......Repair or Not Repair......

Richy · Post by **Richy** » Fri Mar 27, 2009 6:42 pm

Hi Guys...I am in a bit of a situation here...

Recently involved in a "Not at Fault" accident (damage to front end).. repairer quoted $7500 to insurance, and the assessor of the insurance company decided it to be a write-off (my car is insured for $10500), I have the option of buying the car back as a wreck for $2200 (I will have to buy it back cos I literally spent more than double of my car's value on it).

So if I pay for the wreck, I am left with $8300. The repairer offered $8500 to repair the whole lot with a full respray including the inner part of doors (but exclude engine bay)...to make the matter more complicated, I was involved in another "Not at fault" accident 2 mths ago, which the claim was approved but not yet done. This time, the write-off claim automatically cancels out the previous claim. Thats why the repairer has to charge that much. Also the repairer found a leak from the air con compressor as an existing fault, which if I want to fix it together at the same time, it will cost bit more on top of the $8500.

Now, I have 2 options:

1. Pay out of pocket $200 +$extra on air con compressor +$extra for an aftermarket body kit (at least a front bumper)

+car hire during repair for about 3wks, +Re-registration of the car, and I have my car back with a different colour (no major difference though otherwise the engine bay will make it look shxt). How much do u guys think I will end up spending?? (I am a bit tight now).

or

2. Take $8300 cash, and wreck all parts out of the car and sell them, then buy another car with the cash.

What do you guys think?? (this is a very serious decision for me, so please give me some constructive comments)

Here is the aftermarket parts list of my car that I can recovered some cash from.
*Evo IX Recaro Seats fitted on original FTO Rails
*Speedo with EL Dials with brightness control, Stainless steel surround, and dials.
*Momo Millennium Steering with aftermarket boss kit.
*Momo "Pit Stop" "Air Metal" Handbrake with Momo "Pit Stop" leather gaiter.
*Razo replica auto gear knob.
*Razo Magnesium Pedals.
*Razo Carbon Footrest.
*CF coated Door Handles.
*Stainless Steel "FTO" 3rd brake light cover.
*Eonon 7" Touch Screen Head unit.
*Boston Acoustic GT25 (i think) 2 ch. amp
*Boston Acoustic Pro60 Splits.
*Fully insulated Front doors with dynamat extreme & dynaxorb.
*Optima Yellow Top Battery.
*Grounding Kit in blue.
*SAFC - Black
*Bellon JDM 6500k HID Kit
*Custom made CAI.
*Apexi Power Intake Air Filter.
*Fully rebuilt 4sp Auto gear box (4000km ago)
*2yrs old KYB Front Shocks
*Fully rebuilt Front Brakes
*5Zigen Pro A-Spec Canon Exhaust with extra muffler.
*XForce High Flow Cat.
*RPW Extractor.
*RPW 65mm TB with matching manifold.
*RPW Polyurethene Front Engine Mount.
*Magnecor Ignition Lead Set.
*HP Design 17" wheels with Falken Azenis RT615 Tyres.
+some other spare parts like floor console & so on...

Thanks in advance, guys...

Cheers

Richy

p.s. I know this is very long....

Dan25 · Post by **Dan25** » Fri Mar 27, 2009 6:53 pm

Haha wreck it and sell me the razo accessories, air intake and extractors

Nah, honestly, that is a lot of mods and if the insurance will cover repair and nice new respray, why on earth would you ever take the cash and have to find a car that may not suit your taste and have to start from scratch?

knowhopetattoo · Post by **knowhopetattoo** » Fri Mar 27, 2009 8:14 pm

Shop around for prices with repair shops mate.
When you do this ask for a price excluding parts, you can find them much cheaper through the club than any repairer can.
Also don't forget to point out that you will be paying cash for the job as that is money a repairer will see in his pocket as soon as the job is finished rather than waiting for an insurance company to pay.
I'm a long time out of the industry but I beleive if you shop around a bit and supply your own parts you should come out of this with a bit of cash left over.

JOeJOe · Post by **JOeJOe** » Fri Mar 27, 2009 8:45 pm

Your two options.

1. If you buy it back and get it fixed, at the end of the day you'll have your car back .. with a different colour if you wish. This option doesn't really cost you anything, apart from the air compressor.

2. Buy it back and sell the parts. How much do you think you can sell the parts for? Like you said, you spent twice as much on the car then you insured it for. What you get back from the sale of the parts is what the buyer is willing to pay. Do you think you can get $10k from selling the parts? I doubt that very much. This option i think you'll be out of pocket by a fair amount.

Post by **dstocks** » Fri Mar 27, 2009 9:47 pm

Well, I have a couple of compressors lying about. If you need one, let me know. Rails should arrive any day now as well.

koolio1234 · Post by **koolio1234** » Sat Mar 28, 2009 3:59 am

This is what I would do in your situation:

Buy the wreck back. And strip it for parts, sell all those aftermarket goodies on it as well as the undamaged stock parts that people are comonly after.

I reckon you'll get more than $2200 back from all the parts you sell from that wreck. Add that to your remaining $8300.

Buy a new FTO

P.S Mine might be up for sale soon around the 11-12k range (heeeps of mods)

Richy · Post by **Richy** » Sat Mar 28, 2009 7:43 am

thanks guys... I am keen to fix it and get the car back on the road, that way, it will be around 3wks. and i will have a "new" car feel. I will drive it for another couple of years and then decide what i wanna do...at the end, I still love my car very much, and i have spent too much money on it....

koolio1234....yeah, i know, add the cash from selling the parts + the $8300, i will get more than what i can sell the car for even after its been fixed. the hard thing is whether i should keep the car...

Joejoe...thats the temptation, this is an opportunity to modify the exterior at a very cheap price (considering not much out of pocket)...

dstocks....thanks..if i am repairing it, i definitely will need a compressor from you, so please reserve one for me for a week or so first..hehehe..

knowhopetattoo...the problem with shopping around and sourcing my own parts is that it might take a longer time to repair which means I need to hire a car for longer....I have checked that even at "NoBirds", it will cost $700 to $800 for 3wks....thats lot of cash for doing nothing really, I could spend that on the car and achieve something...

another reason is now that I have baby boy...my 2 door fto...er...really keeps him out of the door..and my wife been telling me to get a "normal" car....

anyway, I will get the quote off the assessor and list down the parts that I need (hint...staring at dstocks...

), and see how to go about this...the other trouble now is that the smash repairer doesn't want to keep the car there for any longer if he's not getting the job... and I am using a courtesy car paying by the other party's insurance, so once i proceed with the claim and get the money paid, i will have to return the car...

I will put down some images of the accident / damage in a moment...

....another long reply

Richy · Post by **Richy** » Sat Mar 28, 2009 8:42 am

Post by **Bennoz** » Sat Mar 28, 2009 9:07 am

Well the first thing i'd do, is go to another panel beater. If thats $8500 bucks worth of damage I'll eat my f**king hat.

Oh & go with the keep car scenario

JOeJOe · Post by **JOeJOe** » Sat Mar 28, 2009 10:27 am

I'll get the details of my smash repairer today for you.

He's close to maytech, about a street away.

Any structural damaged? coz i don't think it'll cost that 8k to get it fixed.

Also, fkn utes .. FTO and utes don't mix

knowhopetattoo · Post by **knowhopetattoo** » Sat Mar 28, 2009 1:12 pm

I did say shop around ^^
sh*t....I'll come down and repair it for 7000 bucks.
But seriously.........you can buy a cheap runabout......fix your car and still have money left over.That damage is a long way from being $8500 worth.

Post by **vipfto** » Sat Mar 28, 2009 6:50 pm

dstocks wrote:Well, I have a couple of compressors lying about. If you need one, let me know. Rails should arrive any day now as well.

rails? you mean seat ones? can you give a rough price for recaro rails total cost to adelaide dstocks?

Richy · Post by **Richy** » Sun Mar 29, 2009 7:38 am

Thanks guys...I think I will keep the car..

Oh & go with the keep car scenario Smile

as usual - direct and simple comment, ben. cheers

With the damage, the guy pointed to me that the whole front portion needs to be replaced/repaired cause the radiator support was bent. Also the price includes a full respray, fixing up all dents and repair the driver side rear guard & bumper (minor scratches from last accident). Is that still expensive?? so u think less than $7k will do?? knowhopetattoo

Joejoe... the repairer is detroit custom bodyworks, located just around the corner from where maytech used to be at arncliffe...was recommended by mayan last time when i was there... if you have a decent (and cheaper) one, tell me, i will go there, man.

harry90 · Post by **harry90** » Sun Mar 29, 2009 9:55 am

Buy your wreck and sell all the parts. You can buy a newer fto for about 10k. Or you can move all your parts over.

Benedict_XIII · Post by **Benedict_XIII** » Mon Mar 30, 2009 3:35 pm

mate i just recently had a crash very very similar to that with a bit mre panel dammage as long as the rails are straight your ok mine sort of wernt but i fixed it anyway by myself. Im no smash repaireer just got a half cut with the pannels and changed the sub frame over did a whole lot of spot welds and it was done only cost me 1300 to fix thats new bonnet ,both fenders all new lights and frame new radiator and air con radiator looking thing and new front bar cheap as and didnt take too long. needs a paint job though

by the looks of it its a easy fix no way id be paying 7 grand to fix that