Insurance question

[Saskatoon]

They will probably use Glass's Used Car Guide.  It's what all car dealers use.

Golf Mk2 are retro but not rare by any stretch of the imagination. I don't think I would have paid £3500 for a mk2 and I bet it's book price is nothing like £3500 more like £495, but each to their own.  The insurance companies are not interested in what you paid for it anyway, because you will never be paid out the full value if you claim.  It's wrong and the law should should be changed.  

http://www.glass.co.uk/?prtid=uk44b8ucen&gclid=CIG37da9sJ8CFRth4woddRDpLw

[twistedblack69]

I had my '89 Gti written off by an idiot driving on the wrong side of the road before xmas. I had paid £500 for it about 3 years ago but as it was my first Mk2, I didn't know I had got a bit of a bargain( good solid shell, 114k mileage when crashed, almost mint interior, just some cosmetic issues). In my naiety I accepted the acessors first offer of £500 thinking getting my money back was a good deal! Now I am looking to replace it I can see that £500 doesn't get you an 8v anything near as good as mine was! Do you think I have any chance of appealing this,maybe through ombudsman, or should I just put it down to experience!

I paid £500 for mine, as far as I'm aware, shell is decent, had to get some welding done on the underside, had some aftermarket alloys, K&N cone filter, but looking at the classifieds now, a semi decent model is going for over a grand, let alone a decent one

[walchy01]

I put my registration number into we buy any car website, that'll show you what insurance will pay u out, mine was valued at £210, so beware and get a guarenteed price for your car is the best advice i can offer, a good one is becoming rare to find.

[Saskatoon]

This sounds harsh, but even if I spent £1000 on doing my Golf, it doesn't make it worth a £1000 extra on what I paid for it.

What one party thinks something is worth is total slantant to who's selling it to you.

There's nothing in the world that would let me part with more that £500 for a 20 year old Golf.  Yeh they've got character and there old fashioned mechanicals so easier to fix - but there nearly always something to fix on older cars.

The more classic the car, yes the more it's worth.  There's no way a MK2 is a classic.  it's an everyday driver, rugged and handy in the bendy bits.  If it's a car you are only prepared to drive when the suns out in the summer months, and put it to bed and tuck it in the garage - that's a classic normally speaking.

£3500 for a MK2 GTi   - 16v I pressume?  it it will only be worth the trade price which is for a 20 year old Golf about £200-400 to a dealer who doesn't want it - and will end up in an auction in Southampton Docks or the like. and sold for peanuts to a stockcar team.

I paid £550 for a solid 1990 "H" 1.6 driver but very convincingly looks like a well modded GTi.  I have spent a small fortune, putting it right what some kid done to the car mechanically.  Realistically I will have spent another few hundred quid on it in parts alone  since I have owned it, to fix the neglect, but I wouldn't value it at anymore than £600-£650 with a new MOT and tax which I didn't have when I bought it.  It's worth this to someone.  I just bought it to get me through the winter only

When I was 17 I thought putting alloys and exhaust on a Mini added value? it doesn't my dad was right.

I wish there was nowhere online you could buy car to be perfectly honest!  It has ruined the used and classic car market.  If one bloke puts a Lotus Cortina on for £10K so does the next making his £11K, and the next making his £12K and so on.  it has made everyone very greedy indeed.  If these were compeating businesses this would be racketeering.  This is what estate agents have done to house buyers.   Then people wonder why when they crash that £12K Lotus Cortina they are only paid £3500, it's because of where they bought it ramped up the prices bases on everyone elses price and so on, and so on, not it's true market value.  Most things you buy things on impulse and your emotions and desire get the better of you.

[dubber36]

While I kind of agree with some of what you say, I think £3-4000 agreed insurance values are more than justified.

With the sort of cars that we are talking about, trade values go out of the window. You find me dealer who will auction an original, low mileage, mint Mk2 and be happy with £200-400, and I'll buy up all his stock.

Insurance values are based on what it would cost you to replace your car like for like should it become a total loss. This has to take into account the time and expence of finding the right car, buying it, and probably having to spend a bit more to make it as good as the one you've just lost.

[Saskatoon]

That's just kuckoo land mister - the insurance offer never reflects you being able to replace the car like for like.

I am sure you won't find anyone who agrees with you?  Your not a Freemason are you?

I had an 92 big bumpered Oak Green GTi 16v back in 1998 it was stolen taken to Oxford, engine taken out then burnt - I paid £3100 back then for a  6 year old car with 60K on clock.  they paid me out despite my differences with them on value a soltry £1200 Final Offer or court which I was told I would lose as the assessor gave it's market value.  I could not resource that back then you could today 15 years later (just about)  the insurance industry hasn't changed.

Take you car down to any dealer - they don't want old cars at all - they might say yes we will give you £1000 for it on a new car or £800 on a second-hand car - but don't you realise this is written into the price of what they are selling.

This is why the UK scrappage scheme aint worth a bolt.  a few years ago you could buy a new Fiat Pand for £4995 - Punto for about the same today they want £6995, and £7995 - your telling me they lose sleep over this £1000 there knocking off you trade in? NO  It's a racket - the Government are also getting there £1000 worth of contribution back through VAT on the car. 

How many dealers do you see old, old cars like Golf Mk2 even Mk3 these days.  maybe independent ones that are not linked to a manufacturer, and there few and far between.

[dubber36]

The whole point of agreed value, classic, limited mileage insurance policies is that you are able to replace the car like for like. Granted, your run of the mill, Compare the Market type companies won't do that, but we are talking about 2 different things here.

You may have taken a loss on your car that was stolen in 1998, but what that was a 6 year old car at the time and I suspect was insured on a standard policy as it would not have qualified as a classic back then.

As for your comments about dealers trade in prices. I do know how that works as I used to be a car salesman at a large dealership some years ago, but I very much doubt that anybody with a mint low mileage, original Mk2 would be offering their car in px for a newer one anyhow. Everyone knows that there will always be someone out there who will be prepared to pay top money for it. You might not be prepared to pay £3000 for one just like I would not pay £30,000 for a new Mk6, but there are plenty of people who can and will.

I think the only thing we seem to agree on is the scrapage scheme. Everyone in the trade could see through that one right from the start.