GTR bumper damage - £11k bill?

[Smifffy]

Courtesy of whyohwhy:

http://www.gtr.co.uk/forum/127250-accident-dont-do...

SomeblokeonGTRForum said:

I consider myself a fairly competent driver, I can drive reasonably quickly on a circuit, and read the road ahead enough to make good progress on the public highway. But I had an accident, and it was all my own doing.

I had a low speed crash into the back of a white van, it was a badly surfaced road, we were stopped, pulled away.... and the person infront of the van stopped for no reason, causing the van to tap the tow bar of the car infront and me in sympathy to do the same to the van.

Ok enough of the excuses, I am posting here to make sure noone makes the same mistake I did. I thought long and hard about posting this, but i think it is important that other GTR owners see this so they aren't stung by a careless accident and the GTR Tax!

I bumped into tho the white vans tow bar causing this small crack in my bumper...



Unfortunately it also set off the Pedestrain Saftey system, where the bonnet pops up....



Which is a one use system....


You need to replace the bumper, rams, bonnet hinges....



and of course the ECU

When the accident happened i called my dealer and asked them to collect the car and told them i would just pay for it without putting it through my insurance.

Then i found out the total cost of the repairs.

Eleven Thousand Pounds.

I'm pleased to report the car has been repaired perfectly, even if it took 5 weeks!

But I fear GTR insurance won't be so cheap next year for any of us. Sorry about that! But don't do what I did. And if you hit a pedestrain, make sure you are reveresing

I thought this deserved its own thread.

It seems the investigation is ongoing, so there's a danger of jumping the gun of what exactly caused this incredible cost, but it pours petrol nitrous on the argument that the GTR label price is cheap, but you pay in the long run? Woah. Cue lots of willywaving Itoldyouso in the Porsche forum :P

(edited to add in the original story for those too lazy to go to GTR)

Edited by Smifffy on Friday 13th November 18:28

[turbo-ww]

Itoldyouso has already appeared in the Porsche forum

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

Edited by turbo-ww on Monday 16th November 18:14

[Smifffy]

Most of the time I have no quarter for the Porsche-superior bunch - and this story doesn't really really change my mind - however you'd need to go into this purchase eyes-wide-open. It doesn't mean it's a bad buy, just that you're paying further down the road (so to speak)

Suspect Nissan won't get good press from this though :S

[Mr Whippy]

What a monster thread there! Saw it a few days ago but it's gone a bit mad.

Fantastic car, just a shame Nissan seem to cost em so high.
Not the same, but Peugeot are similar, cheap cars, but parts are fairly shocking vs say Ford or BMW!

However it goes, with repair bills like these it will never be cheap to own and run, hopefully residuals won't suffer too much. A shame that Nissan even put owners in that position at all IMHO...

Dave

[Mr Whippy]

Gaz. said:

Mr Whippy said:

However it goes, with repair bills like these it will never be cheap to own and run, hopefully residuals won't suffer too much.

Dave

I bet they do. When this thing was launched a lot of people including me thought it would follow previous GTR's with strong residuals but Nissan UK appear to be doing their very best efforts to destroy any hope of this with silly stories such as this, or the £25k bill for a slightly heavier accident, the LC vs Gearboxes in America, the initial cost of the lubricants- now a lot of the GTR's troubles are hearsay and internet rumour (there are two sides to every story, always) but the PR dept have been caught not only napping but in full winter hibernation.

Running costs play a huge part in second hand values and the lower the car goes a bigger part they play- look at BMW's for example, the bigger those numbers on the bootlid the less the car is worth after ten years (and sometimes it's sooner than that).

Yep, I was going to mention V12 BMW and Merc residual prices.

Great cars, great value, and those that own them new can afford to more often than not, so the punishing residuals are not an issue... but I guess plenty of GTR owners went in assuming solid residuals... that is where I cringe for them because hopefully it won't be that bad... but I have this feeling that it's just going to bomb.

Too complex in pointless ways for it's own good imho. Stunning of course, but at what cost!

Dave

[Mclovin]

so the old cliche dont buy one unless you can afford two holds true for the poor gtr then...

[Mr Whippy]

Gaz. said:

Mr Whippy said:

Too complex in pointless ways for it's own good imho. Stunning of course, but at what cost!

Dave

It isn't any more complex than anything else tbh, even a humble Audi TT has DSG 4wd and TC plus all the toys but for some reason it's the jap 4wd's that get the label of Playstations on wheels (iirc one type of classic STi didn't even have ABS and had no more electrickery than a EFI kit car but people forget that)

Well no, but I'd call all thsoe cars too complex and pointless as well.

I wouldn't go looking at a DSG VAG product out of warranty anyway, until it's clear how long they last, and how much they cost to sort, if they last 100k+ miles without any extra cost vs a manual etc... and even then, I'd not want one if a manual was there too, changing gears is just fun and enjoyable

4wd is nice, but I don't think that is the issue.

Electric dampers seem a bit excessive too. How much to sort years down the line? It's not like the ones on the old M5's have got cheaper with time... maybe if the tech propogates it'll get cheaper? But I doubt they will ever be 'cheap'


All these gizmo's look fantastic on a spec sheet to make you wet your pants when you buy it new... but 5 years down the line, which does matter for residual performance, if they are a packet to keep going properly, it won't be good news

Dave

[Maxx-Waxx]

Being a gtr owner i read that thread with interest apart from the handbags and insults being thrown in the middle.
Currently the situation is being looked at by Nissan GB as the dealer in question ( irish dealer ) is seriously having someones pants down wanting to charge about £1300 each or somewhere near for the rams that push the bonnet up when the parts are about £600 a pop as someone found out when phoning the parts dept and £4k labour ???? cant see it personally. Id have thought theyd have gone out for a couple of quotes too.
Anyway i enquired with MH and they reckon about £6.5k job done which sounds about right.

Anyway this wont stop me enjoying what is by a country mile the best car ive ever owned, it makes all the tvrs i had seem like they where engineered by apes.

[Maxx-Waxx]

Gaz. said:

Maxx-Waxx said:

Being a gtr owner i read that thread with interest apart from the handbags and insults being thrown in the middle.

I was somewhat surprised by the handbags, the GTR.Register members are usually a tight bunch with a fairly cerebral posting style (for a one make forum) but that seems to have gone in that thread.

Me too Gaz, i used to spend all my time on PH when i had the tvrs and PH got like that, it was nice to go onto gtroc which seemed in total contrast, pleasantly.
Suppose youll always have a few, i think one of them thought this guy was making it up to stir trouble, but looking at his previous posts it was obvious he was not. I cant believe how many other sites were linked to viewing that thread.
Still an awesome motor, never had a car before that i loved every aspect of, cant really see where i could go in future from this car assuming my spend is less than £65k.

N

[Mr Whippy]

Maxx-Waxx said:

Gaz. said:

Maxx-Waxx said:

Being a gtr owner i read that thread with interest apart from the handbags and insults being thrown in the middle.

I was somewhat surprised by the handbags, the GTR.Register members are usually a tight bunch with a fairly cerebral posting style (for a one make forum) but that seems to have gone in that thread.

Me too Gaz, i used to spend all my time on PH when i had the tvrs and PH got like that, it was nice to go onto gtroc which seemed in total contrast, pleasantly.
Suppose youll always have a few, i think one of them thought this guy was making it up to stir trouble, but looking at his previous posts it was obvious he was not. I cant believe how many other sites were linked to viewing that thread.
Still an awesome motor, never had a car before that i loved every aspect of, cant really see where i could go in future from this car assuming my spend is less than £65k.

N

Evora

[Mr Whippy]

Gaz. said:

Mr Whippy said:

Evora

Where would you put the kids? The GTR may not have seats like an M3 buit atleast they are useable.

A nice Evo then, bigger rear seat area, cheaper, and probably as fast if you are right in your head on most UK roads.

Dave

[CatherineJ]

The more I see a GT-R, the more I love them.

[Henry 145]

CatherineJ said:

The more I see a GT-R, the more I love them.

Strangely as an owner of one the longer I have it the more I hate it...mine has been beset with electrical gremlins throughout first 5 weeks of ownership!

[CatherineJ]

Henry 145 said:

CatherineJ said:

The more I see a GT-R, the more I love them.

Strangely as an owner of one the longer I have it the more I hate it...mine has been beset with electrical gremlins throughout first 5 weeks of ownership!

Oh dear, you have my sympathy. I had a Z4 Coupe in 2007 and it was a gremlin car that spent most of it's life in the garage. I think I only had it 10 weeks in total, before BMW bought it back.

[Dupont666]

Gaz. said:

CatherineJ said:

Henry 145 said:

CatherineJ said:

The more I see a GT-R, the more I love them.

Strangely as an owner of one the longer I have it the more I hate it...mine has been beset with electrical gremlins throughout first 5 weeks of ownership!

Oh dear, you have my sympathy. I had a Z4 Coupe in 2007 and it was a gremlin car that spent most of it's life in the garage. I think I only had it 10 weeks in total, before BMW bought it back.

Atleast BMW bought it back! The dealer who sold me the Golf said "sue me!".

And did you?

[CatherineJ]

That's a nice attitude of the VW dealer. I have had a lot of cars since 2003 and I have had 2 of them replaced without problem by manufacturers.

One was a Ford Focus with an insect infestation and the other the Z4 I have mentioned which had a new loom and new ABS module fitted.