Grrr.... someone just killed my Mk1

[un1eash]

£850 is on the low side and whats this about 20% buy back. I paid £1500 for mine 3 years ago and got £900 but the paint is very faded and the front bumper needs replacing along with all arches needing touching up so it werent a bad offer.

Also ive always thought the buy back was the cost of scrapping the car, usually £50, its what i paid. I also paid the same 4-5 years ago when my Nova TDi was Cat D'd.

[jrleech]

Zurich claim that they get 20% of the value of the car from the salvage company, or 25% if it's a Cat D. Seems rather high, if it was £50 or £100, then there's no question, but I'm not buying it back for £300 (if I get my £1500).

They've asked me to send in my documents, including a signed V5. I presume that I can still haggle over the settlement cost even after I've signed over the V5 to them?

[S A Watt]

Jon

The insurers generally sell all the total losses to one salvage company. EG Norwich Union use Blue Cycle.

They generally have a set % that they get for each vehicle. Some they win and some they loose on.

20% does sound high though

Have you had any response from the woman and her Insurers to say if they are accepting liability.

If they are then why no ask them to value the car.

If i am honest i would not let the car away till you agree a settlement. This is as long as you are not charging the insurer to store it.

If the Insurers are being charged for storage by garages they generally pick them up quickly ( Some charge £15 a day)

If its at your place then it makes no difference.

Value

If i were you i would send some photos of the car before they accident and i would also send some adds from the Autotrader. Ebay, Forum etc that show cars of your condition at the priceyou paid. It all helps.

The other thing is to let the Insurers know you are a member of the club and this is a club car. This should let them know that this is not just a market value car

I recently did this when Mark (Brother) totalled his Mk2 on the Skye trip.
managed to perswade Royal & Sun Alliance to stick almost a grand on the original offer they would have made by doing this

Hope this helps

Shane

[jrleech]

Shane, thanks for the info.

The car is with the salvage company, it went straight there without going to a garage as I told them that they'd write it off.

I'll contact them tomorrow and make sure that I'm not agreeing to any settlement by sending in the documents.

Not heard anything regarding liability yet, but my girlfriend (passenger) hasn't received a request for her statement from DAS (who are handling my case) yet, so I guess they don't have the independent witness statement yet either.

I've got about a dozen autotrader / MR2DC, Mk1 Club adverts printed out, along with a couple from Autotrader at £900, but on these I've highlighted 'good condition for age' and explained in the letter that this means they'll have quite a lot of rust on them, as average condition for age Mk1's were scrapped years ago, being 20 years old and all that.

Will also mention the clubs I'm in, and maybe my website...

Cheers,
Jon