Help! Insurance trying to rip me off!

Help! Insurance trying to rip me off!

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Maz Tuscanesse

Original Poster:

8 posts

112 months

Friday 28th November 2014
quotequote all
I am hoping someone on here may be able to help me.
A couple of weeks ago I was travelling from my home in Buckinghamshire to visit a friend in Swansea as I tend to do every couple of months. As I was driving down the A404 just a couple of miles away, at the roundabout halfway to the M4, I ran into the back of a guy in a black Renault Meganne.
This proved to be a disaster with him gaining a little purple stain on the bumper of the Meganne and my beloved little Tuscan now being written off. However, not being satisfied with the car in essence, no longer existing, the insurance company have offered me a paltry £9,600 in settlement.
Because I had looked after the car (and it had had more than one engine) there were more than 100,000 miles on the clock and the insurance company are saying they cannot find another car with that number of miles in order to do a comparison. The guy who owns the garage that always looked after the car said it was worth £16,000. Now I’m not being greedy and I’d settle for less than £16,000, but £9,600?????
So my plea is this:
Is there anyone on here who can tell me of a TVR with over 100,000 miles on the clock that was on sale for around £16,000? I already have one example of a Tamora that was on sale for £14,000 but if I could get a couple of Tuscans so I can at least try and get enough money back to buy another car, that would be brilliant.
I really hope one of you can help me…

glow worm

5,799 posts

226 months

Friday 28th November 2014
quotequote all
If the insurance company regard the car is only worth £9,600 in an UNDAMAGED condition, then in it's current damaged condition it must be worth less than £4,000 . So offer to buy the written off car for £4,000 (say) , accept the £9,600 and use the £5,600 to make it mint ... QED smile .

jayemm89

4,003 posts

129 months

Friday 28th November 2014
quotequote all
I would ask them to show you an equivalent car by which they judge the value, a Tuscan is very rare and I would almost want an insurers to treat it as a classic.

Did you get a quote for the actual cost of repairing the damage?

MrChips

3,263 posts

209 months

Friday 28th November 2014
quotequote all
First of all... cry to see that it's been written off. Have they confirmed exactly how their valuation has been calculated? What estimated value is on your certificate of insurance?
Without an agreed value policy, then you should be covered for "market value" up to the estimated value that's on the policy.
Even without an agreed value policy, insurance is there to put you back into a similar position as to you were pre-accident. That becomes more difficult with a rare car/combo/mileage but just because it's difficult, doesn't mean it should be accepted that you lose out.

Assuming from their paltry offer that it's a mainstream insurance company then my advice would be:

- Write/Ring to the insurance company in the first instance to confirm that you want to retain the right to buy the salvage (just in case the sums do add up and you want to go ahead and do this)

- Do not compare prices for different models, just find a list of all Tuscans that are/were around the same age as yours. Ignore spec for the moment, and just look at the year. http://www.tvr-webmart.co.uk/ normally has a list of previous adverts, although the site appears to be down at the moment.

- Send a list of current adverts, and previous adverts, for vehicles that are comparable to yours. It's unlikely that you'll find many adverts for cars with over 100k miles so just be prepared to drop a small amount from an equivalent car with lower mileage.

- Might be worth getting something in writing from one of the main dealers to confirm how much they would value the car at.

Either way, good luck, and let us know the results!

so called

9,074 posts

208 months

Monday 1st December 2014
quotequote all
I wrote off my Mk1 Tuscan in 2009 with about 89,000 miles on the clock.
It had had a rebuild at 70,000 miles and was, as yours, well maintained.

The Insurance company, Tesco, were excellent and could not have been better.
Their valuer came to me based a review of comparable cars on the market, rebuild etc. and wasn't concerned about mileage or age due to the rarity of the car but focused on the rebuild etc.
He offered 14k which I felt was a little low. He agreed to take another look but came back with the same number and forwarded the links to the cars he was comparing with.
In the end, I had to agree that his price was fair.
It was slightly higher than my original purchase price and so ignoring the additional 20k+ that I had spent, I accepted.

Good luck

Maz Tuscanesse

Original Poster:

8 posts

112 months

Monday 1st December 2014
quotequote all
Hi Guys,
Thank you all for your replies answered as follows:

Glow Worm – the £9,600 was post accident – why I want a little more

Jayemm89 – the guy from the insurance company says he is unable to find a comparable car – hence why I am now having to do his job for him

Mr. Chips – your suggestion is exactly what I am going to do. The actual cost of the repair was £9,600 – a strange coincidence. I have contacted James Aggar - dealer from the midlands - and asked for his help as he seems to have a lot of high milage TVR’s on his web site.

So Called – I don’t suppose you have any of your emails from the guy at Tesco do you? I am going to have a fight on my hands but if I can get examples like this, it might help. Also there are a few high milage Tuscans on here – 34,00 miles & £32,000. If I can get your offer of £14,000, I will be happy ;-)

One would like to think all insurance companies did their calculations/research in the same way - it would appear not!

Maz Tuscanesse

Original Poster:

8 posts

112 months

Monday 1st December 2014
quotequote all
One last point – my number plate is T11 SCN – if anyone has a sensible offer ;-)

so called

9,074 posts

208 months

Monday 1st December 2014
quotequote all
Maz Tuscanesse said:
So Called – I don’t suppose you have any of your emails from the guy at Tesco do you? I am going to have a fight on my hands but if I can get examples like this, it might help. Also there are a few high milage Tuscans on here – 34,00 miles & £32,000. If I can get your offer of £14,000, I will be happy ;-)
I cant find any e-mails from then.
I spoke with the Valuer over the phone.
I'm in Germany at the moment bit home on Thursday this week.
I'll have a look for the correspondence and send what I can to you.

Hope that helps.

PS
It may be a good idea to e-mail me a reminder on Thursday. silly

Maz Tuscanesse

Original Poster:

8 posts

112 months

Monday 1st December 2014
quotequote all
Funnily enough, someone from the insurance company just rang me saying they were prepared to look at my claim if I send them all the evidence I have - so far a 2005 car with 39,000ish miles for £40,000.
What am I paying these guys for?
But if you do have some info at home, and can dig it out for me, that would be brilliant.
I will email you on Thursday as requested and thanks so much for that - it could really help me.
Have a good time on the autobahn angel

so called

9,074 posts

208 months

Monday 1st December 2014
quotequote all
I scanned all of the adds for Tuscan's with as close a comparison as I could find.
Engine rebuilds etc., age and mileage was secondary.
The Valuers approach was to find me a car as close as possible to the one I had lost.
My price conclusion was slightly higher than the Valuer but it meant I was prepared to argue.

I couldn't argue with the cars he found but for 9,600 quid they wont find you anything.

Speed 3

4,486 posts

118 months

Monday 1st December 2014
quotequote all
I'm sure James will give you a written statement of market value pre-accident based on his evidenced trading for the last couple of years. If they don't believe what a well respected industry specialist who has bought and sold thousands of TVR's says then take them to court.

MikeE

1,826 posts

283 months

Tuesday 2nd December 2014
quotequote all
Maz Tuscanesse said:
One last point – my number plate is T11 SCN – if anyone has a sensible offer ;-)
I'm interested, what you after for it?

Maz Tuscanesse

Original Poster:

8 posts

112 months

Saturday 6th December 2014
quotequote all
Sorry Mike,
Not been on here for a couple of days - dealing with insurance companies etc.
I'm looking for offers in the region of £1600.

MikeE

1,826 posts

283 months

Monday 8th December 2014
quotequote all
Maz Tuscanesse said:
Sorry Mike,
Not been on here for a couple of days - dealing with insurance companies etc.
I'm looking for offers in the region of £1600.
Sorry Maz but that's a bit too pricy for me.

I originally bought that plate from DVLA in 1999 for£495 I think and put it on my first Tuscan in March 2000:




and then on my second Tuscan in 2001:



so thought it might look good on my third Tuscan smile


Maz Tuscanesse

Original Poster:

8 posts

112 months

Monday 8th December 2014
quotequote all
It definitely belongs on a Tuscan ;-)

Unfortunately, at 4ft 11in I was finding the roof to difficult to take on and off and after 10 years of ownership I've decided to buy a convertible Maserati

I bought the plate in 2005 from this site and was going to put the advert on here this week.
Make me an offer and provided it’s not too low we might be able to come to an arrangement….


Maz Tuscanesse

Original Poster:

8 posts

112 months

Monday 8th December 2014
quotequote all
Here's the Maz ;-)
Know anyone with MA52ATI?
Or maybe I should get an Irish plate.

ninetynine

535 posts

241 months

Monday 8th December 2014
quotequote all
if you are a car club member they can do valuations

Maz Tuscanesse

Original Poster:

8 posts

112 months

Monday 8th December 2014
quotequote all
Thanks Nintynine but I let my TVR car club membership lapse years ago.
I am waiting for the insurance to get back to me with a revised figure.
The guy who owns the garage it is in is very knowledgeable and used to work in the factory in Blackpool so I have an idea of the figure I should be looking at.

ninetynine

535 posts

241 months

Tuesday 9th December 2014
quotequote all
might be worth the joining fee

so called

9,074 posts

208 months

Thursday 11th December 2014
quotequote all
Hi Maz Tuscanesse:
Sorry I didn't get back to you with any info on my Tuscan write off insurance papers from 2009.
I started 'getting warm' on the paper hunt but then got side tracked with a small matter of having my bleedin wallet picked and spent the next day and a half cancelling cards.
That being a pain as I needed to drive back to Germany last Sunday.

I'll now be back on 20th Dec and will carry on the search.
In the mean time, I hope your insurance comes good.