Car Value Required

[wiltsman]

I'm trying to help a friend whose husband died unexpectedly as a result of an accident at home.

There's a lot to sort out. She needs to get rid of his car which he used as a reliable runabout to get to and from work.

The car is a 56 reg 1600cc Petrol Vauxhall Astra Life S-A. It's a black 5 door hatchback with approx 99,000 miles on the clock, and was in regular use right until a few weeks ago. However, the car was damaged earlier this year by a tailgater who drove into the rear of the vehicle.

The insurance company said the cost of repairs would be more than the worth of the car, and so they wrote it off. My friends husband then negotiated with the insurers, got the car back and had it repaired himself.

To me the repairs look OK, certainly visually when I last saw the car. My friend just wants to be shot of it now, but she would like some idea that when someone says 'What do you want for it?', she would like some idea of it's worth.

I'd like to help her, so is there any ABer out there that can give me some idea of the amount she should be looking at?

As I live 300 miles away, I'm hoping I can get an answer that I can pass on to her.

[tonyav]

A bit difficult to put a value on this car, wiltsman. It will have a damage catagary (sp) which will seriously affect it's price. If I were you I'd have a look on Ebay and autotrader and see if you can find anything similar to give you an idea of it's value.

[ToraToraTora]

it's a cat C/D so effectively worth only scrap value, she'd do well to get £250.

[wiltsman]

Thank you tonyav and Tora Tora Tora.

[TWR]

Put the car on Free site Gum Tree / Preloved, if your friend get's a responce make sure she has someone with her for safety, never deal at night & try if pos to get someone that knows a bit about cars so she does not get ripped off, WE RIP ANY CAR OWNER OFF ,COM do not bother with them, they start off offering you " SAY" £300, after the paper work has been sorted your friend will end up with a small amount, as said look on ebay for an Idea's or the sites I have named.

[=rizla=]

Parkers has a 'straight' one at about £1500 or so http://www.parkers.co.uk/cars/prices/used/vauxhall

Rumour had it a few years ago insurance companys only payed out about 1/2 of the value of the car to a cat c/d if it was written off again.

As you say he repaired it himself its hard to know how well the repairs were done, if he just used a cheaper garage then dispite its history the car could fetch close to the parkers guide, if a cheaper home/bodge repair then maybe not so much.

I would definitly advertise it saying 'previous cat c/d (whichever it was)' and if it hasnt been done before then it will need a VIC check done by the DVLA https://www.gov.uk/vehicle-identity-check before they will release the V5 to a new owner so if its done before its another selling point that the repairs have been done.

Even if no repairs were done then crash damaged auction houses sell damaged cars a lot more than scrap value.