Insurance write-off

[Benten]

Hi, just had my car written off by Admiral. It was a 2002 Honda Civic Type R. Does anyone have any experience with a car being written off, is there room to haggle with their valuation?

Any advice is appreciated and apologies if I have posted this in the wrong area.

[davek_964]

My g/f's car was written off last year (think she was with Aviva). They offered within a week or two of the accident by phone - she disputed it, and they agreed to her valuation without her having to do anything else. I think she got them to increase their offer by roughly 10% of a ~£7.5k value claim.

[SydneyBridge]

Have a look on Autotrader and see what similar are going for and email them any adverts that show a higher value

[kiethton]

Yeah - can haggle with admiral

Going back a few years but had them on the phone, both on autotrader etc and highlighted comparables, accepted a small amount of haggle room on the closest for sale and agreed it all then and there - about 15% above initial offer

[littlebasher]

My colleague got admiral to increase their offer by 50% with minimal effort.

Admittedly it was on £1500 of Ford Fusion!

[Benten]

Thanks, was worried about not having a leg to stand on if they offered me a bad price. There are cars like mines going for a £1500 but with 10months MOT and a relatively low milage they are about £4000. I will save a few adverts that help my case.

Appreciate the advice.

[Seesure]

When my daughter wrote off her KA 5 years back I was initially offered £500 ....

I told them they were having a laugh and asked them to find one of a similar age with a similar mileage on the clock... eventually I settled with them at £3k...

I can't remember who the insurance company was but it wasn't Admiral and I had to push quite hard for them to up their offer...

I kept refusing and eventually they asked how much I wanted, based on similar cars of a similar age and mileage I knew the ball park I was in as I'd spent a few hours on Auto-trader, Pistonheads and Ebay ...once I told them how much and why, it was pretty much sown up with a final bit of negotiation.

Do your homework and set / have a reasonable expectation of what is actually realistic.

[scrw.]

Had the back and too on the value of a Jeep written off a few years back, it got boring so I just asked for a value just under the highest on autotrader and they rolled over, actually suprised they coughed up

[petrolbloke]

How bad is the damage? What category write off is it? Might be worth keeping buying the written off car back and selling it on yourself. The engine and gearbox should alone should easily be worth more than what you can buy the salvage back for. Even if you don't have time/space to break the car for spares yourself you should be able to sell it for spares/repair and someone will likely buy it.