Hi guys, sad question today.

I was involved in a crash - lost rear axle grip on an expressway during a dense rain.
Wasn't even going fast (about 70kph on the left lane, straight ahead, no bend) but it was still too much, one moment I'm driving, focused but relaxed, next thing I know, I'm spinning and hitting bands.
Classic case of aquaplaning, it really caught me off guard though as I've driven in similar conditions many times and never had any issue like this. The tyres had about 4-5mm of thread so also nothing too drastic.
In any case - I clearly judged the conditions wrong and should've gone even slower.

Managed to point the car toward an expressway exit and stopped there.
The good part is that no one else was involved in the accident and I'm also ok personally.

The bad part - car was hit many places, right rear wheel has lower control arm torn (at the bushing) by a curb and the car can't be driven.
Some data:
- The airbags didn't fire
- no window is broken (although passenger's window slide down button seems to be "blocked" and can't be used)
- the doors open and close normally
- the car starts
- there were no car fluids on the road

It doesn't look pretty but on the other hand, it doesn't seem like there's any structural or drivetrain damage.

The dealership quote for the repair is staggering ~44k eur but it's a dealership and they're the partner of the insurance company so duh
The car was valued at ~30500 eur when I purchased my insurance in April.

My question - is it worth fighting against salvage title and repairing the car or am I being delusional, this would indeed cost a fortune to repair and I'm better off letting it go?
Maybe purchasing some donor after front end crash and swapping parts from it would be something worthwhile?

 

Sad to say the remaining wreck is about useless except for any parts. Do not try to salvage it! It will be a money-pit and never worth what you'd spend repairing it. If you have an area to part it out yourself, you could probably make some money on it by buying the carcass, but if you don't have space, time and ability, just let insurance take it away.

 

I would say that it is definitely repairable if there is no damage to the underlying structure but it will not be economically repairable at a main dealer. I'm guessing that a good independent bodyshop could fix it up for less than 10k and that might be worth doing, especially if you can do a some of the prep work yourself to bring the cost down.

You could ask whether the insurance company would be prepared to write it off and then sell it back to you. Depending how much is left after they deduct the sale price off the insurance value, and how much the estimates from some local independents are, you will know whether it is worth considering.

 

I think you may remember days-gone-by, that right rear would be well over ten grand by itself. Add 'Aluminum' to that and I'd say over $20k not including any other damage. The result after paying to repair? A broken accident car that nobody would ever buy. If it would be a Keep-Until-You-Die car, then maybe if it's incredibly sentimental???

 

That second photo looks pretty tragic. A lot of crumples and bends under the skin. My sympathies -- nice color.

If they give you a healthy check for a total, take it.

If you don't mind sharing the rebuild cost, it'd be interesting to know.

 

Sorry to see that.

The problem is replacement parts. Suspension won't be difficult to source but front bumper, rear bumper, both front wings and rear RH side is expensive before any labour on repairs and paint. JLR will only supply aluminium body panels to approved repairers so your options are limited.

Next is availability. A neighbour reversed into the side of my F-Pace four weeks ago and it needs a driver's door. The dealer can't give me a date for delivery and that's for a current model. The X150 has been out of production for nine years and body parts are likely to be even more difficult.

I'd let it go as it's going to cost a fortune to repair and always have the stigma of major repair attached.

Graham

 

 

What are they offering for the payout as a write off?

That's going to be a pricey repair - Jag in Canada would only supply body parts to a Qualified Jag repair outfit. They even don't like to give out paint codes.

 

In my view - problem will be related to the parts availability. Rear-right body quarter etc. If insurance pays fair - I'd let it go.

 

"

This would be an excellent scheme; if you have a place to store it, and have the patience to part it out over time, then a "buy-back" from the insurance company would be a plus, depending on what monetary deal you could negotiate with them. The body panels and even the smaller bits are frighteningly pricy at dealerships.

 

Very bad news, sorry to read. But as you said, most important that you are ok.

How many kilometers on the clock of your car? If your insurance company pays you close to the calculated value of 30500 Euros (minus rest value of your car), I would most probably let it go to a breaker and look for a new one (although I know that you have very good mechanics for a doable damage like this in Poland). With this structural damage it would be difficult so sell it in the future. In Germany cou can find very good cars for this price. Can you part it out before selling to "rescue" some special parts for a new XK (like your spires springs and spacers)?

 

Just to reflect on the fact the flooded roads are a lot more dangerous that many people think, I was driving northwards on the A1 motorway in Croatia in 2015 in midsummer and the rain was absolutely torrential in the mountains. We had 4 of us in the car and I was doing about 40 mph and wondering whether even that was too fast for those conditions. A white Audi A4 came past us at about 60 mph and I said to my passengers "Look at that guy. He'll be lucky to make it round the next bend" and, with that, the rear of his car span around, the car hit the bank and flipped up onto it's roof and went careering down the road in front of us spinning around and around on the roof.

I came to a gentle halt next to the inverted wreckage and me and the male passenger got out. I asked the women to phone 112 and report the crash. We forced open the doors of the Audi and helped the three Croatian people, who were now laying on the inside roof, to get out of the car. Amazingly, all were uninjured apart from minor bruising and shock. By then, all three lanes were at a complete standstill and we were all soaked. By now, several Croatian drivers had joined us with so we said our goodbyes and departed before the emergency services arrived and possibly closed the motorway as we still had over 1000 mile ahead of us.

Just be careful out there folks.

 

It could be repaired in two stages. Accumulate right rear parts, new, used, and aftermarket. Then trailer the car to a small shop do the repair the rear suspension and the car can be driven afterwards.
Drive it some where for the body work.
I am not sure if the insurance would want to be involved in a thrifty repair. If it is written off, you have the first right to buy the car.
Repairing the rear, will determine if the frame was bent at all.
Just a few thoughts to save the car.

 

All of the above replies lead me to one conclusion - it's a total loss. That's why you bought insurance; so you could sleep well, not worry, be happy and, most importantly, eliminate aggravation.

Unless you are a masochist, don't even think about repairing your XK. It's not worth it, financially and emotionally.

Take the money and buy an another XK.

 

Thank you all for your input.

@RichardS
In Poland, when autocasco insurance total loss is involved, the "remains" of the car are by default owners property. One gets paid the difference between the car value at the moment of accident minus the value of car remains. The valuation is the scammy part where they try to underestimate the "before" value and overestimate the "after" value. Owner usually gets a separate offer (or has to propose) to sell the wreckage to insurance company.
To combat the scam, after the initial ins co offer, owner writes an appeal from their decision with the help of an independent appraiser - that keeps the valuations within the realm of reality.

A valuable lesson. I can only be grateful that it happened the way it has and not 200m after where there were just trenches and trees on the sides or when driving for Christmas with my girlfriend and dog in some icy conditions.
Very commendable that you helped the people, it should be a default behavior but the extent of people not caring is amazing, especially that it's criminal in Poland (if you don't help a potentially life threateningly injured person).

@Cee Jay @Stuart S @GGG
It's hard to accept that the "wreckage" with low mileage, fully functional and healthy drivetrain, interior, glasswork etc with just a bit mangled bodywork and suspension todo is something to ditch and forget.
Although that may be a reality - depends on the underlying damage and ins co offer.
The main arguments against repair are cost and availability of parts.
Would getting front crashed XK or XKR donor, for around 10k eur to supply the rear quarters, bumper and suspension (bonus if in the same paint color) change your judgement?
The dealership mentioned that majority of the 44k eur quote are the parts.

@earny
Thanks
The car's mileage is around 100500km (~62500 miles) so really fresh.
If letting go, I'd definitely want to at least get the mods out of it but I don't think it's safe to reuse spacers out of the car crashed like this - they are the parts that get the most beating in every situation where wheels come into contact with something.
BTW I'm more and more confident that it was the spacers and lowered springs that kept me from going over the roof...

@Sean W

@McJag222
I didn't get an offer from insurance company so far because the valuations have yet to happen but I wanted to get a feel on how to approach this.

@Tracee
Unfortunately I only have an underground garage space that I won't be able to use for storage because there's no space for tow truck to unload the jag, even if it managed to get in there.
I would have to make a deal with an indy so that it stays at theirs the whole time of repair.

@sony2000
Bending of the frame is the main worry, so you say this will only become apparent after conducting initial body work?

Everything then really depends on the insurance offer and exact quote of parts/work that need to be replaced/carried out, I just need to decide on a loss margin I can live with.
Sounds obvious but this is the first (and hopefully the last) situation like this I was involved in so all the context you provided me with is really valuable.

So I guess I'll do the following:
- get a detailed quote from the dealership
- get an appraiser to unscam the quote
- get counter quotes and ETAs from a couple of indys and whether they'll be willing to work with parts from a donor
- get an offer from insurance company
- decide what loss am I willing to take and whether to let it go

So much care, time and emotion went into this XK that it's probably causing me to fall into sunk costs fallacy...

 

As far as I know that is your way of handling an accident like this in USA. Here in Europe the insurance company does not buy the unrepaired, possibly totalled car from you! The car still belongs to you - the insurance company pays you the money for the market value of the undamaged car at the day of the accident minus the remaining value of the car in the current unrepaired stadium. Normaly the insurance companies works together with breakers who make already an offer for the damaged car via the insurance company - so the company normaly takes this offer to minimize their payment to you. If you want to keep the car its up to you, you can repair it (even a totalled car) or sell it yourself to a higher price than the offer from the breaker via the insurance company (although these offers are most of the time astonishingly high). At least this is the way an accident is handled in Germany. The only thing you have to discuss with the insurance company is how much money they have to pay to you (current value at the used car market minus value of the unrepaired car).

 

So, you can start:
https://www.kleinanzeigen.de/s-anzei...01092-223-3157

and the rear quarter:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/285139367...Bk9SR_T4sM_xYg


;-)

 

Let's put some numbers on the "big ticket" parts. This is UK costs from JLR:














For both bumpers, rear quarter and 2 front wings, the total is 7547 UKP. If the bonnet is distorted, they rarely ever straighten and that's another 2290 UKP. Likely to be more in mainland Europe.

These vehicles are mostly glued and rivetted together. The only weld on the body is the roof to rear side panels on the coupe.

Graham

 

And then another three times that 11,000 USD to fit and paint. Nearly $45k already. Add the other 10k for the fiddly bits.

 

@GGG
By that you mean it's impossible to reuse parts from existing vehicle?

EDIT:
Bonnet looks straight, depending on the state of latches, front bumper also looks just scratched.
Left rear quarter looks like a PDR + paintjob.
So rear bumper, fenders and quarter would cost 1077+2400+1061+1061=5600 gbp=6443 eur, if they even can't be gotten cheaper (apart from the quarter from what I understand).
If the Jag gets totalled at the cost of repair 30500*0.7=21350 eur (probably a bit less, they will find a way to devalue the car after 6 months from AC agreement), that still leaves quite a bit of money for suspension, paintjob, fitting and lamps (which can be gotten on the cheap in PL, used).

I know your goal was to save me the headache but actually it's given me some hope - with a bit of luck and a good appraiser the jag may yet live