Minor Accident

[Costa Fortuna]

I have - anyway things have escalated somewhat.

Basically the other parties ins co has looked at the pictures and this is what transpired today.

Ins co valued it at £1200.

I'm paying £132 for the damaged vehicle.

Cheques in the post for £1068.

Yes, they decided to write it off - just for a wing, a moulding and a lamp. Plus painting and fitting obvs.

No, it doesn't make sense to me either......

And yes, before somebody says, it will be Cat N but that is not of particular importance to me at this time.

So I shall repair it myself and trouser the rest.

Hope this little tale is of use perhaps to you.

As a PS the valuation is exactly twice what I paid for the car.

[coolguy]

...and we wonder why insurance premiums are so high!

If that was their first offer you could have got more. Decent result though.

[bl52krz]

Originally Posted by AndyN01

This .

There's many posts on here and other forums about cars that have been collected and their owner never sees them again having been "written off" and disposed of.

If I understand it correctly the other party's insurance are obliged to do whatever is necessary to put you back in the position you were in before the collision - but not "better" i.e. more valuable, than the car was.

Hang on to your car and be prepared with lots of facts and figures about the availability and price of a "similar" replacement car if they start on the "it's a right off" it's worth £500.

If you've a few hours to spare and want to follow the legal legal argument(s) this makes interesting reading:

https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2013/1704.html

And, after all that, pleased that there's no one injured and it sounds like your neighbour is a decent bloke.

Good luck.

And be willing to stand your ground and don’t accept the first offer nor the second if you don’t agree with it. Ooh to late you already have. But you Are satisfied so that is all that matters. Good luck with finding the correct colour wing.

[Costa Fortuna]

The value they placed on the vehicle was around what I expected - I am not going to play around doing valuation ping pong for weeks.

I consider myself satisfactorily rewarded - I will do the work myself and keep the rest.

I don't have an attitude that my car is worth a lot of money - as said it was twice what I paid for it - it's not anything that special. A 21 year old car with 90k on it with a cloth interior.

If I had started to take the mick the offer could have been retracted.

[Costa Fortuna]

And just as a footnote to the above - if I had started to get awkward then they quite likely would have asked to see to vehicle to properly appraise it and then it moves onto very risky ground.

Cue We buy any Car.com forensic inspection - every little mark and blemish noted, state of the alloys and tyres and the obligatory saggy headlining etc etc. My car was owned by an elderly gent who had his licence taken away from because of dementia - inevitably there are marks including an obvious front bumper scuff (which I have temporarily tidied up), the serpents have kerb rash on nearly all of them so it's no show queen.

After the inspection the valuation would probably drop to £800 or something.

So, whilst I have been chided on here for not wearing my bigboy pants sometimes it's best to accept what's basically £1000 cash for an afternoons work fitting the new bits. If you want to start challenging the people who hold the money you really have to make sure you are on solid ground. At the end of the day they have the loot and you have a bent car.

The windfall will enable me to continue to improve the condition of the vehicle which I consider myself blessed to own.

You're happy with the outcome so it's a win for you.

[MSS]

Originally Posted by Costa Fortuna

The value they placed on the vehicle was around what I expected - I am not going to play around doing valuation ping pong for weeks.

I consider myself satisfactorily rewarded - I will do the work myself and keep the rest.

I don't have an attitude that my car is worth a lot of money - as said it was twice what I paid for it - it's not anything that special. A 21 year old car with 90k on it with a cloth interior.

If I had started to take the mick the offer could have been retracted.

Originally Posted by Costa Fortuna

And just as a footnote to the above - if I had started to get awkward then they quite likely would have asked to see to vehicle to properly appraise it and then it moves onto very risky ground.

Cue We buy any Car.com forensic inspection - every little mark and blemish noted, state of the alloys and tyres and the obligatory saggy headlining etc etc. My car was owned by an elderly gent who had his licence taken away from because of dementia - inevitably there are marks including an obvious front bumper scuff (which I have temporarily tidied up), the serpents have kerb rash on nearly all of them so it's no show queen.

After the inspection the valuation would probably drop to £800 or something.

So, whilst I have been chided on here for not wearing my bigboy pants sometimes it's best to accept what's basically £1000 cash for an afternoons work fitting the new bits. If you want to start challenging the people who hold the money you really have to make sure you are on solid ground. At the end of the day they have the loot and you have a bent car.

The windfall will enable me to continue to improve the condition of the vehicle which I consider myself blessed to own.

Your mindset is same as mine. We've had two cars written-off in the distant past due to third party fault and in both cases the offers made by the insurers via their inspection engineers were perfectly reasonable. The insurers were LV and Zurich.

We were so impressed with LV's approach as the other party's insurers that we started to insure our cars with them.

Only been in that situation once 15 yrs ago when my Vectra estate was rear ended.
While awaiting the other party's assessment of the value I looked online for similar cars that had sold and the average price was about £1,200. The insurance offered me £800 (and they would scrap it). I wasn't happy with that, so I declined and provided details of the other cars selling around £1,200 and asked for that amount. I also asked to keep the car (it was still drivable and I had recently put 12 months MoT on it). They ended up offering me £950 and let me keep the car, which I accepted. As I had paid £600 for it 18 months before I was happy with the deal. I even sold it a few months later for £450.

[torque2me]

Originally Posted by Costa Fortuna

Then there's putting the wing to colour and fitting it - who knows - another £250-£300?

Thanks in advance.

£180 + £10 tip for a wing in x-power grey!

Kev