Further update

So the recovery firm told us that the car was not obviously damaged and we started the process of trying to buy it back. We liked the car and it was exactly what we wanted and we had spent a lot of time researching different cars to find it. However the insurance company had sold the car to a salvage company. After many attempts, we got the phone number of the salvage company and phoned them as we were hoping to go and have a look at the car. They told us the car was badly damaged on one side so we gave up and yesterday bought the car we had put the deposit on. No idea who was telling the truth. The man from the insurance company was going to inspect the car and tell us a buy-back price last Tuesday, then Wednesday, then Friday, then next Monday. We have had to give back the courtesy car so we no longer had a vehicle to use to go and inspect our old car. And we need a vehicle to use next Tuesday for something we are doing. So we gave up and bought the other car. It is similar to our old one but older and more expensive and definitely more than the insurance company gave us for our old one.

I have left out the daily hassles of phone calls and/or letters with the insurance company, the sleepless nights, the evenings when I was too fraught to eat my dinner etc etc. Remind me why we have insurance please!