I came into Coupe ownership 3 years ago with a standard 16VT. In January this year i had an accident where i suffered a minor dent to the bonnet. The insurance company wrote the car off, saying the bonnet was not repairable and too expensive to replace! They gave me £850 for a car i paid over 3 grand for 3 years ago. Naturally, i rejected their offer and argued it was worth at least £2000 and threatened to take them to the Financial Ombudsman, but they still dragged it on and refused to up their offer.
They even upgraded my Claims Handler to a Senior Claims Handler who said they had reviewed my case and saw no reason to increase their offer, citing the fact that with the credit crunch you can now buy a 16VT for a few hundred quid. I refused to back down and argued back with everything i could think of. Then complete silence from them for 2 weeks. I got home from work today, and received a letter from them...with a £1150 cheque giving me a total offer of exactly what i had asked for from day one!
I'm now off to get seriously pissed and celebrate!