Any Car Insurance Experts?

[Buckley]

Long story short, i have been a complete fool and managed to write my own car off in the recent weather.

 

It is currently at the Insurance Company awaiting their engineers/mechanics thoughts as to whether it is a total loss or if they are going to repair it.

 

I am 99% sure it will be write off however, i just have to play the waiting game with them coming back to me.

 

If i am correct and they offer me a lower amount than i believe it to be worth where do i stand?

I only bought the car on 1st September last year and i obviously know what i paid (which was a bit of a bargain in the market at that time).

I always thought they had to offer you a like for like replacement, but looking on the usual sites (AutoTrader, PistonHeads, eBay) the same spec, colour, year and mileage are currently more than what i paid - will they offer me a similar amount to go out and buy the same car in essence?

What if they offer me a lot lower amount (which i am beginning to expect), can i argue and what is the best way to go about it?

 

If they can repair it then great, although im not sure id want it back, but it would be better than a kick-in-the-teeth stupid low offer.

 

Not been in this position before and just wondered of my options.......... if they offer me a decent amount i may go back to a Z and jump into a Nismo 370

[Ekona]

You’d have to send them adverts proving that you’d need more money to be able to replace the car, but remember to take 10-15% off the advertised price to allow for haggling as this is expected. Wait and see what they say, might not be as bad as you think

[rabbitstew]

In my experience what will usually happen is that the insurance company will inspect the car and decide if its worth repairing or not. If they decide to write it off they will usually try and offer you the cheapest price they can as they know a certain percentage of people will just assume that's the price & accept it.

 

As Dan says above, what you need to do then, is to show them the real cost of replacing the car with one the same as it - same year, colour, spec, mileage, condition etc. What ive done in the past is to send them copies of adverts etc so they can see what the market price is. When ive had to claim in the past I found they usually dont haggle or complain and increase their offer accordingly. In my view, the insurance should put you back in the same position you were before he crash. i.e. in an identical car. What you paid for the car shouldn't really matter.

 

Last time I had a car written off, their initial offer was actually spot on, so I didnt have to go through this process!

[GranTurismoEra]

Depends. My brother recently got into a crash with his Porsche 911 and it looks like a total loss. Insurance will 9/10 pay what the car is worth at the current time based on year and mileage. fortunately hes taken out GAP insurance, but GAP have said to contact them before accepting any offer. Either way he should be paid close to what it would cost to replace like for like so you'll have to haggle and show proof the car is worth x amount.