Insurance valuation - how to negotiate a higher amount?

[Condi]

Someone went into the back of my car last month and the insurance have written it off. No fault claim as 3rd party have accepted responsibility. I had expected it to be written off, but we're currently discussing the valuation and getting nowhere.

They have offered X amount, which is taken straight from Glasses Guide, taking into account the age/mileage etc... however...

It is a top spec engine
It is in a desirable colour
It is a "special edition"
I have every receipt ever spent and FSH
The general overall condition is excellent, passenger seats are largely unused, bonnet and boot resprayed a few years ago etc.
It has a factory fitted detachable tow-bar which would cost £700 to replace.

In short, I feel that it is worth more than what a Glasses Guide book suggests, especially given the well publicised increase in 2nd hand car values. The only other car on Autotrader with the same combination of model, spec, age and colour is a 60,000 mile example for sale for £9995. By comparison mine is a 185,000 mile example and they've offered £3750.

I explained all this in an email to them and have spoken on the phone, but they won't negotiate and just point to Glasses Guide, with no movement from the initial figure. Is there anything else I can do, or just suck it up and accept that I'm going to be out of pocket through no fault of my own?

[Condi]

Interesting, thanks. The valuations were £3500 private, £4100 dealer and £4700 franchise. Seems they are in the right ball-park, but I'd still like a bit more if possible.

[Condi]

bolide said:

It's not a valuation, it's an offer. You have no obligation to accept it and it's probably a bad idea to accept the first offer from an insurer

This was my opinion too, although there is seemingly no negotiation on their behalf. I will try again with a Parkers valuation in hand and some more Autotrader adverts.

Not sure if the problem is the claims handling company who are dealing with it - my insurance company passed the job over to Auxillis and they use independent assessors to value the car, which they are going to recover from the 3rd party. Obviously the 3rd party want to pay as little as possible, and one would assume that Auxillis are going to pass back what they pay, but knowing how business works it wouldn't surprise me if they were trying to make a cut in the middle.

[Condi]

w8pmc said:

Stating the obvious & by no means am i disrespecting you or your car, but 185k miles is one hell of a mileage, so is the valuation (offer) really that far off the mark? Can't imagine unless it's a very special car, that the market even in its current state is riddled with folk wanting cars with a mileage that high.

I totally get yours might be a more desirable spec/colour etc. but surely market forces to a degree dictate valuations & with 185k miles, i can't imagine any car is still in its prime.

Well no, this is the problem. If you hid the odometer you could believe it had 85,000 on the clock. Never failed an MOT, seats are almost unmarked, interior is in great condition, paintwork is almost perfect having had the boot and bonnet resprayed a couple of years ago. It's by no means a tired, leggy, worn out ex-taxi. It's still on it's original clutch! Despite the odometer going round a few more times than other cars, based on condition and history it should be worth more than standard valuation.

[Condi]

sandman77 said:

What car is it and how old is it? I’m 100% confident that if you provide this information you will get a better response (probably even from folk in the trade).

2010 Audi A4 Special Edition in red with 170HP engine. Not exactly rocking horse st, but equally an unusual combination of spec and colour.

Basically this, but with 130,000 more miles
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202204184...

MattyD803 said:

In this case, baring in mind how good the car is and how much you obviously like it, is it not possible that they will allow you to buy it from the salvage company for you to repair? On the basis that it would be a Cat-S with 185k on the clock, with a £3750 valuation in perfect condition, it must only be worth £1000-1500?

Salvage value is £450, and so I will almost certainly buy it back (has £100 of fuel in it!), but the bigger the valuation they put on it the more I get back. It would be a Cat-S.

[Condi]

MattyD803 said:

Blimey, well worth having back if you can squeeze them for £4k? Do you know what the repair estimate was?

£6k using genuine Audi parts. Not a huge amount of damage really.

[Condi]

gottans said:

I'm struggling to see what is the Special Edition is about? From the link the major thing it seems to be is the sports seats. The S-line is just a trim level below the S model.

S4 19 inch wheels, Bang and Olufsen stereo, DAB radio from memory. It was the pre-curser to the Black Edition.


Anyway.. Spoke to the insurance company rather than the claims hander who were very good about it. Said they had quite a few instances at the moment when the book values were a bit low and if I send them everything over including the Parkers guide, other adverts etc, they would look at it and speak to Glasses if needs be to check. Unexpectedly they were very helpful. It might not be much but even £500 on a £3750 valuation is 15% or so.

Edited by Condi on Monday 16th May 20:04

[Condi]

dhutch said:

ow did you get on in the end?

I think we settled for £4500? Maybe £4250? It was definitely above £4k but lower than £5k. Tbh the insurance company (Admiral) were very good and once I handed them some supporting information they came back with a sensible offer and we settled at that.

dhutch said:

Is it worth getting an independent valuation of the car and insuring on that basis, if so how do you best go about that?

See if any of the classic/specialist insurers will offer an agreed valuation which you'd be happy with? Mine was in no way a classic and was just a good condition heavily used daily driver, yours seems to be somewhat nicer and more unique so have a chat to a few reputable insurance companies and tell them what you want. Someone, somewhere will underwrite the risk to offer what you want, and a specialist/classic car broker will likely have a panel of insurers and know which to call. Insurance is - at times - still a personal product.