Car insurance dilemma

[London1986]

I will try and keep this brief...

I have 10 years no claims discount and not claimed in over 5 years.

Last year, some random idiot keyed my Audi and the damage went across the whole side, affecting 3 panels. Caught on camera but nothing police could do. Didn't bother getting it fixed at the time. I did get some quotes but one garage quoted me £1500! Though I'll deal it with it when it comes to selling the car.

Now fast forward this year, I have a new car. I replaced my Audi with the new car on the insurance policy, effectively leaving the Audi uninsured as it was just sitting on driveway, not being driven.

I then realised the Audi should also be insured (from advice on this forum) as I will need to drive it here and there to get it ready to be sold, so I added it back on to my policy as an additional car.

Annoyingly, previously when the Audi was insured, my excess was £850 however when I added it back on, I increased it to £1000 to bring my premiums down. (I thought I'm not going to drive it much and didn't think I'd be using insurance to fix the damages).

Now trying to get the scratch repaired before selling, I spoke to one garage and they said they would charge around £1000 to fix however if they went through insurance, would pay half my excess. I wanted to avoid insurance but this seems like quite a good deal.

Would would you do in this situation? Go through insurance and risk future premiums going up or just get it fixed privately and pay the additional £500?

Also, as the incident occurred when the car was insured under the previous excess of £850, would my excess fee that rate or my new current rate as I am claiming now?

Any other advice welcome.

[Jordie Barretts sock]

Don't get it repaired and sell it as is, priced accordingly?

How old is the car and what are you looking to sell it for? If it's a £3k car, I wouldn't bother and drop it £500. If it's a £15k car, then perhaps drop it to £14k and sell accordingly?

[Scootersp]

You may need to tread carefully if you do go via insurance as it's so long after the event?

Did you get a crime number? even if you did then you risk the wrath of the insurer for not mentioning it earlier? Could be a minefield?

Potentially better to stick to the original plan of just dealing with it yourself, probably should have just gone via insurance at the time (we get obsessed with keeping the NCD retention or worrying about next years premium effect).

[London1986]

Jordie Barretts sock said:

Don't get it repaired and sell it as is, priced accordingly?

How old is the car and what are you looking to sell it for? If it's a £3k car, I wouldn't bother and drop it £500. If it's a £15k car, then perhaps drop it to £14k and sell accordingly?

Yes that is of course the other option.

It's a 2013 Audi A5. Based on auto trader right now, £12-13k seems realistic. We buy any car/motorway have given me a valuation of around £9k but could fetch approx £4k more if sold privately.

I would happily drop it by a grand. My only fear is that people will take one look at it and will start giving me silly offers. I also have some scuffs on the bumper that I wanted to get touched up at the same time (hit by another car when it was parked, the joys of parking on a public road!). I worry people will see these and give the impression that the car hasn't been looked after and put people off.

[London1986]

Scootersp said:

You may need to tread carefully if you do go via insurance as it's so long after the event?

Did you get a crime number? even if you did then you risk the wrath of the insurer for not mentioning it earlier? Could be a minefield?

Potentially better to stick to the original plan of just dealing with it yourself, probably should have just gone via insurance at the time (we get obsessed with keeping the NCD retention or worrying about next years premium effect).

Yes all valid points.

I do have a crime number but then that open up the issue of what you say... why didn't I claim sooner.

I could always say it was done yesterday but then they may ask that it is reported to the police to obtain a crime number!

I would ideally like to avoid insurer if possible as I agree with you it could get messy.

I may try and get a few more quotes tomorrow. Just annoying that the scratch covers 3 panels!

[swisstoni]

I’d spend an evening on YouTube finding out that scratches are really quite easy to fix.