Do insurers kill cars?

[julianps]

Volvo's Assistance pages include details on accident repair.

I found myself thinking about this when I recently saw a 15-plate Toyota Aygo with only 564 miles, listed on eBay for £3,500 Car-D repairable; written off at 564 miles for a low-speed front-end shunt.

But think about it; if an insurer will only cover up to 60% of the value of the car and that value is predicated upon the lowest possible value in Glasses Guide, should one be careful of adding "30 days car hire", "overnight hotel accommodation" and "genuine manufacturers parts" clauses to your insurance?

Because if, after three years, a V40 T2 ES is worth £9,000 the most an insurer will ever cover is £5.4k (not sure if that includes VAT or not ... ?). If there's 30 days car hire at £80 a day that's the first £2,400 gone and if Volvo parts are used good luck getting a modest front-end shunt repaired on the balance (condenser, radiator, evaporator, DPF, alternator, compressor, bonnet, wings, lights ... and the ECU in all probability?).

Might you be better, if you're buying second hand, getting the cheapest policy you can so they skimp on repairs and don't write it off, then selling the car on?

Or if you bought from a dealer and you've got decent GAP cover then go for Volvo Insurance (Sun Alliance?) so as to maximise the likelihood they'll kill the car rather than repair. At least that way you'll get a great deal if V/I make direct payment to a dealer for a Selekt' replacement?

[You gotta know that if V/I wrote the car off that it would still go to the trade for repair and insurers would cover most of their costs selling the vehicle on in an auction; are we sure insurers don't have have a tricksy form of wording when they make a payment, direct to a dealer, that stops a w/o being a w/o so they don't have to stamp the V5 as Cat-D?]

[Marty Dolomite]

The cost of car hire, hotels or travel is not included in the valuation of the car, the cost of your insurance makes no difference to the assessors value of repai, cheap insurance just usually means no legal cover, no windscreen cover etc Gap cover also has no bearing on the cars value with respect to it being written off and you can get Gap insurance as an add on and it only covers the difference between the cars value and the payments on the car loan regardless of if its a main dealer or used car sales.

[kieran40]

Yes they do lol Marty they send it to a bodyshop that charges £100 an hour after they send some A hole in a suit on wages with a clip board called a engineer and he goes over the car with a toothcombe marking down previous scratches and car park dings by the time he's Finnished youre car is worth jack.if you are ever involved in a accident my advice is repair it youreself and put in for whiplash and lost wages well as much as you can

Standard whiplash claim is 1500- 2000 then you add lost wages and all the other bits you can see you get more than their payout. Next time I will be doing so

[kieran40]

Youre motor car unless it's just rolled out of the main dealers show room isint insured you pay insurance for knocking a pedestrian down or knocking a cyclist off , youre person is the insurance cheque I've learnt that much over recent months with my hassles. Hence why they've done away with 3rd party insurance cover by and large biggest crooks I've come across.

[Marty Dolomite]

£100 an hour for bodywork, repairs where is this and do they have any jobs?

[kieran40]

Originally Posted by Marty Dolomite

£100 an hour for bodywork, repairs where is this and do they have any jobs?

Youre insurance company's approved repair centres are on 80-100 an hour it's a fact I found that out recently. Some of that is proberly storage fees because they aren't keeping youre car cluttering up their yard out of the kindness of their heart. The rental cars work on like a bank loan principle they are a seperate insurance so they don't lose.

[Marty Dolomite]

Originally Posted by kieran40

Youre motor car unless it's just rolled out of the main dealers show room isint insured you pay insurance for knocking a pedestrian down or knocking a cyclist off , youre person is the insurance cheque I've learnt that much over recent months with my hassles. Hence why they've done away with 3rd party insurance cover by and large biggest crooks I've come across.

Can someone translate that please?

[kieran40]

Originally Posted by Marty Dolomite

Can someone translate that please?

When you take out insurance youre car is not insured if someone slams into you, you are insured on paper for public liability only. That is what you pay insurance for primarily. You can say the car is worth 3 grand it might cost you that to buy a replacement but they won't pay that you'll be lucky if you got 900 quid

To them in their eyes doesn't matter what you have spent on extras or what you personally think of the car to them it's just a piece of metal a pile of worthless metal at that.

[kieran40]

That's why next time that happens to me I will stay in my seat and scream out in pain milk it for everything and have a few months of work screw them for every penny. I'm that angry at the way I was treated that's precisely what I'm going to do Marty if they wanna pay me thousands out for a car that's worth fifteen hundred quid then so be it , you live and learn in this life

[Marty Dolomite]

Originally Posted by kieran40

When you take out insurance youre car is not insured if someone slams into you, you are insured on paper for public liability only. That is what you pay insurance for primarily. You can say the car is worth 3 grand it might cost you that to buy a replacement but they won't pay that you'll be lucky if you got 900 quid

To them in their eyes doesn't matter what you have spent on extras or what you personally think of the car to them it's just a piece of metal a pile of worthless metal at that.

Eh, it depends what insurance cover you have, I assume you recently made a claim and are not happy with the outcome because you used a cheap insurer?

Last claim I had, got hit by an uninsured car (which had been stolen) I actually ran it off the road and my insurer paid out the full amount I had paid for the car and let me keep the car.