Patriotic Micra - The end is Nigh......

Paul Smith

Paul Smith

Site Supporter
Can you believe it 11 years me a my micra have been together through good and broken times, when from know where yesterday afternoon a Toyota Hilux decides he wants to make my Pride and Joy a cut and shut. I was nicely pulling off at some traffic lights when SLAM straight in the back. Now the rear bumper is flat with holes and broken bits with the mounts showing through. The tailgate is dented and wont open. The rear wings have damaged but most concerning the rear wings have gained folds.......

I am fearing the worst............................
 
I have my bodyshop man out at 3 today to give his expert advise before i involve any insurance companies as they will sign her death warrant. I am still trying to save her but i fear my attempts may be wasted:(
 
Paul Smith said:
Can you believe it 11 years me a my micra have been together through good and broken times, when from know where yesterday afternoon a Toyota Hilux decides he wants to make my Pride and Joy a cut and shut. I was nicely pulling off at some traffic lights when SLAM straight in the back. Now the rear bumper is flat with holes and broken bits with the mounts showing through. The tailgate is dented and wont open. The rear wings have damaged but most concerning the rear wings have gained folds.......

I am fearing the worst............................
Click to expand...

That's a shame and a very strong likelihood the insurance company will write the car off :( I've seen K11's written off for a lot less!

About the only positive part of that is that the guy at the back always picks up the tab, so it will be a no fault claim on your end.

What are you going to do? Re-shell and keep the K11 mojo going? ;)
 
get every penny you can out of the driver of the hilux, un-less it was un-avoidable? hope it can be fixed, 11 years is a very long time hats off to you (Y)
 
I discussed with the hilux driver and he said get a price and he will pay it so took it to my bodyshop he reckoned 800ish pounds so told the hilux driver and he wants the insurance involved so called them last night and there gonna have a technician come and inspect it. They did comment because of its age it is more likely to be a right off.:(
 
The next 48 hrs are critical. The technician inspecting will call me 1 hr before he attends, that could be anytime over the next 48 hrs. (feels like its on a life support machine)
 
At least the engine area's sound. Offer to buy it from the insurance company for scrap value and buy another shell to put the engine in?
 
Good and bad - The good news is she bought herself a few more days the bad news is this was because the insurance people didn't turn up. They are out this afternoon. The weird thing is I must have hope because i'm still buying parts for her???
 
The insurance company engineer seems to think itll be at least a cat c but more likely a total loss.

This is where i need help i need to find modded micras selling or for sale as comparisons as his estimation is they will offer 800. 800 is pants what is the point of insuring the mods if they are not taken in to consideration

Help
 
Ah man, that totally pants... what abunch of crooks! Even worse that they're keeping you waiting! Hope you get sorted mate, keep us posted...
 
Paul Smith said:
The insurance company engineer seems to think itll be at least a cat c but more likely a total loss.

This is where i need help i need to find modded micras selling or for sale as comparisons as his estimation is they will offer 800. 800 is pants what is the point of insuring the mods if they are not taken in to consideration

Help
Click to expand...

Hi Paul, sorry to here you haveing such a time of it, might not be much use but a few adverts below with prices... 800 isnt enough to cover your ITB's!

http://www.juniorrally.co.uk/page5.html
http://www.cmmotorsport.co.uk/forsale/2011/12/14/nissan-micra-rally-car/
http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/4169149.htm

If i can help at all or point out to your insurance company what mines insured for being heavily modifed pm me!

All the best

Paul
 
Thanks for all the help so far

You'll love this they have valued my car at £405 with the buy back £12.50.................what are they on?????
They won't accept market researched equivalents to mark the price up. They want to see reciepts for the work then that may sway them to offer a little more. I have some receipts but how many who knows?

What is the point of declaring and paying extra for mods if your car is only valued without them? Insurance so far if i am brutally honest seems a waste of time at the minute. I'm getting depressed.................
 
yep, unless your insured with a specialist im affraid declairing mods is only there to cover your arse if you have a bump, or they can void your insurance if you are found not to have declaired anything.

Watching some of the traffic cops programes and seeing the punishment people get for driving with no mot/tax/insurance does make me think why bother, one example, some guy got snatched, no insurance FOR A SECOND TIME, £460 fine and 6 points. thats cheaper than most peoples policies, so whats the point eh. but as everything in the UK if you live straight edge, toe the line, your punished. be a complete non contributing, benifit cheating drug scumbag, you have all the rights!!
 
I think i may just put it back on them to supply me one at that price. I'd struggle to even buy a car with 405 quid............
 
From what I've heard in the past, from Adrian Flux at least, they really shaft you on modifications and don't offer like-for-like.

When Kev crashed his Corrolla he had to fight and fight with them to get a decent figure out of them.

Good luck getting it all sorted out Paul!
 
James said:
From what I've heard in the past, from Adrian Flux at least, they really shaft you on modifications and don't offer like-for-like.

When Kev crashed his Corrolla he had to fight and fight with them to get a decent figure out of them.

Good luck getting it all sorted out Paul!
Click to expand...

That's why I binned Flux back in 2006. I had to go through the exact same thing with them, they moaned and groaned and offered me in the end around £800 for the car after a LOT of persuasion, which I bought back for around £60 from them. They then doubled by insurance on renewal, so I switched to Sky and the rest is history. Never had a claim since, so I cannot vouch for another insurer in terms of assistance, support and any like-for-like or agreed value policies.

Sorry to hear you are having a tough time Paul :(

To be honest, I am seriously considering not insuring my car for much longer. The premiums for the usage are extremely expensive and few insurers seem to offer lay-up policies. I may just turn it into a trailer queen and insure it for track days on an as-needed basis instead. Pretty pointless paying money out on a car which sits in the garage for 10months and graces the road less then 1/2 dozen times a year....
 
Paul Smith said:
Thanks for all the help so far

You'll love this they have valued my car at £405 with the buy back £12.50.................what are they on?????
They won't accept market researched equivalents to mark the price up. They want to see reciepts for the work then that may sway them to offer a little more. I have some receipts but how many who knows?

What is the point of declaring and paying extra for mods if your car is only valued without them? Insurance so far if i am brutally honest seems a waste of time at the minute. I'm getting depressed.................
Click to expand...

Yup a lad i know is still arguing months after an accident that wasnt his fault. Engineers, insurers etc are all in the scam together. They say they will only pay him the minimum (based on the wrong car and wrong spec!!!), too top it off the car has actually gone up in value based on like for like...they are supposed to use market value yet they still refuse.

When asked about insuring mine and queried what would happen if i up its estimated value, i was told i could and they'd let me (they get more money after all) but also i wouldnt be getting any more of that back, if i had an accident because the cars price is based on market value.

Theres no end to the piece of string and will probably die trying to find the wizard.
 
Ok just a quick update. They have reveisited there offer and will only take my bodykit and alloys in to consideration so have up'd the offer to 583, which is still no where near the value and yet again are unable to show me a good spec standard 1.3 for that money so still not enough for me to buy another car.

To top this off they have said if i agree to consider the offer I can keep the curtousey car but if i dispute the offer they will recover the curtousey car. (sounds like blackmail to me) they then admitted they were quoting on a standard 1 litre even after i have costantly checked they were checking the correct car.

So am now awaiting an updated report once again from there technician people, but they said if i hadn't made my mind up by 5 pm yesterday they would instruct recovery of my curtousey.

So a completely non fault claim and i am:

Written off
Not offered a reflective value for my car
not offered enough to buy a standard version either
curtousey car less (gonna be)


Zenith Insurance is who this guy is with and is the company that won't pay anymore. A I claims is who is representing me and so far i think this treatment is pathetic
 
Ok another update A I claims are gonna recover the hire vehicle as i am now in dispute. They are now saying Tecreport who valued my car who said to me they had been checking 1 litres now say they were checking 1.3's, A I claims who said to me yesterday they had been checking 1 litres now say they were checking 1.3's and there is no change in price. Which is ridiculous you only have to go on auto trader to see there is a considerable difference. A I claims are now saying they will not cover my modified parts..... thats down to equity redstar. This has confused me because HIC (equity redstar) are the ones instructing A I Claims.

I think its time to involve some consumer rights experts.....................
 
when you insure a modded car, the increase on premium only covers the "higher risk factor" tho surely paul ? ( unless yours was a new for old policy ?)
 
i heard someone got 603 quid for a bang'd up green r-reg-sr, earlyer this month...and they only look at the value of the micra no mods,,unless the mods were damaged.MAYBE.
what you could do is transfer the situation to another firm who know what they doing,how do you feel about that ?
 
I spoke again with them yesterday they have now taken the curtosy car as i am in dispute and i need an IMI engineer to do an independent evaluation and then they will re look at the value.
They are now saying they were investigating 1.3 micras not 1 litres (which isn't what they told me) and them being 100 miles away is more than reasonable although dispite asking none of them can show me these ilusive 1.3 micras i can travel to and buy for 405 pounds.

The insurance premiums increased with the modifications as they were declared. However AI claims are saying they will not cover the modifications? so in which case although they should be declared (and they were) the premium should not have really changed.

I also get the undamaged parts i can buy back with the vehicle but there is labour to consider if re fitting and the value is based on the car pre accident as stated in AI claims letter. The pre accident value was far higher than 583 pound.
 
Why am i not suprised its A I Claims and Tech report that are involved with this...in fact i nearly asked if it was them when i posted earlier.

Also im not suprised the original insurer is saying they wont payout the correct value.

This is the same crap, my earlier post was on about...A I Claims and Tech report are the guys invoved with that aswell, have you asked if they got the go ahead from flux on the vehicle price etc. Would be interested to see if its the same result.

I think you've only just begun unfortunatly. :(

Dont give in though. :)
 
Btw keep every little bit of info you can (emails, phone convos etc etc), incase you need to go to the ombudsman. More proof you have the better. :)
 
Ok another update, not a lot has moved forward since disputeing the valuation on my car except I have been forced to buy and insure a car at my own expense as there valuation won't buy me a car.....(ridiculous)

I spoke with ULR who were appointed to deal with the case by equity redstar who then appointed AI claims. I spoke about the whole situation and i explained AI claims inform me i can only move forward by finding my own independent IMI engineer (vehicle assessor) again at my own non recoverable cost then they will relook at the valuation and decide if they feel the value should be increased.
ULR advised that is correct or i can claim through my own insurance who if they then value it higher would approach Zenith (3rd partys insurance) to reclaim my excess.

I think i will need to take this to the ombudsman for further advice as i am doing all the leg work at building exspenses and not getting anywhere.

As for copies of emails, convos and such i haven't got any to show unless they record there calls and they get listened too. They won't give me copies of any paperwork re there policies. E.G - Interim agreement / dispute they couldn't give me them in writing only tell me one let me keep the curtosy car and the other didn't??? and it turns out that interim is you accepting the valuation and they may send you a further cheque if you do manage to find and engineer and they agree to increase the value.

This seems to me we pay out a lot of money every year in insurance and yet when we need it they can almost make up the rules as they go along. I have done all AI claims has asked and all i get back is "well we wont accept that....." although they've asked for it?

Bloody insurance......
 
Avandriver said:
Motor insurance is just legalised theft
At least #### turpin wore a mask


EDIT
It seems the language filter does not like Richard turpin too

Steve
Click to expand...
Sorry, it's a bit like S####horpe in that respect. Your post made me chuckle though :)

Sorry to hear about all this Paul!
 
ah man i am really sorry to hear you are in this situation. i had a crash a few months back, a woman drove into me, i thought "oh well not my fault and no one is hurt, its all good" but then i realized how much i actually loose out, even after battling to get an equal value for the car i still had to buy a cheaper, lower spec car and lost out on bus tickets, missed work, phone calls, fuel in the car etc,

i used to think that if its not your fault then its not your problem and you loose nothing, but in reality it is a nightmare. if anyone crashes into me again i am going to full on rage at them, because the amount of pain it causes dealing with insurance.


i know you want your car fixed, but i can't see that happening, i think if you can get them to pay out and buy the car back, then you can transfer the mods and thats the best you will get. i am sure people here are happy to help out.

as for insurance, it really is robbery, but apparently if you get fully comp, then they do all the battling, which is almost worth the crazy money they want for it.
 
Paul you should be able to get some paper work (guess it depends how helpful they decide to be), but unfortunatly it seems you have to hassle them to get it.

I bet you'll find it hard to get an indepedent engineer to look over the car aswell, because they wont make much off it, they say its not worth their while.
 
Hi

Ok no up dates on here since the 1/10 so here we go. Since the 1/10 i have spent at least 2 calls a week on to AI claims trying to resolve this as it is still on going and finally got a senior technician at tec reports to agree the car was worth more than 500 quid. Chris Gibson came back to me saying the coverable mods value in at about 6k but due to how insurance works and there depresiation the car will value 2600(about) which i thought not to bad or at least compared to £576, so they will repair the car as the technician report valued the damage as repairable at 1600. So me being really pleased waited chased waited chased finally got them to pick the car up on wednesday 21/11/12 to go to the repair place motofix in northampton just to get a call from them yesterday saying AI claims have told them its being economic repair. So on the phone again to find out the body shop have quoted 3000 to repair !!!!!
Really?
I supplied them the modifed bumper but they still quoted for that weirdly but lets put this in perspective they need to fix (there words) Passenger rear wing, back panel, tailgate, and new bumper prep and paint. The parts all in including there bumper (although i gave them one) £500 so there labour is £2500 which is ridiculous and there reason for this is the extra work involved with removing my rear wheel arch apparently they hadn't accounted for this in there estimate. The fact this rear wheel arch is tiger sealed on. I'm finding this a joke now and as i said to AI claims yesterday they are just desperate to right her off. My garage person i use locally quoted about 800 tecreports estimated 1600(the experts) but in reality its 3000 how are these getting this so wrong.

It will have been 3 months this coming friday since the crash and we are still getting no where really.
 

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