Car insurance claim, market value?

nullObjects

Hi, looking for some advice.

I was involved in a car crash where there were multiple (5) cars involved.
A car ran into a line of traffic and caused multiple collisions.
His insurance company have agreed that he is at fault.
(Everyone was fine thankfully)

The insurance company asked me to drop my car in for a quote as there was quite a lot of damage to my rear bumper, boot and front bumper.
The quote came back as being over 4,000 euros to repair.

As this exceeds the market value, they said instead they will cover the market value of the car.

My car is a nissan almera which is similar in terms of mileage and nct to this:
https://www.carzone.ie/used-cars/nissan/almera/used-2007-nissan-almera-1-5-sxe-4-waterford-fpa-290372220455449

The quote I was offered is closer to 2,000 euros

The market value he quoted seems a bit low. I'm just wondering what my options are?

I've recently had some work done to my car and it was in perfect driving condition, I'm just worried that I'll end up with something that needs work done to it.

Thanks

ullu

Most insurers are happy to negotiate pre-accident values.

Go back to them with any evidence you have in your favour and haggle. You could employ the services of an independent assessor if you wanted to but that's probably not necessary. If they don't meet you where you think they should in terms of price, become difficult and make a complaint. Most insurers try to limit avoidable complaints as team managers/leaders think it reflects poorly on their ability. They're much happier to throw a few hundred quid at a problem to make it go away in my experience (working in motor claims). It should be noted that everyone claims their vehicle was in "as new" condition at the time of the collision so you would need some evidence to back that up.

nullObjects

Thanks a lot for the reply.

I have a full service history (as in I can show there was nothing major that wrong with the car through the years right up to the last service earlier this year) and I had actually recently gotten some work done to the car (new tyres and clutch) before the incident which I have an invoice for. I think I should be able to prove the car was in working order easily enough.

I'll provide evidence of the above and see what they say, I think given there are a number of cars involved they may just be trying to limit their payout and see if I'll agree to it without putting a fuss.

Just in case, when you say "become difficult and make a complaint" - do you mean make an internal complaint or is there somewhere else I should complain to?

Thanks again for the reply

ullu

nullObjects wrote: »

Just in case, when you say "become difficult and make a complaint" - do you mean make an internal complaint or is there somewhere else I should complain to?

If you believe the offer is unfair after discussion with the insurer, signal your intention to make a complaint. Hopefully, it won't come to that obviously.

Whenever we had complaints that would immediately go away by meeting a customer/third party's valuation, we would generally meet them if they were reasonable (i.e a few hundred quid at the low end, 5-10% at the higher end). Any company treating complaints seriously does what they can to avoid them given they are a) time consuming and b) can reflect badly on the team and ultimately, its manager.

There is no-one else to complain to other than the insurer initially. A common misconception among complainants to insurance companies is that they can go to the Financial Services Ombudsman immediately. In fact, they will only get involved if a complainant believes their issue hasn't been dealt with correctly by an insurer once their internal process has been completed.

The people who throw their toys out of the pram and threaten to complain usually end up getting their way far more often compared to their reasonable and polite counterparts.

coylemj

nullObjects wrote: »

My car is a nissan almera which is similar in terms of mileage and nct to this:
https://www.carzone.ie/used-cars/nissan/almera/used-2007-nissan-almera-1-5-sxe-4-waterford-fpa-290372220455449

The quote I was offered is closer to 2,000 euros

The market value he quoted seems a bit low....

The vast majority of cars on carzone.ie are on sale by dealers so there is always some margin for 'negotiation', you'd probably get a better idea of the real 'street price' on donedeal.ie

In general terms, most people think that their car is worth more than it really is, that's because just as you have said, a lot of us look after our cars and the notional street value is never what we think it's worth. But by all means push back on the insurance company's valuation, show the receipts if you have them to prove that your car was well maintained and you feel it's worth more than they're offering.

Henry Ford III

nullObjects wrote: »

Thanks a lot for the reply.

I have a full service history (as in I can show there was nothing major that wrong with the car through the years right up to the last service earlier this year) and I had actually recently gotten some work done to the car (new tyres and clutch) before the incident which I have an invoice for. I think I should be able to prove the car was in working order easily enough.

I'll provide evidence of the above and see what they say, I think given there are a number of cars involved they may just be trying to limit their payout and see if I'll agree to it without putting a fuss.

Just in case, when you say "become difficult and make a complaint" - do you mean make an internal complaint or is there somewhere else I should complain to?

Thanks again for the reply

It's unfortunate but a new clutch, tyres etc. will only have a small effect on the value of an old Almera. It is what it is I suppose.

Best bet is to do some research and find similar vehicles for sale and try to justify a higher value.

Insurer wants to lowball your car, and you want more for it.

Justify and negotiate.

Atlantic Dawn

In general never ever accept initial offer from the insurance company, try to get as many comparisons as you can to justify your car is worth more. Take a look on the VRT calculator so see what Revenue give as Open Market Selling Price OMSP, might also help your case...

https://www.ros.ie/evrt-enquiry/vrtenquiry/vehicle.html?execution=e1s1

vandriver

You'd struggle to find too many Almeras that cost as much as 2k.
There are plenty on done deal for half that and less.
This for example,in sxe trim with lower miles and a nct till October
https://www.donedeal.ie/cars-for-sale/nissan-almera-sxe/17230814
€1,450

mrsbeebee

Get as many examples as possible of similar cars make, model, mileage, spec. I'm sorry but the maintenance issues won't add value - it would be expected that the car is roadworthy with a working clutch and legal tyres. Bit definitely don't accept the first offer - as the others have said they will often add on a couple of hundred extra to settle the claim if you dispute their valuation.