Insurance Companies

[GiJoe90]

I was finally made an offer on my car today after nearly 3 months of chasing. All I can say is I'm very angry at elephant.co.uk at the moment :ffs:

I was offered just over £2k for my pride and joy which I rejected straight away. Where do they get their figures from!?

Anyone know how to play this? It's my first time in this situation and could do with some help anyone.

Joe

*Going to go and cry in the corner*

[Gnome]

Hey Joe.

Blue will probably be best for info on this, but....

As far as I remember, they'll look at other examples of your car.

They'll make a note of the mileage of your car, and try to gauge how well it was looked after/ condition before the accident.

They will then scour the showrooms around the country (making an average), of other MR2's, and base the figure they wish to give you, on those other examples.

[Demonic Angel]

Johns pretty much spot on, but they say to never accept an insurance companies first offer as they almost always slightly undervalue....

They also I think go to places such as Glass's Guide/Parkers as well to get an official price for them... and they base it on an average of the above (well, thats what I was told anyway!)

Just dont let them take you for a ride mate!

[Jones~32]

Hi, your going to need to get evidence that your car is worth more than what they think it is, get as many for sale ads as you can and send them into elephant and prove to them that the car is worth more than £2k

Let them see any pics you have from before the accident too, to show what a good example it was

Their first offer was always going to be low, but that just takes the biscuit! :ffs:

Hope you get it all sorted asap

[Gnome]

S'funny, cause I think the guy Norwich Union sent out must've been blind, or he was trying to get fired.

Gave me much more than what my Micra was worth when I destroyed it, on their first offer, so it was rude to say "no thanks..." :D

As Jones said though, get some ads, pics, and if you've still got service records, what you've spent on it, etc, it should make a strong case for your cause.

[Guest rev3turbo]

That's pants josephine it was easily worth £2.5k all day long

sorry m8 i had to !

[daktari]

All of the above really. Photos of yours, receipts, Adds from traders (Only pick the expesive ones ;) ) And try not to swear at them too much.

And a tip for the future. Go for an agreed value policy. Bit more expensive but worth it in the long run.

[GiJoe90]

Thanks guys

I've sent an E-mail back to the insurance company with examples for sale on Autotrader, pictures of my car and my award won at JAE so I'll see how things go. Hopefully they'll come up with something more realistic.

Joe

[Flat Pack]

Just remeber the insurance company is going to try to screw you. At the same time the purpose of insurance is to put you back to the same situation you were in before the accident and they have to do that if you push them hard enough. Send them all the ads you can for similar cars (that are priced decently of course), Glasses valuation might be worth the couple of quid it costs or get a friend with access to provide one for you.

I think Elephant might be one of the companies that'll load your premium for modifications but won't actually cover them (very dirty trick that one...), so you could be out of luck there I'm afraid.

Good luck sorting it out anyway and don't cave in - a stupidly cheap settlement that leaves you having to fork out to replace the car is exaclty what they want.

[Ryan1985]

£2k is a joke Joe! :ffs:

Thing is with Elephant is that they don't cover your mods so you'll get what your car is worth as standard. That should still be around the £4k mark though I'd guess!

Good luck with it mate!

[Jinxed]

Geez ... insurance companies are legalised thieves. Sorry to hear that on top of what happened your insurance company is trying to screw you mate. Hope you get a good offer out of them and a nice car afterwards to make up for all :)

[martin_longbow]

If you did not have an agreed value policy then you will have to convince them your car was worth more. In creating your argument ensure you point out the mods you declared at the time. Additional undeclared mods could render you no insurance cover.

Do what everyone else has suggested, can you furnish them with service history etc?

Starting at £2k you realise that a movement even to £3k is a 50% increase on their first offer. Claims adjusters alarm bells ringing already.

Good luck with it. I ended up abandoning a claim with Elephant because they were making it so difficult when an other uninsured driver ran into my passenger side. They are a real shower

[kirst_ie]

Elephant are pathetic anyway, there cheap on there insurance but thats as far as it goes, if you have any problems they don't wanna know.

A bus hit me in my Pug 306 just after i passed my test, they DID not wanna know

Hope you get the money your looking for.

[Bibbs]

I find the majority of ins companies poor. But then, it's how they make their money.

Good luck Joe.

[sotal]

As said above - first offer is usually undervalued, second offer is normally as much as they are willing to go to.

The second offer is basically "oh well we tried to get away with less - now we might as well pay up as this will cost us x amount of pounds per day otherwise sorting it out"

Have you not got legal cover? My solicitor gave me advice at every stage with both claims I have made. My First was for a ford escort and two helpings of whiplash. They came back straight away with a decent offer which was approx £500 more than the most expensive equivilant I could find in Autotrader. He told me they had done that because I was entitled to a curtsey car until the day the payment cheque hit my lap - so I took that offer.

My second claim, I rejected the first offer got a decent offer the second time - rejected that waited 3 months whilst they kept saying no then just gave in and took the second offer.

[bert.tsport]

i wish my cts was written off after hitting a citroen zantia , at least i would not have to have it back poorly repaired like i have... its back at the garage getting the 12 faults corrected at the moment... at least adrian flux are trying to help.