Bubba po

...as has happened to me.


Background:

I bought a 1999 V reg Impreza turbo wagon with full Subaru Service History last November. It had every garage receipt throughout its history with it. It was subsequently stolen, and was declared a "total loss" within a week. The Ins. Co. asked for the documentation to make a proper valuation on the vehicle, which I duly sent to them. After a few weeks they made a derisory offer, which I contested. At this point the vehicle was still mine as I hadn't accepted their offer. The car then turned up , with damage only to the front wheel and tyre, and I decided I wanted it back. So I sent back the initial cheque they had sent, plus a top-up one they had sent with an increase of the offer (after I had advised them by telephone that I would be keeping the car) and asked them to return my documentation.


Yes, that's right, the fecking incompetent insurance company has lost my service and warranties booklet, and about twenty pages of garage/service receipts pertaining to my car*.

So now I'm after compensation. If a seven-year-old Scoob is worth 6.0-6.5 grand with a perfect set of history and documentation, what is it worth without?

Your comments please.


*Actually, they've confessed to destroying the receipts because they take up too much room in the filing cabinet, even though the claim wasn't settled at the time.

dpb

Would have thought you had a case . I mean i can understand them shredding them if and only when the car had been declared a right-off.

What on earth you do about im not quite sure ..

Normally wouldnt the value (for insurance) be based souly on milaage and age.

Stevesbluewrx

iTrader: (4)

Bubba,

Know how you feel mate. A maindealer lost mine!!!

The car I have had full service history most not by a Subaru maindealer. When I viewed the car i looked through the booklet/service book. But when I went to collect the car a week later they had lost it. They said they would find it and send it onto me........you guessed it. Gone with the wind!!

I now have a new booklet with there last service, plus two more by cheam motors and GRD.

So im stuffed when it comes to selling the car on too.

Steve

Lee247

This is appalling
I'd be inclined to double check they have classed the car as "not stolen" now, just in case. Incompetence like this beggars belief

Blueblaster

Very difficult to put a value on these documents and even more difficult to get the insurance company to cough up. You are going to have to nag them to death over this one. If your car is worth 6 grand I reckon the receipts must be worth at least £1500. It's just another old Scoob without em. Sorry and good luck.

Bubba po

The insurance have offered the possibility of compensation, with the onus on myself to provide evidence of by how much my vehicle has been devalued.

As I told them on the phone, it's not like buying a flippin' Vectra or something - I wouldn't go within ten streets of an Impreza without a FSH. Besides, now I have to tell any prospective buyer it was once stolen, even though it is not on the stolen/recovered register, simply because will I have to explain where all the documentation has gone.

There is one possible get-out; if I can find out the dealership from where the car was originally purchased, they can send me copies of the service records they have. Jennings Subaru have already offered to send me documentation for the last two services, but the previous ones were at a dealership I can't recall. It's possibly the one in Richmond, I'm going to call them in the morning.

It's just not the same as having the stamps.

Bubba po

So you can get a new booklet, eh?.... The plot thickens.

v5 man

iTrader: (4)

Unfortunately for you, and being truthful, I doubt i`d even view it minus the history to start with, bargain price or not

hectic

incompetant fools ... if the boot was on the other foot, no doubt there would be 'hell to pay'..but they do these kind of things every bloody day.. screw the fcukwits for every penny you can get out of them , Bubba

pslewis

Get a letter from the company saying they have had the Full Service History and binned it - keep it with your records!

Blueblaster

I guess the thing to do would be to go to 3 Subaru garages and get them to write a letter (you could draft it and they could fill in the numbers to save them time) saying what they would pay for your car with and without the history. Send this info to the insurance company - they would find it very difficult to argue otherwise.

Bubba po

Thanks, Pete, that document is number one on the list of documents I will be asking for from the insurance company. To be honest, if I can track down the original dealership where all the early services were done and get them to print off the service invoices like Jennings have, then I would have no qualms about advertising it as possessing a full service history. Whether a prospective buyer would accept the loss of the booklet is anybody's guess.


At the back of my mind is the echoing phrase "leave it, Bubbs... it's not worth it..." -that I should say "**** the job", tell the insurance co. to come and get the car, give me the 6.3k they offered for the total loss and go look for another.

To be honest, though, I know the car's utterly kosher. A diamond, in fact. I'm only the third owner, and the second owner had it as an approved, warranted vehicle from Subaru themselves. I want to keep it.

Shark Man

The dealers that serviced your car will have record of all the service work carried out on your car which they can easily search for on their computer system (unless they use Unifart's garage system which only shows thelast 5 jobs, then you have to review every single past individual invoice for the car to find the rest...stupid useless system ).

Obviously being armed with previous owners details and a humble approach, teh dealer who worked on the car may issue you a duplicate service book all stamped up. However, this will be clearly stamped as "duplicate".

They may also be able to print out past invoices relating to the car's history to prove work was carried out, they might not want to do this as it has the previous owners details, so they may get a bit giddy on data protection and all that. But if your nice and persuasive I can't see that it should stop them...afterall, the previous owner's details are stamped the v5

PS, glad you got the car back Did they catch any criminals?

Bubba po

Firstly, thanks for the info that I might get a replacement stamped service book, even if it is a "duplicate". I intend to keep the car for a number of yeas, so its value might be academic. Then again, who's to say I might not want to trade in for a P1 or 22b in the next couple of years?

The fact is, when Classics are too old to buy, I'll probably move on from Subarus.


For the life of me, I can't think what to. : lol1:

Secondly, they didn't catch any criminals.

Shark Man

It's certainly worth a try

Why didn't that suprise me

Dr watson, may I be correct in the deduction that the thief could be a woman....the curbed alloy is irrefutable evidence

cookstar

iTrader: (6)

why did the insurance company write it off as total loss for such minor damage?

swampster

iTrader: (1)

At a guess...They thought it was lost/stolen/never-to-be-seen again, they didn't know what damage it'd had.

Bubba po

Correct.

fivetide

iTrader: (1)

I had a replacement book with mine. Apparently it never had a book at new but since it had only been to one dealer they ordered a new one and stamped the whole thing up from the computer records. If you still have the prvious owner's address on the v5 perhaps wrtiting to them or getting a number might tell you were they went for servicing so you can get the computer proof.

5t.

colinversion8

all the dealer history should prob be saved onto computer so u could speak to them about printing u out dockets for work that they have carried out on the car,these should also be date'd,so allthough its not the origional book it should be enough to let buyers no that it has been serviced!
but that is just typical of insurance companys,a friend of mine had an accident,which was not his fault and he is not being prosecuted for,yet the insurance company took away his no claims bonus almost instantly,and wanted to pay out to the other people involved!

TonyG

I got a replacement for mine (disappeared when the car was stolen). Took two years of badgering (they lost at least one duplicate before it got to me), and the dealer stamped every service they'd done consecutively in the book. Bit of a dumb thing to do as I'd had it serviced at various other specialists at times, so the book is a bit out of sync with the servicing actually done on the car.
One thing I do have is all the receipts for anything done on the car, which is probably a better history than just the service book.

dpb

Well i bought my scooby (sti) blind as it were , 2 owners in the uk -and she ran just fine for the year i had her . (crashed)
Now i could for a similar price had a uk car 5 years ,poss ,younger ( but with more mileage) .
These cars are actually afaik extremly reliable/quality unless somebody has actually gone for total abuse.

Bubba po

Well, I got the first instalment of my recovered service history from Jennings Subaru today; copy invoices for the 52,500 and 60,000 services . Nine to go.

The 52,500 one was a Subaru internal invoice, which included a full re-cat.

There are some bits of history I'd rather be ignorant of.

GC8

International Motors can tell you who the supplying dealer was Bob.

acko

by accepting the cheque in the first place, would they have thought "thats this case closed" then shredded the service history.

glad you got your wagon back with minor damage

Bubba po

No, the accompanying letter with the first cheque advised that it needed to be banked immediately, but that banking it did not constitute an acceptance of the settlement.

I've got a number for IM, Simon, but the lazy gets don't start w*rk until 9 a.m. I'm going to have to go in late to w*rk. It's not really convenient to do it on the mobile.

finalzero

sue them, no seriously. You can shaft em for negligence and probably other stuff including incompetence. I sued my accountant and won and it was in a not too similar situation where he had lost some vital documentation due to being a complete __________t.

Good luck

GC8

They may be able to tell you which dealers have serviced the car over its life, Porsche Cars have computerised their service records since <1985. Theyll be able to tell you which dealers have completed any warranty work too: it all helps...

STEVECHAPS

Bubba, I know someone who wrote his Impreza off in 2000 (Bradford country lane....black ice....ditch etc), 15k damage so w/o.
Imagine his surprise at 1st service time to be told by the receptionist at the main dealer "Oh I was dealing with your old car yesterday, the new owners wanted the service book so I did them a new one". So the answer is maybe that if you can trace all the service details (date/miles/place) then a replacement book should be possible albeit obtained from supplying dealer then (you) posting it out to each servicing dealer to stamp?
Steve
ps The knackered car was put back onto the road he still has the original service book!

Bubba po

Jesus, that's a bit scary, isn't it?

That's my plan, anyway, to do as you suggest. As it happens, I've had a PM from an extremely helpful Scoobynetter.