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.
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