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Write off or Not?


Dicky

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My daughter had a a slow speed accident in traffic in her 2010 Black Edition (46K ish miles) a couple of days ago with all of the damage being at the front ( see attached pic). 

The Nissan repairers have just quoted a repair cost of £13,300, they said their labour costs were only £800 but the Nissan parts cost were high.

As far as I remember it needs a new bonnet and hinges (although the hinges are fine) new front bumper, headlight (possibly 2 although I think ones ok), 2 headlight washer jets and a near side wing

 Do you think they might write the car it off ? The car has been well maintained and the engine, chassis and all the rest is undamaged. This repair cost seem extremely high to me. What do you think.

If it is written off how does that work.Do they offer the market value and if so where do they get that value from. Can you buy the car back in some way because used parts are quite reasonably priced an I think the car is repairable for a lot less than this.

Any advice welcome

 

 

7600A0A2-ADAF-449B-8FC5-991F23B068C2.jpeg

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Yup, most likely a write off, might well be worth buying back an repairing with second hand parts or modding it :)

 

Just make sure there isn't anything too daunting in the repair list and get a full list so you can see what is needed and tot up what you can find on here and ebay.

 

As @MITZ@CougarStore said, the bonnet hinges have an actuator on. If anyone has removed them to fit gas-struts you might be able to buy some S/H.

 

Good luck and at least no one is hurt :thumbs:

 

 

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2 hours ago, Sim said:

Yup, most likely a write off, might well be worth buying back an repairing with second hand parts or modding it :)

 

Just make sure there isn't anything too daunting in the repair list and get a full list so you can see what is needed and tot up what you can find on here and ebay.

 

As @MITZ@CougarStore said, the bonnet hinges have an actuator on. If anyone has removed them to fit gas-struts you might be able to buy some S/H.

 

Good luck and at least no one is hurt :thumbs:

 

 

Mine didn't go off in my smash :lol:

But my wheels fell off lol

 

Glad nobody was  hurt :byebye:

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9 hours ago, Dicky said:

Thanks all. Any further Insurance company negotiating advice would be welcome

When they make you an offer - it is negotiable.  If you can prove that your car had great service history and was in really good condition, you should get enough money to buy a car of the exact same condition.  If they low-ball you by £2,000, find other examples of your exact car (trim level, optional extras etc) on Autotrader and use these to negotiate a higher price. Lots of info online if you have a google.

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On 30/01/2019 at 22:56, nissanman312 said:

That's good to hear 

Where would one find such a kit Alex 

I bought 3 x kits from here just under a year ago.  

 

https://conceptzperformance.com/nissan-infiniti-nissan-oem-pedestrian-protection-pop-up-engine-hood-hinge-delete-kit-nissan-370z-z34-65400-1ea-kit_p_23448.php

 

Total cost to my door was £520.00.

 

You will also have to carry out the reset procedures to put out the dash light.

 

This can be done by the tedious hit or miss manual procedure or Consult or Ecutek.

 

This kit is for off road use only: ;)

 

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My family have had a couple of cars written off in the past and our experience was as follows.

 

Insurance company will send out an assessor who will price up the damage and take photos. They go away, price up repairs and decide if its a write off or not. Its usually if the repair value is more than a certain percentage of the actual cars market value. If its a write off, they will send you an offer. That first offer is usually a ridiculously low one as they know a certain percentage of people will just assume thats what its worth and accept it. What you need to do then is to give the insurance company examples of identical cars currently for sale, so they can see what the market price is. i.e. what it would cost you today to go and buy the same car, same options, same condition, history & mileage. In our case, the insurance companies immediately agreed with our prices and matched the market price.

 

With regards to the car then after, with one vehicle the insurance company simply said to us we could either keep it for free, or they would arrange to dispose of it for us for free. We kept it, and sold the remains of it on ebay for a nice bit of money. With the other car, the insurance company offered to sell it to us. We looked at what prices we could get for it in bits vs their asking price and decided it wasnt really worth it.

 

Either way, the whole point of having insurance is that you should not end up in a worse off position than you were before - they have to make  sure you can get back into the same car as you had before. I have heard stories from people saying insurance companies give you the "trade price" for your car. In my experience they dont, and why would they? You cant walk into Nissan and buy a like-or-like replacement car for "trade price" - you have to pay the market price!

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16 hours ago, Sim said:

the bonnet hinges have an actuator on. If anyone has removed them to fit gas-struts you might be able to buy some S/H.

That's inaccurate, sorry.

 

The hinges are separate from the pop-up hood actuators. The actuators are terribly expensive from Nissan UK, however I could help and source these cheaper. I  fixed my Nismo with similar damage and I went through all of that.  You will also need the little ECU that deals with the pop-up hood system, as the crash is recorded on. I might have a spare somewhere, will need to check. 

 

As Alex said, you can also buy the delete kit, not just the hinges, but the pop-up hood disabling system. This will however invalidate any future insurance, if the system is meant to be live / working. 

 

You will also need the UK hinges if you want to keep the pop-up hood system.

 

Perhaps let it be written off and buy another one would be a better idea.

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Hi  mate,

 

I am an insurance assessor so deal with this on a daily basis.

If I were to give you some advice. Unless the car has sentimental value, if the insurer decides it's a total loss then the best option is to accept this and await the settlement offer.

It really depends on the insurer as to how much they initially offer. some are more fairer than others.

If you can, try and look at the industry standard guide figures. CAP, Glass's and Parkers. You want to be looking at the retail figure for CAP and the Retail transacted on Glass'. Make sure you adjust for the mileage on the car.

If you take the offer to retain the salvage then they will categorise the car. This will be either an S or an N depending on if there is damage to the inner wings or chassis legs.

S - structural damage

N - non structural.

The problem with salvage retention is that the category is input on a system call MIAFTR which will put a marker on HPI showing the salvage category that was applied.

It will affect the value and puts a lot of potential buyers away should you want to sell it in the future.

 

All the best

 

Rob

 

 

 

 

 

 

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As a guide to the value, I have just had a look around and there are only a couple of black editions for sale atm. Based on those I would expect a rough retail value of £13,995 based on your mileage, and a trade value of £10,500 (roughly 25% less than retail). We buy any car would offer £10,500 for the car which matches up with the trade price.

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Thanks everyone for your valuable input, I really appreciate it.

Admiral rang today to take details, condition, mileage, extras etc. I will be contacted later with their offer price.

Ive also looked at current replacement costs and advised them I’m expecting an offer around £15k, so we will see what happens.

I wouldn’t care but the car was in excellent condition. About 6 moths ago I paid over £800 to get Falcon Performance to upgrade the oil gallery gasket to prevent engine damage if the original failed, and just before Xmas I paid over £800 to have a failed steering lock replaced.

Sods law she decides to write it off after all that.

Buggar !!

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Based on 65k:

 

CAP retail -  £13,595

 

Glass's Guide Retail transacted - £11,780.

 

These should give you some numbers to work with.

 

I don't really think you would get £15k, but then again I don't know what the mileage is. Remember that the insurer will only pay the market value of your car, not what you are replacing it with.

 

Negotiation is what it's all about :)  but remember be prepared to back up any valuation you put on the car with ' like for like' market examples ( Auto Trader ) or Guide figures.

 

 

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On 31/01/2019 at 11:20, Adrian@TORQEN said:

That's inaccurate, sorry.

 

The hinges are separate from the pop-up hood actuators. The actuators are terribly expensive from Nissan UK, however I could help and source these cheaper. I  fixed my Nismo with similar damage and I went through all of that.  You will also need the little ECU that deals with the pop-up hood system, as the crash is recorded on. I might have a spare somewhere, will need to check. 

 

As Alex said, you can also buy the delete kit, not just the hinges, but the pop-up hood disabling system. This will however invalidate any future insurance, if the system is meant to be live / working. 

 

You will also need the UK hinges if you want to keep the pop-up hood system.

 

Perhaps let it be written off and buy another one would be a better idea.

I stand corrected, I thought you had to replace the whole thing to fit struts, didn't realise it was a delete kit, not doing it anyway if it invalidates the insurance...........

Edited by Sim
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If you have a garage you trust, rather than one of the crap ones insurance companies throw everything at, you might be ok.

 

In the past I've had insurance write a car off, I've disputed (with reason) and requested a second opinion (ie from garage I trust) and then it got repaired through insurance. There was the use of one or two second hand parts, which the insurance co checked I approved of (was underbody plastics, so fine) and off we went.

 

It was quite a bit of hassle though, mostly due to insurance company's ineptitude and delays, but got there in the end.

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Just had Admiral call regarding their offer. By the way I was miles off on the milage I quoted earlier, the car had 60600mls on the clock.

They said they could only offer Glasse’s guide valuations and started at £10600 based upon the fact that the car had been bought privately rather than from a dealer. After some negotiating he finally increased his offer to £11500 saying he had increased the valuation as if it had been bought from a dealer.

What are your thoughts, do you think there’s more scope for improvement or is it a fair offer.? 

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