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Weird car stuff you just don't get


AudiPartner
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Indeed, if a modern well maintained car feels 'dangerous' it's the driver at fault not the car.

I've driven the Mrs old Polo when she still had it on the motorway, 1.0, totally knackered, probably only 50 or so of it's original horsepower left, flat out at 75 mph wandering all over the place on worn out suspension and cheap tyres, and it still didn't feel dangerous because I drove it within it's limits.

Fiestas are great cars and sales figures back that up, I don't think you can buy a better small car, sure you can get funkier (Fiat 500), posher (Audi A1), etc etc, but as an all rounder, it can't be beaten.

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it's the driver at fault not the car

Often true, yes.

wandering all over the place
it still didn't feel dangerous

:coffee:

(Ahhh, the joys of selective quotation... :grin: )

I did my ARDS test in a Fiesta with stickers on it. Awful thing, totally unsuited to being on track. No, I didn't bend it.

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70mph on the motorway and we approach a slight incline. I'm in fifth with my foot flat to the floor and the car is slowing down.

Change to 4th and bury the pedal in the carpet and we maintain speed at 60mph - nothing else happens.

Perhaps if I drove it every day if just accept I'd need a run-up at any gentle incline but coming from a torquey diesel it was more apparent.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Have to agree with Tipex about power outputs - one of my favourite cars to drive is the Fiat Cinquecento. With a whole 55bhp. (They sit too high from the factory, but with a bit of lowering, they become a proper little roller skate - it's just so much fun to be able to use 100% of the available performance)

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Not sure if this is the right place... but it is a weird car thing i don't get.

 

Agreed valuations. Just been discussing this on the Alfa 75 forum, as some idiot seems to think that because he's spunked £10k on restoring his car, and because some other nutter has given him a piece of paper saying 'I think it's worth eleventy hundred pounds', it means you can have an 'agreed value' of £6.5k against it for insurance purposes.

 

How does this make sense, when the real value is around £3k?

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It doesn't make any sense, all it does is push up the premium when you over value a car, and they won't pay out the agreed value in the event of an accident anyway.

It may be what you agree the car is worth with the insurers, but in event of a total loss, they will simply say they can replace it for £xxx so that's what they'll pay out.

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Interesting question in there though. A normal car insurance policy will pay "market value" on a total loss, whatever the valuation when taking out the policy.

 

Is this the same for specialist classic car insurance policies, where the value might be far more dependent on the quality and condition of that particular example. Or is there a mechanism for coming to an agreed insurance value that the insurance company will actually honour?

 

(Er, let's assume for the sake of argument that an Alfa 75 is a classic car... :P )

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It doesn't make any sense, all it does is push up the premium when you over value a car, and they won't pay out the agreed value in the event of an accident anyway.

It may be what you agree the car is worth with the insurers, but in event of a total loss, they will simply say they can replace it for £xxx so that's what they'll pay out.

 

No, an agreed value policy is exactly what it says on the tin.  If the car is nicked, torched or written off, you get the agreed value.

 

To answer Garcons question, how the valuation is agreed in the first place depends on the insure.  Some ask for the car to be inspected by a garage / specialist / valuer.  Some allow you to send in some photos and 'self' value.

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Seems a bizarre thing, though - and some of the official 'valuers' are essentially rubber-stamping fraud in signing notes to value something at 2-3 or more times the actual value.

 

You see it all the time on eBay - 'insurance valuation £8k' - for some heap of junk worth £1k on a good day.

 

How can that be in anyone's interests? - the owner gets an inflated premium, the insurer is exposed to a higher risk of fraud - the only person who really gets anything out of it is the person who has been paid to write a load of old toss with a hugely optimistic value against it.

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My 968 insurance is for an agreed value, they asked for lots of pics to confirm condition, although I suspect my valuation of it is rather modest as they didn't argue with it.

 

And this is how the discussion came up.

 

Someone had insured a 75 V6 for £6.5k, with the justification they'd spent £10k on restoration. The car would fetch £3.5k if a couple of anoraks started a bidding war.

 

I've just put my photos into Carole Nash for a £2k valuation - I know mine is only a TSpark, but it's largely in really nice condition and has had the rot cut out and a repaint. But I was concerned £2k was being optimistic!

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  • 1 month later...

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