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Wrote my 350 off last night, next steps?


JoshC

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Long story short, I lost the back end when one side of the car aqua planed over standing water on a slight bend going through a tunnel in Cardiff. Wasn't doing silly speeds but still managed to spin 3/4 times, front end smashing the wall and then bouncing around off the kerbs.

 

Most important thing was I didn't hurt anyone else, no passengers and no-one else involved. Amazingly I walked away without any injury at all. Copper thought I was lucky to walk away at all!

 

Anyway, car was recovered and taking to local depot. Looking at it I'm sure it'll be a write off. Suspension on the front seemed to be collapsed and one side has completey sheared off and while front and rear bodywork smashed up.

 

Spoke to insurance and they said they can write it off over the phone without an inspection if I want and will give me a price on Monday. Firstly, any guesses what they might give me for it? (54 silver GT 110k)

 

Secondly, if they give me the option, do you think I should buy it back to sell for parts. I think at least 3 wheels seemed unharmed somehow and I would think the engine and gearbox are all fine, GT interior in decent nick too. What would be a maximum price that it might be worth me buying it back to sell for parts?

 

Typical all this in the week I started to look to change it, but could have been much worse!

 

Cheers, Josh.

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Sorry to hear this, but glad no one was injured.

 

They'll likely offer around £4k I would guess.

Reject their first offer and they may up it a few hundred.

 

I wouldn't bother buying it back unless you have loads of after market parts you could flog on. Breaking a car is more hassle that it's worth.

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Sounds nasty Josh and glad you're unhurt, ...was it the tunnel down the bay area then? :dry:

 

No idea what the insurance will offer you sorry. My guess is they will go in low at first so you'll probably have to negotiate with them.

 

If you can find some examples of current Zeds for sale in the same year/mileage range then that will help your case for more money. Good luck. :thumbs:

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Sorry to hear this, but glad no one was injured.

 

They'll likely offer around £4k I would guess.

Reject their first offer and they may up it a few hundred.

 

I wouldn't bother buying it back unless you have loads of after market parts you could flog on. Breaking a car is more hassle that it's worth.

 

Thanks mate, I am devastated as I'd really grown attached to the car! :( But definitely got lucky, I keep having flashbacks of the spinning and it was terrifying in reflection. I have up trying to control it and just braced!

 

I'd be quite happy with anything that starts with a 4 to be honest! Do they base it on the book price (I.e what someone like Parkers say) or do they tend to shoot lower than that? I guess it's in their interest for me to take the payment?

 

Was thinking the same about buying it, unless they offer it for peanuts and I can make the money back quick with the sale of wheels and interior probably not worth the fuss :(

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Scary times, glad you're okay Josh.

 

I'd hit the interweb and search for similarly spec'd/year/miles to yours and get examples of the prices they're advertised at. If you can find 5 or 6 for say £6k and they offer you £4k, you can say you have a number of examples of similar cars that are similar to yours and they're priced at £####. Offer to provide the examples if they wish - save the URL/links to any you find.

 

Personally I wouldn't buy it back.

 

EDIT: A quick look on Autotrader and the Zeds that have >100k mostly are between £4-5k.

Edited by 14N
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Sounds nasty Josh and glad you're unhurt, ...was it the tunnel down the bay area then? :dry:

 

No idea what the insurance will offer you sorry. My guess is they will go in low at first so you'll probably have to negotiate with them.

 

If you can find some examples of current Zeds for sale in the same year/mileage range then that will help your case for more money. Good luck. :thumbs:

 

Cheers mate! Yeah that's the one, I saw the puddle and instinctively took my foot of the accelerator but looking back that may not have been the best thing to do. I was literally 30 seconds from home :(

 

Will find a few examples for sale then, cheers!

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Scary times, glad you're okay Josh.

 

I'd hit the interweb and search for similarly spec'd/year/miles to yours and get examples of the prices they're advertised at. If you can find 5 or 6 for say £6k and they offer you £4k, you can say you have a number of examples of similar cars that are similar to yours and they're priced at £####. Offer to provide the examples if they wish - save the URL/links to any you find.

 

Personally I wouldn't buy it back.

 

Thanks buddy! Yeah, will definitely do that, will give me some negotiating power I guess!

 

Cheers :)

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If they offer £5k bite their hand off!

 

Going by the damage you're describing and the age/mileage of the car, I wouldn't buy it back.

 

5k I'd be over the moon with, even 4.5k! Will lose £500 to my excess but that's how it goes I guess. It's a shame I cant just buy back certain bits that might be worth selling! Will definitely be taking my new mats out of there when I go to collect belongings Monday!

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Sounds nasty Josh and glad you're unhurt, ...was it the tunnel down the bay area then? :dry:

 

No idea what the insurance will offer you sorry. My guess is they will go in low at first so you'll probably have to negotiate with them.

 

If you can find some examples of current Zeds for sale in the same year/mileage range then that will help your case for more money. Good luck. :thumbs:

 

Cheers mate! Yeah that's the one, I saw the puddle and instinctively took my foot of the accelerator but looking back that may not have been the best thing to do. I was literally 30 seconds from home :(

 

Will find a few examples for sale then, cheers!

Nasty, ...was literally driving through it last week just for fun to hear my exhaust in the tunnel. It must have been scary spinning there to say the least. :scare:

 

Few Zeds for sale of similar miles/age:

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201410248470709/sort/pricedesc/radius/200/maximum-age/up_to_10_years_old/onesearchad/used%2Cnew/postcode/cf158rl/page/1/make/nissan/model/350_z/maximum-mileage/over_100000_miles/usedcars?logcode=p

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201411058743374/sort/pricedesc/radius/200/maximum-age/up_to_10_years_old/onesearchad/used%2Cnew/postcode/cf158rl/page/1/make/nissan/model/350_z/maximum-mileage/over_100000_miles/usedcars?logcode=p

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201411048735017/sort/pricedesc/radius/200/maximum-age/up_to_10_years_old/onesearchad/used%2Cnew/postcode/cf158rl/page/1/make/nissan/model/350_z/maximum-mileage/over_100000_miles/usedcars?logcode=p

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201411038705759/sort/pricedesc/radius/200/maximum-age/up_to_10_years_old/onesearchad/used%2Cnew/postcode/cf158rl/page/1/make/nissan/model/350_z/maximum-mileage/over_100000_miles/usedcars?logcode=p

 

 

Looking at those for sale I think Lexx's guess of £4K from the insurance company will probably be around what they'll offer you. :dry: Hopefully you can get a little more though. ;)

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Yeah, tbh mate I've been a bit silly through there once or twice but for once I actually wasn't. Typical. Just lucky it was quiet and I didn't hit anyone else or get hit!

 

Thanks very much for the links mate, will use them when I speak to insurance Monday. £4k wouldn't be too bad an offer I guess, doesn't sound a great deal once I've taken away the excess money though :(

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dont forget if you buy it back it will always be a write off, i very much doubt anyone will buy a cat D or cat C zed with 110,000 miles on it. take the cash, and buy another one. but definitely dont accept the first offer - when i wrote off my civic, first i was offered £1000, with a bit of research i got it doubled to £2000, which i then rejected again, eventually settled on £2100.

 

see if you can provide examples of dealer cars - they'll be advertised for more so hopefully bump the settlement on yours up.

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dont forget if you buy it back it will always be a write off, i very much doubt anyone will buy a cat D or cat C zed with 110,000 miles on it. take the cash, and buy another one. but definitely dont accept the first offer - when i wrote off my civic, first i was offered £1000, with a bit of research i got it doubled to £2000, which i then rejected again, eventually settled on £2100.

 

see if you can provide examples of dealer cars - they'll be advertised for more so hopefully bump the settlement on yours up.

 

If I was to buy it back it would most likely be to sell for parts so would only do so if I was confident I could make money on it.

 

Does anyone know how the over the phone write off works? From what he said they don't even assess it, how can they decide to write it off that easily with basically just my description of it?

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dont forget if you buy it back it will always be a write off, i very much doubt anyone will buy a cat D or cat C zed with 110,000 miles on it. take the cash, and buy another one. but definitely dont accept the first offer - when i wrote off my civic, first i was offered £1000, with a bit of research i got it doubled to £2000, which i then rejected again, eventually settled on £2100.

 

see if you can provide examples of dealer cars - they'll be advertised for more so hopefully bump the settlement on yours up.

 

And yeah will do a bit of looking around to,or row for some dealers selling them, cheers mate!

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Sorry to hear about it but really glad you are not hurt.

 

They will definitely offer you at least £1.5k to £2k below market value. As all above, do your research and armed with lots of examples of similar zeds out there. My colleague did the same and got a good offer after few negotiations.

 

Good luck on Monday!

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Sorry to hear about it but really glad you are not hurt.

 

They will definitely offer you at least £1.5k to £2k below market value. As all above, do your research and armed with lots of examples of similar zeds out there. My colleague did the same and got a good offer after few negotiations.

 

Good luck on Monday!

Cheers mate!

 

Yeah I would expect that from insurance companies, take as much as they can from you then give as little as possible back when you need them! Will definitely have a good 'case' prepared for Monday :)

 

Cheers!

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Sorry to hear this Josh, Hope you get a favorable settlement from you insurance,

 

as above don't take the first offer, go back and do a deal.

 

So many Zed been damaged this month..what's happening,

 

I'm leaving Black Betty tethered in an Airport car park next week, hope a meteor doesn't land on her..!! :scare: :scare:

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Sorry to hear that mate. I wrote my skyline off a few weeks back so I know how annoying it is. I collided with another car but like yourself nobody was hurt

 

I had to negotiate a price with the insurers and by sticking to my guns we agreed on almost double the first offer

 

My situation was different cos skylines have risen in value lately. But don't give in to them and show as many examples as you can

 

Hope you get it sorted soon but it can take time

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Sorry to hear this Josh, Hope you get a favorable settlement from you insurance,

 

as above don't take the first offer, go back and do a deal.

 

So many Zed been damaged this month..what's happening,

 

I'm leaving Black Betty tethered in an Airport car park next week, hope a meteor doesn't land on her..!! :scare: :scare:

Cheers buddy! Will do my best to get a good price from them! Maybe Z's don't like that winter is coming! Take extra care guys :p

 

Sorry to hear that mate. I wrote my skyline off a few weeks back so I know how annoying it is. I collided with another car but like yourself nobody was hurt

 

I had to negotiate a price with the insurers and by sticking to my guns we agreed on almost double the first offer

 

My situation was different cos skylines have risen in value lately. But don't give in to them and show as many examples as you can

 

Hope you get it sorted soon but it can take time

Thanks! Yeah it's incredibly frustrating! Most people would think it sounds daft but I'm sure plenty of you lot understand that you do get attached to certain cars and I defiinitely did to my Z. Already had a quick look for ideas of a replacent and all I keep coming back to is 350's and 370's! Luckily my parents have been very kind and insured me for the short term on my mothers little 207cc, which is very useful (if a bit hairdresser-ish).

 

Hopefully will get w good price using the tips from you guys! Do appreciate the help! :)

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Random question, but were you behind me coming out of the John Lewis car park on Friday? If so really sorry to hear about the accident but glad you are ok! There was a silver Zed behind me but I think it was an import. Not many around the area so would be a stange coincidence as it was heading down the bay at about 12am.

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Random question, but were you behind me coming out of the John Lewis car park on Friday? If so really sorry to hear about the accident but glad you are ok! There was a silver Zed behind me but I think it was an import. Not many around the area so would be a stange coincidence as it was heading down the bay at about 12am.

 

Yeah that was me mate! Had been in to town to drop a friend off and was heading home when I saw you :( Wasn't an import but if had the front smooth and a square plate which may have made you think that?

 

 

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Sorry to hear about your accident, main thing as said you walked away unhurt!

 

As for buying back, i am looking for a spare engine to tinker with :blush:

Get in line!

Sorry to hear about your accident, main thing as said you walked away unhurt!

 

As for buying back, i am looking for a spare engine to tinker with :blush:

Get in line!

 

I've already looked eBay to see what it would be worth and can't find anything with similar to 110k miles on it but was surprised that ones around 65k are for sale for £1500!

 

If there was serious interest and someone wanted the engine and could pick it up from South Wales relatively soon then depending what my insurers quote me this morning I may be tempted to buy it back!

 

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