Thought I'd upload a picure...

No update from insurance as of yet...

 

Wow, brutal. I assume you are ok? didn't see any mention of injury in your posts. Sorry you have to go through this; hope you get as good an outcome as possible.

 

Man, that's sad, good luck with it.

 

ouch!

 

That's very sad. Same color as mine too. Looks like you only have one broken light.

Might be totally fixable if you shop around for the parts at the right price. They are out there.

 

Hate to say it brother, but unless a miracle happens, this is a total loss. That quarter is not repairable and the entire rear geometry has shifted.

Had the insurance appraiser looked at the car? What about your insurance?

BTW, if you don't hear from their insurance or run against a brick wall with them, I'd recommend seeking legal help. Had a similar situation when someone made a left turn into my S-Type as I was going about 25 mph. Threw me up on a curb causing all sorts of suspension and engine damage. Car was deemed a total loss. His insurance company tried to make me 50% at fault. I contacted an attorney right after I hung up with them. Within a matter of days, the other party accepted full liability and my car was declared a total loss.

 

I'm expecting a total loss as well.

Did you get to keep the car, or did you have to give it up when they cut you a check.

Were you happy with the amount of money they gave you?

I had a few people get me prices on the pieces I need. It seems cheaper, or even money to find a donor car...

 

Mine was 3.0 on a lease. Usually with leases, the ACV is less than the payoff, i.e. the car is worth less than what is owed to the bank. California has a provision for a Gap Insurance (not the cloth kind :-)) so I was not worried about being out of pocket any more than the original drive-off. It was a pleasant surprise to receive a check for about $1000. I guess the ACV on the Jag was more than the payoff (not by much). BMWs are the only other leases where the ACV is greater than the payoff. To answer your question, I let the insurance company take the car since it was really bank's car.

In case of the 3.0 I didn't really do much legwork as I did with my 4Runner, an experience that I described earlier on in this thread.

Situation with your car is that its a much rarer bird than any of the cars I'm discussing or most of the cars on the road today. The insurance company will try to be on the lower fringes of fair market value. As I suggested in my previous post here, you need to do your homework. Go to Craigslist, Ebay, Classic Auto Trader and any other sites where you can get information on the car. Pint everything that will help you get the most for your car. Include all maintenance receipts, especially big ticket items such as tires, major mechanical components, leather and convertible work, etc. Account for the registration and your local taxes. NADA is nice but insurance companies use that as a guide only and only when its beneficial to their cause. Insurance co. will factor in the sales performance of your car model or similar at insurance auto auctions and Manheim as well.

Look at the buy back or retention value insurance company will put on your car. Depending on the condition of undamaged components on the car, it may be beneficial to buy the car out and use YOUR CAR as a donor car. I bet you can find a non-op XJS with clean body/pain/interior for far less than you would spend on fixing your car.

Looking at the damage in the photo, I would advise against attempting the repair on this car unless your local body shop is deeply indebted to you. 99.5% the car has rear frame/structural damage that would need to be pulled on a frame machine. Too much damage IMHO for a floor pull and the whole concept of floor pull is really a hit and miss in terms of accuracy. After all the money you'll spend on parts and labor, you may end up with a salvage titled car that will cost you more than a similar clean title. Have seen this many a times.

 

Well, everything is working out well.

The insurance company has basically offered me $10,200 for the car and $8,500 if I want to keep it.

I think that is more than fair! Go MAIF!!!

 

Yes it is. Glad it's worked out. I just saw two BRG low mileage 95's on EBay if you are going for another....or do you intend to fix her up?

 

Well I am trying to take her to the body shop to get a real estimate, but I can't seem to get her started now...must have had a light on and drained the battery.

As for the two on eBay, one has a reserve of at least $15,000 as that is an offer that was previously turned DOWN on the car...

The other is about to hit 100,000miles. There aren't a lot of BRG to choose from these days...I might wait if this one cannot be repaired for the right amount of money.

 

The car is quite repairable. I have no idea on hourly rates for body shops where you are, but $8k should definitely do it.
The car will easily pull straight on a rack, left hand rear frame rail will be kinked, but not by a lot. Boot floor, rear beaver etc can all be repaired and replaced, boot lid is nothing. You can even buy replacement upper and lower quarter panels, so I definitely think it's doable.
Help the shop as much as you can, chase parts for them. Don't rush them either.
Considering how nice the car looks, I'd say it's ripe for being repaired.

 

The body shop put it up on a lift and showed me all the structural damage. They told me that based on the damage, it could be repaired, but it would probably not be as safe as original.

For what I could repurchase this car for, I'm sending this one to the scrapper. I'd love to keep it, but I'd have a car with a salvage title and a car that might not be as safe if this should ever happen again. I am not comfortable with that thought.

I can't seem to find the old skislope now! I replaced it with a custom slope with cup holders...

 

Check out this 94 BRG in Palm Springs:
Classic Car Auctions

Its dead on within your budget and I think there's enough room to negotiate at least another $500.

I am not affiliated with that organization but have been to a number of their auctions. They always have few good Jags to offer.

I would not be so excited about repairing a car with such damage as yours. The car is damaged structurally. I'm in the auto repair industry. I've seen number of redo's from other shops, even well respected. Even if the job came out perfect and within your allotted $ amount, you will still have a salvaged title car with prior frame damage.

Ultimately, you do what best fits your situation but I would think twice about fixing it.

 

THAT is service.

I thought I managed to track down all of the XJS' for sale... I clearly missed that one.

I ended up finding a 96 in BRG for less than $9K. I have pulled the trigger on it. It has less than 60K miles on the clock.

No seat warmers and the drivers seat is worn a lot more than my current car. I should have enough money left over from insurance to fix the leather. Hopefully the seat heater pads are in the seats and the cars come prewired for that feature.

 

Way cool! Glad that worked out man. So are you gonna let the Insurance company have the car? If yer quick you might part it out before they haul it off....

 

Yes, the insurance company is going to get it. I'm assuming I cant exactly strip it. I mean, I'd love to keep the steering wheel, but I think I might get into trouble...

How far can I go?

 

you can swap the interiors, wheels, tires (be careful with those if they took pics or tread depth measure), bumpers, lights, etc. etc. the key word is "swap" not remove...

 

I have no idea what you can do really, they are gonna crush it after all. I would love to get the headliner and trim pieces (especially the trim pieces) from you if you are able to though. Oh, but yours is a rag-top.......

Marty....................

 

The insurance company is NOT going to crush it. They will sell it off at an insurance auction such as Copart or IAA to recoup part of their losses. That's why they don't want you to strip the car down as they base their buy out price on the condition of the vehicle at the time of the accident. For example, if they appraised your car with an AM FM CD stereo, it needs to have that 'style' stereo when they pick it up. Swapping rims for rims, seats for seats, etc will slide.