After a long battle with the other parties insurance company, it was passed back to my insurance company, who took up the claim on my behalf. The other company only valued my low mileage car which was meticulously maintained with everything by the book and in good condition, at £8,200 after my excess was taken into account. It was impossible to get another L&K with similar miles and condition, same age was coming in at £11.000.
My own insurance provider had my car recovered from the body shop and delivered back to me, and they appointed another assessor, who came back with a similar amount. I was however able to talk with the assessor and I had to explain to him the significance of what the L&K meant to the value of the Superb, almost doubling the entry price point to the Superb range. He went away and looked at what comparable cars from dealers were costing, and I also supplied him with 3 Autotrader listings for similar cars with considerable higher mileages.
To his credit he came back with a value of £9,700 which I accepted as I had located a MK3 L&K, in the same colour as my old one and very good condition but almost double the miles, but the price reflected the miles at £10,500 and had an FSH and with no problems on MOT histories other than tyres and brake pads nearing their limits. These have all been addressed with 4 top-notch high performance tyres and new pads and discs all round, cam belt and water has just been replaced. The dealer has ordered and replaced N/S rear light (cracked lense) and a N/S headlight had only half the LED DRL working, these took a time to arrive from the factory.
The insurance policy still had 3 months to run and to be honest, the premium has increased, but only marginally for the remaining 3 months, despite the car being 3 years newer but less powerful engine (150 HP as opposed to 170), so I'm pretty happy at this stage which I'm told is because insurance has generally gone up anyway. Have to see what the renewal quote for next year is going to be.
During the entire process I have covered almost 2,000 miles looking at other Superbs trying to find one that ticked all the boxes and I have come across some real dogs and also a dealer from hell, but that's another tale.