price war with Insurance company

Im not sure you'd get 13k for it but if you had to replace it you would spend that easily with the work thats gone into it.

Keep haggling with them. They are like car buyers, theyre first offer is always ridiculous. Remember that they have a contract with you to replace your car. They agreed the value of 18k when you paid them their side of the deal (policy).

Best of luck with it.

Like Ben says keep haggling and don't sign anything your not happy with.

'fraid that while the €9k offer might be a bit on the low side, the real value today is probably no more than mid way between this and your estimate of €13k (hence my 11k vote).

The recent engine, tyres and steering wheel, plate, etc. don't make any real difference to the value of the car on the open market, even if they might improve the saleability of it.

Its a bit harsh, but I'm afraid it does reflect the state of the market.  The dearest '98 M3 conv manual on UK Autotrader would stand you €13k on the road today, without haggling on the selling price.  The second dearest would set you back less than €12k and the third less than €11k.  The Open Market Selling Price on the VRT website suggests a value of just over €7k - not the most reliable of indicators but we usually complain on these pages of the OMSP being too high.

Try to nudge them closer to €11k and I'd say you're there as far as payout goes.

m3sport wrote: I also keyed into it, a 2004 330i and it said the open market selling price here was 37k.  This couldnt be more incorrect, having been speaking to BMW dealers, they state that the car would not be worth asking more than 25-30k.

It just so happens that you've picked on a car with an anomoly in using the 330i as an example.  If you look at the OMSP for a same age and mileage 330Ci Sport you'll find that its a little over €22k.  That's far closer to a realistic value for one of those from a dealer.

I'm not sure what info you used for the OMSP on the 330i.  By my reckoning, a '04 manual saloon with 40k miles has an OMSP of about €28.5k for an SE and just over €32k for a Sport.

Just to make the point further, a '04 325i SE with similar mileage has an OMSP of around €11.5k.

I'm not having a go at your car (I've seen it and it was a nice example) or your sense of its value, but I think you need to be somewhat realistic about the true value of it in todays market. 

I bought a 330Ci a little over two years ago at a keen price.  Even so, its probably only realistically worth half of what I paid for it because the bottom has fallen out of the market.  In normal market conditions you'd expect a car to lose about 30% of its value in that time, so the extra 20% is down to the different conditions in the market.

Definitely the insurance have low-balled on the offer but not by as much as you think imho.

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Dergside, on the VRT online enq, a 2004 330i sport with 44000miles OMSP is €36978.  The VRT is €13,313  I know as I was looking at bringing in one until I saw the VRT price.  Check is again, i double checked it and those are the figures.

I know the m3 isn’t worth 13k in the current climate, and im not asking for a miracle, my point is its def not worth as little as 9.  Granted, i reckon give it a few more months and there will be a drastic drop again, and then 9k will be more accurate, and i believe it is on this basis that the assumption of 9k is being made by my insurer.  I don’t call this being unrealistic like you say. 

One should ask the question, Why are we asked for a value when insuring our cars if the specified value is not ever taking into account in a situation like so.

I have a 30ft sail boat, and its insured value is 45k.  In the event of a total loss, this full amount is paid in full.  As with boats, extra equip is take into account etc as your premium is based on the insured value.  If i want to increase the value, then I must produce evidence from a survey by a recognized marine surveyor.   This makes sense right?

I have now evidence from a main BMW dealer, that claims the value of the car is between 11-12k not 9k. 
It p***** me off that we are screwed when it comes to our insurance premiums, when they don’t stick to their side of the deal in the event of an accident.  I have never had a claim in my 11 years driving, yet i paid 1240 for my premium this year and now they dont want to give me enough money that can actually replace this car.

On the other hand, if they think theres a chance of a claim for injury, they are far more generous at payouts.  I know this from a previous incident in another case. 

I have asked them to clarify, where I can replace this car for 9k.  There was a pause in the conversation when i said this....

Dergside, I presume we met on the run in Galway over a year ago and this is where you saw my m3?  Which one were you?  I think you drove the white e30 cabrio? . And you said you would like first refusal on my m3 if i were to sell it?  Tell you what, you can have it now for 3k trust me its a bargain hehehehehe

Very good point... why is it we are shafted by insurers when we tell them
our car is worth a certain amount only for them to never pay out that
amount.

It's a SCAM.

RIP-OFF BRITAIN.

In the past I have saved a lot of money on my premiums by quoting a
price that is £1 below however many thousands of pounds i think the car
is worth - e.g. saying £3999 instead of £4000. Similarly with the
expected mileage. If you put in 12999 instead of 13000 you sometimes
get a cheaper price. Although this time (I have just been looking for a
renewal quote) I have noticed that the websites round to the nearest
thousand so you can't do that any more!

They get you every way. Honestly... if you were to sit down and work out
what way you could shaft people the most while giving the worst service
you would eventually come up with a business plan for an insurance
company. I don't know why the government hasn't clamped down on
them yet.

Why is it that you can ask for a quote from 100 different companies and
get 100 different quotes that can be up to £1000 different?? Clearly it is
because there is no hard and fast rule about what 'risk' there is with a
particular car or how often they are stolen or what style they tend to be
driven in or how many accidents they are involved in statistically...
obviously every company has a different way to calculate it and calculate
the price you should pay....

In other words... it's all a load of b*llocks!

I've been with Elephant for years and they have consistently been the
cheapest quote - however I wanted to change this year because they
pissed me off with a back dated payment just before xmas... so I looked
around and within 10 minutes online I have manage to knock their
renewal quote of £570 down to £370... Why are they suddenly giving me
crap quotes?? ... probably because they can.. and they'll hope that
because I've been with them for years I'll just renew without thinking
about it....

It's all a rip off.. they should all be closed down and there should be some
government-rated cost that you pay for insurance that is compulsory so
that you can't get out of paying it... then we wouldn't have to pay more to
cover all the uninsured drivers...

That's another con... why should our premiums go up because the
insurance companies have to make back the money they lose on
uninsured drivers???? Why can't they get this money back from the arse
that is involved in the accident without being insured? Fine them enough
that they don't need to charge us more!!! Sell their organs or something...

Rant rant rant...    

I hate to say it but in this current economic climate your own idea of what your car is worth is probably a lot less than it is actually worth.

In the UK I certainly wouldn't expect to pay over £10k for any E36 M3 these days.

My advice would be to sell the plate and the hard top to make back some of the cash.

Edited by Peter Fenwick

As an aside, I see Revenue would like to extort €1,000 off people to reserve a number plate.

Could never see the appeal of a personalised plate in this country but sure there you go.

Take the money, then buy the car back from them, I did it before.

This way you can have a donor car and swap all the good bits and bobs back on.

But....make sure you check they will sell to you before you take the cheque!

Edited by seanmul

Get the insurance company to give you 2 quotes. You have one quote already- they take your car and pay you. If you have whats now left of your pride and joy parked at home or at a friends secure premises and the insurance company has not incurred any costs in transporting the damaged vehicle yet - you are in a more powerful bargaining position. Ask them for a settlement to write the car off and you hold on to it. I am of the opinion that you will come out substancially better off financially. The dealers of damaged cars can be removed from the transaction and as a result the damaged vehicle will find its way into the hands of a more plucky purchaser. This has worked for me in the past and I have convinced a good number of friends that owned desirable cars to do likewise.