Insured value and payout

[100SRV]

Hi,
a colleague's Audi estate was written off last week whilst parked and now he is having trouble getting good value for the scrap car off his insurer. My understanding is that you insure the car so that if you lose it then the sum that the insurer will pay will allow you to buy a replacement in similar condition - is this premise correct?

Taking the above what and how have you folks valued your road-legal specials for insurance purposes? It is not like you can find a Milner R4, GSR206 or Wildcat in Autotrader...and this made me wonder about my policy where the insurance company has used the value of a V8 Ninety as a basis for my policy. They are aware that it is a 100" Bowler so I have no worries there but I wonder how much I would get should it be written off or stolen.

Would it be worth me getting the car valued by an automotive engineer and submitting this to the insurer along with complete details of the vehicle? Maybe also examples of similar vehicles for sale and the asking price...

cheers!

[Jesus TF Christ]

You need an agreed price policy.
Chap I used to have do some work for me had this with his mint Capri. Had to send photos and proof of mileage each renewal to prove condition and value.

[navier_stokes]

Some companies will do shortfall cover, so if you buy a used car from a dealer with shortfall cover, the cover will top any insurance payout to your original purchase price.

It's about £100/year or so. Whether it works in practice I'm not sure!

[TallPaul]

Most insurers will offer you what they perceive to be a pretty fair valuation, if you feel they have undervalued your vehicle, you need to justify your arguement. Getting an engineers report/valuation "just in case" is definitely worthwhile and will help your case, but you really need to be establishing a payout value from the onset so the insurer can establish their risk and charge a premium accordingly.

[catman]

The problem is, their idea of a fair valuation is rarely fair! (In my experience)

When my car was written off a few years ago, I provided the Insurer with full main Dealer service history from new and reams of adverts for cars in worse condition than mine, with up to double the mileage.

My car also had less than half of the normal mileage for a car of its age. They offered me half of the market value...

Tim