Write off offer for car

[Deleted User]

TELLIT01 said:

A lease car won't automatically have been ragged to hell.  Some company vehicles possibly, but many private individuals now lease cars and don't drive them any differently to the way they would drive a car they own outright.

How will you know though? Get your own extensive check up, including stripping the engine down, taking the clutch apart?

One of the reasons people like lease cars is to avoid all that stuff.

TELLIT01

[DELETED USER] said:

TELLIT01 said:

A lease car won't automatically have been ragged to hell.  Some company vehicles possibly, but many private individuals now lease cars and don't drive them any differently to the way they would drive a car they own outright.

How will you know though? Get your own extensive check up, including stripping the engine down, taking the clutch apart?

One of the reasons people like lease cars is to avoid all that stuff.

There is really no way of telling how any car has been used without stripping it down.  Lease cars at least have to be serviced.

Sandtree

[DELETED USER] said:

TELLIT01 said:

A lease car won't automatically have been ragged to hell.  Some company vehicles possibly, but many private individuals now lease cars and don't drive them any differently to the way they would drive a car they own outright.

How will you know though? Get your own extensive check up, including stripping the engine down, taking the clutch apart?

One of the reasons people like lease cars is to avoid all that stuff.

"How will you know" is a very different thing from "only cars on their last legs are sold secondhand" which is a paraphrasing of the original comment.

I suspect more people lease to avoid having to find £20,000 for a car or a large deposit for other types of finance.

RedditchResident

On the 26th of August 2020 my VW EOS was written off.  The other guy's insurance company is LV.  They offered GBP1800 for mine.  Mine was high mileage but main dealer serviced always.  It had cam belt changes per the schedule etc.  It also had a push button roof.  There is only one dealership in the country offering anything like it with a credible warranty.  Minimum GBP6000.  The guides put mine at around GBP2500.  LV pointed me towards a car in Exchange and Mart that "...matched..."  mine.  When I looked it was a damaged car with a dodgy roof.  The Ombudsman says 'not interested' because LV is not my insurer but the other guys.   No car and nowhere to go apparently.  

TELLIT01

Unfortunately you are seeing the reality of car insurance.  Despite claims to the contrary from motor insurers, all you will ever be offered is trade in value, not anything close to a like-for-like replacement.  With their financial clout they would be able to source something far closer to the spec of your vehicle than you could ever hope to do.

Have you been back to your own insurer to see if they will do anything to help you?  Alternative, if you have legal support in your home insurance you could try using them to recover the shortfall from the other driver.

Aretnap

TELLIT01 said:

Have you been back to your own insurer to see if they will do anything to help you?  Alternative, if you have legal support in your home insurance you could try using them to recover the shortfall from the other driver.

Legal cover that comes with home insurance will be of no help - it will exclude anything related to motor vehicles. (Home insurance and car insurance are designed not to overlap). It's motor legal protection that comes with car insurance which you'd want for recovering losses related to a car accident. 

You cannot recover from the driver personally anyway - he will just refer you back to his insurers.

Of course you could go legal on the insurers, but it would make more sense to put the claim through your own insurer instead if that is an option - that way if you don't like the price that they are offering you can complain to the Financial Ombudsman. 

Sandtree

RedditchResident said:

On the 26th of August 2020 my VW EOS was written off.  The other guy's insurance company is LV.  They offered GBP1800 for mine.  Mine was high mileage but main dealer serviced always.  It had cam belt changes per the schedule etc.  It also had a push button roof.  There is only one dealership in the country offering anything like it with a credible warranty.  Minimum GBP6000.  The guides put mine at around GBP2500.  LV pointed me towards a car in Exchange and Mart that "...matched..."  mine.  When I looked it was a damaged car with a dodgy roof.  The Ombudsman says 'not interested' because LV is not my insurer but the other guys.   No car and nowhere to go apparently.  

As a former EOS owner I can understand your love of the car but struggle with the idea it being worth £6k. When I sold mine (2.0TSI Sport with a host of optional extras) 6 years ago I got circa £7k and it was below average mileage 

What variant was it, year of production and mileage?

TELLIT01 said:

Unfortunately you are seeing the reality of car insurance.  Despite claims to the contrary from motor insurers, all you will ever be offered is trade in value, not anything close to a like-for-like replacement. 

The thread hijacker is claiming directly from the third party/their insurers and so policy terms, FOS guidance etc all go out the window as they are only obliged to cover their insured's liability which would be the market value of a vehicle. I'm not aware of any court ruling that says third parties must pay showroom prices for a car thats not recently been in a show room nor give the thread hijacker the profit margin that a dealer would get etc.

MrFrugalFever

Have you actually asked your insurance company how they’ve come to the valuation and what tool they’ve used?

parkers is about as useful as a chocolate teapot, they do not sell cars and have no idea on values. Autotrader is the second most reliable source for valuations (it knows what 400k cars are listed for but doesn’t know their final sale price) alongside the industry standard CAP guide. Glasses is literally never used anymore.

the insurance company should offer you a settlement based on a car with the same mileage in ‘good condition’ that you would get if sold privately, their first offer will always be the lowest and doesn’t have to be accepted straight away.

it’s also worth noting the terms and conditions of your insurance policy, we live in a society that largely uses a comparison website to find the cheapest deal and get lured in by price, not by quality of product. The insurance industry sucks, there doesn’t appear to be any discerning reason why their prices are what they are other than a postcode lottery and the hassle of dealing with them to claim is often stressful and drawn out, not to mention they claim it all back in future premiums! Am industry that has a monopoly as it knows, by law, you can’t not have it if driving a vehicle!!

Sandtree

MrFrugalFever said:

Have you actually asked your insurance company how they’ve come to the valuation and what tool they’ve used?

parkers is about as useful as a chocolate teapot, they do not sell cars and have no idea on values. Autotrader is the second most reliable source for valuations (it knows what 400k cars are listed for but doesn’t know their final sale price) alongside the industry standard CAP guide. Glasses is literally never used anymore.

the insurance company should offer you a settlement based on a car with the same mileage in ‘good condition’ that you would get if sold privately, their first offer will always be the lowest and doesn’t have to be accepted straight away.

it’s also worth noting the terms and conditions of your insurance policy, we live in a society that largely uses a comparison website to find the cheapest deal and get lured in by price, not by quality of product. The insurance industry sucks, there doesn’t appear to be any discerning reason why their prices are what they are other than a postcode lottery and the hassle of dealing with them to claim is often stressful and drawn out, not to mention they claim it all back in future premiums! Am industry that has a monopoly as it knows, by law, you can’t not have it if driving a vehicle!!

Thread hijacker isnt claiming from their insurance, therefore the TPI are obliged to offer indemnity alone to the OP which means if their car was in rough shape they dont have to offer them "good condition". 

MrFrugalFever

Sandtree said
OP isnt claiming from their insurance, therefore the TPI are obliged to offer indemnity alone to the OP which means if their car was in rough shape they dont have to offer them "good condition". 

Perhaps I had misunderstood the original information provided. 

It would then fall on the OP to prove otherwise? This is where insurance companies have the upper hand. 

I dread for the day when we move across to driverless cars and insurance relating to them!