Agreed value insurance...yes or no?

darich

darich

Active member
 South Lanarkshire
Hey all

Thought about this on and off for a while now.
Not so much "how much is the car worth?" but more of a "should I get such a policy?"

I have an E86 with just under 80k on it so I reckon it's worth around 10k if I was to sell it. But if it was written off or stolen and insurance offers "market value" it's likely to be significantly less than that. So I wondered if anyone else had an agreed value policy, or if you did get a pay out was the amount received reasonable?
 
When mine was written off. The insurance assessor looked on Autotrader and offered me a value half way between two similar cars that were up on there. Can't moan at that, though I am pretty certain mine was in better condition than either, before the shunt, so I accepted. :)
 
I think the answer is yes based on current values if you want insurance to pay out what you think the car is worth however as in my case your insurance will be more expensive .
 
Not got it on my E86 (it's not currently insured at all, but I will probably get it once it's on the road), but I have agreed value on my E30.

You say what you think it's worth, send in some photos, they say 'yes, we agree', or 'no, we don't - we think it's worth xx instead'. On my E30, it cost no extra to add agreed value (maybe as it's a classic policy?).

I've not had my car written off, but it was crashed while under the agreed value policy (a van cut me up at some traffic lights, needed new bumper, wing, lower wishbone). During the claim, which came out at about £5.4k I think, it was nice knowing that the car wasn't at risk of getting written off, as it was well under the agreed value limit. There was never any mention of 'write off' or anything, and I can't help but wonder, if it wasn't on agreed value, would they have been comparing to ropey a 316i, and trying to scrap mine? From then on, I've always added it for piece of mind. It saves the arguments, and the hassle, should the worst happen. Insurance is generally a scam, but I think agreed value is one of the few good things.

Generally, the agreed value is valid for 2 years or so, before you need to provide new evidence/photos.

Another perk is that agreed value often comes with salvage retention, so you can keep it in the event of a crash, which if you have expensive parts (coilovers, wheels, seats, bixenons, whatever), can be a bonus.
 
I've never had to use it, but it only costs me £20 extra for agreed value so I always sign up. Given others' stories of painful back and forth negotiations with insurers following a writeoff, I figure it's worth paying.
 
I had a bit of a nightmare with a car I owned.

Just to preface this, I have unfortunately been unlucky that living in Manchester is one of the worst theft areas in the country, and I've been burgled and attempted twice since. I always buy the maximum cover and have predetermined values.

This example was with Admiral.

Anyway, covid hit. Car needed pads and at the time they were closing all business including garages. Managed to get it booked in I took it in at a local mini specialist, not somewhere i have been before and they damaged the car. To stop people stealing cars from the workshop they had metal posts outside the entrance and the mini being a bit difficult to see he bashed it into one. Not the end of the world these things happen but it was the bumper, the clubman has twin doors and hit it so hard the door was damaged too.

They were a body shop so said they would sort it. My wifes family at the time were all unwell and one was going though cancer treatment which is why we needed the car we were up and down to Cumbria every couple of days, it was a super stressful period for everyone so I had more sympathy and forgivness than I usually would. I didnt get the insurance involved as was assured all would be well.

They had 2 cracks at it and it was awful, overspray on black plastic components, no prep on the surface, some of the body lines had been lost, no metal work was done all bondo and it was a PCP so had to be right.

Paint started flaking off with the first wash. Too late to involve the insurance, learned that lesson. It was a really bad experience they ended up being complete cowboys, so I took the hit and booked it into a shop I trusted back in Cumbria

This place I have used before, kitemark approved in line with the PCP. It was so bad they had to take it back to metal to sort it. Cost a fortune. I managed to get the garage who did the damage to pay for it. It was so surprising and the money was with them in an hour. Which should have been a red flag.

Dropped it off, that evening 3 masked men broke into the body shop and stole the car.... dont need to tie too much together but it could have been a coincidence. Probably not. They did steal a 150k camper too so whether mine was a bonus or the other way round who knows. Either way gone.

It wasn't in my care, therefore it shouldn't have been my problem. I thought no probs the garaged insurance will be able to cover it, had other things going on as I mentioned and honestly was so fed up with it all. Worst luck ever.

In the meantime, because it was a PCP, the insurance paid the PCP off. No contact with me, I understand this is normal practice. The issue was the height of the price hike during COVID. It was a 2-year-old Mini Clubman JCW 10k on the clock and spec maxed it was nearly 44k list but I paid 28k for it because nobody wanted them it was a pre reg with 5 miles (apart from me 🤣), and the prices were higher than I paid when I bought it. Around the £30k mark. The PCP had about 16k on it, and the insurance company valued it at 16.5k. I fought and fought with them spent hours on the phone. The cheapest one in the county was £25k and it had 70k on it mine up until the incident was brand new and immaculate.

They told me its not on actual value its on trade book price and 18k was the max they could pay.

In the end I managed to get it up to £18.5k. So got £1.5k payout which covered my deposit. I had the car insured with value when I took out the policy. In reality, without covid the prices probably weren't far away and to the insured value.

That might have been a specific circumstance like an act of god but at the end of the day, surely its on values at that time and is suitable to market situations.

If I had bought it cash... I wouldnt have been able to replace it. Needed another 12k to buy a car like for like. Very rare situation to have been in a world wide pandemic with cars shooting in value and having your car stolen.

It took 10 months to go through the courts for the insurance companies to find liability. Turns out that my insurance company lost in the court and that they ruled liability was with me. Although my car was in a locked garage in the care of a bodyshop.

I had like 17 years no claims at the time. Protected no claims is absolute BS too. The protection drops you to 3 years. My next insurance went from £320 up to £1150 for the same car as we ended up getting another one. Again down the the area I live in went from being a sure bet to basically being a high risk like being 20 again.

Im still struggling with the insurance now. It stays on your file for 5 years, next year it comes off and I will have 8 years NC by then and hopefully with help bring it down.

Just a little story that regardless of how you insure your car they will screw you one way or the other.

There is only ever one winner in my experience.
 
TriggerFish said:
You say what you think it's worth, send in some photos, they say 'yes, we agree', or 'no, we don't - we think it's worth xx instead'. On my E30, it cost no extra to add agreed value (maybe as it's a classic policy?).
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That's not how a friend of mine has just done his 'agreed value' on his.
He told the insurers what he wanted the agreed value to be and they just gave a premium based on the value.
He went from £80k value to start with, but the premiums were high, to ending up with an agreed value of £45k (what the car owes him) with a reasonable premium. Admittedly the car in question is a very unusual one and not a 'production' model as such, so the value was hard to assess.
 
You can but ask..I use Adrian Flux aka Sterling…

It’s a negotiable basis…you’ll need lots of high quality photos of the car from every angle..interior / exterior

Ideally you need lots of receipts for lots of love expended on the car.

For me I got a decent base value plus 50% of ALL the expenditure I put on the car..

Took 3 months to sort out!
 
B21 said:
Took 3 months to sort out!
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I think this is a very good point .It can take some time to sort out an agreement on vehicle value so start early .
 
Thanks all.
Might be something to consider next time I'm renewing but it does seem it has the potential to have its own pitfalls.
 
Clearly depends greatly on the insurer.

I'm with Classicline underwritten by ERS. They charge me £20 and ask for a form and six photos. I've done this for many cars over the years, and they've never once quibbled over my proposed value, accepting usually within 48 hours. (Albeit I've never had to claim.)
 
1536Z4 said:
B21 said:
Took 3 months to sort out!
Click to expand...

I think this is a very good point .It can take some time to sort out an agreement on vehicle value so start early .
Click to expand...

Yeah, I take the same opinion.. Get it agreed before you need it.!

I'm with APlan/Howden, I have an agreed market value on the policy (which is a fair chunk higher than the crusty examples on AT or Facebook), Everything is declared on the policy; Wheels, intake, zorst, suspension, brakes.
Also as someone said, keep evidence of work, reciepts. Another good reason to keep a running log or build thread to show why the car would fetch a higher than trade in value within the enthusiast groups.
I've always heard very good things about APlan/Howden, but they'll show their true colours come the time I need them, hopefully never.

Give insurers no room to wriggle.! :thumbsup:
 
Insurance companies only offer market value. They looks at Glass',Parkers and CAP.

If they offer you in the region of what they say your car is worth then you will have no comeback. I took a case to the ombudsman a few years ago as we were offered substantially below every similar car was sale for.

The ombudsman agreed that the insurance company had offered a settlement in line with the market value of the experts. Advertised prices on AutoTrader were deemed irrelevant and meaningless.

If you need £10k back on a Z4 coupe if it's written off you do need an agreed valuation policy. I've not looked at valuation guides recently, but I doubt they are close to £10k.
 
Retail and trade is very different. 20-40% price differences.

In my case, I had COVID prices on used cars had doubled and that wasnt taken into account.
 
The one thing about agreed value insurance not everyone realises is a non-fault accident will count as a claim if you use it.

Let's say, as I was a few years ago, you're rear-ended by a parent on the school run in their SUV, too busy with their phone to see they're rapidly approaching a queue of cars at a red traffic light. Suitably embarrassed, they puts their hands up to it straight away but their insurance only values your modern classic at a fraction of the replacement cost (and of what you have into it). They declare it a Cat N total loss. You argue and argue, and get a 50% more, but still nowhere near its true value.

Now, if you have an agreed value policy (I didn't), great, your insurer makes up the difference. But that's a claim on your policy. Bang goes your 20+ years No Claims Discount and you get a loading on top of the undiscounted premium for the next five years (which can ramp up the cost more than losing the NCD, so protecting that won't fully save you).

Not saying that necessarily means it's not worth it. Just that it's something to be aware of.

With insurance companies, it's always head they win, tails you lose.
 
A non-fault accident will impact your premium with or without agreed value, even if all costs are borne by the other party's insurance.
 
I'm not sure why the NCD protection wouldn't apply in the scenario above.

Values of well-used Z4s is rock bottom so if you have a loss of a cherished and or low mileage car you'd be out of pocket without an agreed value. Mine's set @ 3x the book price, backed up by photo's every 2 years.

I'd always go through a broker rather than a website, they're great for advice - I recently learnt ag val ins doesn't cover business use.
 
Sticks said:
I'm not sure why the NCD protection wouldn't apply in the scenario above.
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Protection would but they also load the undiscounted premium after a claim. Hence the separate questions on a proposal form of how many years' NCD you have and the requirement to list all claims in the last five years.

So often insurance is great until you claim :(
 
plenty said:
A non-fault accident will impact your premium with or without agreed value, even if all costs are borne by the other party's insurance.
Click to expand...

To be fair to the industry, I didn't find that affected my premiums. I declared it to my insurer and there was no change in premium, and when I did the comparisons at each renewal I'd do them with and without, and it made no difference to quotes. I could quite believe it'd be different if a proposer had a history of failing to avoid other people's accidents, though.

edit - to be clear, that was having claimed only on the third party's policy.
 
Thinking this through, it's quite plausible that insurers will impose an additional load on your premium on top of that for the non-fault claim, should they pay out agreed value.
 
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