Insurance Claim

The prices quoted for an insurance repair will be for new factory parts. If you want to repair the car you should negotiate to buy it back from the insurance company as part of the settlement, then have it fixed to the standard you require using recon. or after-marked parts.

Regards, David Betts snipped-for-privacy@minilist.org The Mini Gallery:

David's talking SENSE! I spoke to my broker and that's exactly what they told me I'd have to do becasue they don't do an aasured value policy.

I would like to know what a "rear upper support arm" and a "rear track control arm" are. As I remember, Mini's only had radius arms and suspension parts at the rear.

John

"KilroyCG" may or may not have written :

Have you ever thought of getting another quote at a different garage??? Preferably one that deals with mini's???? Sometimes garages that don't deal with mini's all the time get a little carried away.... not just that, looking @ other people's posts, it looks like a bit of a fleecing going on...... not trying to be sceptical.......but £££'s is what thier after.

Mick

On the subject of a buy back, the car is yours at present. The deal with the insurers is that they pay you the market value as being cheaper than the cost of repairs. They cannot force you to accept their offer and they can never own the car unless you allow them to do so. I believe there are various classes of write off. Anyone know what they are? A Google search may help here.

John

The garage was one of two in my area specified by my insurers, and neither Mini specialists unfortunately! Don't you just love it when the insurers say you have to take it to one of their nominated "specialists"...

I do reckon the prices are way off, though. As it is, it's taken them about 10 days up to now, and I still haven't heard from them what's happening (although at £1500 total for the repairs, they WILL write it off!), and I just want it sorted. I may well ask to buy-back the car whatever they say, although my wife's offering to sell some shares so I can buy a Cooper!!!

As for the John's comment about the rear tie rod and upper support arm, I did wonder myself - I've checked my manual and searched a few sites for these parts, and have been unable to locate anything...

Cheers, Cols

Getting a second quote is a good idea. I believe it's common practise for insurance companies to allow you to "buy back" the written off vehicle for the scrap value. In other words their final pay out to you is the insured value minus the scrap value. Just one thing to bear in mind though, the car will be registered on their database as scrapped/write-off due to the extent of the damage and may consider it unroadworthy.

I thought you were describing the rear suspension off one of those BMW's for a minute.

The garage don't want the work, hence the parts list is hefty enough to get it near the write off mark before they add anything else. They're banking on the Insurance loss adjustor being ignorant of required parts (and you) to move the motor out of the workshop.

I'd take the car and adjusted settlement figure and get it sorted for cash at a reasonable price.

Above link is best I could find in 5 mins with Google, if you scroll down to the Insurance categories section.

Just another thought, you say your "waiting to hear the offer". Are you a member of a mini-club? If so I'd be inclined to get a value from one of their recognised valuation guys.

If you let the insurance company give you a Glass' or Parkers valuation your not going to have the 'rarity' value taken into account. These are popular cars with a big following, maybe buy a copy of mini-mag and have some comparable motors to argue your case with.

If you 'need' the money then obviously they'll have you over a barrel, but I'd be inclined to reject their first offer and hold out for as much as possible. Insurance settlements are open to negotiation.

Good luck

Looking at the site above, I'd personally consider the car a Class "C" (write-off due to cost of repairs). To be honest, I reckon I could stick a new pair of wheels on and drive the car away today!

I'm not a member of any club at the moment, but I have got a stash of Mini Worlds, and a wad printouts from eBay/Auto Trader, etc, to show just how much Minis in similar condition go for.

As for the settlement, I'm still waiting to hear, but I'm prepared to hold-out for as much as I can. The insurers keep asking me to send my documents/keys, etc, but as far as I'm concerned, they're still mine until we both agree on a settlement!

Watch this space! Cols

L> Just another thought, you say your "waiting to hear the offer". Are you a

valuation

barrel,

DO NOT send them your keys/documents under any circumstances!!!

Since this seems to be going on for some time, have you considered claiming the road tax refund?

John

You can join the BMC today and get started!

They aren't much of a club as such for going along to meetings and stuff but they are generally recognised as the authority when it comes to valuations and so on.

The Muffin Man

Well, the engineer has said he will offer £500 as settlement or £400+the car back. I pointed-out that the prices quoted by the garage were way higher than non-manufacturer parts and asked if I could do a deal about having it sorted with after-market bits, but no go. When I pointed-out that there were two parts which I didn't believe to be on the Mini anyway, there was no response other than to state that in his opinion, whatever the garage said needed to be done did need doing.

After the farce and appalling cusatomer service I've received during the claim so far, I'm holding out for another hundred quid at least; although the car has some surface rust and a rotten passenger door and bootlid, it is totally sound mechanically and structurally, and I already have a replacement door and boot lid waiting to be fitted, after which it'll be re-sprayed. I've sent the engineer some eBay/AutoTrader/Miniworld ads, to show how much less-than-perfect condition 998 City's can go for, along with a couple of ads for good-condition cars to show that his estimate of "lucky to get £1000 for an absolute mint example" is well off the mark!

More as it comes! Colin

Dont forget the £3000 whip lash claim too :-)

Steve.

o Category A:

Scrap only - this vehicle should have been crushed. It should never reappear on the road and there are no economically salvageable parts. It is of value only for scrap metal - e.g. a totally burnt-out vehicle.

o Category B:

The bodyshell should have been crushed. The vehicle should never reappear on the road, but it can be broken for spare parts plus any residual scrap metal.

o Category C:

Vehicle extensively damaged and insurer has decided not to repair. May be repaired and put back on the road. Has to pass an inspection to be re-registered as damaged repaired.

o Category D:

Vehicle damaged and insurer has decided not to repair. When fixed can be re-registered as damaged repaired.

o Category F:

Vehicle damaged by fire and insurer has decided not to repair. When fixed can be re-registered as damaged repaired.

I'm pretty sure there is a catagory X aswell (or used to be) which is/was basically an 'other' catagory, but I may be wrong