How do insurance companies put a value on your car?

[mboon]

Hi all,
This is not a dig at just my insurance but all of them

I have a Ford Escort RS Cosworth and have taken out an insurance policy on the car. Limited miles, only personal use, all MODs declared etc

After asking around a few other owners it seems insurance companies will only pay out book value on my car unless I have an agreed valuation on the car.

BOOK VALUE £3500 TO £4500!!!!!!!!! PLEASE SHOW ME A PLACE I CAN BUY JUST THE SHELL FOR £3500 LET ALONE THE WHOLE CAR

Now as you can imagine, this is annoying. I pay my insurance for fully comp cover that does not even cover half the price of the car! How can this be right? Why do we bother telling them what we paid for the car if they are just going to give us hardly anything for it?


Anyone else have this?

Please put up what car you have and what the insurance will pay out for it and what its true value is.. Just so I dont feel so bad
I can understand them doing this for new cars etc but why do they think it is only worth so little when you can clearly not get one for anything under £8000, or £10,000 for one that has a valid MOT certificate?

I am really annoyed with this, its a complete pain in the arse to get a valuation for the car that is accepted by the insurance companies.

I am amazed at how they get the value of the car so low, if they are just seeing it as a tarted up Escort then surely it would be worth even less? There figures do not make sense and to me is just a massive way of f*cking the public

[CampDavid]

I'd have thought a Cosworth would be best insured as a classic with an agreed value

EDIT: Where are you getting the book value from?

Edited by CampDavid on Tuesday 21st August 08:47

[ZOLLAR]

If you want a specific condition for your insurance you have to make sure the cover your purchase is for the cover you require, it is not up to the insurer make sure their cover is adequate for your needs.

[mboon]

It is on a classic policy for a company that specialise in Ford RS cars. The owner owns one himself. Again not just about my insurance company, seems to be all of them.

I do not understand why they say as standard the car is worth £4000 for a pay out but if I had the RSOC look over the car and tell them it is worth £11,000 they will accept this and pay it out? My question being, they should be able to see the true value of the car by looking at the market at the time the claim happens. Not just take a Parkers book price which is clearly wrong.

I am in the process of trying to get the car valued, but if anything happens between now and then, I loose out on alot of money

[CampDavid]

mboon said:

It is on a classic policy for a company that specialise in Ford RS cars. The owner owns one himself. Again not just about my insurance company, seems to be all of them.

I do not understand why they say as standard the car is worth £4000 for a pay out but if I had the RSOC look over the car and tell them it is worth £11,000 they will accept this and pay it out? My question being, they should be able to see the true value of the car by looking at the market at the time the claim happens. Not just take a Parkers book price which is clearly wrong.

I am in the process of trying to get the car valued, but if anything happens between now and then, I loose out on alot of money

They won't use Parkers as no one takes any notice of Parkers. They'll use the CAP book price, which is quite different

[mboon]

Hi David,

where can I find that price out?

I think they said they use glasses price guide...? any idea what this is

[boobles]

My first elise at the time was worth approx 11k but only worth 4k to the insurance company!

[Shade]

My Fiesta is worth roughly a grand, give or take. If I write it off, I'll be lucky to see £400. Happens to everyone.

[Churchy]

Get a proper policy that includes agreed value, which usually involves sending in a few photo's of the car, and a full spec so they do like for like replacements as well. Worth the extra premium for peace of mind!

[mboon]

Shade said:

My Fiesta is worth roughly a grand, give or take. If I write it off, I'll be lucky to see £400. Happens to everyone.

I know it happens but loosing at least £6000 on a car is taking the piss a little. Going to get this sorted as I know my luck.

If anyone else is unsure, please check and get it valued before it is too late and they fob you off with quater of the value of your car.

[stevenr]

mboon said:

It is on a classic policy for a company that specialise in Ford RS cars. The owner owns one himself. Again not just about my insurance company, seems to be all of them.

I do not understand why they say as standard the car is worth £4000 for a pay out but if I had the RSOC look over the car and tell them it is worth £11,000 they will accept this and pay it out? My question being, they should be able to see the true value of the car by looking at the market at the time the claim happens. Not just take a Parkers book price which is clearly wrong.

I am in the process of trying to get the car valued, but if anything happens between now and then, I loose out on alot of money

Can Paul not do an agreed value on your policy just now?

The last time i spoke to him it was mentioned for my car but i can't remember the details now.Maybe he goes by the RSOC values does he?

[Jazzer77]

CAP value with 70k miles starts at 3,500 for a 1992 reg'd car, rising to 5,400 for a 1996.

There wont be enough RS's passing through auction or the trade at this time to gather any signifigant information so they will be depreciating them month on month in line with other models. Last Focus RS I saw at auction (a few yrs ago) had a book value of 7k and went for 11k to a dealer - so the trade know the older RS's are undervalued in trade guides.

Best to get an agreed valuation with an insurance company.

[Churchy]

I wonder what book price is on an old RS500, must be about 2k?

[Jazzer77]

Churchy said:

I wonder what book price is on an old RS500, must be about 2k?

My version of CAP only goes back 20 yrs, a 1992 Sierra Cosworth 4WD Sapphire with 70k is valued at 3,300.
I'd take the Escort at similar money

[mboon]

stevenr said:

Can Paul not do an agreed value on your policy just now?

The last time i spoke to him it was mentioned for my car but i can't remember the details now.Maybe he goes by the RSOC values does he?

Hi Paul,

Yeah looking through the paperwork now. If I just have to send photos off then no problems, a you can see I have loads lol and can photo any part of the car for them. Not heard back from the RSOC yet but looking like a road trip up to Essex area, not looking forward to paying the fuel bill for that one lol

[seanh]

On a somewhat related note, have you ever noticed how when you're asking for an insurance quote the company always wants to know the value of your car, and that just saying "market value" is not an acceptable answer? Yet if you make a claim they suddenly know all about market value. Half the time I've only got a vague idea of what a car is currently worth, so their guess is probably going to be at least as good as mine, and they seem to have a very good idea of exactly what a car is worth if it's going to cost them money. Next time I'm asked I'm tempted to just say "a meeeellllion pounds" and wait for them to contradict me and admit they have got some idea of what it might be worth.

Can you tell that little things sometimes irritate me?

[mboon]

Sean, it annoyes me as well, why ask if they are not going to pay you out that sum of cash you paid for it. I think if there was a way of proving what you paid for the car, this is the min you will get for it in a claim

[kriss]

Glass's Private sale (the middle value betwen Disposal & Dealer Retail) for a 96N reg vehicle with ave miles is over £10,000 if that puts your mind at rest! I'm not you to givew exact values but only fiar from one PHer to another that you get an indication of value.

[kriss]

Glass's Private sale (the middle value betwen Disposal & Dealer Retail) for a 96N reg vehicle with ave miles is over £10,000 if that puts your mind at rest! I'm not you to give out exact values but only fair from one PHer to another that you get an indication of value.

[The Moose]

I've never heard an insurance company mention book value - what I've always heard is fair market value...which is a bloody con and they never in everything I've heard, offered anything near what cars would appear to be listing at on the autotrader/pistonheads etc.

Oh well!