VX Rearended - Maybe written off

Just got the settlement cheque through :)

Settled at £8,765 and keeping the car.

The problem was down to my own appointed assessor who refused to increase their valuation, partly because 6 weeks after the crash I informed them that it might be worth more than they were thinking, meaning it should be repairable, which is very embarrassing for them and a problem for me as I had already stripped the car and started repairs.

The actual repair costs for me will be approx £700 + the respray which it needed anyway.
 
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.
 
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. :D
Click to expand...

Sure, was just explaining it a bit more :)

Trust me, it will be back better than ever before :)
 
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 :D
Click to expand...

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 said:
As much as I respect your skills at rebuilding and your VX knowledge I think you are a bit mistaken if you think the fact your Sports car is now a Cat D will only affect its value by £1500.
Click to expand...

It's not that, it's about what cars are on the market, very much a niche market. The cheapest standard VX in the PH classifieds is £8,500 and a Cat D car.
 
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.
 
paint2.jpg


paint3.jpg


paint4.jpg


Was all ready to take the vx to the bodyshop the other day after spending 2 nights out in the rain until 11pm to get the wheels and suspension back on.

Turn up with borrowed tow car to collect borrowed trailer and the straps to tie it down weren't with the trailer, but locked away somewhere else, doh!

Hopefully it will be gone to the bodyshop this week...
 
olv said:
more importantly, how long until you supercharge it :D
Click to expand...

I went in a supercharged VX the other day...

Pros:
Is pretty quick - over 300bhp per tonne
Kit looks a nice install and is proven, reliable
Power delivery is absolutely instant and linear
Fuel economy is as good as if not better than before for normal driving

Cons:
As the power is so linear it doesn't "feel" fast, but it certainly is
It doesn't sound fantastic
It's overkill for the road in the sense that the speed piles on so quickly, only comes into its own on track, first and second gear are over with extremely quickly.
It's £5,500


It wasn't enough to make me want it really badly. The other option is more NA tuning, one member has just got 215bhp from his with not vastly significant engine work. No option at the moment seems the best to me, perhaps the money will be more useful to me in the near future. There is also the part of me thinks it's worth investing more in the driver, than in the car...
 
olv said:
144 or so i think. I'm assuming 200+ is with a decent set of individual throttle bodies+ecu and cams?
Click to expand...

bottom end
eagle steel rods
removed balancer shafts and fitted idler gears to water pump chain
lightened flywheel

cylinder head
stage 3 ported head
+1mm wasted stem valves
piper cams

exhaust
4-2-1 exhaust manifold
magnaflow sports cat
milltek box

inlet system
2.4 inlet manifold - port matched to head
68mm tb - ported, also turned tb 90 degrees to open with the flow
75mm intake system with k+n cone filter
fpr vacuum mod
egr system deleted and egr cheater fitted

custom remap
2.0 sc injectors
 
Last edited:
Steve said:
If I repaired a cat D I would make a pack with all the photos of the work reciepts and then pay for an independant inspection and laser alignment on a jig etc, that would maximise the resale value.
Click to expand...


Due to the nature of the car, there's no need for that. The impact was nowhere near severe enough to touch the chassis and any chassis damage on an aluminum panel would be visible to the eye anyway. I do have photos of all the rebuild work and reciepts etc
 
The_Dark_Side said:
Muncher.

I'm assuming that those are the "new" front and rear body clams. As they look like their second hand, did you have to find one that'd had a severe rear end shunt and another with a severe front end shunt? Given the nature of the VX i imagine the breakers charge proper money for them yeah?
Click to expand...

The front of the car was undamaged so that's the original front clam.

The rear one, a mate knew a dealer in Bournemouth that had a couple of spare clam shells. I had a choice of a "clean" one for £500 or one with a couple of cracks in it for £300. I chose the £300 one and to patch it up myself.

Generally VX parts from breakers are quite expensive as they assume the owners have plenty of cash to spare. I got a few bits from a breakers, £15 for a handbrake cable and £40 for a caliper which were pretty decent prices. Also got a few leather interior bits which I'll probably ebay for profit as I'm not sure I want them in the car.
 
At last, it's at the bodyshop! Did 260 miles today running about with the car and trailer, all went relatively smoothly apart from getting stuck under a flyover which was a dead end and having to detach the trailer and get passers by to help us turn it around! Should be back in approx 3 weeks :D

trailer1.JPG


trailer2.JPG
 
Mattius said:
looking nice, the roof isnt stayin red is it?
Click to expand...


No, that's another one I took there to get painted, my one is blue but was on a rack somewhere else.

Trick - Yeah, it's not a rumour it's fact unfortunately. It's there day, they can do what they want to I guess but it is a bit silly given that if there was no VX220 there would be no Lotus Cars Ltd now!
 
[TW]Fox;10121948 said:
Did the VX220 really save Lotus from bankruptcy?

Also why did you not clean the wheels, surely leaving brake dust on them for months is doing them no favours?
Click to expand...

In all probability, yes. Lotus did pretty well out of it and it provided them with the basis of the entire range at present, the S2 Elise, S2 Exige, Europa & 211 are all based on the VX. I don't think Lotus would have agreed to the project unless they needed to either.

As for the wheels, I've got new ones to go on so these will just be sold. They got a little marked in places on the rears as they were underneath the car for a while to support the weight at the front. I'm going to give them a rub down and fresh coat of paint before I sell them anyway, won't take very long.
 
I must admit I am not fully aware of the figures so may well be wrong, I can only go by what I've read on the VX forums and SELOC.

As for the the shared components, off the top of my head I'd also add the windscreen and surround, wishbones, steering rack and crash structure.

Regarding the M250 project, why was it canned in the end? Wasn't it lack of money?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom