I guess this is the reason for why insurers like to press the 'motor legal protection' option at the time of taking out a policy?
I have absolutely no problem with fighting my corner for as long as it takes. I hope that my insurer would be capable of supporting me with any reasonable action I may choose to take but as we all know, if they can get out of it, they'll invent a reason for doing so which no sane person could comprehend. This being the case, I'd presume that Direct Line would be able to find a replacement car with exactly the same spec, condition and similar mileage for the price they'd offered me for mine in lieu of a cash settlement. Bearing in mind that my car was first registered by MB in 2011 on a '10' plate and that it has 12,000 miles on the clock. When I was looking at other examples so that I could price my car for sale, none of the cars advertised at the time had anything close to that mileage. Okay, it's not everything but my car was absolutely spotless inside and out, so that must also be taken into consideration.
This is all hypothetical as I don't know that they're intending to write my car off. At a rough guess, it'll cost Direct Line thousands to repair my car and to sort out all of the other issues, so a write-off could be an easy route out of this for them.
25+ years of holding a stainless driving record might also count for something? Time will tell and I will take independent legal advice regarding this issue, should the need arise.
Is there any way of having a 'what do to if an insurer...' sticky thread with tips and links to helpful sites and resources or would that constitute giving legal advice and be against forum policy?