Help with replacement price for insurance please!

[john_b]

Hello

Our insurers have recently written off our Transit due to flood damage to the deisel engine. Fair enough as the quoted repair price was £2,900 and the van was old (1996). However, the van was also a rare Custom Auto Turbo Diesel (LWB) and they are only offering us £300! When We queried this they quoted us adverts for 3 Transits of the same year with the same mielage. None of them, though, were automatics and all were SWB.

We have to have an automatic as my wife (the main diver), only has an automatic license.

We know that older automatic transits are hard to come by, and have recently seen them selling for considerably more than £300 (last week on e-bay we saw 2, both SWB models go for over £800).

The insurance company has said that if we could provide them adverts for a similar spec vehicle they would pay us the average price, so we wondered if anyone had sold one or seen something similar. The van we just wrote off was:

1996 Transit 100 TD LWB Auto
Engine size: 2498 cc
Mileage: 120,000 (approx)
MOT: July 2010
Tax: July 2010

It was a Custom, so had power steering, electric mirrors and heated seats

In addition to adverts, we'd appreciate your opinion on this.

Thanks very much

John Bassil

[madmark_50484]

This ones going for more than that

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Ford-Transit-Dies ... 414c846e35

I would be on the opinion they are trying it on you well know you would have a queue out the door if you were to sell it for that price

If you say the engine is flooded I can't see how they would get £2900 to replace it

Just look around autotrader and stuff print the ads out and send it to them until they offer you something that reflects the vans value

[john_b]

Hi

Yes, we do know they are trying it on, that's why we asked for expert help! Thanks for the link, I've printed it out. What happened was that due to being tailgated on a dark country lane, I hit a flood at approx 30mph. The water splashed over the bonnet, and got into the air intake, so the entire engine is seized. The garage that the insurers took it to quoted £2,900 to repair it. If they offer us a decent price, we want to buy it back and get a replacement engine.

Thanks again

John

[madmark_50484]

There was 2 for sale on ebay not long ago as discussed here infortunately both were pulled off early but might be worth noting that the first one start price was £300 with reserve not met might be worth sending that to them as these seem quite rare

[john_b]

Hi Mark

Just out of interest, take a look at this:

http://www.gumtree.com/london/96/53038896.html

This is the same spec as our van, only 3 years newer

I have printed this off!

[madmark_50484]

Now I would say thats a little pricey but something is worth what someone willing to pay and these auto's are rare so its down to the individual good to send to the inurance company though

[john_b]

Hi Mark

Yes, it is good, and only a little pricey. We had a PM from a member who has one, and he reckons between £1500 - £2,000, and that his 1992 is valued at around £2,000, so we're sending that to the insurers as well!

Thanks again for your help

John