4 week old car - likely write off

motorguy

DUTR wrote: »

I agree, my car is a VW group car which I spec'd from new ....twice, the most I've known of and semi backed by the 1st post in the link is 20 weeks, if it was a special Merc or Porsche then yes 2 weeks or more but I just can't see a 28 week on a Seat.
The dealers have a slot to get the factory order in and the slots move from country to country, once the order is at the factory the build is usually just a week, then transportation of course.

There was an issue with supply recently of a particular engine which was used across the group, so this may have been the case here.

motorguy

IanMSpencer wrote: »

The insurance should put you back into the position you were in before the accident. If they cannot organise the same priced lease you are worse off and you should be compensated.

Should they? If its a lease car you dont own the car, so surely their obligation is to put the leasing company back to their pre accident position?

IamNotAllowedToUseMyName

motorguy wrote: »

Should they? If its a lease car you dont own the car, so surely their obligation is to put the leasing company back to their pre accident position?

I think that is too narrow. If you were looking at purely your own insurance, then you are bound by the contract for the losses you have insured for. Once you are looking at a third party claim, you are considering the whole liability of a third party to cover the losses they have caused, and there you are looking at the full impact, financial, inconvenience, compensation for injury, the lot.

Penelopa.Pitstop

Luke_Bank wrote: »

Thank you for your detailed response.

Even if I did order a new one, I very much doubt I’d be entitled to a courtesy/hire car for the 7 months it takes for the new one to arrive.

I fear I will be without a car, if the lease company aren’t able to find a replacement. I know it’s only a SEAT Leon but the engine I went for (1.4 ECOTSI) is in massive demand.

Like you said I’ll probably have to go for nearly new on PCP but it’s more per month unfortunately.

Just get different car or different version. Also, it's possible there are some cars in stock for immediate delivery.

Muscle750

I would not want the car repaired anyway believe me they are never the same. Some insurance companies repair upto 65% of value of car others less. Some even have a system if the cars under a year old and the damage exceeds a certain percentage of its value they give you a new car bearing in mind that the insurance get paid good money for the salvage

tcfh

Sorry to hear about your incident. In the past 7 years (maybe 8 now) i've owned 43 cars (yes, I have car commitment issues!) ranging from £8,000 Astra VXR's to £72,000 Range Rovers. Each and every time I've bought a car and the dealer offered me GAP insurance i just saw it as yet another add-on to drain me of more money, that was until in 2016 I bought a BMW M3 for £38,000 and for whatever reason ended up adding on GAP insurance for £219, it was then written off whilst stationary by a drunk driver, similar to yourself. Had i NOT had GAP insurance, the estimated difference would have been £13,000, i.e i'd have had to pay the finance company £13k for a car i'd had for a couple of months. Since then, if i'm purchasing expensive cars I always take GAP cover, for the sake of a few hundred quid when you're talking about cars costing half of an average house, it's really a no brainer.

As penelopa righty said, there's always plenty of pre-built cars in stock for immediate ( a week or so ) delivery, you just need to ask what is available.

fiisch

The Leon has been in high demand so 7 months for a build-to-order is about right - I waited the same for a bloody Skoda a few years ago!! If you can get a car that's built and in the country, then it'll be a lot quicker, but I think there is a shortfall due to the very attractive PCP/Lease deals they were doing.

That said, my wife has a 17 plate Leon and it's the most insipid, boring car we've ever owned! It's an excellent car, but incredibly dull....

If you're after a car quickly, simply phone a lease company and ask what cars they'll have in stock - you can get an exec saloon from one of the German manufacturers for a similar price if you're not fussy on colour/spec. Audi A4s are currently being given away by some leasing companies....

Luke_Bank

As an update for everyone that contributed or followed this thread.

The matter is still ongoing. The third party simply isn’t answering any communications from his insurance company. My insurance, RSA, in my opinion aren’t being proactive in dealing with this and keep saying “we’ll give them some more time”. The third party also hasn’t responded to a claim notification issued by my passengers solicitor.

However, I was provided with a brand new replacement car by my insurance. They argued that I wasn’t entitled to “New Car Replacement” as I had “no financial interest” in the vehicle and as I’m not/was not the first registered keeper. Bearing in mind I was sold this policy with the specific benefit of New Car Replacment, and I specifically queried whether or not it would apply to Contract Hire Vehicles.

I challenged their decision. I made a formal complaint based on the policy being sold with that benefit and because their own policy wording listed no exclusion for contract hire vehicles, or mention that I must be the first registered keeper. I was told that the claim was on hold until the complaint was dealt with and that it would likely take in excess of 10 weeks. Fortunately though, after many phone calls I had the complaint botttomed out within a few weeks. They grumbled but eventually admitted that their policy wording wasn’t clear on the issue and agreed to the replacement. Still it wasn’t plain sailing from there. There were many set backs and miscommunications which ultimately meant that I didn’t get a replacement car until 9 weeks after the i incident.

RSA have been particularly unhelpful to date and I have no confidence in them bringing this to a swift resolution. As it stands I am £350 (excess) out of pocket and I’ve had my NCD reduced from 8 years to 3 years as liability still haven’t been established/confirmed (drink driver wrong side of the road - clear cut?).