They want to write it off!

[alinton]

Well just before Christmas my car was one of the casualties of the cold weather and sustained damage to the front and rear in a collision with a central barrier.

The insurance company now seem to be attempting to put as low a value as possible on the car as an excuse to write it off. Their assessor called the other day and said 'the engines in those are unreliable, aren't they? That'll reduce its value'.

Its a 2003 'S'. Previously well looked after with less than 20k miles. The repairs are coming in at around £14k apparently.

Does anyone have any advice on how best to proceed with this?

Thanks,

Andy.

[fonoq35]

Is it already with a specialist?

I suppose some sort of market review could expose them (average, median), av value of upgrades? Dunno really.

Shop around the repairs a few places?

As mentioned in another post Carizma in Leics were great in fighting my insurance folk to keep it on the road (mk1 51, vehicle vlaue 15k, repairs ~10/11k)

[alinton]

Yea its with a specialist. Not many to choose from here in Ireland, in fact only one really!

I don't necessarily think the quotation is excessive - although maybe it is.

You did well to get yours repairs with values that close. Is the car perfect now?

Cheers

Andy.

[Russian Rocket]

see my topic

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a... to my poor tuscan&mid=37208

my orignal quote was £31k = write off

now been repaired by centralTVR for £15k

I had to do my own reasearch and fighting (with help from PH) the insurance company were worse than useless.

what's the damage?

[Tuscan Wil]

I had an accident at the end of TITT last year on my way home. The insurance of course wrote it off. Luckily I had an agree value policy, so they sent me a cheque with what we had agreed when I took out the policy. No argument, no fuzz. It was shamed to let the Tuscan go, but according to the well renowned specialist who evalued the damage, the car was expensive to fix.

[Full Throttle]

I can highly recommend Adrian at Central TVR 01384571021, he has repaired a TVR for me in the past, his work and service is excellent and im sure crossing the water to collect your car wouldnt be a problem. I can also recommend Ian at Sportmotive 01782333008. I have dealt with both companies for years and there work is brilliant. Usually insurance companies that dont know TVR's try and write them off as they dont deal with the correct garages that repair them. Please email me if you want any further information, Please dont let the car go to waste!!!

[alinton]

Thanks guys, I am going to argue with them on this. I'll keep you informed, meantime any further ammunition you can help me with would be appreciated!

Andy.

[Full Throttle]

Call Adrian at Central TVR and put him in contact with your insurance company, your insurance company will prefer to pay less out and you will hopefully get your car repaired. Good luck

[fonoq35]

Andy,

Yes the car is fantastic now. A really fab job done by the guys at Carizma in Leics.

Definitely worth fighting the good fight!

[ochten]

Do you have pictures of the bodydamage?

[alinton]

Sadly, I have!

[so called]

I did similar front and rear damage to mine early last year. It was a year 2000 Tuscan with over 80k on the clock.
The insurance valuer (Tesco's) simply reviewed the market so to identify the market value and how much I would have to pay to replace it. He valued it at 14k. I paid 5 quid less than that 2 years previous and so decided not to argue although I did ask him to consider 15k based on my review. To his credit he said he would review available Tuscans again but came back the next day with recomendations as to where I could get a similar car with engine rebuild etc for 14k.
The repairs quote was 12,7k and the insurance basically didnt want to put more than 8k to a repair and prefered to pay me the 14k to write it off. They wanted 5k off me to buy back which I decided not to do. I work away and new that she would just be sat waiting for me for months on end.
I put the 14k towards as new a replacement I could get. (with a bit added on this turned out to be a 2006 Tuscan convertible).

The bull sh#t about the engine is stupid. The market value is the market value for a like car.
I would search through and make a list of similar aged and mileage cars up for sale as I did and as the Tesco's man did.
Its the only way you prove that he is talking b#llocks.

Good luck.

Edited by so called on Friday 19th February 04:38

[alinton]

Good advice, thanks.

[Tuscan Wil]

alinton said:

Sadly, I have!

Andy just to make you feel better, that is what happened to me last year before Christmas. Fortunately, like i said I have a agree value policy, so I did what Tony did. Just took the money contrubute to my new Tuscan. It was painful to let go. shxt does happen in life, I just bite the bullet.

Good luck!!

[johnnyBv8]

Russian Rocket said:

see my topic

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a... to my poor tuscan&mid=37208

my orignal quote was £31k = write off

now been repaired by centralTVR for £15k

I had to do my own reasearch and fighting (with help from PH) the insurance company were worse than useless.

what's the damage?

Although much better than £31k, still quite scary that the repair to yours cost £15k...it didn't look that badly damaged really...

[johnbear]

As I understand it, if the repair cost is less than the vehicle's value then you can legally insist on them repairing the vehicle. The key element is to keep control of the vehicle, send it to a specialist like Surface and Design etc.

PM if you need advice.