In February 2011 my wife purchased a 2005 Jaguar X-Type 2.0 D SE. The car had been a category D write-off (front end damage), but had been nicely repaired. She liked this car so much that she intended keeping it for as long as possible. On 17 Sept 2013 she was in a traffic jam, static, and a Land Rover hit her from behind. Much to her dismay her car has been written off. The third party and his insurers have admitted 100 per cent liability. The company handling the claim are offering a settlement figure which is too low to purchase a similar replacement vehicle. They say that the market value is £3500 based on the fact that it was a Category D. Our argument is that we should be able to replace the car with a similar vehicle. We have searched locally and on the Internet and a similar vehicle is approximately £5500. Finding another similar Cat D vehicle appears to be impossible. If we could we would be quite happy.

This seems to us to be wrong particularly as no blame is attached to my wife. They also do not seem to consider extras such as built in sat nav, full Jaguar service history etc which we would have to pay for when sourcing a replacement vehicle. Our view is that we should suffer no financial loss at all given the circumstances. I would very much appreciate your views and or legal position on these points.