[51woodie]

Brian. I don't know what insurance companies are like in NZ, but here in Canada, they always try to deny or save themselves as much money as they can. I have had a few occasions where I avidly disputed their offers. I one case, they told me my old 82 5.0 Mustang was only worth $250 (scrap value) because of it's age and mileage. A friend had an under hood fire in his Corvette, that blistered the hoods custom paint job. The insurance said, the only shop he could take it to, because of its age, was one of those "full body paint job for $500" shops. The owner of the custom shop where the car was painted intervened, and the car was put on a closed car hauler for a 400 km one way trip to the custom shop. They paid for all of the repairs.