Car insurance - did I under-value my car?

jn1057

Hi all,

Around April 2021 I bought a second-hand car (Ford Tourneo Connect, 2018, 14k miles) for a reasonable £12250. When I applied to insure it with LV=, I stated the value at the same amount. Since then, as we know, prices of new and second hand cars are actually increasing. A car valuation search based on my number-plate (exact specification match) with additional 3k miles on the clock with motorway.co.uk guarantees my car could be bought from me by dealers for £15,089.

So, if my car was written off through no fault of my own, agreed to by the insurance company, should I expect them to pay out £12250 or £15089?
My personal experience until now is that second-hand cars only ever decrease in value; for the first time, I now have a second-hand car that is worth significantly more than I paid for it. What should I state the car's value for next year's insurance?

Many thanks for any responses / advise during these very strange financial times!

Goudy

Unless it's an agreed value policy like some classic car policies are, insurance companies loss adjusters will use a guide for the general valuation.
There a few industry price guides they use like CAP's Black Book or Glass's guide.

After that, they might chip away if the vehicle has missing service history, over the odds mileage or they might send an engineer to inspect the vehicle to try and determine it's pre claim condition if they feel that's appropriate.

You also need to remember the value of your vehicle has little to do with what a dealer might advertise a similar make and model for which is why these guides usually breakdown each vehicle price into at least three entries.
Trade, Private and Dealer prices. They might also be a top and bottom price for each entry.

So to answer your question, if your vehicle is written off they would almost certainly offer you around the market value at that time based on the guide and any other mitigating factors relating to the condition of your vehicle.
You might be able to negotiate with them a little if you feel you aren't getting a sensible offer. If the mitigating factors are in your favour you could use those to see if they improve the settlement figure.

What they won't do is offer you a settlement figure based on a dealers screen price of a similar vehicle, not unless they are the same, which with the dealer mark up is unlikely.

Car_54

jn1057 said:

Hi all,

Around April 2021 I bought a second-hand car (Ford Tourneo Connect, 2018, 14k miles) for a reasonable £12250. When I applied to insure it with LV=, I stated the value at the same amount. Since then, as we know, prices of new and second hand cars are actually increasing. A car valuation search based on my number-plate (exact specification match) with additional 3k miles on the clock with motorway.co.uk guarantees my car could be bought from me by dealers for £15,089.

Guarantees? I don't think so.