Soldato
Sorry, my apologies.jamoor said:
i'd only skip read when i replied to your post. i've since read further and it's a total popcorn fest, lol.
nice find!
VX Rearended - Maybe written off
- Thread starter Muncher
- Start date
i'd only skip read when i replied to your post. i've since read further and it's a total popcorn fest, lol.
nice find!
The_Dark_Side - Yes I didn't get quite as much as I wanted but it's a swings and roundabouts situation. If I wasn't buying back the salvage and had no interest in it being repaired I would have terminated the retainer with my solicitor and pushed for more.
However, the assessors (who were rubbish) said they weren't prepared to go any higher and if I pushed for more their professional opinion would be that it should be repaired. For obvious reasons I did not want that.
In terms of actual crash damage (disregarding the other work I have done on the car):
Rear Subframe £0 - I helped out a VX owner with his court case, so he kindly gave me a subframe for free. These are over £800 new, with 10 hours labour to fit it.
Rear clam - £300 - I bought a crash damaged clam from a dealer and have repaired it using fibreglass myself. These are over £2,000 new + painting.
Rear mesh - Bought from Autovaux new @ £40 instead of £60 from a dealer.
Rear Light - Bought for £85 second hand, I imagine these are £250+ new.
Exhaust back box - Negotiated a deal with the manufacturer, £285 instead of £390.
Minor bend in rear undertray can simply be straightened out, dealer would no doubt charge £100+ for one.
Exhaust heatshield - This can be shaped back to fit, dealers charge £588+VAT for these.
Also, I have done all of the labour myself. So yes, I have done reasonably well out of it, but that's just paying for my own labour really.
However, the assessors (who were rubbish) said they weren't prepared to go any higher and if I pushed for more their professional opinion would be that it should be repaired. For obvious reasons I did not want that.
In terms of actual crash damage (disregarding the other work I have done on the car):
Rear Subframe £0 - I helped out a VX owner with his court case, so he kindly gave me a subframe for free. These are over £800 new, with 10 hours labour to fit it.
Rear clam - £300 - I bought a crash damaged clam from a dealer and have repaired it using fibreglass myself. These are over £2,000 new + painting.
Rear mesh - Bought from Autovaux new @ £40 instead of £60 from a dealer.
Rear Light - Bought for £85 second hand, I imagine these are £250+ new.
Exhaust back box - Negotiated a deal with the manufacturer, £285 instead of £390.
Minor bend in rear undertray can simply be straightened out, dealer would no doubt charge £100+ for one.
Exhaust heatshield - This can be shaped back to fit, dealers charge £588+VAT for these.
Also, I have done all of the labour myself. So yes, I have done reasonably well out of it, but that's just paying for my own labour really.
Soldato
^^^
mate, if you can put the car back on the road to a state where it's at least as good as it was pre-accident, and be financially up on the deal then good on you. I wasn't being arsey at all i was just trying to show that even in a non-fault, we're still at the mercy of the market values.
hope it's back on four wheels and spitting out unburnt hydrocarbons as soon as possible.
mate, if you can put the car back on the road to a state where it's at least as good as it was pre-accident, and be financially up on the deal then good on you. I wasn't being arsey at all i was just trying to show that even in a non-fault, we're still at the mercy of the market values.
hope it's back on four wheels and spitting out unburnt hydrocarbons as soon as possible.
The_Dark_Side said:^^^
mate, if you can put the car back on the road to a state where it's at least as good as it was pre-accident, and be financially up on the deal then good on you. I wasn't being arsey at all i was just trying to show that even in a non-fault, we're still at the mercy of the market values.
hope it's back on four wheels and spitting out unburnt hydrocarbons as soon as possible.
Sure, was just explaining it a bit more
Trust me, it will be back better than ever before
Soldato
You're lucky, in that it's possible for you to replace every damaged component. a run of the mill monocoque usually doesn't allow this so your car WILL be no worse off for being involved in a shunt.Muncher said:Sure, was just explaining it a bit more
Trust me, it will be back better than ever before
Caporegime
Muncher said:Sure, was just explaining it a bit more
Trust me, it will be back better than ever before
just it will tecnically be a CAT D write off severly knocking its 2nd hand value i take it ?
but hey if your going to keep the car for a long while, who cares
laissez-faire said:
Don't be silly, had he not wanted to rebuild it, or not had the ability to do it himself he would have received about 20% more cash and would then have to source himself another car of simmilar quality. In what way would the third parties insurers have been better off in this case?
Or are you saying that any car owner who knows one end of a spanner from the other should only be payed what it costs (not including labour) for them to rebuild their own cars from second hand parts in the event that a third party writes it off?
MrLOL said:just it will tecnically be a CAT D write off severly knocking its 2nd hand value i take it ?
but hey if your going to keep the car for a long while, who cares
It will knock it but not by that much, especially as the damage is well detailed. Most VXs have had a bump at one time or another so there is a high proportion of Cat C/D cars on the market. I don't expect it to take more than £1.5-£2k off the value, tops and that will reduce as more cars get written off and re-enter the market. I'd guess about 10-15% of VXs for sale at any one time have been written off.
![[TW]Fox](/data/man-of-honor/2009.png){kind=avatar}
Soldato
Yeah and he can probably expect to sell it for closer to £6k.
Advertised price != selling price.
Advertised price != selling price.
I've never heard of anyone picking up a VX for anywhere near that. I am friends with a few people who buy written off VXs and restore them, sell them and buy another, they don't go that cheaply. In any case, I'm not looking to sell for the foreseeable future in any case.
Soldato
[TW]Fox said:
To be honest Fox it probably will. Loads of VXs and Elises are Cat D due to the clam shell design. It only takes a tiny knock to crack it and you need to either replace it or repair it, both of which take a lot of labour time to get the clams off and cost a fair bit so a car can end up as Cat D for something as small as a couple of inch crack.
Simon said:
On the contrary, I'd prefer the Cat D example. I'd have preffered to buy a Cat D example of my car given that I could have saved thousands. I don't have a problem with it.
Unfortunately, the rest of the market does, which is why Cat D cars can make such good buys.
'Cat D is it?'
'Yea was rear ended. No problem though becuase I rebuilt it in my girlfriends garden'
'Great... I've got another one to view..'
We all know Muncher is making a fine job of his rebuild but be honest, if you heard those words uttered from the mouth of somebody selling YOU an Elise or a VX220, would you buy it? Especially if they were Munchers age.
Permabanned
I run screaming like a big girl from Cat D's, mainly because I have no idea if it will have been rebuilt correctly, hell, I could have rebuilt my Mazda, but I didn't trust my own garage, let alone someone else's or some amateur to rebuild a car and make it like new.
I'm sure people do good jobs, and im sure my garage would have done, I just wouldn't have any way of knowing these things, unless possibly until it was to late!
I'm sure people do good jobs, and im sure my garage would have done, I just wouldn't have any way of knowing these things, unless possibly until it was to late!
Associate
Muncher said:
I would say for the small amount of effort, if you get it inspected the cat D status could be removed.
Some people might have seen the wrecks to riches example of a lightning yellow that they did arguably more work on than Munchers. Cat D is nothing but an insurance company get-out clause to void a policy and walk away.
Soldato
[TW]Fox said:
Munchers car isn't typical of Cat D Elises/VXs though.
As I said, a lot of Elises end up as Cat D's for the smallest of knocks to the fibreglass. On a normal car it would be nothing more than a 2" crack on a bumper, yet due to the whole front end of an Elise being one big clamshell it's not quite as easy or cheap to repair, hence why the smallest of things can result in Cat D classification.
When my own car was reversed into the damage was literally a 2" hairline crack where the front grille sits. You couldn't even see it unless you removed the grille yet it probably cost the insurance company £1000 for the repair (lots of labour to remove clam, probably 50p to repair it and lots of labour to put it back on) plus 3 weeks of my hire car at £500 per day. All in all it must've cost over £10k for what was the smallest of unnoticable cracks.