Bargain 111r needs a little attention - where's the catch?

[campbell]

Where's the catch with this then?

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/3157849.htm

Is it the fact that, despite however professional and economic the repairs, it'll never lose its Cat D status and therefore won't fetch true value, will be harder to insure, and what else?

Just seems like a helluva an opportunity...and yet, there will be a reason it's been written off despite the "light" damage, n'est pas?

Very curious about this.

Views from the knowledgeable?

Or opinions from the bored?!

[les]

Opinion from the bored Campbell, but at insurance prices 3k for a respray, 4k for a new clam or would that be more?? plus labour brings it up to at least 60% of total value of the car and hence written off?? Insurance approved repair centres imo aren't interested in repairing only refitting new parts as its a known quantity for them and as a result easy money.

As for insurance, don't think its really an issue as I'm guessing that most of our cars are insured via brokers who talk to underwriters by telephone rather than a flowchart on a screen so everything should be taken into consideration. Not sure what would happen if you make a claim though?? Would they pay out again on a car some insurance company wrote off (for financial reasons)

[Stevoraith]

I'm not that up on technical side of these things, but in pic seven, isn't that the crash box which is damaged?

If so I think that's quite expensive to replace as it's kevlar reinforced (?) and needs bonded by someone who knows what they're doing?

Of course I may well be talking absolute drivvel........


I know it's just a bit of boredom browsing Campbell but you would never be happy with something like that. You've had UJI since new and know every mile it's covered and spare part it's had fitted- I'm willing to bet you'd never be happy with something which had previously been written off.

[pete]

My car looked pretty much like that when I bought it, and wasn't CAT D.

Looks like a bargain to me...

[j2 lot]

I think if that was fixed up with new parts its cost wouldn't be too far adrift from a 'clean' example and it will always have the cat D stigma, and,there is almost always a delay or back order with parts too.
If you can get good 2nd hand parts it could be a saving for someone who can do the work themselves or gather a posse of willing knowledgeable assistants ( a la S.E. collective ) .

[Kelvin]

If it's so easy to do and they can do the repairs up to getting it painted why aren't they doing it themselves?

[campbell]

I know it's just a bit of boredom browsing Campbell but you would never be happy with something like that. You've had UJI since new and know every mile it's covered and spare part it's had fitted- I'm willing to bet you'd never be happy with something which had previously been written off.

LOL Steve. I think my amateur spannering is going to my head

It's not quite boredom browsing...I was geekish enough to spot that PH exposes RSS feeds for each model type on its Classifieds site...oh deary me...!

[campbell]

If it's so easy to do and they can do the repairs up to getting it painted why aren't they doing it themselves?

They are probably punting it on for a fast buck.

Or of course as you infer, there is more (or less!) to this than meets the eye.

Thanks for the insights folks

[KevD]

Thats' quite a normal approach for them - they'll sell as damaged but offer to do the work up to paint stage for a low cost. I don't know why they don't fix them and sell them as fixed either. If you can get the numberplate try posting it on seloc and seeing if anyone owned it before.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2007-LOTUS-EL ... 27bd86b628 could need more work.

It's going to cost about £12-13k by the time you've got it fixed and painted, advantage being you get to choose the colour I suppose! http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/3103944.htm two grand more

[campbell]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2007-LOTUS-EL ... 27bd86b628 could need more work.

"light damage", LOL.

Opportunity to create a chrome orange S, I suppose, though!

[KevD]

All comes down to whether these just needs clams and a respray or if anything else lies underneath. check out copart as well and see what comes up on there.

[campbell]

Interesting site that. Out of my league in terms of capability though, I think!

[tut]

Would like to see his version of heavy damage.

tut

[a4drk]

If you want my 2p worth.
I reckon say 5 grand to repair it good (2nd hand parts)
so thats you up to £14k

A straight one is worth about 2 to 3 grand more.....

personally. i would avoid it

David

[111Robin]

Looks similar to mine when I spun and cliped another car several years ago. Crash structure was damaged. I think the overall repair was IRO £15k through the insurance but that included repairing the car I hit so no idea what true repair cost was. No suspension damage though.