Arguing with the car insurance company

[Halo Jones]

So my dads car was rear-ended last week. Other driver has admitted fault so no problem there. The big problem is that the car has been written-off by my dads insurers and they only want to offer him £8500 for it. If you go onto Autotrader the same make and model of car with equivalent specs costs £10 - £10.5K. They have effectively offered him the price for a car that is a year older. I don't know why my dads insurers are playing hardball because they will just claim it back off the other company. Any tips on how to "negotiate" this situation to get what the car is worth?

 

[ScaredyCat]

You absolutely do not have to accept their offer and you shouldn't accept their first offer anyway. If a cheque arrives don't cash it.

Have they offered you trade price?

"you must be offered a sum that will allow you to buy a similar car in a similar condition in your local area..." - so have a search around on autotrader for just that.

Find examples of the same year, mileage, extras ..

You can get a free valuation from parkers and/or autotrader.

Also www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/cars/article-1722555/How-challenge-car-valuation-write-off.html

Daily Fail but still useful ^^^

 

[Rorschach]

They are low balling because after it's written off they will sell it on and make money, the lower the price they offer you, the higher their profit.

 

[Halo Jones]

Maybe I don't understand how all this works but my dads insurance company will just claim the money back from the other drivers insurance company? So why would they give such a low initial offer?

 

[Tasky]

I don't know why my dads insurers are playing hardball because they will just claim it back off the other company.

It's a give-and-take sort of agreement thing they have with all other insurance companies in the industry. Your insurer will try and keep their claims as low as possible, because the company they're curently claiming off will be knocking their door next week with a bunch of their own claims. If everyone just went balls-out for the top prices, every company would have to stump up the cash, and all that would happen is these costs would be reflected in your premiums.

Insurers generally offer book prices, ie what the Glass's guide says. Same as a car dealer. Glass's Guide is the list of what prices dealers report to have bought/sold each car for. Downside is that the dealers report these price themselves, so can tack on or remove any extras like tax, optionals, features, deals, discounts, etc to tweak each of the prices in their favour... and every dealer looks up the Glass's price when you Part-Ex your car... cunning, right?

However, you can combat this by supplying your insurer with as many adverts as you can, showing what cars similar to your own sold for. AutoTrader, Gumtree, even eBay is acceptable. The only caveat is that these must be completed listings of fixed prices, ie the Buy It Now type. Auctions are not admissible. It must be cars that sold at the asking price.

My wife used to be one of those people at the insurance company who phoned you up and offered you £500 for that 2-week old Aston Martin. However my solicitor also reiterated all this and more when helping me out with my motorcycle crash claim. It is complete cow dung and an outright scam, which they treat as a game - Play them at it and beat them!

 

[Halo Jones]

OK. Dad's not very computer literate but I will create a "portfolio" of listings to help fight his case and get it sent off to the insurer.

 

[Rorschach]

Basically put, they are all in on the scam. Remember as well, your dads insurance might be with the same company as the other driver, or part of the same parent company. They all have a vested interest to keep claims low.

 

[Noel]

Insurers generally offer book prices, ie what the Glass's guide says. Same as a car dealer. Glass's Guide is the list of what prices dealers report to have bought/sold each car for. Downside is that the dealers report these price themselves, so can tack on or remove any extras like tax, optionals, features, deals, discounts, etc to tweak each of the prices in their favour... and every dealer looks up the Glass's price when you Part-Ex your car... cunning, right?

As a point of information...not quite how Glass's Guide or Cap Black Book is compiled. Absolutely no input from dealers, it would not be comparable information. especially where trade ins are involved or a car that has been lying around and the dealer wants shot of it etc. Tax/VED has not been an issue since Oct 2014.
All the values are gathered every month from the large auction houses such as BCA, FCA etc. Optional extras have very impact in these prices, they only make a car more "sellable" when offered to the public through a dealer or private seller.

 

[fezman]

i had a crash (my fault) in 2002. Car was previously in very good condition and 3 years old. Insurance co offered me £5000. I then checked autotrader and identified that the cheapest like for like comparable car was £6500. So i offered them the option of purchasing a comparable replacement, or settling for £6k.

They took the latter and gave me the £6k. It did take them 10 weeks to pay me out, but thats another story of how insurance companies are generally inept.

I doubt i would ever accept their first offer if i were in that position again.