| Car Write-Off Advice 16:56 - Jul 29 with 1572 views | Jambo |
Dearest TWTD Collective,
I'm after some advice please.
Last week , my wife , children and I were involved in a head on collision.
Fortunately, we are all ok. However, I've just heard back from the estimator and alas the car is very much dead.
Has anyone had any recent dealings with getting a car write off valuation agreed.
The reason I ask is that we bought the car last year for £11k but the same age, make, model and mileage are now retailing circa £14 - £15k ( It was a Mini Cooper)
I'm preparing for them to comeback with a figure - circa £8k
Any tips or words of wisdom would be appreciated.
TIA
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| Car Write-Off Advice on 16:58 - Jul 29 with 1546 views | homer_123 |
Glad you are all OK - that is the main thing. |  |
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| Car Write-Off Advice on 17:00 - Jul 29 with 1529 views | clive_baker |
Not recent advice, but from my experience don't accept the first offer. As you rightly point out the 2nd hand car market is alive at the moment, so it's less about what you paid for the car and more about the cost to replace it like for like. Find some examples online of comparable cars in terms of model, mileage, age etc. that you can be armed with if you need to push back.
Ultimately you shouldn't be out of pocket to replace it with similar.
Glad you're all OK of course, that's the main thing. You can replace a piece of metal. |  |
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| Car Write-Off Advice on 17:04 - Jul 29 with 1512 views | Zx1988 |
I suppose the biggest question will be the declared value when you came to insure it (assuming that it'll work in a way that's similar to property insurance).
Other than that, expect the first figure to be insultingly low and aimed at trying to take advantage of the fact that you may well urgently need a replacement vehicle.
Ask them to detail how they have arrived at the valuation, and be prepared to counter them with your own evidence of what it would cost you to source a like-for-like replacement in a similar condition within your local area. |  |
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| Car Write-Off Advice on 17:08 - Jul 29 with 1493 views | ElephantintheRoom |
I think you’re stuffed - that’s why they try and flog you “like for like” insurance top-ups when you buy a car.
There’s also a flourishing market in companies returning write offs from the dead - the less they pay you the more money they make
From my own experience many moons ago when Mrs E’s top spec golf got written off after a motorway shunt we rejected three offers religiously quoting average car values and the spec. We got £2000 more than offered first - but still less than it cost to buy a replacement. There seemed no merit in the insurance offer, nor too much help from our insurer even though we were an innocent party.
Good luck - and deep joy your insurance will go up because you’re making a claim even if it wasn’t your fault - you’ll get ripped off for the next four years. | |
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| Car Write-Off Advice on 17:10 - Jul 29 with 1492 views | Jambo |
| Car Write-Off Advice on 16:58 - Jul 29 by homer_123 |
Glad you are all OK - that is the main thing. |
Cheers Homer. | | | |
| Car Write-Off Advice on 17:23 - Jul 29 with 1473 views | bluelagos |
So if it's on your insurance, you maybe capped at what value you insured it for.
If the claim is on the other guy, that wont limit your claim. You should be able to get replacement cost.
If the claim is split, no idea.
Ordinarily you can reject 1st offer. But if you do get adverts of similar cars to show why it is low. |  |
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| Car Write-Off Advice on 18:40 - Jul 29 with 1375 views | ronnyd |
Depends on the state of the car. Is it still drivable? If not, you will just have to try for the best deal possible from your insurancers. If it is, you can refuse to let them take the car and try to negotiate a deal to buy the car from them and get it repaired yourself. Yes it's going to be a total faff either way. I went down the self repair route when mine was written off, but think mine was older (at the time) than yours. Don't be rushed into a decision, weigh up your options and good luck. | | | |
| Car Write-Off Advice on 18:51 - Jul 29 with 1359 views | gtsb1966 |
Most insurance companies will use the average book price as their payout. You may not get that as your first offer but look it up to see what it is. |  | | |
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| My youngest off spring is a claims handler with a credit hire company on 19:46 - Jul 29 with 1218 views | Pendejo |
Her advice is;-
Search AutoTrader for a like for like replacement
Same make / model / plate
Similar spec / mileage
From my experience in insurance and having had a car written off...
Car insurance is an indemnity policy, the aim being to put you in the same position you enjoyed before your loss. The current second market is very strong, I have recently disposed of 5 vehicles for more than £5k each above what we expected for them, so forget declared value at inception of your policy.
When some nut job in a BMW 3 series reversed into me 8 years ago and I was told my car was a write off I was majorly pished off. I'd only paid £1,500 for it and it was 2nd time it's been written off.
When they called me to make the offer....
Repair, replacement or cash
I took repair as it was a damn good car, repairs cost £3,300, and I don't think the other options would have much more expensive, I didn't ask, but equivalent models / mileage were going for £4k. In this case I got what I wanted and didn't have to negotiate.
Good luck, glad all are unscathed, but worth checking for long term mental trauma, a former colleague could go on dual carriageway a for years after a motorway collision in which he didn't get hurt. |  |
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| My youngest off spring is a claims handler with a credit hire company on 20:16 - Jul 29 with 1192 views | Tonytown |
| My youngest off spring is a claims handler with a credit hire company on 19:46 - Jul 29 by Pendejo |
Her advice is;-
Search AutoTrader for a like for like replacement
Same make / model / plate
Similar spec / mileage
From my experience in insurance and having had a car written off...
Car insurance is an indemnity policy, the aim being to put you in the same position you enjoyed before your loss. The current second market is very strong, I have recently disposed of 5 vehicles for more than £5k each above what we expected for them, so forget declared value at inception of your policy.
When some nut job in a BMW 3 series reversed into me 8 years ago and I was told my car was a write off I was majorly pished off. I'd only paid £1,500 for it and it was 2nd time it's been written off.
When they called me to make the offer....
Repair, replacement or cash
I took repair as it was a damn good car, repairs cost £3,300, and I don't think the other options would have much more expensive, I didn't ask, but equivalent models / mileage were going for £4k. In this case I got what I wanted and didn't have to negotiate.
Good luck, glad all are unscathed, but worth checking for long term mental trauma, a former colleague could go on dual carriageway a for years after a motorway collision in which he didn't get hurt. |
As others have said, thankfully all involved are ok.
You need to research the cost of replacing your car. Did you buy it privately or through a dealer? If the latter give the insurers dealer prices. If the former also give them dealer prices, but be aware of the private costs.
Look on the web and send them details of cars of a similar age and mileage to accentuate your negotiating position, but be aware of what the right value is and use that as a guide too.
The 2nd hand market is exceptionally strong now and that is fair for you to argue that that should be the position used.
Good luck | | | |
| Car Write-Off Advice on 20:34 - Jul 29 with 1177 views | Lord_Lucan |
You might be pleasantly surprised, I wrote a car off 5 years ago (well, the wife did) and I got back quite a bit more than I paid for it. |  |
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| Car Write-Off Advice on 20:55 - Jul 29 with 1135 views | ursulaminor |
Hi
We have just gone through this recently with Copart who were the nominated company by our insurance company (Axa)
We accepted their third and final offer for our written off vehicle
You have to supply a minimum of three internet examples which need to meet the following criteria:
same make/model
similar mileage (5,000 miles higher or below your mileage)
same plate age to your vehicle (if you have a 05 vehicle they would not accept a 55 reg.)
They require these in a live link format and do not accept screenshots. [Post edited 29 Jul 2022 20:56]
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| My youngest off spring is a claims handler with a credit hire company on 21:13 - Jul 29 with 1069 views | Jambo |
| My youngest off spring is a claims handler with a credit hire company on 19:46 - Jul 29 by Pendejo |
Her advice is;-
Search AutoTrader for a like for like replacement
Same make / model / plate
Similar spec / mileage
From my experience in insurance and having had a car written off...
Car insurance is an indemnity policy, the aim being to put you in the same position you enjoyed before your loss. The current second market is very strong, I have recently disposed of 5 vehicles for more than £5k each above what we expected for them, so forget declared value at inception of your policy.
When some nut job in a BMW 3 series reversed into me 8 years ago and I was told my car was a write off I was majorly pished off. I'd only paid £1,500 for it and it was 2nd time it's been written off.
When they called me to make the offer....
Repair, replacement or cash
I took repair as it was a damn good car, repairs cost £3,300, and I don't think the other options would have much more expensive, I didn't ask, but equivalent models / mileage were going for £4k. In this case I got what I wanted and didn't have to negotiate.
Good luck, glad all are unscathed, but worth checking for long term mental trauma, a former colleague could go on dual carriageway a for years after a motorway collision in which he didn't get hurt. |
Thanks very much for this advice.
It's very much what I had thought might be the case.
My wife is now pretty nervous about driving again 😠| | | |
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