Options following writeoff

[toxo]

As some of you know my rev3 turbo was in the middle of a 3 car shunt on the M1 a fortnight ago. It's (obviously) got damage to both ends, which were expensive aftermarket fibreglass bumpers. Bumper bars, one front wing, etc are destroyed. With new bumpers from Toyota weighing in at about £700 each, not to mention any extras that may be bent, front wing, spray work, labour etc it's quickly reached over £2k in estimated repairs. As the car has been crashed before and had left over sill damage from that incident it's highly likely to be deemed a total loss. The garage who have the car at present have told me that their estimators would write it off as being uneconomical to repair, however the insurance company have insisted on having an independent inspector assess the car. This is happening tomorrow, so I'll know for definite soon. Unfortunately I had to go through my insurance to sort this out as there were 3 parties involved and sorting it all out seperately (especially if there had been any compensation claims) would've been a royal pain.

I'd imagine I'd get a payout of around £2000 - £2500. For insurance purposes the car was valued at £4000, but we all know what the market value of these cars is doing at the moment. My understanding is that then they'll take my excess (£350) from that, and then allow me to buy the car back for its scrap value. So that leaves me with a low mileage (60k) complete rev3 turbo lump, a mostly mint cloth interior, and a vast amount of spares (not to mention the stereo, suspension, etc). So this is going to leave me with the following options, presuming that my left over cash is about £1500:

a) £1500 to repair the car
b) whatever I can get from splitting the car + £1500 to buy another one
c) keep the engine, split the car then use the proceeds + payout to find a decent rolling shell
d) sell the car for spares and repair, buy another one with profit + payout
e) take the cash, cut my losses and buy a fiesta

Option A, all I really need is someone very good at fibreglassing to repair the rear bumper, a wing from toyota is £100, I've already got a new front bumper to go on it as well as some sideskirts, so that's probably £600 worth of spraywork + bumper repair + wing (£1200 maybe?) to get the car back on the road - plus whatever else needs to be done following it being written off. Do I get a damage report + justification as to why they've chosen to write it off? Car will be worthless in the future as it'll show up as a writeoff on any HPI check but tbh MR2's are worth sod all in sterling value as it is. I am quite attached to it though.

Option B probably won't provide me with enough cash to buy a car at the spec I'd like.

Option C would have to be the right colour car at the right spec, which is unlikely (I'd be looking high-end GT-S or GT spec, at least Rev3, and preferably blue!).

Option D as per option B really.

Option E is not especially attractive, but is the most sensible route.

I am still really pi$$ed about this so please no vulture-posts asking me for parts! Also, no mention of MK1's please, I had one and I don't want another one.

What would you do?

[Ryan S]

can i have the wheels????

just kidding mate, sorry to hear about the car!!!!

if i were in your shoes i'd spend the 1500 trying to repair it, or split it up, depends how badly damaged it is, i'm sure there is plenty people on here willing to help you sort it for a bit cheaper!!!!!

[toxo]

Something I may not have covered is that this is the 3rd crash this car has been in - the other 2 were significantly more damaging to the car (one was in Japan early on in it's life which I was unaware of when I bought it, the other was caused by me shortly after I bought it) - at what point to you lose confidence in the safety of the car? It can only be crashed and repaired so many times surely...

[Charged]

Personally I wouldn't repair it, especially in light of previous crashes. The 'buy back' price is at the discretion of the underwriter of your policy.. if you insist on a higher payout for the vehicle they will probably ask for a higher price for the buy back. Also, if you want to but the wreck then make your intentions very clear to your insurers.. they do not have to let you buy it back and also the category of write off could be a deciding factor.

[Charged]

PS stick the REV3 lump in a Mk1

[blue2]

Firstly make sure your insurance company will allow you to buy the car back. I bought mine back for £100 and repaired it with the £1800 payout I got, I was informed that not all insurance companies give you this option. Mine was totally standard. Hopefully they will give you what the car is worth not what todays crap market dictates.

Yes you will be given a report with photos of the damage and an estimated repair bill and justification for writing it off and importantly what category it is going to be. Hopefully its just a cat D which means its most likely not recorded and can go straight back on the road, if its cat C you would have to take it to a testing station and have it re mot'd.

Gutted for you tho, Ive seen your car and its a really nice example, hopefully it can be repaired without too much cost and hassle.

In the end mine took a month and about a grand to put right but was well worth it. Once you have found a really good car imo its better to get it repaired rather than take the cash and buy another which could turn out to be a lemon. HTH

[blue2]

Also try and push up the value of the car, it wont affect the buy back, i did by mentioning mine had all new shocks installed and a new exhaust. Only got an extra £200 but it all helps. Plus they didnt check!!

[Ben]

I have to say I'd be quite dubious about repairing a car that's been fron-and-reared after two previous accidents. Sorry if it's not what you waant to hear... but if there's a fourth crash in the same car I doubt it would hold together like it should.

[blue2]

I was thinking that but providing it goes to a good bodyshop they will be able to do a decent repair. Mine was a front ender, very minimal damage on the bumper but when we took it off the chassis bar running behind the bumper was bent double, took it off and welded a new one and its as straight as a arrow.
You can go off the write off category to see if its worth repairing , cat D is fine, cat C maybe, Cat B no chance.

[HighwayStar]

Why aren't you considering taking the payout and just looking to see what your £2.5k gets you? As has been said prices are depressed right now...

R.

[toxo]

Personally I wouldn't repair it, especially in light of previous crashes.

That's what I was thinking. I know depending on the category of writeoff there are certain things that can't be reused anyway (I think cat C you *have* to replace safety items like seatbelts etc?).

I believe my policy allows me to accept 100% of the payment, or 80% and the wreck. I will clear that up tomorrow though once I know the outcome of the assessment.

Why aren't you considering taking the payout and just looking to see what your £2.5k gets you? As has been said prices are depressed right now...

Because I won't get that much. £2.5k is optimistic and I'll have to take the excess out of that. Unfortunately that just won't get me a car in as good a state as the one I've just lost. We're talking mostly unmolested rev3 turbo (in a relatively rare colour), good condition clean interior, koni suspension, advan alloys, other tasteful mods (toms steering wheel, apexi intake, fujitsubo exhaust etc) 60,000 miles and only 1 UK owner... not gonna happen! One of my reasons for wanting to buy back the wreck is that I want my wheels, steering wheel, lights etc because they're mods that I think made for a nice looking and feeling car, and would cost me an arm and a leg to get again. They don't make the alloys anymore and they've got a custom paint job, they don't make the steering wheel anymore

[Martin F]

take the 80% payout and buy the car back, break for spares as even selling the bits cheaply you are talking about a minimum of 3.5k in your pocket

should be easy to get £2500 then over the following months another 1-2k can be had

[Martin F]

take the 80% payout and buy the car back, break for spares as even selling the bits cheaply you are talking about a minimum of 3.5k in your pocket

should be easy to get £2500 then over the following months another 1-2k can be had

And with that kind of cash you can have the car you always wanted

[toxo]

That's the route I'm leaning towards. The only problem is I don't have anywhere to store a car while breaking it, nor the required tools etc to remove an engine... I would imagine it could be done at Pacific Works or Century Motorsport for a cut mind you

[Mikey P MR2]

i have seen a handful of nice fairly low mile rev3 turbos advertised for between £1900 and £2500 recently. At this time of year you might even get away with a lower offer too.
wouldnt repair your car. would consider using your engine in a mk1 also though.

[Steve-O 2007]

sorry to hear about this

Sometimes bodyshops will just try and bump the price up by saying things need repaired when they dont since the insurance is paying they will try and get the most out of them plus they are talking about New parts / prices from Toyota.

As long as the car isnt all bent I would try and re build it. Contact GTSChris or any of the other breakers and you can get most of the parts needed VERY cheap!!

Do you have a list of the parts damaged?

used Bumper Bars are £20 - £40 each
used Front Bumper Mount Bar £25
used Front Wing about £15 - £40
get some used standard bumpers untill you find a new kit, infact a stock rear bumper + spats look good, stock rear bumper used £25 - £40 stock front bumper around £30 - £40 or look out for another aftermarket front bumper. I never thought I would get a genuine border bumper again but did

Personally if its not all bent I would list down all the parts I need and contact GTSChris (Great prices and VERY fast delivery usually next day!!) and go from there, you dont need new parts and used bumpers can be made to look new again

[toxo]

sorry to hear about this

Sometimes bodyshops will just try and bump the price up by saying things need repaired when they dont since the insurance is paying they will try and get the most out of them plus they are talking about New parts / prices from Toyota.

As long as the car isnt all bent I would try and re build it. Contact GTSChris or any of the other breakers and you can get most of the parts needed VERY cheap!!

Do you have a list of the parts damaged?

used Bumper Bars are £20 - £40 each
used Front Bumper Mount Bar £25
used Front Wing about £15 - £40
get some used standard bumpers untill you find a new kit, infact a stock rear bumper + spats look good, stock rear bumper used £25 - £40 stock front bumper around £30 - £40 or look out for another aftermarket front bumper. I never thought I would get a genuine border bumper again but did

Personally if its not all bent I would list down all the parts I need and contact GTSChris (Great prices and VERY fast delivery usually next day!!) and go from there, you dont need new parts and used bumpers can be made to look new again

Thanks I'd already priced up the parts I could see as having been damaged as new from Mr T (as the bodyshop would have) and worked out the exact damage. As it is I get 15% off retail prices from Toyota so I was weighting things in my favour. Thing is I wouldn't really trust the structural integrity of the car anymore so I am not going to repair it. I wouldn't want my car repairing with 2nd hand parts - I mean it's not like I'd accept 2nd hand parts if I serviced the thing so why should I accept them from a service place?

[Driftlimits Performance]

Ahhh man this is sad news

Of course you can deliver straight up to me and strip it there

[toxo]

OK, turns out the assessors at the garage got the value of the car wrong however the insurance company's independent assessor dude spotted this mistake and has revalued the car at £4k. However, they have agreed that they can't fix it like for like as they can't get a replacement rear bumper. So, I am getting £1450 with which to repair the car However both the garage and independent assessor guy are happy that the car is structurally sound and safe to be driven. I am happy!

[Steve-O 2007]

I wouldn't want my car repairing with 2nd hand parts - I mean it's not like I'd accept 2nd hand parts if I serviced the thing so why should I accept them from a service place?

Servicing with used parts and replacing bumper impact bars etc with used parts are completely different in my opinion (I didnt mean for you to get the bodyshop to replace them with used parts if thats what you thought, I meant if you were going down the diy route to save yourself some money ).

Theres nothing wrong with using used bumper impact bars / mounts etc anyway, you dont see them and used ones will be the same as new but just alot cheaper

Do you have the car at home now and do you have a drive to work on it? If so then I would get the bumpers off and replace all the impact bars and mounts etc that need replacing yourself if they need replaced as its just a bolt off bolt on job, no welding / cutting.

How bad are you bumpers now? If there not that bad tape them up for now like I did untill you find bumpers that your happy with, test fit them before painting, if they fit fine get them painted and then fit them yourself. you could end up with loads of money left over doing it like that to spend on other stuff

Glad to hear its still safe to drive