Thanks for replies and advice. I did actually send an email to the ceo of Hastings yesterday afternoon and he got a senior manager to telephone me this morning to discuss my problems. He was very amicable and he agreed to pay another £350, so £1700 which is close enough to the £1900 I originally paid for the car. So I've agreed to settle. So in this case contacting the ceo (and politely) did work. As you have said the fos probably wouldn't have helped at all and going to the small claims court for this small amount wouldn't have been worth it.

I had my car stolen on 10th December and submitted a claim to Hastings Direct who have now given me a low value as their "final settlement". My car was a Ford Mondeo Ghia X Estate 2004 in totally mint condition with 112000 miles. I bought it in June 2021 from a private seller for £1900 and it really was in totally mint condition and I have a lot of documents to back up the work the previous owner did on it to keep it exceptionally tidy. Hastings Direct have offered me £1356 which I think is far too low. I have only done 300 miles in it in 6 months (which can be proved by my recent MOT I had done). When I filled in the claims forms Hastings asked for as much information as possible to confirm the condition of the car which I have supplied. The email from the loss adjuster said to call him to discuss what I thought of the offer which I did and was quickly told "that is all you're getting-take it or leave it". I asked where his value came from and he said CAPS guide. I asked had he looked at all the documents I had supplied and he said "no"-he goes by the guides only. When I said about prices on Autotrader he totally dismissed it out of hand. I have gone through their complaints procedure who have totally backed up what he has said. This is a rare car being the Ghia X and there are very few about so difficult to get an exact match on price. There are only about 7 available on Autotrader and the contacting the fosir values are around the £2800 mark-so well above the amount I've been offered. Am I being unreasonable in expecting more from Hastings or are they screwing me over? On looking on the Financial Ombudsman site they do recommend using guides unless the car is rare or there is a big difference in the price the car was bought for recently. I am thinking of contacting the ceo of Hastings Direct via email personally before going to the fos. Any thoughts/advice appreciated. Thanks Andy