Written off cars

[Turbocharger]

I had an accident, my car's written off, deemed to be my fault and not contested by me.

I bought the car two months ago from a dealer, so should I expect to get back what I paid (minus my excess, of course) or do I have to go through the "same mileage, same spec, same service history" rigmarole?

I spent time getting a car in the right colour and trim with a good service history - I don't want my insurer to glance through Autotrader and find an "equivalent" priced car because someone's flogging their money pit cheaply to get rid - that's not an equivalent for mine.

[jon-]

Sorry to hear about the bump, I've just written off a car too due to someone not checking when changing lanes and pushing me into on coming traffic. Worse thing is they didn't even stop so it's all on my insurance Anyway, I digress.

I think the conventional wisdom is the first offer will be low, so once they've made the offer counter with proof of what you paid a couple of months ago, preferably with examples of similar age / mileage / condition cars off autotrader / ph classifieds.

[otherman]

Turbocharger said:

I had an accident, my car's written off, deemed to be my fault and not contested by me.

I bought the car two months ago from a dealer, so should I expect to get back what I paid (minus my excess, of course) or do I have to go through the "same mileage, same spec, same service history" rigmarole?

I spent time getting a car in the right colour and trim with a good service history - I don't want my insurer to glance through Autotrader and find an "equivalent" priced car because someone's flogging their money pit cheaply to get rid - that's not an equivalent for mine.

I think you'll be offered what they think is the value, irrespective of what you paid for it. The normal form is to reject their first offer saying your car was one of the best examples etc etc, they up it and take their second offer. You'll only get marginal improvement on the second even with weeks of arguing.

[Flintstone]

otherman said:

You'll only get marginal improvement on the second even with weeks of arguing.

Not always. Insurers offered me £9,000, I got what I wanted one week later. £14,000.

[kieranjholland]

Flintstone said:

Not always. Insurers offered me £9,000, I got what I wanted one week later. £14,000.

HOW?!

& who's your insurer?

[Turbocharger]

Thanks guys, I've made a database of the current cars on sale (price, mileage, spec etc) which shows my car in a reasonable light. It's a negotiation and I'm not in a hurry to settle (compared to getting the right settlement, anyway).

[so called]

Flintstone said:

Not always. Insurers offered me £9,000, I got what I wanted one week later. £14,000.

I wrote off my Tuscan a couple of years ago.
The insurance offered me 14k based on a review of the market.
I argued for more but in the end I had to agree that the valuers review was fair. He even sent me details of the cars he had found so that I might consider one as a replacement. He was very profesional as far as not trying to force a low valuation on me. (Tesco Insurance).

14k was actually more than I had paid for the TVR 2 1/2 years previous

[gareth.e]

best thing is to show loads of links to similar cars at dealerships and stuff.. I got my dad to do this and they raised his payout quite reasonably tbh

[MikeyBe]

Only ever had a car written off once. I paid £800 for it then a few months later an old lady pulled out of a side street hitting my rear quarter panel.

The insurance offered me £2000. I bought it back off them for £250 and got it fixed for another £250. Bargain! They never even registered it as a write-off either.