Car insurance falling short of loss

Nikiya

We had a 2018 VW UP in pristine condition, with slightly over 11,000 miles.

A few days ago a car trashed it while it was parked.

The other driver admitted responsibility and apparently our insurance has been working with his (we have only talked to our insurers so far).

Today we found out they have decided it is a total loss because the repairs amount to more than 9000 pounds and want to give us a similar amount because according to them that would have been the value of the car (in fact they will only give us a bit more than 5000 since they will keep the car and sell it, so if we keep it they will only give us the difference).

I have had a look and cars of the same year with at least twice the mileage sell for more.

We’ll soon be without the rental car provided and this was our only vehicle.

We were supposed to travel to help our daughter who is immobilised due to an accident. For several reasons public transport is not an option.

This is such an unfair situation we will lose whatever we decide to do but any advice would be most welcome.

Sandtree

Nikiya said:

I have had a look and cars of the same year with at least twice the mileage sell for more.

Sell for or are advertised at? One problem with car valuations is too many people mistake the advertised price as the sales price... everyone negotiates and almost always cars sell for less than the price they are listed at (sellers know this so never advertise their best price).

As you are claiming off of your own insurance then you simply follow their complaints process to dispute the valuation, if you have evidence of sales then provide it, if you only have evidence of adverts then you can provide it but prepare for them to rebut it on the grounds that people will accept less than they advertise it for.

Norman_Castle

Gather and provide as much evidence of the prices of very similar vehicles. There is often a difference between selling and sold prices but its often a small percentage. By how much do you think they are undervaluing your car? 

Nikiya

It is difficult because there are very few cars with low mileage and they are usually newer, but I reckon they are short by slightly less than 1000 pounds.
By looking at lots of used cars I can tell mileage is a big factor in pricing.
Ours had the tank full BTW.... any chances we might recover that value? 

400ixl

Just looked on Autotrader and there are 100+ 2018 sub 20k miles cars on there, so there is quite a selection. There are 30+ in the £8.5-9.5k range with more expensive ones above this being at main dealers, which they will not be pricing you at.

They will not be getting into the details of how much fuel it has in it. They are dealing far more broad brush than that and typically use the likes of Glasses guide for pricing setting somewhere in the general retail pricing as apposed to main dealer pricing.

So £9k isn't out of the ballpark, maybe that £9.5k is more of the target price to try to get them to.

Nikiya

Did not know Autotrader. We like to go through dealers since they offer guarantees but thanks for the suggestion.

400ixl

Autotrader is just a marketplace that both private sellers, independent dealers and main dealers advertise through.

If you are expecting your insurer to pay out the main dealer prices, then you will be either extremely lucky or disappointed. Insurers tend to use independent dealers prices through services such as the Glasses guide.

Independent dealers offer warrantees just like main dealers. If the car is still in the manufacturers warranty you would also get that. Although a 2018 VW won't be as they only offer 3 year warranties.

Thrugelmir

What did you declare / insure the value of the vehicle for? 

400ixl

Thrugelmir said:

What did you declare / insure the value of the vehicle for? 

Makes no difference what you valued the car at when you took out the policy. That is only there to help the insurer decide whether it needs to go to the underwriter to price or not.

You could put £10k in there, if the car is only work £7k then you would only get paid out £7k.

Only if you took out an agreed value policy would there be any binding value. Those usually require giving evidence up front such as photographs of condition etc to secure that value.

Thrugelmir

400ixl said:

Thrugelmir said:

What did you declare / insure the value of the vehicle for? 

Makes no difference what you valued the car at when you took out the policy. 

Declared value impacts the premium charged.  

400ixl

Thrugelmir said:

400ixl said:

Thrugelmir said:

What did you declare / insure the value of the vehicle for? 

Makes no difference what you valued the car at when you took out the policy. 

Declared value impacts the premium charged.  

Yes, but not the value paid out which is the topic here, so confused as to the significance?