repair or write off?

nstg8a · 03-04-2011, 04:47 PM

i fugure theres plenty of people on here that will have been through this sort of thing so il ask...

my ef ghia got rear ended last week, it goes in for assessment next week at racq.

but what do you guys reckon, fix or write off?

to me its minor damage, but still will make it an uneconomical repair.

max redbook value is $4200 ish.

pics...

bumper used to sit flush with the exhaust tips...

**SSD-85** · 03-04-2011, 04:49 PM

This car is damaged? Ive seen far worse examples getting around. It looks like it only needs a bumper & boot re-alignment.

**Mechan1k** · 03-04-2011, 05:22 PM

Has the internal of the boot been pushed into the wheel well???
If so it can get costly there.

chrisfpv · 03-04-2011, 05:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scotty85

This car is damaged? Ive seen far worse examples getting around. It looks like it only needs a bumper & boot re-alignment.

My first thought, don't think it's a write off mate.

Smoke Pursuit · 03-04-2011, 05:55 PM

Depends what the rear floor plan looks like, e.g. where the spare wheel sits... if thats all mangled up then id say they will write it off.

NAFairlane · 03-04-2011, 06:19 PM

yeah if its just cosmetic, new rear bar, new boot lid and hinges and paint the whole rear end so it all matches, probly looking at 2-3 grand they'll fix it, however if there is boot pan damage then that'll be more like 4-5 grand.

nstg8a · 03-04-2011, 06:29 PM

i havent seen any damage at all to the floor pan, but i havent gone under it either to have a decent look, or pulled the bumper to see whats under there.

im hoping its not a writeoff and it gets all fixed up, i had just decided to persevere with the old girl lol.

i guess im pretty pessimistic when it comes to insurance companies

Hakujin1977 · 03-04-2011, 07:58 PM

yeah, gonna depend on the damage behind the bumper
and don't rely on red book
assessors (well the one's i've dealt with lately) use carsales.
find as many as you can the same make as yours, close to came year, similar k's & do an average

GTP-814 · 03-04-2011, 07:59 PM

any damage to the C pillar or foof?

LUXO_8 · 03-04-2011, 08:03 PM

lift the carpet and see weather the spare wheel well area has touched the tyre

nstg8a · 03-04-2011, 08:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hakujin1977

yeah, gonna depend on the damage behind the bumper
and don't rely on red book
assessors (well the one's i've dealt with lately) use carsales.
find as many as you can the same make as yours, close to came year, similar k's & do an average

hmm, that could change things, il have to hope theres some priceyones on the market when theyre looking.

no damage to c pillar or roof.

Andy777 · 04-04-2011, 10:10 AM

i will say it's a write it off, when my old vs commodore was rear ended last year, almost identical damage, your car is probably slighty more damaged then my car, and it took the assesor all of 2 seconds to write off my car

also have a look at manheim fowles salvage auctions, you will see some of the cars they have written off

rag top · 04-04-2011, 10:32 AM

I'd take the for sale sticker off the back window prior to getting it assessed.
I think it is a write off; trying to get the boot lid sorted, the bumper fixed, colour matched, etc, it would be around the 4k mark, but would depend on the damage underneath. If the exhaust used to be level with the bumper, I would expect some damage underneath.

V8 6I · 04-04-2011, 10:36 AM

If it is written off you can always buy it back from the insurance company and take repairs into the equation and fix it yourself with the rest of the payout.Just something else to think about.

tce · 04-04-2011, 11:01 AM

As "rag top" siad take the for sale off. see if you could get a cash pay out, Then adjust the boot lid and use a heat gun to mold the bumper back into place and then sell it.

arm79 · 04-04-2011, 04:56 PM

Looks like what happened to mine last week.

Appearance wise it looks OK. You couldnt tell its been in a stack in a photo unless you got up close. Ruined bumper is the only external way of telling.

But this deceptively simple damage has a repair bill of $15k to $20k.

You'll have more chance of getting it repaired and keeping it if you goto a panel beater that will bill directly to the at faults insurance company. They wont wave the value in front of you so much.

Whereas your insurance company has a max liability of the insured value, and they wont go above that.

nstg8a · 04-04-2011, 05:09 PM

why take the for sale sign off? some other people have suggested that as well.

buying it back and fixing it is not an option, itl need a viv ad stuff, so too much pain in the rear for me.

when the ex's car got written off we got the market value minus salvage, because the insurance company didnt want to know about the wreck.

that would be ok, then i could buy something else and swap the good bits over, or sell off the parts/complete car. depending on what they valued the wreck at lol.

chrisfpv · 04-04-2011, 06:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nstg8a

why take the for sale sign off? some other people have suggested that as well.

I'm guessing it's to get rid of any idea that you may have set this up in the hopes of writing it off and getting a payout higher than what you'd be able to sell it for..?
Not saying that's the case, but if they come out to look at your car with a For Sale sign on it, it shows you don't want the car any more so it could raise some questions.

Not 100% sure but that was my first guess.

bigsta · 04-04-2011, 06:36 PM

its a write off mate, as its not econmical to repair an older car in their eyes there is also issues with genuine parts as most insurance companies want to use these even if their super glued back together as i saw with my new headlights on a 9 month old car through NRMA.

its gonna be hard to get a good price for it from them though, my guess is they will try and give you a cheque for $2k or something along those lines, but if you argue and proove that replacement value is higher you may get a bit more.

On the upside they will let you keep the car though, and you can probably repair it to an accepable standard yourself and sell it or keep it.
Im not sure how it works in QLD but in NSW if its listed as a repairable write off that will show up on REVS.

nstg8a · 05-04-2011, 04:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigsta

its a write off mate, as its not econmical to repair an older car in their eyes there is also issues with genuine parts as most insurance companies want to use these even if their super glued back together as i saw with my new headlights on a 9 month old car through NRMA.

its gonna be hard to get a good price for it from them though, my guess is they will try and give you a cheque for $2k or something along those lines, but if you argue and proove that replacement value is higher you may get a bit more.

On the upside they will let you keep the car though, and you can probably repair it to an accepable standard yourself and sell it or keep it.
Im not sure how it works in QLD but in NSW if its listed as a repairable write off that will show up on REVS.

yeah thats my biggest concern at the moment, that they will try and say its only worth 2k or something. at the moment theres a fairly wide selection of them for sale on various sites, anywhere from 2k up to 7k. il just have to be prepared to argue my point and try and get something realistic.

MAV50L · 05-04-2011, 04:32 PM

There is one option open to you.
Dont use your own insurance and put a 3rd party claim direct to the party at fault (the dude that hit you)
Yes they will work everything out off market value not agreed value but they cannot list your vehicle on the WIV as they have no claim against the title like your insurance company has.
They you can keep the car as is , take the payout cheque and repair it yourself.
Doing it that way kept my Maverick on the road and in my hands when it was hit in the front and the insurance company wanted to write it off.

Nikked · 06-04-2011, 08:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigsta

its a write off mate, as its not econmical to repair an older car in their eyes there is also issues with genuine parts as most insurance companies want to use these even if their super glued back together as i saw with my new headlights on a 9 month old car through NRMA.
.

It's not a write off, and insurance companies don't like uing genuine parts, they rather secondhand or non-genuine.

The very most this car needs is a new (or re-coed) bumper, second hand boot and filer panel...

Given that its the boot that is misaligned and not the 1/4 panels i think you'll be safe.

xisled · 06-04-2011, 10:13 AM

No idea why people are saying assessors use car sales, as to where they get the values from. The guide they use is the glass's guide. Carsales can give you an idea, but the prices that are on car sales are in most cases higher than what the glass's guide value is.

nstg8a · 07-04-2011, 05:54 PM

went into the local panelbeaters today. he reckons its not bad, hes doing the quote to try and get the job so fingers crossed.

he also gave a printout of the site racq uses to get their values, plus gave me some advice for when it goes in for the racq assessment.

the values they use make things better for me, so hopefully things are looking good.

nstg8a · 08-04-2011, 07:13 PM

final quote was $3250 ish. now have to hope the insurance company values it higher than that.

he did say racq has changed their usual policy off 'if quote exceeds certain % of value then its a write off', and hes been repairing a lot of vehicles since the floods that would have been written off beforehand. he thinks its a money saving thing, if they can save 2k by repairing a car rather than writing it off then thats what they do.

Auturbo6 · 08-04-2011, 07:23 PM

The damage will be worse than it first appears. It's easy for people with little knowledge of vehicle repair the critisise, and say not much damage. From the pics, and having seen and repaired many taxis, including ef's, this vehicle due to it's age will most likely be written off. There will be a lot of damage to the rear under the bumper, just look how far the boot has been pushed forward.

nstg8a · 08-04-2011, 07:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Auturbo6

The damage will be worse than it first appears. It's easy for people with little knowledge of vehicle repair the critisise, and say not much damage. From the pics, and having seen and repaired many taxis, including ef's, this vehicle due to it's age will most likely be written off. There will be a lot of damage to the rear under the bumper, just look how far the boot has been pushed forward.

the panelbeater had a good look both under the boot carpet, and under the car, and hes pretty confident theres practically no damage under the bumper. the bootlid and filler panel itself took a lot of the impact.

i think it will be 50/50.

nstg8a · 20-04-2011, 09:38 PM

assessor is recommending its repaired, but he had an issue with the quote, so hes gonna make the repairer send him pics once its dismantled.

but it looks like its all go to go in hopefully the week after easter.

93EB_SXR6 · 21-04-2011, 01:36 AM

Good news, honestly you may want to change cars now but I don't reckon you'd get anything as nice for the price.

Nikked · 21-04-2011, 08:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Auturbo6

The damage will be worse than it first appears. It's easy for people with little knowledge of vehicle repair the critisise, and say not much damage. From the pics, and having seen and repaired many taxis, including ef's, this vehicle due to it's age will most likely be written off..

You should then know that most of the damage is in the Boot and its hinges, Given that the bar show not a real lot of misalignment, most of it in the bar mounts...