 'emotionally attached' approach, i could say it was the car i lost my virginity in

May devalue it LOL

You need to haggle over courtesy car as I was originally told you only get to keep it until cheque sent out but I explained that I needed a car as I am main carer to my Mum who lives 15 miles away - so they agreed for extra time to allow for receipt of cheque, for it to clear and a few days to purchase another car (I'm just waiting for cheque to clear - accident on 10th, offer made 17th, cheque received 19th, courtesy car being returned on 31st)

december

Just be careful when rejecting a settlement offer. My insurance company have just offered me £1250 for my 99 fiesta (which I thought was fair tbh) but if I were to reject their settlement offer, they would take away my courtesy car. As I can have the courtesy car for upto a week after I receive the cheque, this was worth more to me than the extra £100 or so I could barter them up to.

december

Blimey bezzza that's quick! My situation was accident 19th December, letter received offering settlement today!

bezzza

december wrote: »

Blimey bezzza that's quick! My situation was accident 19th December, letter received offering settlement today!

Oh dear! I must admit this has been dealt with really speedily by my insurance company (Sheila's Wheels) but I did have a terrible experience following my only other car accident 3 years ago (again not my fault - HGV hit my car 3 times as he couldnt see my little metro I was driving - he admitted full responsibility but my insurance company at that time (Elephant) were rubbish - didn't pay out agreed write off cheque for weeks and then they took out excess so I was left with £200 to buy a car with even though it wasn't my fault - took another 5 months to get the excess refunded so I know how it feels.