crash-damaged VW Up!
Discussion
Son slid into curb and post, crunching front bumper, headlight, offside wing, suspension arms etc. Car has been written off by insurers, as Cat S - from what we can gather, just based on cost of repairs. There's no obvious structural damage - only thing that is slightly off on chassis is the sill behind the offside front wheel has small bulge in it where the wheel hit it. It's possible but not likely suspension impound are put of alignment; that the only relevant chassis part really.
Question is, is it worth me repairing it? Wing £70, bonnet prob ok, front light £50, bumper £70, suspension rebuild £300, to about £5-600 cost in parts. Plus time and effort. Plus the £6-700 to buy yhr car, so £1400 or so to get it back on the road. Then inspection and MOT. Value was about £4500 beforehand - write-off was £4k despite arguing. So worth it..... or is it? resale value down (we'd probably run it into the ground tho), re-insurance higher (typically true), to be used for kids learning to drive (so even higher insurance?), plus the hassle of actually having to do it, and maybe the chassis isn't actually straight after all.....
Others been in a similar situation and be able to advise? Other 2 kids will need a car to learn in soon anyway, but we could buy a DS3 for £3k and be done with it..... Am competent with spanners, but have limited time if Im honest, and loads of other projects I could also be doing......
Insights/experpejces welcomed!
Question is, is it worth me repairing it? Wing £70, bonnet prob ok, front light £50, bumper £70, suspension rebuild £300, to about £5-600 cost in parts. Plus time and effort. Plus the £6-700 to buy yhr car, so £1400 or so to get it back on the road. Then inspection and MOT. Value was about £4500 beforehand - write-off was £4k despite arguing. So worth it..... or is it? resale value down (we'd probably run it into the ground tho), re-insurance higher (typically true), to be used for kids learning to drive (so even higher insurance?), plus the hassle of actually having to do it, and maybe the chassis isn't actually straight after all.....
Others been in a similar situation and be able to advise? Other 2 kids will need a car to learn in soon anyway, but we could buy a DS3 for £3k and be done with it..... Am competent with spanners, but have limited time if Im honest, and loads of other projects I could also be doing......
Insights/experpejces welcomed!
xcentric said:
Am competent with spanners, but have limited time if Im honest, and loads of other projects I could also be doing......
I would say you have just answered your own question right there.The job could take many weeks of a few hours at a time & even after you have finished "your bit" who is to say it is actually straight.
Even if it is only slightly out it could be impossible to align without being professionally straightened on a jig and that can be very expensive.
Don't get me wrong, I have done many myself in years gone by and sold/made money on every one, but all were straight before I started & none were written off as structural, some were just MOT fails.
However when I did this, I was between jobs & using it for fill-in time purposes.
Images - insurance company say that the damage has affected not only the front wing but the front wing supports. Not quite sure what they means, education me! - I mean, I know what supports are, but it's an odd phrase. It's not obviously affected suspension mounts, though cos all the suspension is bent out of shape it'll have been under stress.
Edited by xcentric on Monday 2nd February 20:12
So £600 to buy it off them, plus about £1200 parts etc. it seems - bonnet, wing, shock, spring, control arms, steering arms, bonnet, bumper, light. Plus an inspection etc. - so about £2k cost I think - pattern parts/eBay specials.
Cat S's on Autotrader are listed at £3-4k. Makes it marginal financially really - maybe make a £k at it, which is not a trivial amount but it will be a chunk of time, there may be hidden costs (e.g. it's not straight underneath), so am doubtful it's really worth it. Even if we were to run it into the ground, there's still some additional costs increased insurance cost for a Cat S etc.
Still happy to hear other views etc.
Cat S's on Autotrader are listed at £3-4k. Makes it marginal financially really - maybe make a £k at it, which is not a trivial amount but it will be a chunk of time, there may be hidden costs (e.g. it's not straight underneath), so am doubtful it's really worth it. Even if we were to run it into the ground, there's still some additional costs increased insurance cost for a Cat S etc.
Still happy to hear other views etc.
Managed to save this Fiesta, cost me £150 after a mates kid went through a roundabout barrier & ripped the wheel/wing off and they were scrapping it. Found parts online unbelieveably cheap and it was a fab project with the kids to fix it up for a few hundred quid. Managed to hammer bits straight, glue/fibreglass parts together and it drives perfectly. Very satisfying project, yours needs a bit more work but easily dooable.
Where would you be doing the work or when . February on the drive or June ? Warm garage with good lights and space ?
I have done it twice , hit a deer in December, repaired it in a warm garage.
Son slid off in November one year , we fixed it in June .
Working conditions for that type of job would be the decider for me .
I have done it twice , hit a deer in December, repaired it in a warm garage.
Son slid off in November one year , we fixed it in June .
Working conditions for that type of job would be the decider for me .
xcentric said:
Images - insurance company say that the damage has affected not only the front wing but the front wing supports. Not quite sure what they means, education me! - I mean, I know what supports are, but it's an odd phrase.
It may be odd to you but it is not an odd phrase, it has bent the bits that the front wing mount to, simple.xcentric said:
It's not obviously affected suspension mounts, though cos all the suspension is bent out of shape it'll have been under stress.
I 100% disagree with you there, if the (VERY STRONG) suspension wishbones etc have been bent then 100% the suspension mounting points will also be bent out of alignment.That would 100% be a walk away for me.
Do you physically have the car to inspect there? If so, then it would be worth taking the wheel and the wing off, to see how deep the further damage is. But I think if the wheel has been pushed back into the rear edge of the wheelarch, its quite a big hit and there will be various other components damaged which makes it marginal.
If you have the car, you could see if Salvage Rebuilds UK (Youtube channel) want to buy it from you, then you can see it being properly repaired including getting tweaked on a body puller jig if needs be.
If you have the car, you could see if Salvage Rebuilds UK (Youtube channel) want to buy it from you, then you can see it being properly repaired including getting tweaked on a body puller jig if needs be.
s p a c e m a n said:
For £600 I'd buy the car, do the suspension bits and give it a string alignment. If you get it straight then do the rest, if you don't then hammer the panels straight so that it doesn't look so bad and flog it on.
If you establish the chassis was damaged, who would you be able to sell it to ?s p a c e m a n said:
For £600 I'd buy the car, do the suspension bits and give it a string alignment. If you get it straight then do the rest, if you don't then hammer the panels straight so that it doesn't look so bad and flog it on.
This +1 remember you can always sell it at any point and not lose anythingthanks all. Putting it on a ramp tomorrow to check out the wishbone attachment point - if it looks ok then will redo it over the summer. Could end up as a bargain beater - and as people note, can sell it on fro scrap for similar price. On buying it ff the insurance company do they negotiate on the value they sell it to you, or do they already have an offer from the scrap merchant for it?t
Dan_The_Man said:
s p a c e m a n said:
For £600 I'd buy the car, do the suspension bits and give it a string alignment. If you get it straight then do the rest, if you don't then hammer the panels straight so that it doesn't look so bad and flog it on.
This +1 remember you can always sell it at any point and not lose anythingOn the one time I was potentially in this situation it was not, so had I tried this & failed to fix I would have lost out on the parts bought to fix & the return on the car.
It won't be scrap value but it will be less than you will get for it on eBay. Price up the bits to get the wheel straight and I'll be amazed if it's much more than £100 for that, you could even buy 2nd hand stuff so that it's not obvious if you do need to sell it on. Definitely try to buy second hand panels in the right colour if you do go ahead with it
It's about £100 for non-OEM parts assuming wishbones and arms - bit more if shock and springs. Panelsa re cheap - there are lots of red ones around - so second hand is fine for those. Ditto bumper and bonnet. Am expecting that we'd not sell it on but drive into ground so perfect colour matches etc not needed.
Mind you, Cat S one son this age are selling on Autotrader for £3k upwards. Interestingly, Admiral, who it was insured with originally, say there's no premium from them for insuring a Cat S car.
It may well cost a bit more than scrap - think they want £6-700 for it, and scrap is probably £200 - but that's probably the same even with panels off, lights off, engine etc etc so can part it out, or flog it on on eBay for someone else to try if it's a problem.
Mind you, Cat S one son this age are selling on Autotrader for £3k upwards. Interestingly, Admiral, who it was insured with originally, say there's no premium from them for insuring a Cat S car.
It may well cost a bit more than scrap - think they want £6-700 for it, and scrap is probably £200 - but that's probably the same even with panels off, lights off, engine etc etc so can part it out, or flog it on on eBay for someone else to try if it's a problem.
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