Insurance company will not consider AWD only AGE & mileage for write off

Darith

My car was rear ended. Chassis damaged so the other party's insurance company has written it off. My car is AWD. Very few AWD versions of my model. What are avilable are younger, less mileage and hence cost more. However they have accessed mainly on mileage and age in comparison with what is out there. Can i push back and state that the models available for what they are given will not gave me AWD or is that a non starter?

JamBur

Definitely push back, its a negotiation, so never take the first offer. Lack of other similar models to back up your claim makes it awkward though.

Sam Russell

I was rear ended and the insurance co for the offender (no question of liability - it was accepted by the driver at the time of the collision) made a 'final' offer.

My response was that the way this works is that their offer has to be realistic and acceptable to me. In the end, they upped the offer to one that was acceptable.

Decide what you want with plenty of evidence to support it, and make a proposal that you would accept. Let them know that otherwise get a solicitor to assist you, which would cost them more.

colm_mcm

If, say, you have a 2015 in a particular spec, and all that’s out there second hand today in that spec is 2018, the question is if they should pay out the the value of a 2018 so you can get a more like-for-like replacement?

It’s crap to have someone crash into you, and there is usually a bit of leeway with payouts especially where you’re bit at fault, but I can’t see them paying a lot more than your own car was worth, but you’re in a better position than if you were at fault.

MacDanger

Was rear ended last year, an old Vectra so it was a write off, all agreed with the other driver being at fault so no issues there.

I claimed from his insurance, they were brutal to deal with, replacement car initially offered was a micra, no negotiation on what they decided the value was, basically made a final offer and said we're not covering the car rental after X date (had it less than 3 weeks in total). Basically it was up to me to take them to court to argue about the value of it.

The difference between us was about 5-600 quid and they wouldn't budge.

Eggs For Dinner

Insurers are open to negotiation when you can provide supporting documentation. Where such is not available it can be very difficult and insurers rarely budge. Reasoned argument gets you further than making demands or threatening solicitors

Casati

You can potentially go to a 'no win, no fee' loss adjuster. They work on the basis of trying to get you fair market value - I believe you pay them % based on the difference between what the insurance company has offered and what the open market value of the car is.

AWD cars are v hard to buy now due to the massive VRT increases new so used ones are commanding a premium

sligopaul

Is there an AWD younger model out there, what is the differential in price to a like for like fwd model , or a number of both, if you can build your argument this way you may be able to increase your bargaining power

vandriver

Find one on Autotrader and factor in vrt,vat ,nox and duty?

colm_mcm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120224097#Comment_120224097

Thats not how an Irish market valuation works.

vandriver

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120227261#Comment_120227261

I was suggesting it in the limited circumstances where no equivalent cars are available in the domestic market.

colm_mcm

Insurance companies aren’t obliged to give you like for like a replacement, they just pay out the value of the car. No more than if I had a yellow car and there were no yellow ones available.

Qŵèrþÿ

Why do insurance companies ask the value of your car when getting a quote for insurance?

In the event of a theft or write off they (the ins company) decide the value anyway.

If I have a fiat punto of paddy spec and insure it for €500 and my neighbour has one of the exact same age and condition and he insured it for €20,000. Both get robbed. Does he get a €20,00 payout?

Qŵèrþÿ

What would happen if the car had very specific niche adaptations? Such as one to be driven by an arm amputee ?

Could the driver reasonably claim taxi fares from the insurance company when waiting for an adapted replacement?

sorry to hijack thread. Just curious about the legality

colm_mcm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120231655#Comment_120231655

Say the car is worth €1000 and it’s an own fault accident, the guy who insures it for €20k would get around €1000 and the other guy would get €500.

Qŵèrþÿ

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120233183#Comment_120233183

If the other fella insured it for €20,000 he’d be paying a higher premium. What’s the point of insuring it for such an amount then?

why do they even ask if they tell you how much you get anyway?

gooseman12

Just in case this helps anyone else, lowering valuation does not always result in a lower premium, certainly at the lower end of things.

I value my car worth about 800 euro at 2000 euro on the insurance as the premium is more than 100 cheaper as a result.

The insurance engines don't like low value cars so upping the value in these cases can generally reduce the premium

User1998

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120233205#Comment_120233205

In my experience if your insuring a cheap car you’ll usually get a little discount by increasing the value by a couple of grand.

As far as I know, if you insure your car for say €10k then thats the max they will pay out, so if it turns out the car is actually worth €13k, the insurance company will have saved themselves €3k by letting you decide the value.

But if you insure it for €13k and its only worth €10k then you’ll only get the lower amount. You can’t win.

Qŵèrþÿ

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120233226#Comment_120233226

Why is it not a law that insurance is calculated to a clear and transparent formula?

Driving is a necessity for a huge part of Irish society as they have no alternative and thus insurance, making insurance effectively compulsory for a lot of people here. There should be more transparency.

Qŵèrþÿ

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120234187#Comment_120234187

Why is it not a rule that the insurance company has to be upfront and transparent about the value that they’ll offer at the time you’re buying the premium.

3DataModem

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120233183#Comment_120233183

Other guy would get 250.

screamer

I think it’s absolutely scandalous what the insurance companies get away with. Unless it’s a new car with a new car replacement clause, you never, ever get the value of your car, and you end up out of pocket for something that was not your fault. They seem to do whatever the hell they want to do and no one gives a rats. OP, you’ll have a tough time getting them to budge. They offer what the car can be bought at in the trade, which we all know is not realistic. Given that the government make it illegal to drive without insurance they surely have a responsibility to step in here and sort it out, but they couldn’t be bothered.

thebiglad

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120234587#Comment_120234587

It is only compulsory to have insurance for damage or injury to third parties.

walterking

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120234187#Comment_120234187

You can win - simply by being realistic in your valuation.

They will pay out up to a maximum of what you have insured it for or the current market value. Whichever is the lowest. Same formula applies across insurance types.

cruizer101

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120227261#Comment_120227261

I had thought maybe use autotrader also but see your point.

I wonder would it be of value even to show the difference between standard and AWD models though. If you can demonstrate in the uk the AWD on average goes for say 15% more, then apply that to car standard cars in Ireland to get AWD model value.

Qŵèrþÿ

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120234674#Comment_120234674

So then why do they accept customers offering a higher valuation and insuring it for such? Why don’t they tell you up front there’s no point insuring it for that amount because you won’t get it.

Allinall

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120234767#Comment_120234767

It's your responsibility to value what you're insuring.

You are buying the insurance, so you tell them what you want and they will charge you accordingly.

Why would you over value a car when insuring it?

Seth Brundle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120234516#Comment_120234516

Why is it not a law that insurance is calculated to a clear and transparent formula?

Why should it be? If you want it to be a competitive business then you need to let the companies apply their own risk calculations.

Driving is a necessity for a huge part of Irish society as they have no alternative and thus insurance, making insurance effectively compulsory for a lot of people here. There should be more transparency.

Insurance is mandatory simply because of the cost of the potential risk. Simply because you need third party cover before you can drive does not mean that the risk calculations should be made public.

Your request for transparency is misguided. Insurance companies are being hamemred by dodgy claims. We're being hammered by a legal system that needs better regulation. How many times have you asked your TDs to resolve any of these?

So then why do they accept customers offering a higher valuation and insuring it for such? Why don’t they tell you up front there’s no point insuring it for that amount because you won’t get it.

Are you seriously thinking that an insurance company should value all cars prior to insuring them? You'd have thousands of people then complaining every day because the insurance company thinks their POS Micra isn't worth as much despite being "a great little runaround and never gave me a bit of bother". Be serious here! They do tell you when taking out a policy that in the event of a claim, you will receive the market value for the vehicle or the insured amount (whichever is lower). Someone taking out insurance to drive is considered an adult - do they really need to have their hand held here?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120234693#Comment_120234693

The UK is a different market with many other factors that don't apply here so they are very unlikely to entertain this angle. Potentially if you had a few irish adverts and then refer to the likes of Parkers price estimation, maybe.

Is there no way to get a value on your AWD vehicle? What about getting something in writing from the Irish distributor or a main dealer?

What do the online price estimators advise?

https://www.carzone.ie/car-valuation

https://autobuy.ie/

https://www.donedeal.ie/private-valuation/

https://www.motorcheck.ie/faqs/what-is-the-value-of-the-car/

https://www.carbuyersguide.net/value-my-car

https://my.carsireland.ie/car-value

monkeybutter

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120234921#Comment_120234921

hard to get past the words competitive business without laughing

Qŵèrþÿ

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120234921#Comment_120234921

Fine. Let insurers set their own pricing structure, but it should be transparent how it operates.

Seth Brundle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120235025#Comment_120235025

What exactly do you mean? They should choose their own pricing structure but be forced to display to everyone how they calculate it?

They are regulated by the CBI and obviously this isn't enough for you. I guess you want them to provide you with thorough details on how they reckon your car is more expensive to insure than if your neighbour owned it? Get real FFS!