Low insurance valuation offered on car to be written off

ashleyk

Last week my wife unfortunately had a car accident; the first in 19 years. There was some visual damage to the bumper and the bonnet is a bit difficult to open, however there may well be other hidden damage. It's a low mileage small automatic Mazda 2 from 2007 and the insurer seemed incredibly quick to declare it a write off without even seeing a photo, let alone sending over somebody to assess the damage. 

On Monday they called with a valuation that seemed ridiculously low in light of the way second hand prices have shot up since covid. Basically they are offering £1300, minus the £300 excess, but when I look around for anything comparable they all seem to be £4K or more.

A key point here is that small automatics are rarer and seem to be fetching a premium at present when I look on Autotrader or eBay etc. I have only found one other car in the country that matches the same model, which is from 2004 and that is on sale for £4K. 

I complained about this valuation and now they want to take the car away tomorrow, along with the V5 documents, despite not being close to agreeing on a price. If they have the V5 or even a photo they can simply transfer ownership online and the whole situation feels like they are trying to steamroll me into accepting an amount that is likely to leave me out of pocket for about £3K. 

Does anybody know how best to approach this?

Car_54

They cannot "transfer ownership" without your consent. The V5C has nothing to do with ownership.
But I wouldn't let them take the car until a settlement has been agreed.

ashleyk

I have just been in touch with them on the phone and they want the car to be taken away tomorrow by a company called Copart that will then assess the value, along with the economic viability for a repair. The insurers have told me they cannot raise the amount, which was decided by their engineers, who reviewed some guide manual. I have asked them to consider the real world buying situation and they seem unwilling to budge. 

caprikid1

ashleyk said:

I have just been in touch with them on the phone and they want the car to be taken away tomorrow by a company called Copart that will then assess the value, along with the economic viability for a repair. The insurers have told me they cannot raise the amount, which was decided by their engineers, who reviewed some guide manual. I have asked them to consider the real world buying situation and they seem unwilling to budge. 

I would say if you let Co-part take the car thats the last you will see of it, normally insurance firms will discuss and agree a price in these situations, this seems like the actions of someone like Direct Line.

Get more evidence, tell them it's not enough and stick to your guns.

ashleyk

This is Saga. I am collecting as much information as possible. It has the full service history since new and we've had the car since 2010. Luckily we have another car, so I am not in a huge rush to settle on whatever terms they offer. 

sevenhills

It's an old car, being an automatic is a negative to it's value.
I valued my 2013 Zafira at £3,3000, what do you think it's worth?
Are you looking at £4k as private or retail sale?

Brie

When I was in a similar situation a number of years back I sent them screen shots of a similar to my car (same make, model but a year older and with more miles) that was on sale for more (twice?) what they were offering me.  I refused to take what they offered and said they needed to match the autotrader price.  They didn't but they weren't far off and I ended up with a decent price and kept the car (which didn't need to be written off as completely safe to drive) and I sold a a year later which made up the difference.  It just took me saying NO repeatedly.

ashleyk

I have looked at lots of different smaller cars, from Honda, Toyota and Suzuki etc. The automatic ones are invariably quite a bit more expensive. There are a lot less around and those who tend to buy them do so because they need them.

I bought mine from a mine from a Mazda main line dealer. I am simply looking for what it would cost me to buy a comparable low mileage vehicle through a legitimate secondhand dealer. As I told the insurers if they can find one for £1300 I'll buy it, but they don't want to go down that route because they know they can't. 

Brie

They don't need to buy you anything.  They just need to give you money so you can buy it yourself.  Or pay you off and you keep the current car is it's safe to drive.  

ashleyk

@Brie I suspect that is the way this is going. If this was a high value car worth say £50K and they were offering me £47K the relative difference would be quite small, but in a case like this it's hard to see how they come up with this figure. To put it in context if I phone second hand dealers looking for a small automatic with a £5K budget it will be difficult. If I tell them I have £1300 they'll put the phone down. 

ashleyk

Brie said:

They don't need to buy you anything.  They just need to give you money so you can buy it yourself.  Or pay you off and you keep the current car is it's safe to drive.  

I understand. I just mean I have challenged them to justify this low offer by finding something that backs up their valuation as being credible.