Can I Prevent an Insurance Write-off?

es5595

Just a caveat to say this is pre-emptive. I see so many threads on here with comments along the lines of "but you did XX, before YY happened, right?" I thought I'd ask for advice. 

I've got an old car ~ 25 years old, low mileage, one of two remaining on the road according to How Many Left, and in very good condition. Additionally, it belonged to a family member from new, kept in a garage the vast majority of its life and treated well, he did work on it servicing, etc, and I've done the same. I've also spent quite a bit getting the underneath (think suspension and axle struts etc) stripped, newly powder coated etc, along with a full dinitrol treatment. Long term plans are a full strip back and paint, along with a engine rebuild, but thats the future!

When it was vandalised a year ago (wing mirror smashed off and dents to the front wing and bonnet) my insurance turned around and said it was a write-off and despite my objections the next call was someone trying to arrange collection of the car! After much to and fro (and despite a declared value at the time of £1500) they would offer no more than £600, so I cancelled the claim as it just wasn't worth it. Police had already been involved so it had to be declared. There are none of these cars for sale, Parkers hasn't valued them since 2005, and they aren't on auto trader. More importantly, I don't want some fictitious write-off figure; I want the car repaired and back on the road in the same condition it was before. In the end I had a friend with a metal lathe who repaired the wing mirror, did the bodywork myself, and swore never to visit there again!

tl/dr how should I insure a car, or what type of insurance do I need, so that in the event of an accident the car will be repaired and not written off?  

AdrianC

es5595 said:

More importantly, I don't want some fictitious write-off figure; I want the car repaired and back on the road in the same condition it was before.

Never going to happen.

They will never, ever pay more than the value to repair it. Once you start down that street, you get into expectations of rebuilding... 

The fact you said "£1500" on the comparison engine makes no difference. If you bought a vanilla policy, I will lay odds that it says they'll pay the proposal amount or their market value, whichever's lower.

So it's just down to the valuation.
If you don't want to argue about the market valuation post-incident, you want agreed value insurance, where you agree the value up-front. That's most common with a classic policy, which shouldn't be an issue on something 25yo, but they may want you to have a different car as your daily.

Alternatively, you can try and haggle a payment in lieu of repairing or writing off. That's unlikely to happen on anything more than minor cosmetic damage, though.

Go on, what is it?

williamgriffin

In short you can't make a business repair a vehicle when it's not economically viable.

born_again

You need a agreed value policy.

What car given only 2 on the road, yet only valued at £1500?

oscarward

Yes a write off can be avoided. My brother had a elderly low mileage Vauxhall omega. A coach reversed in to the rear of the vehicle cracking a light cluster and scoring the bumper.

the coach driver admitted and it was a no fault claim against their insurance. Problem was they valued the car at 1200 with repairs at 600 then it was write off. The real problem was that he had agreed a part chop with a scrapage deal for a new car with a 2000 allowance.  So he would effectively lose 800.

he rang the third party insurers and negotiated that they would replace the light cluster to make the car road worthy but ignore the bumper which would bring the cost of repairs down and avoid writeoff

AdrianC

born_again said:

What car given only 2 on the road, yet only valued at £1500?

Not hard at all - especially if the two is of that precise spec.

There's only two Montego L automatics left on the road. (Honestly, I'm surprised it's that many...)
https://www.howmanyleft.co.uk/vehicle/austin_montego_l_auto

Gsaver1

I wonder if any MG Montegos or Maestros are still around? They looked really smart in British Racing Green. I think the maestro was the quicker of the two.

clive0510

Gsaver1 said:

I wonder if any MG Montegos or Maestros are still around? They looked really smart in British Racing Green. I think the maestro was the quicker of the two.

if you could put up with the oil leaks, unreliability and parts departments that would eventually get the correct part. 

facade

I had an Mg montego.  Apart from the bulbs going in the digital dash, (and being super special hand made halogen bulbs, they were £5000 each, so it got converted to dimmer standard ones- I'd use brighter LEDs now) it was a brilliant car.

I wish I still had it- if only they had painted it underneath the bumpers I possibly would

ontheroad1970

My father had a Blue standard 1.6L that used to be a repmobil.  It was pretty reliable until the cam belt failed.  My older brother had an MG Montego and he had plenty of problems with his...

clive0510

facade said:

I had an Mg montego.  Apart from the bulbs going in the digital dash, (and being super special hand made halogen bulbs, they were £5000 each, so it got converted to dimmer standard ones- I'd use brighter LEDs now) it was a brilliant car.

I wish I still had it- if only they had painted it underneath the bumpers I possibly would

they were good cars. but!!  the aftersales let them down. my mate had one, and we went to get bl dealer to get some spares. large dealership, with big parts dept. loads of staff. but the old kind of attitude in those days 'nah mate.me aint got one'. thats mostly done away with now.