Wrote my Cougar off yesterday, need advice please!

A

Andyz1r

Active user
Mar 14, 2009
65
2
Surrey
Hello all,

Not a good day yesterday, wrote my Cougar off in a bad way, passenger side totalled including roof (Cougar vs trees, winner: trees) . It`s still in the ditch, i`m fully comp but not sure if it`s worth claiming due to then losing no claims etc. It`s a `99 V6 in black with cloth interior, around 130,000 miles but was in good nick and went well. What would the value be from the insurance do you think? I have a £250 excess to consider too.
Really annoying thing is it was fully sorted, ie: new alternator a year ago, discs and pads, battery etc, plus it has a tow bar. If anyone is in the Horsham area and could either recover it and keep it themselves for spares, then that could be an option. Or do i go the insurance route? And potentially lose money or break even if lucky? I`m going to call a friend on Monday to see if he can get it towed and scrapped, but that means no spares for anyone. I will ask if they can take the towbar off for me, as i`d like to keep it in case i get another. Any thoughts or suggestions anyone?
In addition the police were called, and were happy that as i was ok and no-one else involved it just needed towing away, which they left for me to sort. It`s far enough off the road to not be a hazard, but i have a police ref number for when it gets taken away as they`ll need to close the road (it`s on a fast bend on a dual carriageway).
Please PM me for more details if you are able to help, and i`ll give you my number. I`ve had some great guys on here help me in the past, so any input is much appreciated, thanks in advance.
Andy
 
Main thing is you're ok! Cars are replaceable. Whilst I'm too far away to offer any assistance, I'm sure someone nearer maybe able to offer some advice/help etc. With regards claiming, it's your call. Yes your premiums will be affected and if your NCB isn't protected you'll probably lose it. Realistically they'd probably value it at about a grand maybe? That said insurance companies differ on their valuations. I had a Mk2 Mondeo 2 year ago that was probably worth £500 in real money but the insurers settled at £1200.
 
Sorry to hear this but at least you are ok. It would not be worth claiming on the insurance. My advice is to get the car back home and look for another one cheap on Ebay. Then swap out all the good bits and weigh it in at a scrap yard. You will get £170+ easy of it scrap.
 
good to hear you are ok. what about getting another cougar, fitting the parts you want from the damaged one then scrap the rest / break for parts
 
Generally the insurance should give you what it would cost to replace off a garage forecourt - my guess is you should clear a grand (after xcess) and they should pay to reover your car. But you should also weigh up what your loss of no claims will be.

I think by law you have to report the accident to your insurance even if not claiming - one of the legal boys will know for sure.

Glad your OK though mate and its only the car thats wrecked
 
Sorry to hear your news, but glad you are ok. I can only echo what others have said before. Best of luck with whatever you decide to do.
 
Thanks for the replies all, much appreciated. It was a high speed crash with alot of N/S damage, a passenger wouldn`t have walked away so i am very lucky. I think i`ll call the insurance to ask if they can tell me how much the no claims lost will cost me before i make the claim, whether they will do that i`m not sure. If the value is around a grand then it`s probably worth claiming, if it`s around £500-600 then maybe not. I didn`t know it was worth that much as scrap, so that`s possibly good news, thanks again all.
 
I passed your car yesterday while i was out on my M/C, I thought it was a Cougar. Sorry to hear you bent her, but at least you walked away.
 
Andy, just one thing to be wary of - about 6 years ago some twunt in a builder's lorry smacked and re-decorated my parked up cougar, placing most of the n/s rear quarter panel closer to the door (I caught it on the video from the pub on the corner but couldn't quite read his plate).

I had a similar conundrum to you - that is, should I claim or not?

I rang the nice lady from Elephant (pre-admiral takeover days) and after a chat with her, decided againt claiming. After all the car while much, much uglier than before the incident it was still driveable.

Imagine my surprise last year then when upnon moving my insurance to another company, I didn;t have 10 years no-claims as I thought but only 6?!?!?! as Elephant considered that calling in to enquire about the possibility of a claim to be the same as a claim.

Lovely people working in the insurance biz. Tread careful is all I'm saying.
 
An interesting one this, have just spent 10 minutes or so browsing the web to discover if you are legally obliged to report the matter to your insurance company or not, in a case such as this where there is no other vehicle involved and no damage to property etc

can't find anything that says yes you must, the only things I have found relate to the possibility of future refusal to insure you, I could find nothing that states you are legally obliged to report the incident.

from the AA: http://www.theaa.com/motoring_advice/legal-advice/at-the-accident.html
It will also be a condition of your insurance policy that you report the accident to your insurance company within a reasonable time, even if you do not want to claim yourself. A failure to do so can give your insurance company the right to refuse to cover you in the future.
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and from motorlawyers.co.uk: http://www.motorlawyers.co.uk/offences/failing_to_stop_and_report.htm
Do I have to report the accident to my insurers?
Your obligation to report the matter to your insurance company is contractual between you and your insurers. However, if you choose not to report the matter promptly, your insurers can refuse to indemnify you in relation to any claim that you wish to make or is made against you, particularly if they believe their position has been prejudiced.
Click to expand...

so it would seem that although you are not legally obliged to report the incident, it's probably wise to check the small print in your policy
 
Andy - as others have said, thankfully you're in one piece yourself. That's the most important thing.

I haven't seen the car, (and even if I had, I'm neither a loss adjuster nor a professional mechanic) but from your description it sounds like a major smackup, likely with chassis and sill damage.

Even with a £250 excess I'd claim, reject their first couple of offers, and settle for a grand or so. Then I'd buy the carcass as a Cat B or C, part it out, and scrap what's left.

Just my opinion, but good luck whatever you decide to do.
 
is the £250 the compulsory excess and is there also a voluntary excess as you agreed to pay as well, in order to geta cheaper policy, you may well find insurance company's only pay out buying in price or auction price
 
mhl888 said:
Andy, just one thing to be wary of - about 6 years ago some twunt in a builder's lorry smacked and re-decorated my parked up cougar, placing most of the n/s rear quarter panel closer to the door (I caught it on the video from the pub on the corner but couldn't quite read his plate).

I had a similar conundrum to you - that is, should I claim or not?

I rang the nice lady from Elephant (pre-admiral takeover days) and after a chat with her, decided againt claiming. After all the car while much, much uglier than before the incident it was still driveable.

Imagine my surprise last year then when upnon moving my insurance to another company, I didn;t have 10 years no-claims as I thought but only 6?!?!?! as Elephant considered that calling in to enquire about the possibility of a claim to be the same as a claim.

Lovely people working in the insurance biz. Tread careful is all I'm saying.
Click to expand...

Absolutely true. If you tell them of any incident it will be lodged as a claim.

And yes...strictly speaking, it is a legal requirement to tell your insurance about any bump even if you don't intend to claim.

But...sod that
 
Thanks for all your replies everyone, sorry for not replying sooner but i`ve been away for a week with no internet access. I decided to call the insurance to ask about the value (unfortunately before i`d read some of the replies on here) and of course they then logged it so that it would go against me even if i didn`t claim. So i had to go ahead with it regardless.
They then called me a couple of days later offering £400! Saying they had seen a car for sale for that much, so that`s what they`d offer. I told them to poke it, they then upped it to £650, saying that was their very best offer. I`ve told them i would think about it, but was really after £800 minimum if possible.
I`l need to find some for sale that are in that ball park or higher, but they are telling me that you can get them £600 ish so that` s what they will pay, oh and my £250 excess comes out of that too, so that leaves me with £400, nice!
 
When you're looking for examples, make sure they're roughly the same spec, age, condition, mileage and from a dealer - not private sellers.
 
everton2004 said:
Also, If your cat had service history, any potential replacement should have the same.
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Absolutely right - it needs to be at least the same eg If you had an xpack, 60K and full service history then so does the replacement. It should also be local to you, they rate the insirance on your postcode so its nogood comparing to a car 200 miles away. I would ask them to provide the details of the car they identified and then you can check for yourself. At the same time I would be looking for an equivalent to what I had and documenting any i find locally to go back to them with.

Is it some tinpot insurance company or one of the biggies and what does your policy say
 
Just tell them to replace like for like for £650....which they can't and will up their offer.

Years ago I had a car written off, first offer was £1900, second offer £2600. I sent through an ad for the only available car in the same spec as mind....two days later I had a cheque for £5200.
 
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