Hi there. I’m a new member. I became a Mazda owner last June but didn’t get round to joining the forum.
Unfortunately, I had an accident on Monday and the insurers won’t pay to have her mended. What is worse is that they are offering silly money as a settlement and I was hoping that someone out there would be able to give a more realistic figure.
My Mazda is a J Registered 1.6 UK model - not an import - in red. She has done 85,000 miles and has a full service history. I’ve found a number of similar age and mileage and they all seem to be between £2,500-£3,000 so there is no sign that the bottom has dropped out of the used-Mazda market as claimed by the assessor.
I’d be grateful for any help that you can give me.
Many thanks
AnFan
PS I thought that only imported Mazdas have air-con. Can any of you comment?
Personally I would not price too many MK1 in the 2500 to 3000 mark. You would be looking at a very low mileage (lower than yours)
and close to pristine condition.
Although prices have stabalised on these cars lately, I would say an insurer would not be looking to offer much more that 1600 and in my opinion 2000 would be a very good payout.
I have seen two to three in very good condion on trade forcourts for around the 1700 recently, this includes my latest 5 which i paid 1300 for in Oct 08 (trade). There are even people on here who have picked up crackers for a grand or a bit less.
I don’t think you can insist that insurers repair the car, but you can remind them that the principle of of inurance is that it should return you to the situation that existed before the incident.
Because it suits them (and for no other reason) insurance companies work on trade price, even though their clients can’t get cars at trade price. You could try this:- Trawl through the internet and print off details of lots of cars that are similar to yours and send the details to them Ask if they will kindly arrange a suitable car to be delivered to you - thus applying the principle of insurance.
Above all be nice - all sweetness and light - the guy at the other end of the phone has almost total discretion, so keep him sweet. If you can afford the time to keep negotiating you may get him to give you a fair price, just to get your case out of the way.
I do not know whether this works. I’ve had three cars written off (collision, stolen, vandalised) and been lucky - I got good to fair payouts.
Another option is to go for a “payment in lieue”. The car is not written off - the insurance company gives you a sum of money and you get your own repairs done. This can be better than you think. A huge part of the cost of modern repairs is the spraying. If you have, say,a dented door and wing, the two can be replaced (bolt on jobs) in the correct colour for less than £200 by picking them up via ebay or Autolink. Again it might take time, but can save loadsamoney.
Whatever you do, I hope this helps and you get back to enjoying your car.
The prices you are quoting are selling prices, in other words what the dealers sellers etc hope to get for the car. The unfortunate reality is that even a nice J reg UK car is not worth that sort of money, as Firearm says, if you are offered anything over £1500 grab it and run.
I am new to the world of mx5 myself and this is a concern to me also, most insurers will only pay the current market value on a car, it kind of annoys me that insurers will initially ask you the value of the car when you take out the insurance with them, and then when an accident occurs will only offer market value or worse still on an older car write it off.
Can anyone recommend a descent mazda mx5 insurer?
My jap import does indeed have aircon as standard,
You can get an agreed valuation , some insurers will give agreed valuation by filling out a form and adding a few Pics , just check that they will do it before you agree to take out their insurance.