Car Insurance - Total Loss

Snortan

Hello people,

A stupid incident happened on the last Friday(12th). Basically what happened is that a guy hit my parked car and drove off without leaving a note or anything else. A friend saw this happen and told me he saw the guy at a nearby company.
When my friend told me what happened my only reaction was "Right, don't panic. Call the insurance company because that's why I'm paying them and they will sort this thing out, most probably fix the car in about two weeks or so." So we went to see that guy and his only reaction was "Yes I did hit it." and he gave me his Insurance Policy Nr, vehicle reg. nr and the rest of the info.
After that I called my insurance company(Direct Line, I have a comprehensive cover) and told them what happened. They passed on my details to a repair center and they got in touch with me about bringing the car to them. Everything fine until now.
My car is a VW Passat from 2000 with a 1.9 TDI Diesel engine with ~100.000miles, perfect interior and the exterior looked good as well, no scratches/dents or marks, bought it about a year ago with £1700 and I think I invested another £1000 in this year for cam belt, tyres, brakes etc..
Yesterday and engineer from Direct Line called me and said that my car is beyond economical repair and it's considered a total loss, which shocked me because it didn't look that bad. He said that because it costs more to repair it than it's market value they can offer me £1200 and dispose of the car. I was absolutely shocked and told him that I want my car repaired, I don't want any money...so he told me he will speak with his boss. Today we spoke again and he offered me £1300. I tried to reason with him that with £1300 I can't get a car similar to mine and that I cannot work without a car (but I guess they don't really care, just doing their job....) and told him to give me some time to think and that I will call him back tomorrow.

I checked autotrader for a new car similar to mine and they are over £1500. Is there any way to reason with them?
What else can I do?

Thanks a lot!

Dynamic_Panda

You need to provide evidence that your car is worth more than what they are offering..........such as details for cars of a similar age,condition and mileage in Autotrader, the local press etc..............the value they give is as at private sale not a forecourt price so take that into account...........if the vehicle is written off at CAT D then you may be able to buy it back which would give you a settlement less the salvage value and you should be able to get it repaired privately.............if it is CAT C it has to go through a test with the Ministry of Transport once repaired before it can go back on the road again settlement would be less salvage value........Cat B has to be broken up and CAT A has to be crushed..............

Hope this helps

DP

gordonquinn

Unfortunately my friend, the insurers pay market value at the time of the payout, take a brand new car for example, may cost £15,000, within a few months its value will drop by thousands, now lets say it is in an accident, the insurer will pay market value at that time, which will be a significant loss.
Dealers offer something called GAP insurance to cover this, so it is just something that exists.

Basically what I am saying is that although you paid £1700 for your car before, they may feel the current market value has fallen to £1300.

However, the payout price is negotiable as you have found out, so argue your case, as panda said, get the evidence of the value and send it to them, however I may not be a strong arguement, as values will vary.
At the end of the day, if you are not happy with their valuation of market value, then you should consider a complaint, first to the company, then if you have no success, to the financial ombudsman.

Please see this article, it is very applicable to you.
http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/ombudsman-news/22/issue-22-motorinsurance.htm

With the buy back of CAT C/D, I would avoid this, as if you want to trade it in or sell it in the future, it will come up on an HPI check as a previous write off, and will potentially take ££s off the value.

Good luck, keep us updated, I would be interested to see how this turns out.

Thanks, hope I helped.
Gordon

lisyloo

If you are going to keep the car long term then talk to them about buying it back.
Could you get it repaired cheaper by a local garage, ebay part, scrap yard parts?
Up to you whether that's acceptable, but only do this if you want to keep the car for yourself as it will be devalued by the cat C/D.
Also ask DL if they will insure it as some peope have trouble getting insurance for write-offs.

Otherwise yes you need to negotiate.
Research and get price, but bear in mind asking prices in autotrader are just that, so expect a deduction.
People do not generally pay the asking price.

Yes you can negotiate, formally complain and eventually go to the ombudsman which is free and independent, but you do need to take account of the fact that most people don't pay the ticket price.

gordonquinn

lisyloo wrote: »

Research and get price, but bear in mind asking prices in autotrader are just that, so expect a deduction.
People do not generally pay the asking price.

Yes you can negotiate, formally complain and eventually go to the ombudsman which is free and independent, but you do need to take account of the fact that most people don't pay the ticket price.

These are very good points, and since it was mentioned that the price on Autotrader was £1700 and £1300 had been offered, it shows they might not be offering much under the market value.

lisyloo

£1700 was the price one year ago.
The car will have deprieciated due to age as they do (the £1K spent on it for normal consumable items won't inflate the value much unfortunately).

We don't know how much over £1500 the ones in Autotrader are but £1300 is not a million miles away.
I would be asking for a bit more, but it's not far off from a real selling price.

vax2002

Guy down the road bought his vauxhall back from total loss for £200, advertised breaking and they came far and wide, removed the parts, Engine £300, gearbox £150, windows, mirrors, doors, within 2 weeks it was just a shell, even the carpets went, made himself around £800, so a tidy £600 profit.

Snortan

I'm not thinking about buying it back because I'm not sure for how long am I gonna keep it and because it will take plenty of time to fix it, which is a problem for me because I need my car to travel to work.
Will try to call a couple of sellers and see what's their final price and hope Direct Line will raise their price a bit and for everything to go smooth.
Thanks guys for the support. Will keep you posted.

Snortan

Hello guys.
Well after some more negotiating we agreed to £1500. And after some more thinking I decided to keep the car because I have no plans of selling it and mechanically it is in perfect condition, will just take a bit of time to fix the outside, whereas if I would buy another one it might require to change lots of parts under the bonnet.