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We bought a 06 reg Passat (1.9tdi estate with 100k miles) last summer for £5500 and it was written off last week. What sort of value should I be looking for from the insurance? They've already offered 4k that I've rejected.
I was thinking the value we paid minus 10% as a ball park.
Any thoughts? Am I lucky to get 4k?
my colleague's advice for all this sort of stuff - claims - was to up the 'doof' factor.
Collect as much paperwork as you can, letter from garage (sales and service), cuttings of similar cars for sale, emphasise how much extras it had, full service history, the lot -- the bigger and more the better.
Then send that back to them, indicating why their offer is too low and suggesting a decent value. Chances are they'll offer more anyway. I had that for two cars (one stolen, one written off), worked both times - the second to the extent that my colleague was pretty impressed by how much I managed to claw 'back'..
In simplest terms, the exact figure it would take you to buy the exact same car.... Seems fair to me.
Good to hear that others have had success!
I've pushed back with the original invoice from the garage, same for the four new tyres I've put on, along with half a dozen comparable (ish) vehicles from auto trader. Well see what happens next ...
How much were the comparable(ish) cars from AutoTrader? Also look at Ebay sold auctions as that's a true price of how much it'll take to replace. AT adverts are just asking prices.
good luck. No reason why you'll not get a good bit more than the £4k, whether you'll get £5.5k minus depreciation - dunno. But £4k is taking the proverbial - which is a shame really.
they start on ebay around 3.5k.
ime they offer that first. so it sounds about right for a first offer. now keep working em.
A quick glance at eBay classifieds makes it looks like £4k is actually in the right ballpark?
Get on ebay/autotrader and have a look at the exact model/year/mileage and you have your answer of what a fair price is.
Try and get at least three examples at the higher end and send them off to the assessor/handler.
EBay isn't going to help me fight my corner, nothing over 4k on there!
They've just come back to offer another 200 quid. Going to keep trying. And clearly I was ripped off when I bought the car!
law of diminishing returns may start to apply.. 🙁
I had a nightmare with my old focus (valueless apparently!) on a no fault claim, fight tooth and nail to get whatever you can, as even my own insurance company weren't interested in getting me a reasonable payout (full service history, full set of newish winter, new exhaust, etc). Get examples off autotrader or where-ever, make sure save the AD's, as they disappear when they sell, so links don't work, and keep pushing back.
Have a google for the insurance ombudsman and read their guidelines. Last time it happened to me I was entitled to the cost of a main dealer replacement.
I think there are a couple of things here OP
Where did you buy the car - Shirley the insurance should pay up enough for you to buy the same car through the same route ie if it was a big main dealer then the price offered should be to get a similar spec / miles / condition etc from the same dealer??
Secondly I think the urban myth is probably true, only ever accept the 3rd offer (the other low ball ones are just to try it on)
I would be looking for cars that are as good as the one you lost from the same place and making sure the prices are as high as I could (and the miles low / spec the same or slightly higher) and doing the scrap book thing mentioned above!
Look at Carcraft if you want some comedy (high) prices!
£2700 tops.
Exactly as above - don't even look at eBay if you didn't buy the car at auction. If you got the car from a dealer you had the security of a limited warranty and then a year of known history using the car.
I had this when my car was declared a write off last year. Cost me £3000 and I was offered £1675. At first I was I pretty hacked off & their appeals process stated I needed to provide 3 examples of the same vehicle for the £1675 or greater.
After scouring the net I couldn't find any. Turns out my car had depreciated more than I thought and could be had for cheap as chips. In fact it made the offer from the insurance company look positively generous...
EDIT: Sorry, just realised that sounds a bit negative - it wasn't meant to be. Good luck with the ins co though and hope you manage to get a bit more.
When my motorbike was written off by the insurance company they gave me some daft offer. I told them to do one and they said they would send someone out to value it. I said take your time I'm quite enjoying this higher bike you'll be paying for. An hour later the garage phoned to say they had approved repairs... Moral of the story is hit them in the wallet if things are delayed.
Thanks for all the advice. I've found three identical vehicles relatively close by that are knocking on the door of 5K so have sent them off. Let's see what happens, otherwise I'll be going down the door of making a formal complaint and then taking them to the ombudsman if they don't play ball.
All a bit galling when the accident wasn't our fault and my three year old has just spent a week in plaster with a suspected broken foot!
TBH I'm not sure a complaint will get far, looking on Autotrader (trader only search) brings up plenty of options around the £4k mark too. So the Ombudsman may well say that you are being offered market value. Obviously no harm in trying to get more money out of the insurers though, surprised that you haven't had the legal advice folk on to help with compo too?
It isn't always bad though. I wrote my Focus off and the insurance offered way over what I was expecting. I got a replacement AND a new road bike. Even my missus couldn't argue with that one.
Check out my post history. I used to work in the industry and I've posted info on this lots of times before. Standard starting offer from insurance companies is around 70% of glasses value. If it's a no fault, just offload it to a claims management firm.
Stick any questions on this thread and I'll get back to you in the morning.
Happened to me last month, there's a great bit on the Ombudsman website that sets out very clearly what you are entitled to - read that. And be careful what you disclose to them regarding price paid and other values, i.e. only stuff that works in your favour. Also I made sure they knew I worked in the insurance industry (nothing to do with motor, but they weren't to know that!). End result: I got £650 more than I paid for the car 4 months before and 2 new kiddie seats.
Also, as soon as you agree a price you have to hand the hire car back. All the time they're trying to screw you down it's costing them, so work that angle for all it's worth.
Mike_p I looked at the ombudsman but it seemed to say that there was nothing they could do until I'd been through the complaints process with the company, and I couldn't spot anything like you've described. Would you be able to send me some links? Thanks ...
[url= http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/technical_notes/motor-valuation.html ]Let me Google that for you...[/url]
Start of section 2 is the relevant bit
Many thanks! Saved me a while 2 seconds of googling 🙂
Tell them that you want to get back into the same car again. Sadly the same car will have depreciated by circa 900 (?) in a year so you have to be reasonable to a degree. I'd aim for 4.6k if it was me.
Thanks to all those who replied. I stuck to my guns and ended up settling for £4650 - pretty much what Hora said.
So although it's a pain, I'm pretty happy with the final outcome.
Cheers
Si
Result 😀
pretty much what Hora said.
don't tell him - it'll only encourage him! 😆
worth hanging out, it's a shame though that you have to put yourself through the stress to get the right figure. well done.