Should I accept

[loonykev]

Hi All, You will all quickly realise why I haven't been participating much in these discussions. My 1994 man. bought from Chiswick Honda on 8/11/05, was destroyed in a way I will describe later. The insurers for the people responsible have just made an offer. I paid £22,250 for the car, which had 98,000 miles with a full Honda service history, and a very extensive file of everything ever done to the car. The car was destroyed in June 2007, and after almost a year of phone calls and letters, I have been offered £17,000. Should I accept the first offer they make, or should I hold out for more. I will tell the whole story (it will make some of you laugh), when the money is in the bank.
Regards, Kevin Hall

[markdas]

Definately hold out......ask them to find you a suitable car with same spec mileage and history for 17k and you know they will struggle.

contest it and you loose nothing, but I would expect another 500 ontop of that quite easily.

Good luck and looking forward to the tale of woe that surrounds it!!!

Mark

[markc]

Hi Kevin, sorry to hear about your car.

Fully Comp insurance usually pays the "market value" and an amount to "replace your current vehicle". £17K is a little low for your car assuming it was in good condition and the history was as good as it seems ie sold by Norton Way with big service history file etc

The insurance offer doesn't take into account what you paid for it BUT providing them with evidence of this can help during your negotiations. You should also provide them with a list a similar cars ie age mileage etc, currently advertised to support your claim. Make sure you point out the price differential between auto an manual cars as they may be baseing their assessment on these.

In my admittedly limited experience they've been quite good and have adjusted their offer upward when provide with good evidence. Not easy to do with the NSX as the supply of used cars is limited but well worth a go.

Cheers

Mark

[Lankstarr]

NEVER take the first offer!

[loonykev]

Hi Guys, Thanks for the responses so far, at the time the incident occurred, the car was parked on private property uninsured, so I am having to rely on the insurance policy of the other party, but since they have admitted liability, and got as far as making an offer, I think I'm best part of the way there. I have replied saying that when I bought the car, it had already suffered as much depreciation as it ever would, but that I could accept depreciation of a further 10% on what I paid for the car. Has anyone ever worked out what an undamaged NSX would come to if broken for parts?
Cheers, Kevin H.

[dan the man]

Ask them for what u paid and stick by it. never give in as not exactly hundreds about for them to compare eh....

[Boomin33]

Insurance companies are in business to not pay claims where legally possible.

the fact they've offered shows admitted guilt. So from here the offer can only go one way. up.

You should get what it would cost you to go to market right now and find a direct replacement for your car at current asking price. if asking price is greater than you paid... then they would probably only pay the amount you originally forked out.

[kevinpsw]

I think you are due a bit more, maybe another £1k. Mine was a 97 3.0 with almost 30k less miles and the insurance paid out a lot more than you've been offered. Do what I did, download the details of all of the cars for sale that are similar to yours and argue a case as to why you should get more. For example, a 75k mile green 95 car is at £21k on Pistonheads - and I know it's a straight car because I've seen it. I would therefore have put yours at about £3k less.

The 53k miles 95 green at £18k on Autotader is a Cat C or D by the way.

[TheSebringOne]

Luke, I thought with your specialist knowledge of the industry, you might be able to offer more advice? :)

[amo]

hi mate every1 is right email or send them a few clips and send them a few copies of the history so they know it was well looked after id hold out ring them and speak to the assesor and say you might consider 18.5 as this is below the selling rate with lots of history from a dealer you never know

good luck
thx amo

[Hagasan]

when my Porsche 944T was written off a years back I was initially offered £10k. I said no,no, no to several offers. I submitted numerous ads of cars similar to mines spec and eventually got £13250 when I was seeking £13500.

Just hold your nerve, don't cave in and don't be bullied. £3k is worth more to us than to a huge insurance company.....