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Thread: Could anyone help and old member - Just had the insurance confirm she's a total loss

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    Could anyone help and old member - Just had the insurance confirm she's a total loss

    Good Afternoon All,

    I have to admit I feel cheeky asking for help as I have let my membership lapse but between working away and life in general I have covered less than 1,000 in the last 2 years with the old girl and just haven't had time to enjoy her (well that's the best excuse I've got! - I couldn't get my old user up and working either).

    Anyway..... 2 weeks ago today I took her out, only to pop to the shops and some kind individual ran a red light and has caused loads of damage. It's been declared a total loss so now I have some decision to make.

    My car is a '99T S14a Touring, black with cream leather. 110k miles, just passed it's MOT about 7 miles before being written off. She is pretty much rot free and as she was fully re-sprayed 3 years ago was pretty much mint before the accident. Only mods are an apex type 2 FMIC, HKS induction kit and some 18" wheels.

    The insurance company have made an initial offer of £5,000 for the car and told me it will cost £1,150 to buy it back for salvage.

    Without taking it apart (a good mate of mine who runs a body shop has had a good look) It's going to need, front cross member, bumper support bar, front bumper, bonnet, n/s front wing, n/s side light, front indicators, both head lights and a grill (this is what we can see without taking it apart).

    Initially I though the insurance company would try and offer £2k or something silly and I'd do well to fight them to £5k so the fact they have offered that straight out of the box has thrown me. Should I be pushing for more?

    Not long after the accident I was determined to repair her but I'm estimating the parts (from salvage) to be the best part of £1,000, the repair bill will be another £1,000, then I need to get an engineer out, a fresh MOT and with a bill of £1,150 to buy her back I would think best guess to put her back right would be £3,500 and would think as a Cat S write off she is not going to be worth any more than that so I'm starting to wonder if it is worth it.

    I feel bad letting her go off to the great scrapyard in the sky and were I 20 and living at home I would definitely spend the time repairing her but if it's just going to cost me a load of time and hassle and not make financial sense I'm now thinking I might take the £5k, chuck £3k-£4k extra in and by myself a BMW E46 M3 coupe to go with the cab I already own.

    Any pointers/ideas etc would be much appreciated as I really don't know what to do right now.

    TIA

    Dave

  2. #2
    Member sx rider's Avatar
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    £5k is a low ball offer, these are fetching much more these days.

    Please don't let it get scraped! someone will buy it from you no doubt and fix it themselves if you don't decide to.

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    5k does seem low if its a decent one, email them a few examples off autotrader/ebay etc.. as proof.
    id be interested in the salvage if you decide to sell it on.

  4. #4
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    If that's all it'll cost to buy it back do so, someone would buy it if ff you for more than that as is.

    Was it resprayed in an Oem colour? If so if you can find someone breaking one the parts shouldn't break the bank
    1998 Nissan 200sx s14a , 2000 std 5 speed with nismo supercoppermix clutch bn6 Sapphire Blue

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    Guys thanks for the pointers so far, I think I left one vital detail out of my post, she auto not manual!

  6. #6
    Guest BLAKTOOTH's Avatar
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    Maybe if you can find several selling for more than what's been offered you might have some validation for refusal but £5k actually sounds alright to me. It doesn't sound like you've blown a small fortune in mods and heck I paid £8k for mine way back in 2004.

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    It depends on the insurance company. Some low-ball. Some don't. 5K is what I would expect Churchill to offer and doesn't seem like a low-ball for a 110K resprayed Auto.

    If it was a mint manual with 50K in original paint, that would be a low-ball offer from someone like Hastings.

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    If you bought it back for salvage @ 1,150 you'd struggle to lose money if you decided to break it for parts after all especially if the chassis is straight and its just front end damage.

    If chassis is straight and unrusty, you'd probs get £1200+ selling it whole to someone wanting to reshell.

  9. #9
    Now with 400bhp....
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    You'd get 1k for the bare engine these days
    1998 Nissan 200sx s14a , 2000 std 5 speed with nismo supercoppermix clutch bn6 Sapphire Blue

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jonny Wilkinson View Post
    If you bought it back for salvage @ 1,150 you'd struggle to lose money if you decided to break it for parts after all especially if the chassis is straight and its just front end damage.

    If chassis is straight and unrusty, you'd probs get £1200+ selling it whole to someone wanting to reshell.
    but then you get a torrent of dreamers who waste your time with stupid questions and low ball offers. then you get people that never show up and then people who come and think they can drive them home who try to low ball you again now they have turned up.

    the problem you will get from the insurance is as the price of the vehicle goes up so does the value of the salvage, so you need to find a good balance.

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    Guys, thanks for all your input so far.

    I have to admit I am getting increasingly frustrated with this situation. I’ve not looked at purchasing a 200 since ‘09 when I brought mine and there were plenty around. Having spent a week or so hunting everywhere I can’t find a clean rot free example for the £5k they’ve offered (auto/resprayed or not).

    I’ve also costed the repairs and the car would cost approx £3500 to get back on the road but then repaired, as a cat S write off I doubt it’ll be worth that. On top of that it’s going to be a load of time and hassle to sort it.

    The only other car I’ve had written off was a 2 year old Citroen Saxo which wasn’t exactly hard to replace.

    I just feel like I’m going to lose out from this. If I take the £5k I may never find a replacement and the way the prices have been rising if I can’t find one before the summer I’m going to have to start putting more money in to replace and if I repair again it’s going to cost me time and money!

    I think I need to feed this back to my insurance company as my understanding is the insurance should put you back in the position you were in prior to the accident and I can’t see how that’s going to happen at the moment.

    Does anyone have experience of this? If so I would really appreciate any guidance.

  12. #12
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    Have you looked at import prices? They are probably going to be the best place to find a rot free car. Bot sure if insurance would accept that as an example of prices though but it's got to be worth a shot

    Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

  13. #13
    Member sx rider's Avatar
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    Advise the insuance company you want £8500 for the car, buy it back and fix it.

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