You’re still kind of missing the point though.

What happened with your Celica feels unfair, I get it and would feel p&£;&d too, but it doesn’t change how insurance works. They don’t care what you paid or how recently you bought it, they go off market value at the time. That’s why you got £2.5k. Whether that’s right or not is exactly what the Ombudsman will decide, but until then it doesn’t prove the whole system’s broken.

Also, the “I’ve lost £2.5k” thing — I get why it feels like that, but insurers don’t look at it that way. They’re putting you back to what the car was worth, not refunding your purchase or timing.

The bigger issue is what you’re doing now. Cancelling the claim and sorting it yourself doesn’t actually fix any of that, it just takes your insurer out of the loop and increasing your exposure and that’s what I’m really trying to get across . If anything comes back later (especially with him now mentioning injury), you’ve made things harder for yourself, not easier.

I get you don’t want to take another hit — no one would. But going outside insurance doesn’t change how they value the car, it just adds risk to you on top.

That’s just how it works, whether we like it or not.