Car Insurance Total Loss Value

gubble

Hi Everyone.

As mentioned on the epic Emp wants to buy a car thread someone decided on Friday to pull out of a driveway without looking and drive straight into the side of my wife's car as she was passing. They've admitted liability.

It's going into the assessors today and as much as we'd like it to be repaired i'm fully prepared for the conclusion to be that it's going to cost too much to repair and the car will be a total loss. Minimum will be new door, new wear wing, new trim - and that's before they discover if there's anything underneath that's gone bad.

I've not been in this position before and as i understand i will be offered a value for the car. The first offer is going to be really low but i want the full market value of the car.

The car isn't hugely expensive in car terms. It's a 2006 Mini Cooper Convertible, however we only bought it 5 weeks ago. Given her rubbish year (father dying, fertility issues) I bought her the car to cheer her up and it really worked. Quite simply it brought a smile to her face that's been missing for 6 months. To some the car may only be pocket money but for us it was a lot of money (i'd even sold my Gibson to fund it). 

The car was in wonderful condition, i'd given it a full and proper service at a garage only 4 weeks ago plus two new tyres.

So assuming someone on here will have been in a similar position whereby their car was written off what's the chances of us getting a decent amount of money back to source a similar vehicle?  They're probably going to offer me £300 on a car that really would cost £2k to replace.

Any advice would be welcomed

RaymondLin

Find a car in a similar condition, age to yours, lots of ads, print them out, and take it to them as examples of market value of the car you have just lost.

Jalapeno

I would think a fair market valuation would be fair, and most likely. Sounds like a vehicle that would command more than £300 even for a trade valuation.  Sounds like about a grands worth of damage assuming nothing structural, which would rightly be a write off.  I'd say that it is touch and go ...

Octafish

Check out Parkers car valuation for a guide. I just ran an 06 Mini One convertible through it (not sure what exact model you have) and it suggested anywhere from £1100 private sale to £1800 from a franchised dealer (unlikely a franchised dealer would sell on that old I'd have thought).

I know it won't help you with this car, but if you sort out a replacement look at getting 'agreed value' insurance for older/classic cars from someone like Adrian Flux, Footman James or Lancaster. You'll have to take loads of pics each time you insure and detail the vehicle's condition, but you specify how much you want to vehicle insured for. We do this with a 30 year old Golf GTI, which would be seen as an old Golf worth a few hundred quid by most insurers, but in reality would cost £3000 or so replace with a car of same spec condition, mileage etc.

munckee

They will offer you what they think you will take. As mentioned above get evidence of its value, check the glass's guide as they won't go above that figure. 

Does your wife's insurance include a hire car, if so their offer may say you lose the car if you reject the offer. 

Rickyd

Daughter just had a similar issue with her BMW 1 Series. She was stationary and sideswiped by a lorry and the car was written off. Original offer from ESure £2,700. We didn't even bother replying to that one. A week later they sent through another offer of £3,200. We then rang them one evening and spoke to the claim handler and I offered them the option to replace the car, which was in good condition, low mileage. They advised us that they were not in a position to do that and I pointed out that to go and buy a similar car from a dealer would be nearer £3,900. They ummed and arred but finally offered, and we accepted, £3,700. Lesson, never accept the first offer and always haggle with them. Look around Autotrader and arm yourself with information.

RaymondLin

Also, look at it on their side, cases like these are handled by a person who is dealing with your file and want to get rid of you ASAP as they have hundreds to go through, they always have wiggle room to nudge it a bit higher because their time is worth a lot of money.   So as long as you are realistic, prepare to go in between a bit, you will get somewhere in the middle of the 1st offer they give you and the value of cars on the market.   Very rarely you get the price you see on the ad.

(this is what GAP insurance is for)

joneve

RaymondLin said:

Also, look at it on their side, cases like these are handled by a person who is dealing with your file and want to get rid of you ASAP as they have hundreds to go through, they always have wiggle room to nudge it a bit higher because their time is worth a lot of money.   So as long as you are realistic, prepare to go in between a bit, you will get somewhere in the middle of the 1st offer they give you and the value of cars on the market.   Very rarely you get the price you see on the ad.

(this is what GAP insurance is for)

This is the only 'extra' we will ever buy when getting a new car. Hopefully never have to use it, but it's good to know the piece of mind is there in case we do. 

Axe_meister

Oddly enough GAP Insurance is the reason there are alot of write offs just before finance agreements come to an end.

King85

You might find that you're happy with the quote. I had a someone crash into the back of me and the car was written off and I was all ready to have a battle on price and they offered me a better price than I had thought fair.

Fingers crossed you never know.

LuttiS

As said find lots of examples of cars as close to possible as yours. I was pleasantly surprised when mine was written off (drunk driver, 3am, kindly left his number plate wedged in my parked car...) 

I was ready to argue then they offered about twice what i was expecting, then i still got a bit more out of them. Don't be a dick about it (not suggesting you would but people have different ideas of how to negotiate.. ), you can have a reasonable conversation with them and they will up the offer. 

Incidentally i got over double what a dealer previously offered me in PX.

ESBlonde

Given that you bought the car 6 weeks ago, I'd say thats a fairly fixed indicator of the cars real value. Anything more that say £300 less and it's a rippoff unless you've toured around europe for a month and done 6000 miles.

Also you can claim from the other party for uninsured losses.

RiftAmps

A friend is a claims handler for a company named similar to Indirect Curve, he says their policy is three stages of offers, each larger than the last. They start with a low offer and hope you accept. If not, they move up to the next one, and finally to their highest offer.

notanon

With direct line I had a car heading towards £2k value that got wrote off they offered me £800. They looked at the lowest price car for that year in autotrader I think.

I argued about service history, new exhaust, new battery . . . They increased the offer to £1100. I have used GAP ever since.

Good luck.