Car Crash - My car is worth how much?

cletus

So, was involved in an incident yesterday, and i'm currently in the process of an insurance claim, the other party's insurance will be paying.

My car, a '04 1.4 Corolla, 98k miles on the clock, has had, according to the estimate from the garage, €2500 or so damage done.

Considering the age of the car, I was concerned about the potential for an economic write off, as I dont particularly want to get rid of this car.

I enquired from the garage, a toyota dealer, as to how much they would value my car at, and I was told that the SIMI handbook for car valuations only goes back as far as 07, but one of the long established salesmen would value it at between €1500 - €2000

A quick search on donedeal, reveals that 04 Corollas are being advertised at between €1300 and €4000, but with most of them being in the €3000+ range

A similar search of carzone.ie shows no 04 models for sale, but a number of 05 models at abot the €5500 mark.

My question, then, is how much is my car worth

To Elland Back

If you wish to challenge the pre-accident value offered to you, you should ignore Done Deal, Carzone, Buy & Sell etc., because insurers will not accept them as representative. They will tell you, rightly, that the prices quoted are 'opening offers' and that sellers expect to sell at a lower amount.

Research what dealers will accept for you make and model as a cash buyer

cletus

Thanks to elland back, the garage is hopeful that the insurance company will proceed with the repairs, so it hasnt actually come to them giving me a pre-accident value yet, but I am assuming if / when they do it will be on the low side.

I suppose I was a little surprised what the garage valued the car at.

Better start ringing dealers and see what i csn find out

bazz26

I just cannot see an insurance company authoring repairs of €2500 on a car probably worth around €3500. If they do write it off and settle with you then you may be able to buy the car back off them at scrap value and get it repaired yourself.

Atlantic Dawn

Look on the VRT website too to see what price they give for it.

9935452

cletus wrote: »

So, was involved in an incident yesterday, and i'm currently in the process of an insurance claim, the other party's insurance will be paying.

My car, a '04 1.4 Corolla, 98k miles on the clock, has had, according to the estimate from the garage, €2500 or so damage done.

Considering the age of the car, I was concerned about the potential for an economic write off, as I dont particularly want to get rid of this car.

I enquired from the garage, a toyota dealer, as to how much they would value my car at, and I was told that the SIMI handbook for car valuations only goes back as far as 07, but one of the long established salesmen would value it at between €1500 - €2000

A quick search on donedeal, reveals that 04 Corollas are being advertised at between €1300 and €4000, but with most of them being in the €3000+ range

A similar search of carzone.ie shows no 04 models for sale, but a number of 05 models at abot the €5500 mark.

My question, then, is how much is my car worth

My advice to you is to ask your own insurance company whats it worth. They will be able to tell you straight off. My car was rearended and written off . My insurance company told me what it was worth and thats exactly what i got for it

If you go to https://www.ros.ie/evrt-enquiry/vrtenquiry.html?execution=e1s1 you can plug in your details and get the OMSP of your car which seems to be roughly 2500

Toyotafanboi

I'd want at least €3k for that car. €1500-2000 is a huge undervaluation. Is it a hatch or saloon?

I sold my 04 corolla hatch with 155k miles in february for €3650.

cletus

Toyotafanboi wrote: »

I'd want at least €3k for that car. €1500-2000 is a huge undervaluation. Is it a hatch or saloon?

I sold my 04 corolla hatch with 155k miles in february for €3650.

It's the saloon, so less desirable, but I was still surprised at the valuation. I'm trying to figure if there is any benefit in the garage low balling me

Toyotafanboi

You'd still be very hard pressed to buy a 04 saloon with under 100k miles in reasonable condition with €2000.

€1500-2000 is what the garage would pay for it, not what they would retail it for, which is the price you need to focus on. Even being a saloon, i'd be pushing for as close to €3k as possible for it to stand any chance of getting a suitable replacement

cletus

bazz26 wrote: »

I just cannot see an insurance company authoring repairs of €2500 on a car probably worth around €3500. If they do write it off and settle with you then you may be able to buy the car back off them at scrap value and get it repaired yourself.

In this instance, for example, if the insurance company deem the car an economic write off, will they offer me the amount of the repairs (€2500) or the worth of the car (€3500).

If it's the latter, I'm not sure I understand the logic of "we won't give you €2500 to fix your car, it's not worth it, so here's an extra grand instead"

If its the former, surely I can argue that the car has greater economic value than the sum they are willing to give me for it

nd

As far as I understand if it's deemed an economic write off they'll give you the value of the car, but they'll then own the car. They'll then write it off but you can usually buy it, but it will always have on it's record that it was a write off. So won't be worth what it was if you go to sell it on at a later stage.

cletus

Thanks for the replies lads, is made the process so far a little easier. Took advice above re. ringing my insurance company for a valuation, but they didn't want to give it to me. Told me that I could check donedeal, see what they go for.

Garage also got back to me, said the quote they gave me was ball park, and essentially at that age car, it's down to individual merits of the car, condition, spec, NCT etc, so fair enough.

MugMugs

They need to put you into the same financial position that you were in before your loss.

If you can't find a car of similar spec, age and condition for what they're offering then don't accept.

You're entitled to the market value of what your car is worth.

vectra

MugMugs wrote: »

They need to put you into the same financial position that you were in before your loss.

If you can't find a car of similar spec, age and condition for what they're offering then don't accept.

You're entitled to the market value of what your car is worth.

Am I correct in saying you will not get any more than what you valued it at when insuring it?

ambro25

vectra wrote: »

Am I correct in saying you will not get any more than what you valued it at when insuring it?

Depends if you valued it at all and/or if you have "value agreed" on the policy?

FWIW, I had a knock in Feb this year, car (Impreza sportswagon, non-turbo, '05 with 85k miles IIRC) was economically written off. The insurer paid me more (£2700) than I'd bought it for a year and 10k miles ago (£2400 - from a forecourt). I'm pretty sure I'd put the value at £2500 (with the idea of finding like-for-like) at the preceding renewal.

Also, I've just insured the MX5 after taking it out of hibernation. The standard (computed) value for the car appearing on the policy and small print was £900 (:eek: bastiiids!), I was never asked to input a value on the comparison website or the insurer's own website.

Getting agreed value with the insurer was extra, a bit of a faff (tons of photos, declarations, scans of service book etc.) and subject to a small charge (£15) on the annual premium, but now I'll not get less than £3500 if the worst should happen.

mgbgt1978

vectra wrote: »

Am I correct in saying you will not get any more than what you valued it at when insuring it?

Not in this case as he is claiming from a 3rd party Insurer.
That would only apply if he were making a claim on his own insurance.

MugMugs

vectra wrote: »

Am I correct in saying you will not get any more than what you valued it at when insuring it?

In theory if claiming from your own Insurer, yes.

I have seen an ombudsman case come back and state that the Sum Insured was relatively irrelevant to the premium drawn and that the Market value despite exceeding the Sum Insured should be paid.

cletus

So, thought I'd come back here and wrap up this thread. The insurance company reached an agreement price wise with the garage re. the repairs, and the car is going in on Tuesday to be repaired.

After (I assume) some back and forth between the garage and insurance company, they settled on €2k (ish) as the cost to repair, so not that far out in the estimate I suppose.

Thanks again for the replies, I'll throw up some pics once the whole thing is sorted

Toyotafanboi

Good result. Better to keep your old car, "the devil you know" and all that!