Not at fault accident, car written off

The_Palmist

Hi All, After some advice.
Yesterday I had an accident where a car speeding in fast lane lost control and smashed in to motorway crash barrier and then into me. I feel ok so far but the car was an instant write off when I called my insurance. They have it down as no fault and will be processing my claim. Police was on the scene also and I have a reference number etc.
My worry now is that insurance company said they will assess value of my car pre accident and pay that price and even though the car was old, it had a lot of work done over the years and was from main dealer as approved used car. I have not found any car of same age (2012) in approved list so if insurance folks used auto trader prices, I am likely to be needing to downgrade.
I am preparing myself in advance so I can raise these with insurance early on.

Any tips on negotiating will be appreciated and I read that this will increase my premiums for next five years, if that is true then how do I factor that in claim?

I am feeling ok for now but if I feel any injury symptoms 48 hours later, can I report to insurance?

I have decided to deal direct with insurance rather than going through claims management firms.

All advice welcome and thanks in advance.

Aretnap

The value of the car should be calculated as the price it would cost to buy a car off the same make, model, mileage etc from a reputable dealer.

It will be calculated mainly using motor trade guides, which are based on actual selling prices. Advertised prices from the likes of Auto Trader are considered less reliable than the trade guides because a car may or may not sell for the price it is advertised at - the dealer might accept a lower offer, or it might sit there for several weeks attracting no interest until he readvertises it at a lower price. You might be able to use adverts if there is a very large difference between advertised prices and what the trade guides say, suggesting that the guides are wrong, but the guides will be the starting point.

You won't unfortunately get much if any credit for work you've done to maintain the car. Any eleven year old car is going to have had a fair amount spent on maintaining it over the years and will have some new or nearly new parts, so this is already assumed in the valuation.

When you say it was bought from a main dealer as an approved car so you mean recently or several years ago? If recently, that's something you could argue should be factored into the valuation, but if you mean that it was an approved car five years ago that's likely to have little or no impact - all written out old banners were shiny, new and in great condition once. And while the valuation should reflect the cost of buying a replacement car at a dealer, that doesn't necessarily mean main dealer, especially for an 11 year old car - not many cars of that age are to be found at main dealers.

Bigphil1474

Can't add anything to above, spot on. In terms of any injuries, yes, let your insurer know if you have any injury symptoms, and if you go to the doctors, ask for some paperwork so it can be passed on to the insurers. If you are injured in a car accident, then the insurers should also pay out compensation for any current and future loss as a result of those injuries, such as time off work, physio treatment etc. Obviously, if you aren't injured, don't let any ambulance chasers talk you into making a claim anyway.

DullGreyGuy

Bigphil1474 said:
If you are injured in a car accident, then the insurers should also pay out compensation for any current and future loss as a result of those injuries, such as time off work, physio treatment etc. 

Just to clarify, if you are injured in a non-fault accident then the third party insurers should payout... that would also include general damages for pain, suffering and loss of amenities. These are uninsured losses however and so your Car insurers wont assist directly however if you have Legal Expenses insurance they will instruct a law firm to assist.

If you are in a fault/one vehicle accident etc then most policies have a Personal Accident component but they only payout on the most major injuries like loss of a limb or eye. 

The_Palmist said:
if insurance folks used auto trader prices, I am likely to be needing to downgrade.

They use live data from the automotive trade trackers like Glasses, CAP etc which are based on sale prices. Problem with auto-trader and any other online advertising tool is anyone can list any vehicle for any price and some people have a very inflated view of what their car is worth.

prettyandfluffy

Remember that when the insurers offer a settlement, it is just that - an offer.  When my niece wrote my car off, I successfully negotiated an improved settlement offer by sending them details of 3 similar cars - make, model, mileage etc.

Bigwheels1111

Time to do your own research.
Look for your exact make model, year, milage etc.
Autotrader, Exchange and mart, eBay and so on.
Get screen shots so they can be emailed or WhatsApp etc.
If you do it now, you are looking at prices when your car was written off.
Not the prices in a month or two when the market has fallen more and they get round to making an offer.
I would look again on the day you get an offer also, as prices could have risen.
It all about having the ammunition ( info ) to fire back with.