Crash :(

[szkoda13]

Someone rammed into the side of me today, I've attached a pic - what do we reckon? write off?

[vRSsunroof]

Yep.

Looks like its bent the B Pillar

[George]

That's not good, hope your ok

[szkoda13]

Yeh I'm fine, this is the second vRS in two years that someone has kindly written off for me, think someones trying to tell me something!

What do you guys reckon I'll get off the insurance company? Its done just over 80k, almost FSH, I bought it for 4k and that's what I'm hoping to get back.

[devonutopia]

That is f****d! Sorry to say! Looks like it was a nasty impact? Might get £3.5k to £4k for it.

[Trev.]

Advice- start breaking the car

[szkoda13]

Its got a fresh PD150 turbo in it along with a set of JOM coilovers with about 2k mileage on them and a fresh pair of Uniroyal Rainsport 2's on the front - I'm absolutely gutted!

Is it worth buying it back off the insurance company if its a write off then?

[anewman]

That's straight along where the side impact protection reinforcement is in the door. Must have been a bad smash!

[jrw]

Wow, how weird - saw another furby in an identical crash this morning!

As said, write off i'm afraid.

[devonutopia]

Its got a fresh PD150 turbo in it along with a set of JOM coilovers with about 2k mileage on them and a fresh pair of Uniroyal Rainsport 2's on the front - I'm absolutely gutted!

Is it worth buying it back off the insurance company if its a write off then?

Try and get what you can off it before it goes, OR assuming you have a modifications covered insurance policy, the coilovers at least might be covered as extra? and possibly the turbo as its not stock either.

[Chr15py]

If all mods are disclosed then don't do anything. Look on here, autotrader and pistonheads for fabias with similar modifications and screen print / scan / print a copy. From doing this you can prove to the insurance company that anything less than what you want will not allow you to get another of similar standard. As you have new coilovers and turbo, youll probably het more . I assume the accident wasn't your fault in which case the other drivers insurance company will more than likely pay you what you are asking.

Information from working for 4 years inside the insurance industry

Hope this helps.

Chris

Edited 24 August, 2012 by Chr15py

[RAPTURE]

Wow, how weird - saw another furby in an identical crash this morning!

As said, write off i'm afraid.

I hope it was not another Silver one. Do our Silver Fabia's cloak to other driver's ?. Sry to see that, glad your ok.

[grr666]

Silver cars can be very hard to see in certain conditions.

[Disco_Mikey]

Must be a thing about silver ones...

That was a £3.5k bill to repair that. Happened 3 years ago, and was a borderline write-off then...

[Seanl]

Do as said above to get as much as you can for the car, and buy it back if its written off too. My Corrado was written off by a nice bloke in his Chelsea tractor who was far too important to stop at traffic lights. Had a massive amount of mods, and fortunately a kept all the original stuff too. Insurance paid out what I wanted after a bit of too and frowing, then I sold my parts (shocks/springs, wheels, interior, mani, engine mounts, etc). I bought it back off the insurance company for £34.20! Sold all my parts for close to £900, and sold the shell (cat to someone I know for breaking for £175. That was front and rear damage too as he smashed me from behind at about 40 mph causing me to hit the guy in front. I do have an acute fracture of two vertebrae for my trouble though!

[alistair_doran]

If all mods are disclosed then don't do anything. Look on here, autotrader and pistonheads for fabias with similar modifications and screen print / scan / print a copy. From doing this you can prove to the insurance company that anything less than what you want will not allow you to get another of similar standard. As you have new coilovers and turbo, youll probably het more . I assume the accident wasn't your fault in which case the other drivers insurance company will more than likely pay you what you are asking.

Information from working for 4 years inside the insurance industry

Hope this helps.

Chris

Good bit of advice, do as Chris says and use this information as you're proof and as you're weapon.

It's like buying a car, they will offer you the lowest they can offer you to see if you will accept it, and work their way up till you are happy.

Insurance is based on honesty, so by saying that the car is worth X amount, you may have to back up what you are saying.

This is where your examples come into play. Provide the handler with examples with similar mods (assuming the mods on you're car have been declared... again, honesty) and show the prices they are asking. This shows to the handler that what they are offering will not get you a car of similar specification, and that you reject their offer.

They will then go back and revalue their offer based on the info you have provided.

This process can take a good few months. Insurance handlers have many cases to deal with, so depending on how straightforward the accident was depends on how long it could take e.g. If the person who hit you admitted liability as soon as it happened and you have witnesses, the case won't take long as the defendant's insurance company wont have a leg to stand on. The only time factor then would be negotiating with you as to how much you are willing to accept.

If however the defendant claims you were at fault and vice versa, then investigations are going to take a long time. Claims handlers also deal with a huge caseload, so you could be waiting months.

Stick to your guns and go the long haul, sometimes a handlers best friend is your impatience and desire to get a payment so you can just get on with your life, so you will accept a short offer and walk. Don't fall for this.

Coming from an AVIVA Claims Handler, but not from the motoring side.

[RAPTURE]

Hmm maybe time for drl's .....

[Chr15py]

Good bit of advice, do as Chris says and use this information as you're proof and as you're weapon.

It's like buying a car, they will offer you the lowest they can offer you to see if you will accept it, and work their way up till you are happy.

Insurance is based on honesty, so by saying that the car is worth X amount, you may have to back up what you are saying.

This is where your examples come into play. Provide the handler with examples with similar mods (assuming the mods on you're car have been declared... again, honesty) and show the prices they are asking. This shows to the handler that what they are offering will not get you a car of similar specification, and that you reject their offer.

They will then go back and revalue their offer based on the info you have provided.

This process can take a good few months. Insurance handlers have many cases to deal with, so depending on how straightforward the accident was depends on how long it could take e.g. If the person who hit you admitted liability as soon as it happened and you have witnesses, the case won't take long as the defendant's insurance company wont have a leg to stand on. The only time factor then would be negotiating with you as to how much you are willing to accept.

If however the defendant claims you were at fault and vice versa, then investigations are going to take a long time. Claims handlers also deal with a huge caseload, so you could be waiting months.

Stick to your guns and go the long haul, sometimes a handlers best friend is your impatience and desire to get a payment so you can just get on with your life, so you will accept a short offer and walk. Don't fall for this.

Coming from an AVIVA Claims Handler, but not from the motoring side.

Spot on!

Chris

[szkoda13]

Just in case anyone was wondering they wrote it off in the end, repair bill was 4k apparently. They only offered 2.5k initially which I laughed at, eventually with both of us scrolling through autotrader I managed to get it up to 3100.

Wasn't allowed to buy the car back apparently against their policy?

[szkoda13]

My cars now up for sale on the salvage company's website, so tempted to buy it back!!

http://www.hbc.co.uk/cgi-bin/zyview/D=vehicles/V=bidding/R=4921771

[Brads]

Just in case anyone was wondering they wrote it off in the end, repair bill was 4k apparently. They only offered 2.5k initially which I laughed at, eventually with both of us scrolling through autotrader I managed to get it up to 3100.

Wasn't allowed to buy the car back apparently against their policy?

£3100 Thats got to be worth 4k!?

Adam

[BlueRobin]

In 2005, with blame being accepted by the other party for the write-off of my Alfa, Aviva's third-party assessor short-changed me by £1000 below the Glass Guide (i.e. buy in price for a dealer). I got a copy and sent it to him. He would not budge and admitted he had the same book. Upshot was take it or leave it. Oh here's the complaints number. By which time I need a car so gave up

szkoda13 - imho walk away with happy memories of that chassis and use this opportunity to buy something newer

[Benjiman]

The price you get from an insurance pay out should be enough to replace the car with a like-for-like vehicle from a reputable dealer.

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/technical_notes/motor-valuation.html

Never ever accept an offer you are not happy with, as once accepted, that's it.

[martinch]

The price you get from an insurance pay out should be enough to replace the car with a like-for-like vehicle from a reputable dealer.

http://www.financial...-valuation.html

Never ever accept an offer you are not happy with, as once accepted, that's it.

Indeed (and that link is very handy as it explains how the car should be valued). Sadly, not all insurers play fair - an acquaintance recently had a bad experience with RSA - when they disputed the valuation, they refused to budge, said that they'd offered over the market value of the car (£1,000 under Glass' guide) and suggested that if they went through the complaints procedure, the valuation may be reduced. Oh, and they said that the Glass' guide value they'd got a dealer to look up for them was the wrong one. Sadly they took the "life's too short" approach ... sigh ...

[vindaloo]

In today's business climate, larger companies put the squeeze on costs. I'm sure smaller ones do so as well but with larger companies, experts will likely be directly employed or retained. IMO if an extremely low valuation is challenged, the company will pay out... later, not now. Plus, there're always those who take the money and bitter pill now, so the companies reduce their overall costs and immediate costs by behaving in this way.

Of course, should any nasty letters/e-mails come to light demonstrating they're fleecing the punters en-masse, would be an entirely different matter... And still take years.