HELLOM8

Dear Scoobynetters,
Last week I crashed my Scooby and today it has been confirmed as a write off, after the insurance assessor visited the body shop yesterday. There were no other vehicle’s involved in the crash.
I would like some advice on how to proceed. I have been with out a car for a week now and finding it difficult to do my 80-mile a day commute.
One of my fears is the insurance company taking forever to give me a settlement figure and when they do this figure not being enough to buy another car equivalent to mine.
If anyone has been in a similar situation or is in the know and could tell me want I should be doing to not get my pants pulled down I would greatly appreciate your advice.
Many Thanks (one very nervy, upset Scooby owner).

TomCat

When I wrote off my jdm WRX 3 weeks after buying it (lag - boost - oversteer - why am I upside down in a hedge - god this car protects you well in a crash...) elephant appointed an accident assessor to come out to interview me, who was very thorough, but fair. Whole process from crash to payout took just under 4 weeks.

Get all the documents ready (FSH, receipts etc) to prove the condition of your car before the crash.

The insurance company will make you an offer - this will always be on the low side. Gather information now from autotraders website and from Subarus website of the cost of replacing your car like for like. If you bought privately expect them to pay out for replacing it privately. You will need all this info as you should write contesting their valuation. They should then increase it.

Take care - its scary, but you've survived and will recover. I wasn't injured but it took a while before I got over it completely.

Now I'm back to normal, just taking rather more notice of road conditions - white lines, bumps, puddles etc which can throw the balance of the scoob under full accelleration

Hope this helps

Phil




[Edited by TomCat - 11/27/2003 1:28:48 PM]

spence7

Just to back up tomcat - I did exactly the same thing. Idiot parked on a blind corner so I broke hard and the back end overtook me ended up upside down in a ditch suspended by my seatbelt. Anyway, no others were involved that I could prove cos the idiot drove off - so it was around 4 weeks before I got the money. I had to go through the negtiation process as well, wrote a document including autotrader cars proving the current worth. Then included my listing of peronsal maintenance and history, and got the amount the I wanted. In the mean time - I had to buy an old rover diesel for £700 - because you need a run-around to get about - and a car to visit all the potential new scoobies which you want to buy when your money through. If you ensure you get something like a turbo diesel cheap - you can make your money back when you sell it and get the scoob.

Hope this helps
Alex

Izzy

Sorry to hear of your problem.

There is a good arguement that your insurer should continue to provide you with a hire car until you have agreed a reasonable settlement figure for your car (subject to you having the right benefits of the policy of course). Its usual that the replacement car is a courtsey car from the "repairing" garage, which of course they will want back as soon as yours is confirmed a total loss as the garage are clearly then not going to get the repair job.

As for the value question. This is always going to be subjective, but the only thing you can reay do is a) provide copy sales ads for simmilar cars & b) get your friendly servicing garage to vouch for its condition and value.....

Ian236

Sorry to hear about it mate.

I am in exactly the same postion as you at the moment - I wrote mine off recently - I have had an offer from the assesor which is slightly low £ 18.800 for 02 STI , mint, FSSH 10k miles and have been advised by a knowledgeable guy in the motor trade who deals with this sort of thing all the time to get proof of similar cars and what it would cost to replace the one that has just been written off, the dealer who I bought it off reckons he would trade a similar car to mine at about 20k and the only other local dealer reckons a bit more - I will now contact the assesor to see if I can get the price up a bit.

Good luck I will keep checking this thread to see how you go on, I doubt many insurance co,s will touch Imprezas soon though because of the high cost of repairs.

Ian

HELLOM8

Thanks for the advice guys.
The back ends also over took me, 2 and half years of ownership and not a wobble and then bang. Lucky for me the impact was very low speed, the air bang didn't even go off.
Since last week I have been taking screen shots of ads and I have the purchase document from the dealer when I brought it, plus the invoices for the Prodrive suspension, which I was paying through the nose for in premiums.
I like the idea of getting a valuation from my service dealer, they have had about 2K off me in maintenance so I hope they won't find this a hassle.
I'm entitled to a hire car for 3 days, but the grief to pick the thing up and take it back again makes it not worth my while really.
At the moment I owe about 8K on the car, MY96 UK Turbo 50K in/was amazing condition with the Prodrive drivers enhancement package.
So I just hope I can get close to this to pay the loan off.
I would like to get another one but I have run up a fair bit of debt in private health care due to a back injury, so might have to wait a few years until I get another.
Getting a shed to do my daily commute is my next task.
Thanks for all your help guys.
Cheers.

Mick

iTrader: (1)

I 'lost' a legacy turbo in similar circumstances.

Took ages for payout. I provided evidence of actual current value / cost to replace. They wanted to pay £6k I wanted ~ £9k. They eventually came up with 'the right price' when I theatened to take the case to the insurance ombudsman. I never actually got round to it, but they agreed 'in this particular case...'

HELLOM8

Got the offer today of £7700.
I'm as happy as could be expected with that, it pays the remainder of my loan off so it doesn't own me anything.
Would like to get another one but finiances are against it at the mo, hopefully next year.
Cheers.
Ian.