SWMBO had a taxi pull out on her and the front end of my newly acquired fabia swiftly disappeared as she went into the side of it head on. Third party has admitted liability.
Waiting for garage to get in touch with my insurance company to confirm damage, from sounds of it should like a write off.
My question is they said if this is the case I will receive an offer equivalent to market value before accident - can I dispute this if I am not happy with it? Worh digging up valuation figures from websites/adverts and do they normally give you px price or trade price etc?
Thanks for any help!
|
If it was newly acquired then you should be able to get what you paid for the car.
|
You should get the replacement value for the car. Not what you paid for it, per se, as you might have got a bargain, or perhaps over-paid, but the figure to buy, from a dealer (unless it's very old) a car in good order with a similar mileage.
Get your info together, using Autotrader online, for the dealer price of the equivalent car, say up to 60 miles from you.
|
|
if it's a new car you'll be surprised what they'll repair. A friends four week old Clio was hit in the side quite badly, door pillars and sill really badly smashed up, the door itself halfway across the passenger seat - thankfully he was on his own. it took some time and he wasn't happy about it but it was repaired - he traded it in as soon as he could.
|
The car is a skoda fabia 2001 1.9tdi, I got it for a relative bargain and have never seen any as cheap since - thats why I was concerned that I might not be able to get an equivalent car depending on how it worked.
Did the autotrader search and there were relatively few available, ones that I saw were more than I paid.
|
Their opening offer will be what you paid.
Why was it a bargain? Whom did you buy it from? If you bought it private sale, then don't expect to get a dealer replacement cost.
Cars from dealers cost more than cars from private sellers as they come with an element of warranty.
|
|
|
|
Run the search every few days, and print off the results, so you can show several examples if you have a disagreement over the value. I did just that, and got exactly the figure I showed was the going rate.
|
|
When my Vectra was written off last year, Direct Line based their payout price on how much it would cost me to buy an equivalent model of the same age, mileage & pre accident condition from a forcourt with 1 years MOT & warranty. I declined their first offer, which was very good actually; comparable with Autotrader prices and local dealer prices. Try as I might, DL wouldn't budge from their first offer though.
|
Yes private sale and will be as happy as long as I can get a replacement, not being greedy but just want a fair price.
If the first offer is just that then I will take that and shop around, won't be able to buy the new golf I am using in the meantime as a hire. Shame ;-)
|
|
|
Direct Line based their payout price on how much it would cost me to buy an equivalent model
Yes, that is what all Insurance Companies should do. I "heard" that the Ombudsman had got tired of complaints from consumers regarding Insurance Companies that tried the tactic referred to by Mapmaker. Consequently, most have toed the line and now only rarely do you need to push hard to get offered the true retail open market purchase cost of an equivalent vehicle. According to the Ombudsman guidance, it should not matter where you bought it or how much you paid originally; what does matter is today's market price for an equivalent replacement.
Edited by jbif on 12/03/2008 at 13:48
|
Just an update - confirmed yesterday car is indeed a total loss.
Insurance company have made an offer minus £550 excess.
My excess had been waived as it was non fault as confirmed in previous emails, on reading my policy they claim the excess back from the third party.
Will I therefore get 2 payments - one now from my insurer and then the subsequent excess or will they give me the total value?
Any experiences or opinions welcome, they are not open now till monday so trying to get a handle on where I stand!
|
Can't answer the payment question but was the offer acceptable to you?
|
Offer was not acceptable - they use parkers/glasses and other payment guides however this does not match what an equivalent car is getting on the market.
So even with the £550 not deducted I am still short of what I had hoped for.
|
|
try to find ads' for your car (preferably same colour) in autotrader, submit these to insurance company.
|
Thanks for advice so far by the way.
have already started this process, not many out there actually but the ones that I have seen are more than the offer price.
|
managed to get the excess issue sorted out and now need to look for a car but only have a week before hire car goes back!
Am tempted by a diesel again but have not seen any fabias within range, was tempted by the focus tdi/tdci or the mondeo equivalent but have seen some wary posts, what is the general opinion?
Any other alternatives? The dci engines any good on the almeras/clios?
Rather left field have looked at panda and micra 1.2?
Requirements are cheap to run, can handle a motorway and can fit a dog in back (fabia was fine for this)
|
|
Go for a Panda diesel. one of the few well built super minis which are diesel...in fact I think Fiat sell more diesels as a percentage than petrols against their competition.
|
|
|
|
|
