no fault car accident & lousy offer...

DullGreyGuy

caprikid1 said:

With WBAC it is not a valuation of the car, it is an offer to buy it. These are often very different things.

If you have a car they want and can sell then they will make a sensible offer sometimes more than private. If the car is something they are going to put into auction then they will almost certainly offer you a very poor offer. That is not the value of the car merely a reflection of the fact they don't want it.

Thats almost exactly the definition of what a car or anything else is worth, what someone is willing to pay for it... what people are willing to pay for it which will consider the demand for the product.


When an estate agent values your home for sale they aren't saying what the intrinsic value of the parts are or how much it'd cost someone to build a new one but its their estimate of what people are going to be willing to pay for it. You can always say they're wrong and put it up for sale for more and someone may come along with the same tastes as you and pay that inflated price or the estate agent may be wrong and offers come in much lower than the list price. 

WBAC is a single buyer, ask any single buyer what they'll pay and it'll be skewed by their needs/demands/preferences. It's still a valuation, just maybe not one you want to go with. 

Goudy

There have been lots of really good advice already but you might get into a financial pickle if you decide to keep the car and take a payment from the TP insurance to repair it yourself.

The car's value might be quite low but it's salvage value might not be that much less than that.
This means the difference they pay out if you decide to keep the car might not be much.

The value as salvage/scrap might be a couple of hundred pounds and the TPI would want that off any payment for you to keep the car.

If the overall offer for a complete settlement is only £650, you can only expect the difference back between the two figures, which would only be a couple of hundred pounds and you still have a damaged car.

I wouldn't even enquiring about doing this until you have a reasonable settlement offer on the table.


Their insurance company should really try and leave you in a similar position as before the accident and to be honest, there are very few road legal £650 cars for sale these days and that is definitely not your fault.

You are probably looking at double that but you have to convince them of that.

Insurance companies will use industry standard price guides for cars and these usually have a couple of banding for each car/model.
Low for total basket cases, middle for reason condition cars and high for good condition examples.

Ok yours might be high miles, but what is that year for year. More or less than  average (10,000) a year?
If it's under average and not really high miles for the year.

Does it have a long MOT and documented service history?
Receipts for repairs, tyres and the likes?

If the answers are yes, it's no longer a mile mileage basket case but a good condition example that's worth more than the minimum payment and you should be looking for a settlement that reflects that.

Now you can use the other things already mentioned, like evidence of the prices of similar cars for sale, locally.
A dirt cheap car the other side of the country is no use to you.

Get the name and direct contact details of who is handling the claim.
Be polite and fairly friendly, getting wound up won't help with anyone.

Use phases like:
"you need to be put back into the same position as before" and "that's your responsibility to see that happens" 
"explain how I can get back in that position with your offer as it stands"

You can also tell them you are trying to keep up with your responsibilities and trying to keep the cost of the claim to a reasonable but fair level.
You are not asking for anything unreasonable, you aren't asking for a hire car while this is sorted, you just want to settle fairly. 

WBAC prices are on no use anyway, it's a buying service but you can't buy yourself that way.

DullGreyGuy

Goudy said:

Insurance companies will use industry standard price guides for cars and these usually have a couple of banding for each car/model.
Low for total basket cases, middle for reason condition cars and high for good condition examples.

Ok yours might be high miles, but what is that year for year. More or less than  average (10,000) a year?
If it's under average and not really high miles for the year.

Does it have a long MOT and documented service history?
Receipts for repairs, tyres and the likes?

For clarity the guides are not insurance guides but for the whole motor trade and associated parties.

The OP has already said that the car is "ancient", at that point things like mileage and service history make much less difference than on newer cars... I mean on a 20 year old car do you really care if the 1st service 19.5 years ago was actually done 1,000 miles after it was supposed to be or not? Do you really care if it was done at all?

You can spend £400 putting 4 brand new Pirelli tyres on a rust bucket of a car, it won't materially increase its value if it was already above £400 (if it was much below it then maybe someone would buy it for the tyres and scrap the car)

fimacdoodle

I rejected 4 rubbish offers on a car after this sort of incident and they got so bored they kept offering me more. Surpassing what I had paid a year before for the golf. Meantime, they had to supply me a hire car - so time was with me - and not them.
you are in a position of power - so use it !
Don't let them bully you.

Goudy

I never said they were insurance guides, I wrote they were industry standard price guides and motor insurance companies are part of the motor trade and associated parties, so are part of the industry.

I beg to differ on condition, the TPI are in the position where they are meant to put the claimant back in a similar position they were in before the accident.

It should be close to like for like not like for sh*te.

If an old cars value has nothing to do with condition and service history, why is a classic 911 worth tens of thousands more than one in poor condition and no service history?
The older it is, the more those are important.

It not reasonable for the claimant to have to spend their own money to put themselves in the same position just because it's an old car, that's the insurance companies responsibility.

You don't expect life insurance companies to turn round and say "sorry love, we're only paying out half the death benefit because your husband has been around the block a few times"
So why would expect it of a motor insurance company?

It's back in the same position, if that's a rusted hulk sat on bricks or a brand new Rolls Royce it makes no difference.

DullGreyGuy

fimacdoodle said:

I rejected 4 rubbish offers on a car after this sort of incident and they got so bored they kept offering me more. Surpassing what I had paid a year before for the golf. Meantime, they had to supply me a hire car - so time was with me - and not them.
you are in a position of power - so use it !
Don't let them bully you.

Not really, they can send out the payment for the initial offer at which point the clock starts ticking on when your entitled to hire disappears. 

Its different if you are claiming off your own insurance, rather than the TPI, where contractual terms may allow you to keep a form of "guaranteed courtesy car" (or equivalent marketing name) until values are agreed or such.  

Unfortunately people do mess about and think they are being smart but then the truck comes to collect the car or their credit card starts getting hit by the daily hire charge if they refuse to give the car back... tends to get them to be more reasonable. 

MouldyOldDough

Also - are you not making a personal injury claim ?

Ganga

caprikid1 said:

With WBAC it is not a valuation of the car, it is an offer to buy it. These are often very different things.

If you have a car they want and can sell then they will make a sensible offer sometimes more than private. If the car is something they are going to put into auction then they will almost certainly offer you a very poor offer. That is not the value of the car merely a reflection of the fact they don't want it.

I once put the reg of my low mileage mint 2.8 Special Ford Capri, the offer came back as £50, we just don't want it !.

Who would want a Low Mileage Mint Ford Capri 2.8 Special? only kidding ,the answer would be everyone!

Nobbie1967

Also worth asking them for a payment in lieu of car hire. Someone hit the rear wheel of my old Boxster bought for £3600 seven years ago and snapped the rear subframe. The 3rd party insurer wrote it off as a cat N and valued the car at £3500, took £945 salvage value off so I could keep the car and gave me £800 in lieu of car hire, giving me £3355 and the car. Secondhand subframe was £30 and £100 for a full alignment and I was back on the road with only a very slight ding in the rear wing. Renewed my insurance the next month without issue and no noticeable increase in cost.

DullGreyGuy

Nobbie1967 said:

Also worth asking them for a payment in lieu of car hire. 

You'd normally get Loss of Use if you don't actually need or won't be getting a hire car