r129 - good donor car? px to clear

[R129mine]

found this today on autotrader

Mercedes-Benz SL Class 5.0 SL500 2dr

£3995 PX to clear

decided not to repair in 2006 but has been driven till 2016, eh?

pictures don't look to awful, maybe they were taken pre 2006

anyway could make a decent donor car, as long as the majority of parts are still in good working order, don't have the space nor cash so not for me...

 

[Doodle]

The write-off story is fishier than a North Sea trawler. At that time it would have been worth probably £15k, so how bad was the damage in reality to warrant not repairing?

 

[shyam27]

Cat D suggests it was a light knock. It is possible that owner did not want to pursue claim and decided to fix themselves. It wouldn't bother me personally, I'd be more interested in extent of rust.

Providing there's no rot underneath, i think its worth fixing those wings! Looks like a nice straight motor in my opinion.

Slightly high mileage but those V8 engines start breaking in at that sort mileage and will perform better ironically. I would still carry out a full service on it.

hmmm I'm tempted... even though I'm in the process of buying a property.

 

[Doodle]

Cat D suggests it was a light knock. It is possible that owner did not want to pursue claim and decided to fix themselves.

This statement make no sense.To be on the VCAR register the owner has to have claimed for the damage. If it was enough to write off a £15k car, that suggests it was rather more than a light knock.

 

[shyam27]

This statement make no sense.To be on the VCAR register the owner has to have claimed for the damage. If it was enough to write off a £15k car, that suggests it was rather more than a light knock.

Ah is that so? I wasn't aware.

I thought category mark is placed on vehicle when owner notifies insurance company of accident and after they've carried out inspection? Then would the insurer not give owner choice of claiming or not(if no other cars were involved)?

Sorry, never been in an accident myself so no expert but this is what I thought was the case.

Out of curiousity, if the damage was a little paint scrape (i.e car was parked and someone scraped it and didn't leave any note) which could easily be buffered off at little expense, would the insurer advise owner to fix themselves rather than themselves?

I also assumed Cat D is non structural damage and car can be repaired for less then value of vehicle? In which case, it being a 15k motor at the time would have no impact as obviously it would cost less than 15k to repair.. So yes, it was a write off, but isn't that subjective?

 

[Doodle]

Ah is that so? I wasn't aware.

I thought category mark is placed on vehicle when owner notifies insurance company of accident and after they've carried out inspection? Then would the insurer not give owner choice of claiming or not(if no other cars were involved)?

No, the VCAR entry (and therefore the category) is only for cars that have been written off by the insurers.

Out of curiousity, if the damage was a little paint scrape (i.e car was parked and someone scraped it and didn't leave any note) which could easily be buffered off at little expense, would the insurer advise owner to fix themselves rather than themselves?

They'd process the claim as requested. It would be up to the owner not to submit for a claim in the first place.

I also assumed Cat D is non structural damage and car can be repaired for less then value of vehicle? In which case, it being a 15k motor at the time would have no impact as obviously it would cost less than 15k to repair.. It being a write off is completely subjective

Entirely the opposite I'm afraid. The value of the car is the measure by which the entire process is judged. It does take into account more than just the pure repair bill (hire car for example) but it's still a case of costing more to put right than the car is worth.

The categories have been changed recently to make them more explicit, now marked as N & S for non-structural and structural damage.

 

[shyam27]

No, the VCAR entry (and therefore the category) is only for cars that have been written off by the insurers.



They'd process the claim as requested. It would be up to the owner not to submit for a claim in the first place.



Entirely the opposite I'm afraid. The value of the car is the measure by which the entire process is judged. It does take into account more than just the pure repair bill (hire car for example) but it's still a case of costing more to put right than the car is worth.

The categories have been changed recently to make them more explicit, now marked as N & S for non-structural and structural damage.

Thanks for clearing that up. I wasn't aware of that!