Reply to: No wonder so many people don't bother getting car insurance

[northernladuk]

It is doesn't make much difference I guess but you do know that the insurance guys are flexible to a limit. Don't ever take their first offer and argue the toss and they will often bend somewhat. As I say it's small comfort but you gotta push your case.

On a side note friend of mine took a job in insurance assessment where they go interview the people that look dodgy and she did it for 6 months and packed it in. Her perception of a certain element in our society has been severely dented and going from open minded nice to all person can often be heard saying 'should be put down'. I can only imagine the crap that she saw when assessing claims. Must be difficult to imagine the lengths people go to even we can comprehend. I think adding your aircon (although double standards as pointed out) is the tip of the ice berg.

[sasguru]

So to summarise:

OH is pissed off that his con to get his air-con fixed will not work. Additionally he reckons his car hasn't depreciated at all in 3 years.

My question is: is OH on drugs?

[Paddy]

To the OP, if your car cost £10k and the other parties insurance only pays out £6k, then as long as you can prove the value, i.e. extras etc, then there is nothing to stop you suing the other party for your loss, i.e. the £4k you are out of pocket.

I had a similar problem. My car was damaged while parked by another car driving on the wrong side of the road. I did not claim on my insurance and instead I claimed directly from the other driver. He was insured with Zurich. Zurich offered me the book value from Glasses Guide that was half the real value. I printed off some adverts from Auto Trader showing the sale price of similar cars to be more than double. I agued that Glasses Guide don’t sell cars but Auto Trader do.

After six weeks I took out a court summons against the driver and Zurich. The Judge stuck out their defence and I won with costs and damages. Had I claimed on my insurance I would have ended up with less than half the amount.

[SupremeSpod]

If you're going to own a car that is different or you deem "special" then try and get an "agreed value" insurance policy.

"As you sow so shall you reap."

[Incognito]

To the OP, if your car cost £10k and the other parties insurance only pays out £6k, then as long as you can prove the value, i.e. extras etc, then there is nothing to stop you suing the other party for your loss, i.e. the £4k you are out of pocket.

[Support Monkey]

I used to work in a bodyshop as an estimator, working out the costs for the parts and damage caused, and believe me people have some strange ideas about the cost to repair a car, everday people would come in and ask why it takes 3 days to paint a wing and why it cost £400 pounds for such a small area, they seem to think that its like the old days mask it up with newspaper and just blast it with an aerosol, they don,t see the labour involved to strip prepare, paint and put back together and your jag is going to be a metalic so you cannot just spray the wing you have to blend the bonnet and the door as well otherwise it looks the wrong colour even a minor shunt can write off a car due to the combined cost of the repair,labour, and paint especially top marque cars where parts prices are going to be top dollar, unless of cause you don't mind them fitting cheapo pattern parts

And has for falsifying claims it goes on every day, its amazing how many people get shunted in the rear and then all manor of issues crop up no where near the damaged area i am not defending insurance companies but their assessors much get sick to death of all the Bulltulip that people come out with.

Had a fellow bring a brand new VW golf in that had been hit in the front quite hard, he said that since the accident his radio speakers had stopped working in the back doors, was adament that all was ok until the accident and now no sound coming from the back, did he look a C**k when we pointed out that the accident must have caused both speakers to fall out cos his model never came with speakers in the back doors they were an optional extra.

[TimberWolf]

My last car was written off while it was at the garage being repaired - someone went into the back of it. I got a good deal from the insurers though and got to keep the car.

When I take out insurance, they usually ask what I consider the value of the car to be, but I don't know what they use that user-supplied figure for (aside from it being a useful figure for them if your figure is less than the one they might have come up with themselves in the event of a claim of course).

[gingerjedi]

Oh the garage guy says they will pay, but only an amount up to the car's book value, which in my case is about £ 3K (despite the car costing me £ 6K only four years ago).

But as I say, the replacement value for a second-hand Jag of the same quality would be at least £ 6K, or perhaps more like £ 10K, and this, I argue, should be the write-off value, as the prang wasn't even my fault!

Thieving villains!

And bang goes my aircon fix on the back of it too - I'm sure that stopped working about the same time, or that's what I told the guy in the garage.

Do you live in the same road as Cybertory? You expect the car to lose little to no value in 4 years... or even gain value??

£3k for 4 years motoring is pretty good going shirley?

[Platypus]

OK - but I don't have a lot of sympathy for one con artist calling another

Fair point.

you're surely not defending inflated/fraudulent claims are you?

No!

But it does annoy me that insurance is such a rip off. If you ordered a 36" tele and the supplier delivered a cheaper 32" version on the basis that someone else had ripped them off, it'd be a scandal. Yet insurance companies get away with this scam every day

[Peoplesoft bloke]

Don't believe the insurance company spin!

It's a frickin' con and lies that you don't get full value because of other people's fraudulent claims are BS.

OK - but I don't have a lot of sympathy for one con artist calling another - you're surely not defending inflated/fraudulent claims are you?

[Platypus]

One reason We all get derisory offers is the number of people who think it's OK to add on all sorts of unrelated fradulent claims to the repairs. No sympathy. At all.

Don't believe the insurance company spin!

It's a frickin' con and lies that you don't get full value because of other people's fraudulent claims are BS.

[Peoplesoft bloke]

Thieving villains!

And bang goes my aircon fix on the back of it too - I'm sure that stopped working about the same time, or that's what I told the guy in the garage.

The Irony!

[Peoplesoft bloke]

.....

But my cunning plan to have the aircon fixed at the same time has hit a snag - The guy says the total bill, if that is included, may mean the car is deemed a write-off!

One reason We all get derisory offers is the number of people who think it's OK to add on all sorts of unrelated fradulent claims to the repairs. No sympathy. At all.

[OwlHoot]

Why is the persons insurance company not paying for it? I'm in the same situation.

Oh the garage guy says they will pay, but only an amount up to the car's book value, which in my case is about £ 3K (despite the car costing me £ 6K only four years ago).

But as I say, the replacement value for a second-hand Jag of the same quality would be at least £ 6K, or perhaps more like £ 10K, and this, I argue, should be the write-off value, as the prang wasn't even my fault!

Thieving villains!

And bang goes my aircon fix on the back of it too - I'm sure that stopped working about the same time, or that's what I told the guy in the garage.

[MarillionFan]

Just taken my Jag to the garage for a quote to fix the rear bumper, damaged when someone crashed into the back of me at a traffic light.

As I expected, it needs an endless number of bits and pieces and the labour alone comes to the best part of a grand.

But my cunning plan to have the aircon fixed at the same time has hit a snag - The guy says the total bill, if that is included, may mean the car is deemed a write-off!

WTF?!

So let me get this straight - The insurance company will refuse to stump up for an accident that wasn't even my fault!

Someone could spend hundreds or thousands tarting up their car, or for an expensive service, or just paying tax and insurance, and another mupp of a driver could total it (or a five ton boulder fall on it), and the first law-abiding careful mug ends up only with the derisory book value!?

Probably a silly question, but anyone know if there is any kind of insurance that guarantees a replacement car of the same model or later in the event of a write off beyond one's control?

Why is the persons insurance company not paying for it. Im in the same situation.