Help!
I have a K reg 3lt V6, my pride and joy. I have just had a bump in the back the insurance company garage say £2,660 for repair hence a 'total loss'. My Citroen garage say they can do it for about £600 -£700. I need proof of value so they will agree to the claim.
Can someone help?
Pam

hi Pam

unfortunately the value of a K-reg V6 is likely to only be around the lower repair price. Insurance companies aren't always too great to deal with either. They tend to want to use their preferred repairer rather than the OEM garage, but you could always opt to get quotes yourself from 2 or 3 and insist you'd rather go to them and not the insurers preferred.

Did the other side admit fault?

Whatever you do, don't let them take the car away. You should be able to keep the car if it's an economic write-off and then get it repaired by your Citroen garage (is that a genuine Cit garage - sounds cheap if it is!).

good luck
Dave

Hi Pam

Sorry to hear about your XM. Recently the older petrol V6 XM's on ebay have difficulty reaching £500. It may be worth paying the difference between valuation and repair cost just to get your car returned to good order. A quick look at what a replacement car will cost you may well convince you that repair is the best option.

Regards

XMexc

Hi Pam,

Welcome to the forum, just sorry its in unfortunate circumstances.

I'd agree with the previous posts, with the price of fuel now and other factors, the 'market' value of an XM to the layman is around 5-600 quid.

Of course to people like us, they're worth a hell of a lot more than the sum of their parts. As Xmexc said, it should be possible to settle without having the car taken away, then use the money to fund the repair yourself.
Considering the alternatives, you just will not find a car of this specification and character for anywhere near the money they'll offer you, so its well worth going out of your way to put it back on the road.

A few forum members have played hard ball with the insurance companies this way and won, resulting in their XMs living to fight another day.

Good luck, hope you get it sorted, and do stick around!

Cheers

Ciarán

Ask your insurance company if you can buy the car back of them with part of the total loss payment they make to you. Then use the rest to get it repaired. If you don't have the car yourself you need to move quick as it doesn't take them long to sell it on.

Hi Pam,
Claim off the other party as it seems likely they are at fault, especially if your policy small print says the salvage becomes ins. co. property on settlement. If no fault on your part you are entitled to the lesser of replacement cost or cost of repair (minus the value of the salvage if replacement value)

Robert

Hi again, Pam, further to my earlier PM which a number of the other guys have echoed, you could get your insurers to have a look at www.wolseyhousemotors.co.uk to see what good XM's can fetch. Might add a little weight to your cause. They do have an "M" reg V6 with 50K miles for £3496 !! So on that basis your repair costs would seem more than reasonable.

Good luck , Rodders.

my 2.5 exclusive has been writen off twice now, once by a bin wagon reversing over the front and then by a 306 going under my back end , the bin wagon was ok but the 306 was totald ,mine is still on the road, and i got two personal injury claims totaling £4,500 and £1,700 for the car, (a cherished motor) dont forget that it can take a week or two for whiplash to set in (doctors quick) sick notes etc,etc, you were laning over to do somethin and your head missed the headreast? DO NOT let them take the car....its your pride and joy. good luck ,,terry

Isn't it an issue getting insurance these days after a write off what with all the online insurance database stuff. ? I managed to keep on driving my written off Visa GT for a while about 10 years ago but I dealt directly with the other parties insurers, and presumably thinking about it now I should really have notified my insurers of the write off.

Came up in conversation while I was out and about last night.

btw I was informally quoted approx 700 for new rear bumper and small panel repair on my K reg one about 1 year ago, by the body shop next to my indies, the bumpers are about £350 apparently. In the end I never got round to persuing it, that car had plenty of other issues (still has, but less now), I was just too busy, and and least its still on the road, and it doesn;t look TOO bad...

Thank's all we are still fighting the insurance company! They have demande my docs twice and offered £200! No way, still have 3rd party insurance on so it is back on the road but now have other major problems with hydrolics. The high preasure pipe from the pump has cracked again!! I have had two pipes made at great expense and they have only lasted 100 miles each! Has anyone got one or know where I can get one for that model??
Pam

Pam if your pipes are going frequently it can be a sign that the accumulator sphere is in dire need of changing, and / or you have a component in the system returning excessive amounts of fluid back to the reservoir, putting the pump under constant demand.
The constant on-off of pressure takes it's toll on the supply pipes very quickly, leading to them fracturing.

Does the pressure regulator click frequently at idle?


Ciarán

Hi Pam,

for the metal pipes, try Plieades - theu can make you up a cupro-nickel replacement at a reasonable cost and mail to you. All they'd probably need is the pipe diameter and length, bends easily into the required shape.

Are all the securing straps for the pipe correctly fitted? Any missing/broken?
If not, then the pipe can shake itself to death quite rapidly - been there not that long ago after a poor repair by a once trusted indy.

Over-tightenning can cause it too, stressing the flare ending up with a tiny fracture, and as already mentionned, pipe hammer if the sphere is flat, as the pipe will be taking a lot of extra loading from the pump - can damage the pump too.

regards
Dave

Thanks all for comments.
5½ months down the line and I have just received £1850 and been told I can keep my car!!
The moral to this story is - keep your car, don't let the insurance company get their hands on it, employ a no win no fee solicitor and dont give up!!
Pam

So how much did you have to pay the solicitor?

Congratulations and well done! Your example should help stiffen the resolve of others in similar situations. I have preached about this on numerous occasions having been through the mill myself, so its nice to see another person obtain a satisfactory result.
Derek, with apologies for jumping in I presume the solicitor was paid by the other party.

Regards, Robert