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Advice on level of car insurance

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I wonder whether anyone can provide advice/ideas/help.

I have just taken out fully comp insurance and I'm now wondering whether it's worth it.
My car is 15 years old, it's done 120,000 miles and is on it's last legs.
The engine burns oil, there is a problem with gearbox bearings, the front disk brake is warped, it's rusting and the choke stays on too long causing it to run rough when cold. All of these problems are uneconomical to repair.
Apart from that it's great !!

It is very reliable and the costs to run it are minimal.
It may lsat me another year, it may not.

However in any kind of accident a write off is quite likely because it's only worth a few hundred pounds, so any damage more than say 1 dent and ot won't be worth repairing.

What the point in me having fully comp cover?

I don't mind losing a few hundred poinds if it's written off, stolen or set on fire. Should I go fully comp.

I checked my policy for courtesy car and Esure do NOT provide a courtesy car if your car is written off so that benefit is not available to me.

At the moment I can't see the reason to go fully comp, but would appreciate any ideas if there is anything I've missed.

Comments

  • lisyloo
    lisyloo Posts: 30,077 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    OK, just to put some numbers to it.

    Fully comp (with Esure) is £206
    Third party with MoreThan including legal cover and max no claims for life is £157.

    So the savings is about £50.

    As far as I can tell fully comp would help me with -

    minor damage to my own car or windscreen damage
    give me a few hundred £ in event of write-off

    Have I missed anything crucial?

    Thanks
  • Bossyboots
    Bossyboots Posts: 6,757 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    What are you basing the car value on? What sort of car is it?

    Is it really even worth a few hundred pounds? Its pre accident condition will help determine its value and from your description, I would surprised if you achieved the level of value you have put on it.
  • lisyloo
    lisyloo Posts: 30,077 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    What are you basing the car value on?

    Not a lot really.
    However cars that are a "runner" with 12 months MOT still have some value even if they are in poor condition.
    I have been driving this car for years with these problems so it's possible it might go on for several years yet, so I would think it would still have some value on the open market although I agree it's low.

    How does a valuation of £0 rather than £500 affect the decision (I can afford to lose £500).
    What sort of car is it?

    It a subaru legacy estate 4WD.
    So loads of room, good off road and well built.
    It's a very good quality car IMO and has been very reliable (but I might be biased).
    Is it really even worth a few hundred pounds?

    I think cars that run with MOT are worth something even if they aren't in perfect condition. I didn't think the exact figure was particularly relevant as I don't consider £500 to be a lot of money, so it was an "off the cuff" figure.
    I would surprised if you achieved the level of value you have put on it.

    Maybe not.
    Does it make a difference.
    Even at £500 it will only get repaired if there is one dent or windscreen damage, any more than that and it's written off.
    Does the exact amount make a difference to the fact that it take very little damage to write it off and therefore full comp offers me hardly any benefit.

    I thought I would get the benefit of a courtesy care but having read the book Esure do NOT offer this if the car is written off, so I don't even get that benefit.

    I am currently considering going 3rd party (without NCD after reading another thread) at £141.
    I don't desperately need the £65 but I can't really see what I'm getting for the money.

    Thanks for the input
  • Bossyboots
    Bossyboots Posts: 6,757 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    I was just thinking of a friend who insured fully comp on a car whose description matched your original question and it turned out to be worth £50, although its starting value wouldn't have been as high as yours but it did have lower milage. The criteria set for damage repair, is whether it costs a high proportion of or more than the value of the car on the open market so you might find you won't get even a small dent repaired but have the car written off. Unfortunately, the thing that racks it up is labour. Even to pull a dent out and then the necessary cosmetic work is going to be a fair whack of money set against a £500 value.

    I am inclined to wonder with you therefore whether you are gaining any benefit going fully comp. The main advantage would be that if you car is to be repaired, your insurers would pay for it regardless of any liability issues so it would be done almost immediately whereas if another driver's insurers dispute liability you may struggle to get anything off them without a battle.

    If all the faults on the car are uneconomical to repair then the market value realistically is very low and I think I personally would just go third party and start saving for a new car.
  • lisyloo
    lisyloo Posts: 30,077 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    so you might find you won't get even a small dent repaired but have the car written off

    Exactly.
    It's going to take next to nothing to write the car off, so all I get is £50 (or whatever in hand). Not much point in that to my mind.
    whereas if another driver's insurers dispute liability you may struggle to get anything off them without a battle

    I was going to take the legal cover (more for personal injury etc), but the same problem remains with damage to the car - Another insurer will not be willing to pay (for arguments sake) more that £500 absolute max, so the loss to myself of not have the cover is still small.
    If all the faults on the car are uneconomical to repair then the market value realistically is very low

    I think I am trying to work out what my MAXIMUM financial loss would be if I am not covered. So that probably explains where the £500 figure comes from.
    So what I am saying is that I'm not loosing more than £500 absolute MAX.
    You are probably right that it's worth less on the open market, but I'm trying to think worst case scenario for me.
    I think I personally would just go third party and start saving for a new car.

    I think that's what I'll do.
    I can cancel my exising policy within 14 days (from when I took it) and get my full premium refunded which is good news.

    Thanks for talking it through. It helps :-)
  • MarkyMarkD
    MarkyMarkD Posts: 9,912 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Before I jumped to switch from comprehensive to TPFT, I'd consider increasing the excess - as much as you can. That often reduces the premium quite significantly.

    You'd still get nothing if the car was written off, but you'd get the windscreen cover effectively for free.

    If you have a windscreen broken on the motorway, I would expect the cost of replacing it there and then to be very expensive - not something to be ignored in comparing the two sorts of cover.

    The other point is that you could get a better payout on a claim than you expect.

    My wife's car which we bought for £1,000 a while ago was written off in an accident 2 years and 15,000 miles later - and we got £1,200. Its realistic market value was about £500 at that stage IMHO.
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