Thanks again. Should the calculation as to a settlement include these additional financial impacts? eg quite aside from the cost of repair, I’m likely to have increased premiums in one way or another. Similarly, if I sell the car (even repaired) the value is diminished because it would be a Cat N vehicle. All in, I’m not sure how I won’t suffer some downside within this - too many trapdoors. Very frustrating given that it’s all down to someone hitting my parked car.

Thanks for this input guys. It’s very useful to get some perspectives on it and as a first time user of this forum I’ve appreciated people taking the time to offer advice, especially so quickly. Based on the range of values mentioned here, I’m not sure I’ll be able to come out slightly worse off in one way or another, but perhaps not quite so badly as I first imagined. Does anyone know how much impact on insurance premium a reclassification of my vehicle to a Cat N might have?

Thanks. Fortunately, I am fully comprehensive, with protected no claims. Even at a cost that covers value of repair work, plus maybe a couple of hundred pounds, it’s hard to feel that it’s even a neutral result after all the related admin, inconvenience and so on, but I see what you mean in pure numbers. Perhaps their offer isn’t so far out after all.

Thank you all for the input. I hadn’t realised that mileage was deemed to have such a huge impact on value. How does this balance against the idea of putting me in a position to replace the vehicle financially? Whilst the equation may be a trade metric, I’m simply not seeing any cars for sale at or around that price. Additionally, I guess that classing the car as an economic write off will further decrease its value when I eventually do sell it on? Therefore, in any of these scenarios I would seem to be coming off worse off than I was pre-incident, despite having no fault. What would you guys do? What is the best / least worst option here?

dx100UK, thanks for the reply. I'm fully comprehensive with LV.

A Veolia commercial vehicle drove into my parked car and fortunately left a note, accepting responsibility. The damage is a relatively minor dent in the rear quarter, which would pull out easily, and more serious damage to the passenger door and passenger side front wing panel. These two will need to be replaced. There is no structural damage and the car drives as normal - it is cosmetic damage only. Strata solicitors handle all claims on Veolia's behalf and requested some images of the damage, which I promptly sent. Strata have advised that they would deem the car a total loss. Their assessors have apparently estimated the cost of repair (at an Audi approved bodyshop) at around £4,000 and have valued my car at just £3,100. On this basis, their initial offer was either £3,100 and they take my car away OR £2,300 and I keep the car. My vehicle is a 2010 Audi A5 3.0 diesel S Line convertible, well specced and well maintained & invested in mechanically. It is however, high mileage, having done 201,000 miles. It also has the odd scratch here and there, which is no surprise given the age of the vehicle and the fact that it spends a reasonable amount of time parked in the street. In order to dispute the value offered by Strata I have checked Autotrader and found a selection of comparable vehicles. There weren't many of this model for sale, so to get a selection I had to work with a range from 1 year older than mine to 1 year younger, which I think is a reasonable spread given the age of the vehicle. These cars were between £12,500 and £9,500 and I sent screenshots of about 6 examples to Strata. These cars had between around 50,000 miles, up to 90,000 ish. Initially the person I've been dealing with was seemingly of the opinion that the value should be reviewed in light of such a stark contrast between their offer of £3,100 and the value of the comparable vehicles, but today they told me that the relevant department was unwilling to review their valuation because the cars on Autotrader cars were not an 'exact like for like'. I am more than willing for the value of my car to be reduced to reasonably reflect the mileage, but feel that the value offered thus far borders upon insulting. The outcome I would like is to accept the car as being a total loss, receive the payout and keep the car, which I can then arrange to have repaired myself. I would like to ask the forum users two questions please. 1. Given the data points shared, what might be a fair value / a realistic value for me to aim for in this case? 2. Since Strata / Veolia have said that they aren't willing to negotiate, would I be best advised to contact my insurer or utilise a claims management company, to get to my desired outcome? (And if a claims management company would be best, any recommendations are most welcome.) Hope I haven't missed any important info out. Would really appreciate any advice, as I'm keen to be reasonable but don't want to be taken advantage of either. Thanks Richard