Stolen Car :(

[Tazio]

Just googled for reviews of my insurance company (underwriters), Sabre - ouch! Wish I hadn't done that, it doesn't make for encouraging reading...

I used to be with them when I had a car stolen. They basically offered me the price of the cheapest one they could find on sale anywhere. They didn't take condition of mileage into consideration. I'm no financial genius but £700 for a ten year old Mercedes? I got them up to £1000 by sheer stubborness.

 

[Rumble]

Yeah, that's what I'm worried about. The price of what was stolen fluctuates pretty wildly - can get one that's worked on a farm for years and done 150k for £500, although mine was in good condition with 75k, worth at least 3-4 times that. Even at that level I'll not see much once the excess and the remainder of the premium is taken off. So I'm basically looking for a new car with a couple of hundred quid to spend, if I'm lucky.

Faaking theiving scumbags!!

 

[s_zigmond]

What car is it if you dont mind me asking?

 

[Rumble]

Mitsubishi Pajero, the petrol 3.0 V6 model. A good few advertised at around a grand but they're all higher mileage and/or worse condition than mine. It's a 19 year old car so the value is all in the condition, rather than a "book" value like you'd get with a newer car.

 

[rosstheboss]

Sorry to hear about this - Don't take any sh*t first offers and keep badgering them, and you should get a decent pay out - although our first Navara blew up rather than got nicked we got a very reasonable pay out in the end (above 'market value iirc), too many people don't like arguing to get a better offer, so keep at 'em! Good luck

 

[Rumble]

Well I work in sales so if there's one thing in my favour it's that I know how to negotiate a deal!

 

[Enid_Puceflange]

I forgot :roll:

Sorry bud

will get to you tomorrow

G

 

[Rumble]

Nae bother, doubt my insurers will be in much of a hurry anyway :roll:

 

[Neil]

Fairly sure my car's been robbed from my street - absolutely gutted :cry: I've still got a tiny bit of hope as this happened once before, years ago and it turns out the council moved it for gutter cleaning but when that happended the police told me straight away when I reported it - they didn't think that was the case this time.

Just been on the phone to the insurance company - anyone had any experience of claiming for a stolen motor? My default expectation of insurance companies is that they'll try and wriggle out of paying any way they can - am I being over pessimistic?

I'm a bit worried that the value on the insurance certificate is listed as "market value" - I bet their opinion and mine don't match! Plus it was/is a 4x4 which I got for a good price at the end of last winter - to replace like for like now would cost more. It was an old car so we're only talking a value of a couple of grand here, meaning with paying off the rest of the premium. plus a £550 excess, I'm thinking I'll be lucky to see enough cash to get me an old banger.

The anger is beginning to subside and now I'm just plain old gutted. Seriously shit timing as well - skint just now and I'm starting a new job in a few weeks and for the first time in years will actually need a car to commute a couple of 120 mile round trips every week

Make a strong case for whatever you'll (almost certainly!) reject as their opening offer - photos showing condition, servicing / maintenance records, advertised prices of comparable cars.

Which leads onto, unless you're completely satisfied with their first offer, reject it, and use all the above as why. You can do a bit of hand-waving and talk about their complaints procedure and the insurance ombudsman, too - can't harm things. Do all of this in writing.

Be prepared for a hit in future premiums - it will likely be a total loss, and unrecoverable from their perspective, meaning a fault claim (unless the thief is apprehended, and they can try and recover costs from the ne'er do well). So even if you have protected no claims bonus / and / or your no claims bonus isn't affected, future premiums will almost certainly.

'cos even if you've still got full no claims bonus, you'll still likely have a reasonable sized, total loss claim to declare when getting quotes for future premiums, which will likely load them, before any no claims discount is applied.

 

[MagD]

bad news.

Wife's car was t-boned on a roundabout, (thankfully she - the wife - was ok as it was fairly low speed), but according to the insurere the car was a financial write off etc......

Printed off 40++ pages of adtrader adds and managed to get them to bump the valuation up by nearly double!

That I appeared happy to fil their fax machine quite full seemed to help - BE PERSISTENT!

Got the car back for £50 and fixed for £150, £200 to the good ;-)

Did need to get it VOSA checked post fixes as it had been written off, so as to avoid it being a cut & shunt.

Good luck M.