Insurance dispute – any help greatly appreciated UPDATED resolved!

Thanks again everyone for taking the time to read and reply. I really appreciate all of the (really helpful!) feedback. I’m hopeful I can still get a fair market value, with an increasingly strong case thanks to you all, and may be able to get some more value out of buying back and selling on.
If I manage to get all this sorted then I owe you all a pint! That could be an interesting tour of the nation.

To get back to you all:

Harrycodlife – I have not heard of Gap Insurance before but will look into it. From the feedback from others it sounds like it will not help with the issue of the insurers undervaluing it vs. the market value today.

bluestreak56 – thanks for your note and thoughts. I don’t really have the skill, tools or time to do it up myself, but will look further into the option to buy and sell on to someone else (either to take on as a project, or to strip for parts).

aquazi – thanks as well. I am hoping that the various arguments and sources I am pulling will prove enough to encourage Admiral to do the right thing. Otherwise I will likely consider the ombudsman.

Wildfire – sorry to hear about the Elise  Thanks for the rest of the thoughts – all make sense and helpful. The body shop and Admiral engineers both seem to think the geometry is out and so the suspension needs replacing. I’m assuming they are right – potentially naively – although the body shop are losing the job and Admiral are paying more by calling it a write off, so not sure it’s in either of their interest to deceive me on that. I just don’t know without another engineer looking at it.

Mangozac – thanks for the thoughts. They do ask what value you want to insure up front, but then pay you what they value it should you claim. This is what makes least sense to me. I need to find out if the quote changes based on the value I say up front, if so then I don’t know how they can then refuse to pay at least that value. Confusing and frustrating.

mr.tourette – thanks! Really helpful to have some sold prices to add to the asking prices!

srhutch – sorry, I may not have been clear. The £4.7K was for all of: the panels (bumper and front right), alloy refurb, respray, other various ‘bits and pieces’ (headlight washer etc.) and resprays/blending etc. I am considering buying back and fixing up – but not sure where to take it, or what cost I am committing myself to. I am first and foremost hoping to get market value for the write of, and then may buy-back if I can find a way to make more money from the loss (given I don’t have the skills or time to do it myself, unfortunately.).

mr wilks – thanks. I’ll try and find out more!
 
There is a front bumper on eBay at the moment. Above top money at £329 but still cheaper than new. Used wing around £150. Wheel repair £60. Headlight £700 unless you can find used. But I reckon for under 2k you could get this back on the road by shopping around.
 
srhutch said:
There is a front bumper on eBay at the moment. Above top money at £329 but still cheaper than new. Used wing around £150. Wheel repair £60. Headlight £700 unless you can find used. But I reckon for under 2k you could get this back on the road by shopping around.
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The damage seen could be the easy part
If its had a hard knock on a corner then it could easy have a knocked the chassis out of square :cry:
 
Would it be possible for another body shop to give you a quote for the repair as the main dealer quote is always going to be high.
To have the car written off for such a small amount off damage is ludicrous .
 
Shocking offer but thats insurance for you.
The amount that you insured it for means nothing as they will always go for the market value.
When filling in the paperwork you could have said it was worth £1,000,000 but they are never going to pay that.
Are they definately giving you the market value for an M?
 
There is only one way ........ and it is in my experience, to beat the insurance company, however understandably it will not be to you liking.

The word is "Time" ..............
Any payment they make has to be accepted by yourself, they make you sign an acceptance before they pay anything. This closes the cases and makes sure you can not come back at them.

In my case I said no ........ to which some smart arse told me I would get nothing .........

However, a year later I got a call from the insurance company telling me that I had no choice but to accept the offer or they would close the case ....... I told them to take a hike.

18 months later there is a knock on my door, and there is this w***er with a piece of paper telling me I have to sign, I told him to get off my land .......... and then ....... with a sorry lo ok in his eyes, he said " have you any idea how much it is costing us to keep this case open for so long ....... ?"

No guesses as to what my answer was .......

He then said ...... "ok, how much do you want to settle ?"
I doubled my original number and he settled immediately .......
 
mr wilks said:
srhutch said:
There is a front bumper on eBay at the moment. Above top money at £329 but still cheaper than new. Used wing around £150. Wheel repair £60. Headlight £700 unless you can find used. But I reckon for under 2k you could get this back on the road by shopping around.
Click to expand...

The damage seen could be the easy part
If its had a hard knock on a corner then it could easy have a knocked the chassis out of square :cry:
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Very true, but you could make some money parting it out if you had to, as long as you didn't invest too much in it.

Interior £700+
Bonnet £600+ I would have thought being £1200 new
Engine must be worth £4k

The shitty football needs some new clocks :wink:
 
First off OP sorry to hear of your bad luck.

Their offer looks very low - you'd be unlikely to get an M for that!

You don't mention how you bought it or what you paid, but as it was only last year and prices haven't moved much from what I have seen could you send them a copy of your purchase invoice?

They have a point about A/T adverts being a starting price, but that only really applies to private adverts - main dealers and traders don't drop much, if at all!

It would seem realistic to expect what they offer to be based on like-for-like prices, so if you bought from a main agent their offer should reflect main agent prices, if from a trader then trade prices, etc.

I had a similar experience a year and a half ago when my niece's Polo got written off - first offer from Direct Line was a joke! She had only bought it 3 months before from a trader so we sent them the invoice and the one for a cam-belt change she had done. Got a better offer eventually but had to keep pestering them until they finally offered something she was willing to accept just to get things finalised so she could buy a replacement, but it was still slightly insulting. Thankfully it was a non-fault claim so she got some uninsured losses paid to make the experience a bit less painful!

I knew it was worth keeping on that them as many years ago as I used to work in the Claims Department at Cornhill (now part of Allianz) and we generally didn't have too much trouble agreeing total loss settlements - I think it is a reflection of cost-cutting, dumbed-down staffing (engineers included) and a general disinterest in customer satisfaction! Thankfully I left that job years ago - wouldn't want to do it now!

Mind you having seen your photos from my limited experience that doesn't look like it would make it uneconomic to repair - as has been suggested it would be useful to get it looked at by a proper bodyshop (main agents usually sub-contract jobs like that to one anyway, then add their mark-up)!

And if all else fails the Ombudsman bureau is worth a try - sometimes insurers get more reasonable even at the mention of referring it to them (when I was last involved the Ombusdman charged a referral fee to the insurer, then gave a decision which was binding on the insurer, but not on you - win-win).

Anyway, I hope you manage to get a satisfactory conclusion. :thumbsup:
 
teamemmenracing said:
There is only one way ........ and it is in my experience, to beat the insurance company, however understandably it will not be to you liking.

The word is "Time" ..............
Any payment they make has to be accepted by yourself, they make you sign an acceptance before they pay anything. This closes the cases and makes sure you can not come back at them.

In my case I said no ........ to which some smart arse told me I would get nothing .........

However, a year later I got a call from the insurance company telling me that I had no choice but to accept the offer or they would close the case ....... I told them to take a hike.

18 months later there is a knock on my door, and there is this w****r with a piece of paper telling me I have to sign, I told him to get off my land .......... and then ....... with a sorry lo ok in his eyes, he said " have you any idea how much it is costing us to keep this case open for so long ....... ?"

No guesses as to what my answer was .......

He then said ...... "ok, how much do you want to settle ?"
I doubled my original number and he settled immediately .......
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Brilliant :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :lol:
 
Hi all,

Thanks for more messages and a the various PM’s. This seems to be getting a lot of interest!

I’m doing another blanket response, sorry.

Srhutch/mr wilks – BMW are claiming the geometry alignment is out and so they need to replace the front right suspension. Not sure how true this is or how bad it is. I watched the car carefully myself when the AA were driving it on and off the truck and it looked absolutely fine to me, but I am not an engineer. If someone wants to buy it off me and take it on they are welcome, price permitting. As you say srhutch the parts alone could be worth quite a fair bit. Seats, 3 alloys (plus one needing refurb), panels, engine, custom exhaust (Hayward and Scott), OEM exhaust and so on – I’m sure there’s a good amount of value in it.

Maxman – the trouble is that it is now with Admiral and so to get it to another body shop I think I will need to buy it off them. However I thought this would likely be well worth considering and the level of interest from the forum reinforces that.

Nictrix – yeah I double checked as they at first offered £8,800 and claimed that was top of the range they got from Glass’s database. I queried whether that was all Z4s but they assured me it was Z4M Roadsters. That was with a regular service assistant on the phone – I have a call with the valuation team tomorrow (with my pile of evidence to argue it is more like £14K-£15K).

Teamemmenracing – quite a tale! Well done for holding your ground. Hopefully I’m not in for a year of this…

enzed 4 – haha! Thanks for the warning. There seems to be a lot of interest and so I have quite a few options which helps me a bit.

Mr Tidy – I bought privately so am not expecting their value to necessarily reflect dealer prices, but still think they are ripping me off for a good few grand. Thanks for the rest of your thoughts – all very helpful. The trouble I have now is the car is with Admiral so I can’t get it to a bodyshop without buying it back. That said I thought that would be a potentially good idea and the high level of interest from the forum reinforces that. I’ll see where I net out on the market value – if I do get it substantially increased that might make it less appealing to buy/sell for me and those interested.

It'll be interesting to see how the next few days go...
 
My car was written off this year. I got paid out £15,600 for the car and got to purchase the "scrap" back for £3,800 which I sold for more (so £11,800 and my car).

My car was a 56 plate, excellent condition, 46k miles and FSH with most options.

I also got to take the aero skirts off and a few other bits and pieces. I used an accident management company as the other driver left details but they were incorrect.

Dispute the value and send examples that are of similar, spec and mileage if your car had any rare items I.e. Cruise, FSH, etc.

If you have photos that prove the pre accident condition again submit these. It's clear that the glasses valuation is out and this is due to the rarity of the car, point this out also. For example their offer wouldnt buy any car except my written off one on eBay ;)

If necessary ask for the details of the claim manager from the insurer and ask him to log on to autotrader, pistonheads, etc and ask him to show you where an example can be purchased for £9k.

Take out a hire car, the more expensive the better as this usually gets them to play ball as £100-£150 a day hire charges soon add up to more than the amount being disputed :)

Id be wanting £13k min for your car and you should get the salvage back for £3kish so £10/£11k and your car back would be a reasonable offer IMO.
 
Thanks FR08MEE. I'll have to see if they will give me a hire car while we are resolving the issue - good point! Rest of your thoughts also make sense and are helpful - thanks!

JT
 
Ask for a hire car but say you'll consider not taking one of the claim is managed quickly and to your satisfaction, etc.

The claim manager will be interested in saving money nothing else :)
 
OP, this jogs my memory - had a dispute with my mother's insurer some years ago.

Before you go down the Ombudsman route try to identify the General Manager/CEO/COO and write directly to him - I knew who he was and when I did that the "customer service" ramped up like you wouldn't believe!

Maybe these days a threat of bad reviews on social media might also prompt a better approach!

At the end of the day he who shouts loudest..........

They don't usually like bad PR!
 
monaco_blue said:
You might wish to give the likes of http://www.europaconsultants.co.uk/services.php a bell to help you fight your corner.
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These guys are excellent. Got a small prang, on a Discovery, sorted in a weekend. They are highly recommended on Pistonheads and accident management companies are generally hated over there.

Usually, the mention of an accident management company will galvanise an insurance company into action.

Good luck with the claim. Here's hoping you get what you should.......a fair and equitable settlement.
 
If the bump was your own fault I really wouldnt go and get an expensive hire car as your insurance company probably wont pay for it.
No point being more out of pocket than you need to be.
 
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