Garage wrote my car off! :(

dave22

Hi.

Looking for any thoughts please.

Two weeks ago, I took my volvo into my local independant garage because it had a very small coolant system water leak. Later the same day when I rang the garage, they told me that my car had been written off!

It is (was) an automatic car, and apparently, when the mechanic got in, started it up, and selected 'drive', the revs went full scale and the car shot forward across the car park before hitting a motorhome, bouncing of into a large van which it then pushed through (knocking down) a concrete fence.

The garage proprietor told me he thought it may have been a throttle malfunction. Having spoken to VolvoUk and two main dealers, they seem totally unconvinced of this. The claim is going through the garage insurance.

My concern is that I am ultimately going to lose out here. The insurance company will presumably offer me what it see's as market value.

So two questions:

1. Four weeks ago, I spent £400 with this garage to have the cam belt changed - money wasted. Should they give me this money back?

2. I left my car in their safe custody, and I'm now in this situation. Is it reasonable to expect them to show some goodwill for stress, inconvenience, and the fact that if I replace the car like for like - I may end up with an eight year old car with a load of problems. If I was going to change my car now - which I wasn't - it would have been for a later model. I now have to lurch into the unknown.

Any thoughts, and how to approach this subject with the garage would be most welcome.
Thankyou.
Dave

Limey

I doubt they will take the work done four weeks ago into account in the settlement but they should put you back in the situation you were in before writing your car off.

I'd find out who their insurance company is and deal direct with them. Do some research on the prices of the same age and model Volvo with full service history and don't settle for less.

Marktheshark

Was it a T4 or T5 ? they do go through the nearest wall if you press the throttle down in drive without a lot of clear road ahead. .

Prothet_of_Doom

Well, the basic principle is this : You find 50 adverts of older, higher mileage cars for sale on dealer forecourts, at a price that is always higher than the offer they make. You send them copies of bills, and service history and demand twice what they offer, and threaten to take them to court, whilst also demanding that they compensate you for the temporary loss of transport at say £30 a day.


In my 3 write offs all my fault, negotiating with my own insurer, we went from


an offer of £1100 to a payout of £1800
an offer of £600 to a payout of £1550
an offer of £900, to a payout of erm £900 (I took it because the car had cost me £900 off a dealers forecourt about 3 years previously and was knackered)

InsideInsurance

Prothet_of_Doom wrote: »

and threaten to take them to court, whilst also demanding that they compensate you for the temporary loss of transport at say £30 a day.

In any one day do you have any idea how many court cases insurers are involved in? Do you think one more small claim court case will make the slightest bit of difference to them?

Play above your weight and you may well find part 36 offers coming through which you dont have a clue what they mean and close you down a lot quicker than just being sensible would be.

Assuming you dont claim for a hire car or alternative transport and dont have a courtesy car then you can indeed claim for loss of use up until 5 days after receiving payment. In my day the going rate was 10 quid a day, I guess that may have gone up to 15 by now, certainly not 30 and again being stupid risks them simply offering nothing and calling your bluff

Nodding_Donkey

Or alternatively you could insist that they repair your car (depending what is actually wrong with it) It's pretty hard to do anything other than cosmetic damage to an old Volvo in a low speed accident, they're pretty solid.

InsideInsurance wrote: »

In any one day do you have any idea how many court cases insurers are involved in? Do you think one more small claim court case will make the slightest bit of difference to them?

It's not the insurance company he will be claiming against, the OP's claim is against the garage.

InsideInsurance

Nodding_Donkey wrote: »

It's not the insurance company he will be claiming against, the OP's claim is against the garage.

Technically but the garage will pass everything to their insurers to deal with and so in practice its them the OP will be dealing with and they arent intimidated by idle threats of court, in fact they can often can become a loss less helpful

LandyAndy

dave22 wrote: »

It is (was) an automatic car, and apparently, when the mechanic got in, started it up, and selected 'drive', the revs went full scale and the car shot forward across the car park before hitting a motorhome, bouncing of into a large van which it then pushed through (knocking down) a concrete fence.

Nodding_Donkey wrote: »

Or alternatively you could insist that they repair your car (depending what is actually wrong with it) It's pretty hard to do anything other than cosmetic damage to an old Volvo in a low speed accident, they're pretty solid.


.

I think the damage may be a bit more than you imagine


Anyway you can't insist they repair it.

Nodding_Donkey

Of course you can. The garage have to put you back to the same position you were in before they wrecked it.

InsideInsurance

Nodding_Donkey wrote: »

Of course you can. The garage have to put you back to the same position you were in before they wrecked it.

The same financial position

It is free for the garages insurers to choose if that is by repairing the car or by paying the OP the preaccident market value of the vehicle so they can replace it like for like. Obviously they will choose the cheapest option for doing this

LandyAndy

Nodding_Donkey wrote: »

Of course you can. The garage have to put you back to the same position you were in before they wrecked it.

No you can't.