Believe it or not but this car has been written off, this is the only visible damage car has less than 100k kilometres on the clock.
Makes you want to cry

 

You'd want to check for hidden damage but if OK then over here you could buy such a car and repair it.

 

It was being picked up for that very reason, I was just the chauffeur.

 

no way thats not a write off , thats about a $800 to $1200nzd repair .
when i hit a large furry wild animal with mine at pace .
it cost me over $3000 for parts alone .
most NZ insurance company's will let you buy back the car with the agreed pay out figure deducted , so you can carry out your own repairs .
they will not offer this option you have to ask/threaten them for it .

 

I disagree, that's an expensive repair on a car that's worth little.

 

Depends a bit where you live e.g. the OP is where imports are hugely expensive I understand.

 

your quite correct about hugely expensive ,
but i took that into account as we are both in new zealand .
the tail light here is $200 , and to paint the rear quarter is $250.
the bumper to paint is $200 if needed . the panel work looks like $500 to 700 ish
all nz-dollers .
some insurance companies de register there right offs .
meaning a re compliance check is required to purchase new registration plates.
= $270 if required .

 

bottom dollar here for a 3 ltr s type is $2500 and fetching 10k for the nicer ones . look at trade me . no way thats a right off unless super rough .

 

Exactly, but maybe a cheap car & costly repair in AZ where DD is?

(Sure looks worth repairing to me.)

 

I apologize for not seeing where the OP lived - I was assuming the States or UK.
While the car may be worth considerably more than it would where I live, this repair to be done right would require a new panel (and obviously taillight assy) - not an inexpensive proposition unless you have access to cheap used parts.

That being said, I'd buy it back from the insurance company and fix if there were any way possible.

 

Inflated dealer labour rates are the killer in most insurance write offs.

 

I hope not a red herring, but my country, Australia, has adopted an aggressive national policy to prevent "re-birthing" of "stolen to order" cars - and they do this on 2 fronts. Firstly, ALL major components on modern cars have their ID tags recorded and this extends to panels, glass etc - not just vins & engine numbers. Secondly, and far more profound, once an insurer "writes off" a car, a statutory notice is affixed to the front windscreen that stipulates the car can NEVER AGAIN be road registered. It is a criminal offence to remove or disregard such a notice on a "statutory write off".

Result? My daughter-in-law recently had her modern Mazda 2 rear ended and despite damage being confined to the rear hatch with no structural damage to body, all door apertures still fine, the insurer elected to do a stat write off, pay out the agreed value of AU$5,500 . . . and were happy to allow her to keep the car. Sound like a bonus? Despite a brand new battery and 5 brand new tyres and after many weeks of trying every means of selling, the best offer gained was from the crushers for just AU$150 . . . less than half what she had paid for the tyres!

I was appalled that I could not even entice any farmer in my rural area to grab it as a paddock basher - and for a heck of a lot less than an agri ATV! Turns out that the system is so overloaded with these write offs, they are virtually worthless, even for stripping for recycling.

This is a huge worry for those of us with older, classic Jaguars unless the agreed insurance value is high. Just my 2 cents opinion, and not normally an empty glass fella, but perhaps our throw-away modern society is on a one way path to self destruction.

Cheers,

Ken

 

Sorry to hear that....

As I have been proclaiming for more than four decades (and more loudly than ever the past five years or so), regardless of where you live and who covers you, insurance companies are NOT your friend....

 

Ken, that is scary! The car in question is going to be assessed by an engineer and if it stacks up the car will be back on the road again. The tail light was replaced while I waited to make sure the car ran (it did) with dealer plate on the rear it was driven to its new temporary home.

 

This is also a problem in the U.S. Conventional full coverage auto insurance will not repair a low value car, they will "total" it. If you have collector insurance like Hagerty and have "agreed upon" value then you would probably do better. Since Jaguars have gone to all aluminum construction since the early 2000's collision repair is a costly and complicated process that can only be accomplished by specialized shops. These costs are high even for what seems to be a simple rear end collision. A steel bodied car can be properly repaired by a competent shop of which there are many.

I've been looking at a lot of early XKs ( price range 15-20k) and I would be worried that they would be totalled out as a result of a minor to moderate collision. At least here in California I have the choice of carrying liability only insurance, this covers any damages that I am responsible for. Any damages caused by others to my car will be settled by me with the other driver's insurance companies or handled by myself. My current fleet of cars are so low in value that if they were "keyed" they would be totalled out. I'll stick with the steel cars for now.

 

Hmmm Nationwide is NOT on our side.... Never believed that one either!!

 

In a related story, my 2000 4.0 was looking a little worse for it`s 200000 km of high speed highway driving in all weather through the mountains. Mechanics and interior still gorgeous but exterior worn by a lot of winter driving. Coming home one night during a major Chinook wind event, we slammed into a white wall of debris! Turned out the wind scoured the debris off the summit of a 10,000 ft. mountain peak, transported it 1.5 miles horizontal and dumped it 6,000 ft. vertical onto my car! Insurance put new headlights, new fog lights, new chrome bumpers, new grill, new windshield and complete gorgeous paint job!! They spent $10k on a 10 yr. old car with 200000km on it. I was sure they would write it off. I am still using that car today and it looks like the day it came out of the showroom.

 

Back in August 2009, a careless driver plowed into the front of my pristine 2005 S-Type (then with 32,000 miles on the clock) that I had paid right at $17,000 for in December 2008. Long story short, the careless driver's insurance company wound up paying more than $13,000 to have my chosen body shop put my car back into the showroom condition it had been in before their client plowed into me. Knowing how the insurance companies have since all turned total-happy, a similar situation would never happen today....

 

Absolutely correct!!!
However, it seems to me Cat as Trophy's government is at least as antagonistic as any insurance company if not moreso.

Sounds more meddlesome than our own "cash for clunkers" debacle....at least that was limited in scope and duration. Even so, I believe it was VERY punitive to those of us who depend on the used car and sometimes used parts markets for transportation from the suburbs/sticks into the "$hitholes" (aka progressive urban utopias) where many employers are located.