[Mgs] Fwd: Have a lovely and safe weekend, everyone.

Eric Erickson eric at erickson.on.net
Tue Apr 29 09:04:41 MDT 2008


Hi,


On 29/04/2008, at 11:17 PM, Richard Gosling wrote:

> Not sure how much your car (or indeed an Australian Dollar) is worth,

1.00 AUD = 0.932735 USD (US Dollar)
1.00 AUD = 0.598355 EUR (Euro)
1.00 AUD = 0.473297 GBP (Great Britain Pound)
1.00 AUD = 0.944524 CAD (Canadian Dollar)

> but in the UK if the damage approaches even about 70% of the car's
> value the insurance company will write it off rather than repair it.
> Of course, you then get into a protracted battle over exactly how much
> the car is worth - BTDT, even on a car I was only claiming was worth
> #400.

Even at the "agreed value" I wasn't even to half the value of the car
- but $4,500 is still a lot of money for a little old car!

I bought the car for $AU10,000 ten years ago and it was insured for
an "agreed value" of $13,000.  I keep meaning to put that agreed
value up because since then I have had new paint and body work (and
electricals, suspensions, brakes etc etc.) .  Yes, I do run it around
a racetrack but she is pretty straight and the engine gets a full
rebuild every few years.

All it would take would be for me to put the interior back in and
quieten the exhaust (and maybe soften the suspension a little) and
she would be a great road car.  :-)

>
> Is your insurer a specialist classic insurer, or standard insurance?

Shannons heavily promote them as the preferred insurer of classic
cars and back that up by sponsoring lots of classic motorsports
events, car shows etc.  The best bit of the policy is the guaranteed
"salvage rights" you have - even if I write off my car there are
bound to be lots of bits that I would want off her.
>
> Is it a place you are already friendly with?  When I damaged my
> Spitfire (my fault) I took it to a Triumph specialists I already knew
> well, and they knew me.  They cared more about me as a customer than
> they cared about the insurance company, and were happy to do me some
> favours, including bumping up their quote by the amount of my excess
> so that I ended up not out of pocket at all!

These are the guys that fixed the $1,700.00 worth of damage I got
when I got hit in the right, rear corner a year or so ago (that area
is damaged again).  I was very happy with the work they did then so I
went back to them again.  They also do most of the work for the place
I get the work done on my car (which is where they will get the
required parts - just over the back fence), so they won't want to
upset their biggest customer's best customer :-)

There is going to be a lot of cutting involved in this job so I will
keep my fingers crossed!

It was an expensive way to get a new left rear tail-light lens to
match the one they replaced on the right side last time!


Eric
'68 MGB MkII
Adelaide, South Australia


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