Car written off!...How much?

mark_steps

Towards the end of last week, a driver crashed into the back of my car and took full liability.
This morning an engineer came to inspect the damage and told me it would be written off. I am to expect market value for it.
Its a P Reg Fiat Brava. 53000 miles.
I heard of a web site that values the car based on the mileage and reg plate but costs something like £4 to do this. Its what garages use apparantly.
Do you think its worth doing so i can argue the case if the insurance offer say £300 or do i just take the first offer made to me?

Please help.

Ta

andygb

I would say that £300 would be a good offer for a 15 year old Fiat Brava. I have seen various very clean "01/02" reg cars go through our local BCA for less than £800. One of my mates picked up a pristine, low mileage 55 reg Pug 307 for £1200 a few months ago.

blacksta

How much is a similar going on autotrader? give or take 10 % more

mark_steps

BCA...is that an auction? How would i find an auction in Edinburgh? Sorry im not good at this lol. I searched on autotrader, 30 miles within edinburgh and below £500. Only 4 came up :0

slyracoon

Market value for your car is £500 or less. I'd be happy if I got £400 out insurance for it.

McKneff

Dont forget to inform your own insurance company of the incidedent. It's in your terms and conditions.

Your details will be registered on the national database now, so when its flagged up on a future claim of yours your insurance will be invalidated.

So don't forget.

mark_steps

My insurance know this. They are going through her insurance or something. My insurance sent out the chap to assess it.

Strider590

If it wasn't a Fiat I might suggest keeping the car and fixing it privately (for around 1/3 of the insurance repair quote). Sometimes the worst thing in having a car written off, is losing a reliable work horse.

s_b

aim for £400 and the salvage back
weigh this in at $175 someone local should offer this at the moment for scrap cars and theres a little profit left for them to collect it and look for a replacement just remember to get a destruction certificate

groupid

Mark,
there are a few auction options in Edinburgh area for replacing your car. There's a list below. I've just been faced with the same problem you're having and negotiated a settlement with my insurers by checking out prices online and sending them details of vehicles for sale with similar mileage and age. It took a wee while, but they upped the settlement by £700. They will offer you less than they think they have to to start, and then try and pay the max value according to Glass's guide.

Look at autotrader.co.uk, and vcars.co.uk and cargiant.co.uk and http://www.thecarwarehouse.co.uk to see what is available nationwide - you can sort according to how far away they are. This will help both in valuation and sourcing a new car.

Auctions in or near Edinburgh
http://www.sma-group.co.uk - in Livingston and Kinross
http://www.british-car-auctions.co.uk - in Ingliston near Edinburgh airport
http://www.centralcarauctions.com - in Glasgow - got a very useful guide which show what price cars sold for in last 5 weeks.

Of course you'll want to choose the high value cars for arguing prices with the insurance company, and then negotiate on all prices you see on these other websites. Worth looking at ebay and gumtree too. Have fun.

MX5huggy

groupid wrote: »

Mark,
there are a few auction options in Edinburgh area for replacing your car. There's a list below. I've just been faced with the same problem you're having and negotiated a settlement with my insurers by checking out prices online and sending them details of vehicles for sale with similar mileage and age. It took a wee while, but they upped the settlement by £700. They will offer you less than they think they have to to start, and then try and pay the max value according to Glass's guide.

But what was the total value of the car? £700 additional on a £2k car is good going but not on a £20 k car.