Hi,
We are(we’re) doing the romantic road in Germany, we have been side swiped and the car is undrivable, when it’s repatriated I suspect the insurance company will right it off as a a 2013 plate, however it is (was) immaculate and just had a kenwood apple head unit fitted, full service history and 53000 miles.
The accident was not our fault, the other driver has admitted liability to the police and our dash cam confirms events, we also have an independent witness.
Do the club offer an independent valuation? I am determined not to be out of pocket in any way and would want to replace my car.
Any advice welcomed
Thanks
if you think an insurance company will take any notice of a valuation by a car club you had better think again they will just give you market value simple as that.
Sorry to hear of your situation- hopefully you get (have got) home safely and maybe you have European Recovery cover? Good luck
DC
Hi,
Yes we have cover, but the insurance company were appalling, basically, “sort yourselves out until we open again on Monday!,” Going to miss Silverstone now 
but we have been told to claim back all non insured losses.
Poor little car😩
You are probably correct - some policies offer higher value on Audio equipment if fitted and advised, same with some modifications (expensive wheel etc) but if it’s a normal policy, then market value is the norm. The policy documents will detail exactly what is and is not provided for under the insurance you bought.
One of the 6 principals of insurance is to put you back in the same position as you were immediately prior to the loss - in this case at the time of the accident. The difference between the market value and the value you put on the car can be called uninsured loss and could be recoverable from the insurers of the person causing the accident. As above, the original policy will state what level of cover is provided in helping you with these recoveries.
Uninsured Loss - This would include the difference in value between your settlement and the cost of a replacement to the same standard (although this may be a difficult thing to prove), the extra costs involved following the accident (repatriation cost, hotels, loss of holiday bookings etc) and depending, again, on the original policy, the policy may include assistance in this regard.
Unless specific insurances (not just cars) are purchased to cover known financial loss then “average” will apply. If you have house contents insurance for £20,000 and in reality the contents are worth £50,000 then don’t expect to be happy when the assessor visits, especially if you’ve paid the premium based on £20,000
Personally, my Mk4 is insured on a standard policy and I wouldn’t expect anything other than market value (even though I’ve spent money on it) - because at the end of the day, it’s just a car.
On the other hand, my Eunos has had £££ thrown at it and it’s insured on an Agreed Value (rather than an Insured Value) basis so I know that if it’s damaged in an accident and declared an economic total loss, I will be paid out the Sum Insured (even a minor prang could result in it being declared an economic total loss)
Sorry for the long response…
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So I’m assuming you will be recovering the car back to the UK? Any possibility of getting the car recovered and continuing your trip in a hire car? Bit of a nightmare for you, but the main thing really is that no one is badly injured……
So a quick update,
Our car remains in Germany, it cost us approximately £2600 to sort things in Germany and get back to East Yorkshire and my wife continues treatment with the NHS. I’ve completed all the documentation and sent receipts etc to both motor and travel insurance and sixteen days later we have heard ………… nothing.
We missed Silverstone as they would not transfer our ticket to our daily car?. We both feel completely abandoned by Admiral Insurance and generally Pi###d off about the car, I appreciate that “it’s only a car” and we’re both alive but we loved that car and it was immaculate, all the effort and work getting it into a fine , driving condition “boof” gone, I would like another but to get back into the position we were will cost £10000 + and admiral are likely to offer a pittance, all over an incident that was not of our making and unavoidable in the event.
Thank you all for taking the time to read my diatribe, I do feel better for getting it off my chest.
Regards to all
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Really sorry to hear about your misfortune in Germany, glad you are okay and hope your wife makes a full and speedy recovery.
When I worked for a dealer in robust Swedish vehicles back in the 80’s I saw there is a huge gap between what people think they are insured for and what they are actually insured for and came to the conclusion that fully comp insurance is best thought of as covering other peoples damage over and above ones excess. Accordingly I never invested more in a car than I was prepared to lose as I could only ever at best expect average market value back unless I was prepared to go an agreed value route.
What really made my blood boil then as it still does today is that no matter who is at fault all parties premiums go up regardless.
While your car may be undriveable, if it were mine, which I have promised to keep until I pop me clogs I’d look into all options for restoring it to driveable condition and look at buying the car back even with a writeoff cat label for the remainder of its days.
I hope you get this sorted out to your satisfaction but sadly my experience as an outside observer is not to hold your breath.
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