Car written off - urgent advice needed!

smreynard

After waiting for three weeks, Churchill Insurance have now declared our car written off, even though it's only bodywork damage. It should be a C or D write-off but we're waiting to hear. What sort of payment should I hope to get? The car is a Japanese import Toyota Surf that cost £9,000 only nine months ago. To replace it with one similar we'd be looking at about £7,000. We could get it repaired ourselves for about £3,000 on parts and labour. How much should I expect to be left out of pocket on the settlement and should I haggle?

bluekp

Definitely haggle!

My Japanese Mitsubishi FTO was written off last year - they offered me a ridiculously low settlement which I told them where they could shove it.

They then made a second low offer which again I rejected. I then sent them copies of advertisements from AutoTrader and other car sales magazines to prove what it would cost me to purchase the equvilant car again.

They told me they wouldn't increase their offer and we both waited a while before they came back and offered me exactly what I wanted.

I purchased mine for £5,300, it was written off 1 year later having done several thousand miles and I got £5,000 back for it

Impet_Limpet

Never accept the first offer, a van drove into the back of my 1999 Fiat seicento sporting abarth last year and they considered it a write off even though repairs were only £950 (cat C). Pre accident condition was considered A1 by their assessor, BUT they offered me £950 for it.

I dragged prices from autotrader, parkers, Fiat dealerships etc for the same one with bodykit etc and same mileage and condition and FSH for double that price. (I had paid £1400 for it 6months earlier but it was a very good deal from a friend).

I told them I wanted the car back and money to repair it. I eventually got £1250 and the car back, repairs cost £950, for £200 I fitted a cat 1 alarm and £100 I spent on clothes.

They would have been better off just repairing the car in the first place, as they spent 2 months arguing over the claim while I drove a very nice expensive courtesey car!

flang

If the first offeres good accept it and dont push your luck!, i brought a vauxhall corsa 1.5 turbo diesel 1994 with 180,000 on the clock for £150, spent £200 on it.
A year later someone kindly wrote it off for me, the 3rd party insurers offered me £800!! which was a fantastic price providing i could get a newer model with less mileage for the same price! (it was a great car though)

katecheshire

smreynard wrote:

After waiting for three weeks, Churchill Insurance have now declared our car written off, even though it's only bodywork damage. It should be a C or D write-off but we're waiting to hear. What sort of payment should I hope to get? The car is a Japanese import Toyota Surf that cost £9,000 only nine months ago. To replace it with one similar we'd be looking at about £7,000. We could get it repaired ourselves for about £3,000 on parts and labour. How much should I expect to be left out of pocket on the settlement and should I haggle?

Have they made you an offer yet? You need to find out how much they will let you have the car for. If you can get it fixed for £3000 but you are going to have to pay them another £3000, will that be good value? If you do get the car back make sure you see the engineer's report first or get an AA report done - you don't want to find some structural damage later.

You shouldn't end up out of pocket but you might. My first offer was £850 - when I stopped laughing I asked the engineer where he got that price from - the answer was "Loot" !! More laughter from me. After three months of arguing I ended up with a total of £1900. A good argument is to say 'Right, you deliver to my door a car equivalent to the one I had before the accident and I will accept it. Otherwise you will have to pay what it will cost for me to replace it.' (Mentioning the Ombudsman can speed things up)

If the accident was not your fault, don't forget to keep a note of any expenses - you may be able to claim back under uninsured losses from the other party.

smreynard

Thanks for the advice. The accident happened when my husband was only doing 15 miles per hour in freezing fog and he skidded on black ice and ended up on it's side in a ditch. So because there was nobody else to blame we've had to go all this time with no courtesy car while they decided if it could be repaired or not. To buy a car the same now would cost us £7,000 so we don't know why they wrote it off when repairs are only £3,000 that's why we're anticipating a low offer! We should hear something on Monday so I'll update this thread then.

dollarjon

Martine1081 wrote:

Never accept the first offer, a van drove into the back of my 1999 Fiat seicento sporting abarth last year and they considered it a write off even though repairs were only £950 (cat C). Pre accident condition was considered A1 by their assessor, BUT they offered me £950 for it.

I dragged prices from autotrader, parkers, Fiat dealerships etc for the same one with bodykit etc and same mileage and condition and FSH for double that price. (I had paid £1400 for it 6months earlier but it was a very good deal from a friend).

I told them I wanted the car back and money to repair it. I eventually got £1250 and the car back, repairs cost £950, for £200 I fitted a cat 1 alarm and £100 I spent on clothes.

They would have been better off just repairing the car in the first place, as they spent 2 months arguing over the claim while I drove a very nice expensive courtesey car!

why would you want a cat-1 alarm for a seicento? just pick it up and put it in your pocket

smreynard

Just to update this, still not received the offer in writing yet but it will only be around £5,000 which is £4,000 less than we paid for the car nine months before the accident! We've sent them copies of ads etc. so are hoping to get an increased offer.