Sainsburys van wrote my car off

Surely you're joking? You've already been compensated.

@CountTo10 yes I just did a fast Google and it does have mileage conditions and have to be purchased within so many days of owning the car so mainly for those buying new/newer cars.

Wouldn’t help a lot of the population who just scraped together their couple of thousand to get an older but running car.

@UndermyShoeJoe Apparently not although reading up on it they do say it is associated with new cars as a car loses significant value just by being driven off the forecourt. You buy it separately to your standard car insurance.

Well yes it would have to be quite the process to prove legitimacy and would come at a higher price.

Writing off your 2014 corsa, 120k miles to get another 2014 corsa, 120k miles in the version of equivalent insurance probably wouldn’t be as appealing for con men.

I thought gap insurance was only for cars on finance?

@ScienceMumm yes but your son didn't go through the legal process of an insurance claim. They offered you some compensation as goodwill.

If you asked for their public liability insurance details you wouldn't have received whatever they compensated you.

You can get 'new for old car insurance'. It's called Gap insurance but I suspect might have some stringent limitations and would be prohibitively expensive on older cars.

Yes you were insured, but although you got a payout, it covers the value of your car. They don't take into account that you will need to purchase a new car or go without. I think this should be taken into consideration when it a no fault claim. If someone were to write my car off (god forbid), my insurance payout would only cover the remaining finance and then I would need to source a newer car and take on probably higher monthly payments.

It's so bloody annoying. At least you are not hurt, hope you get something sorted soon.

Can you imagine the abuse.
Buying an old car and getting a friend to accidentally’ write it off.

Admiral definitely do outsource to one of the “dodgy” claim management companies. Either you had some sort of enhanced cover, or you did get a credit hire car as no standard insurer offers a hire car after it’s been decided the vehicle will be written off (although some do offer it as standard but often advertise it as a free upgrade sort of feature).

We’ve just had a claim with LV and were offered (and took) a credit hire car.

I think car insurance should have policies like contents. New for old or at least of returning you to owning the same age/mileage car as what you’ve lost, not book price if you’ve broken car.

One of the few insurances where it’s not even a possibility. Our contents is all new for old, our old static caravan was even on a new for old policy.

No, that's what their insurance is for.

Yes obviously the driver of the car that ran into yours should provide you with compensation, either in person or by proxy via their insurance policy.

This is an add on with my last policy with Sheila’s wheels so I got a hire car for 21 days after a write off. I think some policies may have it as standard though. Not all policies are equal

If it's an old car it's unlikely the OP would be able to have GAP insurance.

I do see where the OP is coming from. Not only has she had the inconvenience of her car being written off, getting a low pay out from the insurers and her premium will increase even though it wasn't her fault. I can also see why Sainsbury's wouldn't apologise and admit liability though.

The car insurance is the compensation.

They aren’t going to admit liability because of the possible legal repercussions.

If you are still angry (and I don’t blame you if you are), then change your supermarket. It won’t make a difference to them but at least you’re not giving them your money any more.

It is rubbish when a decent car gets written off. I bashed my own fantastically well running car and got a whopping £400. Next one was a lemon. It’s really frustrating but insurance is there for a reason.

Did your insurer claim off their insurance since it was not your fault?

Both times I've had a car written off (neither my fault), I've had a loan car straight away (while they assess damage) and then kept the car until the write off amount money has arrived by cheque or in my account. This is with Admiral and Aviva, no dodgy claim management).

whilst I don’t think it’s down to sainsburys per se to offer compensation but the system needs to change.

We were in a similar situation a few months ago with the other driver at 100% fault. DH wasn’t hurt out of sheer luck. However the inconvenience to us isn’t compensated. Again we were lucky that the car should be able to be repaired (still in the garage) as we weren’t in the position to be buying a new car (ours with just over 110,000 miles, nearly 10 years old but we’ve had it since new/fully serviced/new cam belt/never had an issue with it but wouldn’t want to gamble to get a like for like..)

DH spent a whole day on hold to the insurance company, different departments, similar but different forms to fill in, police reports, same again for the garage, having to wait around for the car to be collected, initially out of pocket paying for a new car seat, waiting a week for a new car seat to be delivered, curtesy car a lot smaller than our car, having to pay initial excess for the insurance….

We don’t get any compensation for the stress of having to deal with all the admin, time wasted or inconvenience. Best case scenario they’re able to beat out all the damage the other vehicle caused.

Ironically I’m wasting my afternoon waiting for them to collect the curtesy car and for our car to be delivered. Not a penny for the inconvenience.

Car insurance typically only pays for a hire car while your damaged car is repaired, not in the event of a write off (unless it’s supplied by one of those dodgy claims management companies who charge you a fortune for it and then fail to recover the inflated cost from the at-fault party).

What happened was terrible but I wouldn't see it as an opportunity to get free groceries 😳

That's what insurance is for, if you choose not to have gap insurance as well then the payout was always going to be less than the insurance payout.

It's frustrating

Their insurance should pay up. I don't know why you would expect them to do anything more than this - if it was a random person would you expect them to compensate you on top of insurance? Change supermarkets if you want to.

I think you'll find that it's deemed an admission of guilt so they can't.

Even if insurance deems them the party at fault, they as a business can't

You spend less than £100 a week there. You’re hardly a high rolling customer.

What do you want? Your insurance has paid and as you admit yourself the car was old. Be thankful you got some money for it before the engine blew up or it needed so much work it was beyond economical repair.