Help with car insurance problem

pickylongstocking

Hi all,

I had a slight accident in my car last week and the insurance company are now stating that it is a write off.

I did minimal damage to the other drivers rear bumper (but of course in todays "where theirs blame theirs a claim" culture she is claiming for injury at 10mph?) and I smashed my front bumper and grill. The interesting thing and what I believe is causing the problem is that the brakes blew either on impact or were the cause of the accident (I am assuming the hoses but not 100% sure) rendering the car undrivable.

It is a 51 plate VW Golf GTTDi 130ps very well looked after even though it has done 150,000 miles. I have looked into the private sale value and consider it worth around £2000.

So what I don't understand is why are they writing it off for some superficial damage to the bumper and grill and something to do with the brakes?

Any ideas?

Can I ask for a second opinion?

Do I have the right to instruct them not to send it to scrap?

Any assistance would be gratefully appreciated.

Cheers

John

Wooliferkins

To the best of my knowledge they look at the cost as more than half the value of the vehicle. Replace bumper, grill complete brake service, parts and labour will waltz past £1k easily so they say write off. Logic is rarely applied in these cases. You can buy your write off back from the insurance company but i cant remember how it impacts payout and valuation.

secretsqizz

I can well believe the cost of the spare parts add up to more than the value of car.
You are a cyclist.. you should know that a piece of alloy less than 1/2 cm square costs £50 'cos it got Shimano on it.

spen666

pickylongstocking wrote:

Hi all,

I had a slight accident in my car last week and the insurance company are now stating that it is a write off.

I did minimal damage to the other drivers rear bumper (but of course in todays "where theirs blame theirs a claim" culture she is claiming for injury at 10mph?) ....

From my previous legal work and speaking reguklarly in the past with medical specialists, it seems that whiplash injuries are often worse at low speeds

Stewie Griffin

My Brother was the victim in a similar accident, after much arguing they gave him his car back and a cheque for the full value of it. Took a very long time though but yes its your Car not your insurance Co's if you want it back they cant refuse, but it will probably reduce any payout.

Years ago I hit someone (entirely my fault) and they put in a claim for compensation against me. A Friend who owns a body shop called me and confirmed the details of the car that I hit, I asked why and he laughed and said that he would call me back. He did the next day, his Friend visited him and his GF bought her damaged car along for an estimate and she and her BF were laughing about the Bullpoo injury claim she had submitted, he pointed out that he knew me and she withdrew her injury claim. Arent people lovely :evil:

Anonymous

spen666 wrote:

pickylongstocking wrote:

Hi all,

I had a slight accident in my car last week and the insurance company are now stating that it is a write off.

I did minimal damage to the other drivers rear bumper (but of course in todays "where theirs blame theirs a claim" culture she is claiming for injury at 10mph?) ....

From my previous legal work and speaking reguklarly in the past with medical specialists, it seems that whiplash injuries are often worse at low speeds

He really needed to hear that, M'lud. :roll:

awallace

My car was written off and i got £650 for it. Unfortunatly its value wasnt monetary. I believe you can argue the toss with them but they dont make it easy. I seem to recall a letter which states your options.

Stewie Griffin

Dont accept the first offer they make either, wait until they make a final take it or leave it offer.

Slapshot

I believe in many cases now if your repair bill is more than 40% of the value it's written off, my other half had this issue a couple of years back, own insurers wantedto write the car off, the other side agreed with us to repair we had to organise it ourselves but we got what we wanted. Don;t give in to the beggars!!

rake

i wouldnt give £2k with that mileage. they may offer money minus salvage of about £4-500 to buy it back. you may then need to get it inspected to get the v5 to put it back on the road, more hassle and money. they only account for the repair cost using brand new dealer parts which will be pricey, just a bumper cover and bar will cost many hundreds. the painting of the repair is very expensive and they usually paint a much larger area to blend the new paint into the old. did any airbags go off, i would think them pretty expensive.

unixnerd

Insurance company have to repair the car with new parts, it'll cost a fortune.

YOU don't have to :-) Get used parts from ebay, with luck you'll even find some the right colour. Then either fit them yourself or pay a garage to do it for you. Search ebay for someone breaking the same model.

My ex-girlfriend pulled out of a driveway where she had very limited visibility due to parked vans. A hire car hit her, she claims it was speeding. I didn't claim on the insurance (so it didn't go up). I got a NEW wing for 29 quid (for a BMW!!) and had it sprayed for 50, fitted it myself. New front bumper trim 15 quid.

Hire company claimed 600 quid damage to their car, I offered 300 and after a bit of haggling they accepted. So it all cost under 400 quid. If I'd claimed on the insurance it'd cost me a lot more than that in increased premiums.

Look on ebay at all the Cat-C and Cat-D insurance write off cars for sale. Folk buy them and repair them cheaply with used parts.

northernneil

just to cheer you up I have a 53 plate golf 4moton, 125K miles in perfect nick and had to batter them up from £1850 t0 £2250 for trade against my new car, so £2000 is probably a touch high for your valuation :-(

beverick

It's a while since I was involved in motor insurance but, from memory, there are the following items to consider:

Insurance companies will also take the age of the car into consideration as well as 'other costs' (such as provision of a hire car) with their offer so older cars tend to be written off with a lower percentage of damage when compared to the value of the vehicle. They will also look at the total payout in relation your risk profile in making a decision - ie pay you off and hope you go somewhere else!

It's generally up to you whether you accept their payout for your car or not unless it's a Cat A write off which must be crushed.

If you turn down their offer you can have the car repaired yourself and keep it on the road. This can sometimes be economically the best route (ie cost of repair can be less than the net cost of replacement even taking the insurance payout into consideration). However, where a third party is involved, and you were the 'at fault' party the insurance company may refuse to pay the third party only so you could end up having to pay any claims against you.

If you choose to repair the car you must confirm with the insurance company whether or not they've declared the car a write-off - nb it's their decision not yours. If they have, and depending on which category they have declared it, you may or may not be able to re-register it. However, I'd suggest that yours is either a "Cat C" or Cat D" write-off which is repairable and can be reregistered through VOSA.

Irrespective of whether you accept their payout the total amount they would have paid will be taken into consideration at renewal. You would also be committing an offence if you failed to inform a prospective insurer of the value if you chose to swtich providers. Your insurance would also most likely be invalidated if you were caught.

As a worked example, a mate of mine had a V reg Clio water damaged in 2007. He tried to claim on his insurance who responded by writing it off offering him £500 for a car worth £1500 (+/-). He rejected the offer and bought second hand seats and carpets for £350. The car was a Cat D write-off (ie uneconomic to repair) so didn't need a "VIC" test just a letter from the insurance company to VOSA.

Including some work on the engine the total cost of repair came to a tad over £500 which, considering it would have cost him £1000 to replace the car like-for-like was a bit of a bargain. However, his insurance rose from £650 to £1100 which was a bit of a scam considering that there was no pay-out.

Bob[/i]

lae

The OP has only made one post on this forum. Maybe he's not a cyclist!

I've only ever driven classic cars (makes me sound posh doesn't it? Well I say classic cars - more like 40 year old rustbuckets with flames and checkers painted down the side) and I always get an agreed minimum valuation on my insurance policy. Most companies offer this if you ask. Always helpful if the car gets mangled - I had a friend with a Mk1 Golf (I don't know how much me paid for it, but if you're into classic cars, you'll know are often worth upwards of £5k) which got written off - he didn't have an agreed valuation and his insurance company offered him £350!

pickylongstocking

Thanks for all your responses, I have mamaged to beat them upto £2500 after my best blagging skills.

And I am a cyclist, just been lurking in the undergrowth for some time and decided that as I was in a pickle I would see if any of you kind knowledgable people could help me out.

Don't forget at some point in your internet life you had only made one post, granted that was most likely back in the late 90's.

Thanks all and have a great summer riding.