Was Dialdirect Correct or Wrong

I was insured with this insurance company for years since around 2007, up to 2014 when I lost my car in Pretoria. They paid up market value claim value to the Bank. I had to settle the shortfall of about R5000 to settle the debt with the bank. Two years later, In 2016 the vehicle was found by SAPS at a roadblock operation around KZN, thanks to microdots the vehicle was identified as ****** and I was contacted to come and verify it in KZN. I then immediately contacted the insurance company to inform them about the recovered vehicle, to which they subsequently paid for my same day in/ out travel to Durban in order to identify the vehicle. After successfully identifying the vehicle, the insurance took it for auction and offered me the equivalent of the value of the vehicle if I still needed to buy / own it, which I didn’t have at the time and I couldn’t bid. Was the vehicle supposed to be given back to me without cost or it then belonged to the insurance company ?