Well hi all the saga ...continues after many phone calls and shouting complaining and the like i finally get to talk with someone who has sense, and on a day when no xms on autotrader below £1250 and beside him not calling me back when he is supossed to i get valuation up to £1000 all good you think well i thought so until i get letter and find the scrap value to me has risen from £85 to £220!!!!! so more calls and people not getting back to me due to sensible guy i talked to being off sick (probably due to being surrounded by muppets) even when i was promissed a 48 hour call back i had to phone them again was eventually called and message left on my answer phone as i was driving (im a good boy hehe) no we are not increasing valuation it stands at £500. Well as you see i was well impressed and rang the gent back, he was very suprised that i had been offered £1000 so i pointed out to him that there was not an xm available for the £500 he was offering on auto trader today. Now wait for this your going to like his next line......... the market value of a car has nothing to do with what one is for sale for. now i cant get my head round this at all and asked him what the market value of his house was ..... he didnt answer he just read a prepared statement of value being taken from varios guides in the markey place blah blah. wonder what ill say next time an insurance company asks for the market value of my car. next he said they would send a company round to value car well i said why they will look at car and say yes its fantastic but how will they value it i asked, "using current market guides he replied" and anyway i said you dont accept opinions only facts,what do you mean he said well i have offered to get a valuation from Citroen Car Club but told no its only an opinion we dont except those. well he thought that they were not an independant body. I said this has been going on for almost 4 months now and i have not been able to work on car or even clean it, and what are they going to say when 2 citroen Experts looked at it 5 days before and gave it cocorse awards. well i gone on a lot i know but just thought i would update you have fun think i should change my name on here to the old cynical one

Hi Igotone.

Don't really think my views on insurers, banks and politicians are printable, but I have been through exactly this situation some years back when I had (don't laugh) an early Diesel Carlton estate. Now at the time these were getting on as scarce as the XM is now and some kind soul relieved me of mine altogether. Sure enough, despite service history etc., got a derisory offer and went through pretty much what you are talking about. In the end, I told them I would be quite happy to have no money at all from them, providing they supplied an identical model and condition car -- not fussed about colour or anything too specific. I pointed out that as their scale of values didn't seem to reflect the real world, they must have access to some secret market place and as long as I had a comparable car, I didn't mind if it only cost them a couple of Pounds. No prizes for guessing the answer --- they weren't able to supply a used vehicle ! The best I cranked them up to in the end was around 80% of what I maintained was a realistic and not unreasonable value. Great chunks of our financial institutions have simply become an excuse for legalised robbery as far as I can see. Wouldn't p**s on them if they were on fire.

Mike.

I feel really bad for you. I hope your premium was cheap.
I can't get over insurance, mines always cost at least twice what I paid for the car which I can understand as I could write off a brand new merc or a house or something.
But they are taking the mick with you big time. By their working it sounds like my xantias worth about £30.

Just so we can avoid them, whos your insurer?

They are governed by a big federation aren't they? Worth ringing up for a chat they don't sound like they are being very open about the valuation of your car and there must be regulations regarding what is reasonable and what isn't.

I'm still fighting with my insurers too, igotone, over the Mk 1 BX. I've persuaded them up from 400 to 450 but I'm still not happy. There aren't many Mk 1 BXs left, especially in the condition of mine, but the adverts I managed to send them ranged from £750 to £1950.

My last letter was headed "complaint" and finished with a promise (not a threat) to go to the financial ombudsman if I don't get satisfaction. I'll report back here when I hear from them.

Hi all
Can anyone explain to me why it is cheaper to insure my non garaged XM in London than it is my Golden Retriever who does approx 500 miles per year?He is 10 years old and that is the key,no Insurance Company will take on dogs over 9 years and so they can charge what they like.When I asked the Company why it was cheaper to insure the car in London than my dog the girl said it was the brokers who set the price.Every month for 10 years I pay the premiums and at the age of 8 he had an abcess on a tooth,was in agony so I paid the £550 for the treatment confident he was insured....oh no Sir Dental work is cosmetic and not covered!!!
Insurance Comapnies...don't we all love em!
Regards Rob

My dog had £800 insurance work done on his mouth.
Argue, a scale and polish is cosmetic but an abcess is most certainly not.
Who are you insured with. I was with petplan but they started to take the mick with the prices when my dog got old and the excess became hundreds instead of £80.
I'm with more than now who don't mind age and my excess is £100. It costs £30 per month and my dog is a 12 yr old collie.

I just re read and I realise you can't argue as it was 2 years ago, ignore that bit.

I will have a look to see if I can find a copy of the letters i sent re my last insurance claim.

Somewhere I found the Customs and Excise defination of market value.

The ins co found it imposible to argue against.

Auotrader route is the best way, Do you have a fax machine?

Send them a fax evry single bloody day,

The current comparable available XMs currently for sale are....

Their average price is XXXXX

Enclosed is quotation from local car scrap man (give him a tenner for written quote) This is its current scrap value

To put me in the same position that I was in 5 mins before the crash i need funds totaling XXXXX.

I also charge £22.00 Per hour and will be preparing an invoice for the time I have spent on this claim, costs I would not have incurred if the crash had not happened.

I will try and find the difinition and post it up


Mark

Hi Igotone

How about suggesting that you resolve the disputed value by using the small claims court (cheap for an individual but still expensive for companies to represent themselves). If an accident was not your fault you have a right to be put back into the same position as before the accident. It does not appear that the insurance company is willing to do this. Obtaining an equivalent car with the money offered seems to be beyond your capabilities so suggest that you will be asking the court to agree that an independant specialist (loss adjuster) be appointed at their cost to source the replacement car at a reasonable cost and value the salvage if you intent to retain it.

Regards

XMexc

well i couldnt name the company could i but the clue is in the first line and the fact im 55 well now going to ombudsman will see what happens there

Hi Igotone

Sorry to hear you're not getting anywhere with this. My advice would be not to bother with the Financial Ombudsman - it's a waste of time. Unless the insurer has made a blatant error and there's clear evidence of this in writing, the Ombudsman will find for the insurer. The insurers are all happy to stand their ground and let you take your claim to the Ombudsman because they've nothing to fear. In my experience Ombudsman decisions are based on industry custom and practice and they have completely lost sight of their brief to maintain public confidence in the financial institutions in this country.

The small claims court is probably a far better option - but only if you can provide clear independent evidence of the value of the car. It will be expensive for the insurer to defend and it will focus their minds wonderfully.

Good luck

Roy