Car written off - declining initial offer

angrykid62

On Monday our car was written off.
our fault and we accepted liability

the other vehicle had a dent but nothing more, thankfully
all persons involved are uninjured.

our repair estimate came in at over £4000
and our car will currently sell around about £3300

so as expected the car was deemed a total loss
and we were offered £2800 as an initial offer.
which surprised me as I was expecting far lower as the initial offer.

anyhow we declined stating it wouldn't be enough to allow us to purchase a similar car.

we have printed out four examples of the same
car/model/sub model & age with similar mileage
all around the £3,500 mark

and typed a cover letter to send in along with the adverts.

is there anything else I need to do or that I should know
or any advice anybody could share.

many thanks.

InsideInsurance

Not really, you need to check if any offer is inclusive or exclusive of your excess. Remember that the gross offer should be around the £3,300 you say you think the car is worth but the net amount would be £3,000 if you had a £300 excess.

Likewise prepare what price you are willing to accept. Adverts are asking prices not selling prices and so you should be expecting to get a number below the actual asking prices.

lazer

I had a similar issue,

I refused the first offer and was able to negotiate by phone, getting an extra £250

Remember to check mileage on similar ones etc and distance to travel

angrykid62

our excess is £400 ( £200 compulsory and £200 young drivers )

if the £2800 is net I am even more suprised.
but I agree that the gross I am after is the £3.5k

also that the asking price is negotiable, and likely factored in to the asking price.

the mileage on the examples were within 10,000 of my own mileage
mine had done 65,000 in 7 years one owner from new ( us )

basically I'll be happy enough walking away with around £3,100 net

Ill check up on the offer being with the excess removed or if its to be removed.

thanks both

InsideInsurance

angrykid62 wrote: »

our excess is £400 ( £200 compulsory and £200 young drivers )

if the £2800 is net I am even more suprised.
but I agree that the gross I am after is the £3.5k

also that the asking price is negotiable, and likely factored in to the asking price.

the mileage on the examples were within 10,000 of my own mileage
mine had done 65,000 in 7 years one owner from new ( us )

basically I'll be happy enough walking away with around £3,100 net

Ill check up on the offer being with the excess removed or if its to be removed.

If the asking prices were around £3,500 and your excess if £400 you probably will need to be a little more realistic than getting £3,100 net.

Selling prices would be below asking prices and then with £400 off that for the excess and you are going to be under the £3k mark (unless your around £3.5k mark was an under estimate)

lazer

InsideInsurance wrote: »

If the asking prices were around £3,500 and your excess if £400 you probably will need to be a little more realistic than getting £3,100 net.

Selling prices would be below asking prices and then with £400 off that for the excess and you are going to be under the £3k mark (unless your around £3.5k mark was an under estimate)

Agreed - your situation is similar to mine.

Asking price of a car practically identical was £3,500 and i walked away with £3,250 (Gross) on the basis that the asking price is just that the selling price is probably a lot lower.
Insurance also had on file another with 92,000 mile for £3,200.

So i think i did quite well

I had a 7 year old car, owned from new, 86,000 miles.

Also in terms on asking price - I have bought a car now for £3,700 advertised at £4,000 - so there is definately room for negotiation.
Another one i negotiated on £5,500 asked, reduced to £5,000.

Plenty of room to negotiate

angrykid62

just spoken with the underwriters

their initial offer would have had the excess and remaining policy payments deducted leaving a value of £2280
which is no where near enough.

we can likely get a couple hundred quid off of the cars asking price of £3500 so that is fine.

but, if they come back with anything less than £2900 with the excess already deducted then it wouldn't be suitable if a replacement car is asking £3500 ( cheapest we can even find,most are £3700 ) even with amazing haggling its not going to get below £3000.

so we would need a gross of 3.3k as a minimum

nobbysn*ts

Remember, you need to be looking at a dealer price, not a private sale, or trade.

angrykid62

all evidence was dealer adverts at around 3.5k asking price

dacouch

angrykid62 wrote: »

all evidence was dealer adverts at around 3.5k asking price

The dealer asking prices are not necessarily the value of the car as they may have built in a margin for negotiation as has been pointed out to you before.

Read this link from the Ombudsman

https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/technical_notes/motor-valuation.html

"2. our general approach

In most cases, we assess the market value as the retail price which the consumer would have had to pay for a comparable vehicle at a reputable dealer, immediately before the date of the damage or theft.

This may be lower than the price at which the vehicle is advertised, as the dealer may have built in a margin for negotiation. It is likely to be higher than the price payable in a private sale or at an auction and also higher than the trade value (which is the price a dealer would pay before adding its mark-up)"

Read the entire link a couple of times as it tells you how the Insurer should value the car eg using the prices guides which may help you negotiate the true value of the car

angrykid62

Ive taken a look at the value of my car with a few of the valuation companies like CAP/GLASS/PARKER

DEALER:

CAP: £2800 - £3100
GLASS: £3080 - 3890
PARKER: £2500 - £3000

total average is £3074

so a gross sum of that average would leave me a net of £2674
which in my opinion seems about right.