Would you buy a write off?

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haventrader, Nov 5, 12:45pm
Looking at buying a car and found a very neat, late model car with low mileage- well priced. Drove very well. Did a quick check against it and realised it had been written-off. Upon contacting the owner, he told me it had indeed been in an accident whereby the bumper, bonnet grille and headlamps had all been replaced. Whoever did the job, has done well. Thoughts on buying a car that has been written off! Cheers
intrade, Nov 5, 12:48pm
is it still registered or is it deregod!
bellky, Nov 5, 12:50pm
If it's accordingly cheaper and you don't mind what's the problem.
haventrader, Nov 5, 1:03pm
All back on the road again. Was dereg and now re-registered. WOF etc up to date. Cheers
kazbanz, Nov 5, 1:13pm
HT --In your shoes I'd be wanting to look a fair bit deeper into why the car was a wright off. If it was purely a decision based on economics by the insurer then hey worth the follow up especially if its bolt on parts that were replaced.
But if its a water damaged car or was written off due to structural damage I'd be much more wary.
haventrader, Nov 5, 1:36pm
Thanks Kaz. It's the structural part that worries me. Although nothing evident, and the car drives straight. No knocks or unusual sounds from anywhere. It has less than 50k on the clock, and drives like it. Will have a closer look again. Cheers
grangies, Nov 5, 1:59pm
What is the year model and make of the vehicle!
icemans1, Nov 5, 2:05pm
be careful, it has been known for people to replace panels on cars so they look mint without getting the chassis straightened properly
joanie32, Nov 5, 2:39pm
write of is only a term used to say uneconomical to repair. There are bigger jobsdone on cars under insurance. Get it checked out, but dont let theterm "write off" put you off.
mone, Nov 5, 2:47pm
Write-off does not automatically mean chassis damage. That's a big myth. Sometimes, even the panel beater bill may cost more than car value, so it gets written off.
rob_man, Nov 5, 2:56pm
If it was a de-reg write off it will have been repaired under the eye of an engineer and they are very strict about it.
I would say nothing to worry about.
kazbanz, Nov 5, 2:59pm
What you need is the paperwork from the recompliance. You will see pretty darn quick if it was structural damage or not.
saxman99, Nov 5, 3:02pm
Sometimes you get a situation where for instance 6 - 8 airbags have deployed in a fairly minor crash and the cost of replacing all the "factory-specified in case of deployment" SRS components is silly.The car is thus written off.

So then some handy DIYer buys the vehicle for next to nothing, gets all the bits he needs to make it all work again from eBay much cheaper then locally, refits it all, has the car panelled & painted, re-reg and all set to go for a fraction of the initial quote.

Sell for a fair price = profit.Wins all round.
trader_84, Nov 5, 3:37pm
Thats what I bought . one of these types. I was after a engine and transmission for a conversion and lucked into a complete car for the same money. It looks ok but never passed a re-rego inspection or something. I think it was written off by an insurance company, purchased by the owner with his insurance payout and he took care of it on the cheap. Something like this. I bought the whole thing because its the little bits'n'pieces that end up pushing the costs up when doing swaps. I'll sell parts off whats left and scrap the rest.
a.woodrow, Nov 5, 3:54pm
All sorts of things can cause a car to be written off. My brother had a car that was "bottled", the panel repairs exceeded the value of the car so it was written off, despite the fact it was mechanically and structurally sound
haventrader, Nov 5, 4:43pm
Thanks all! Good comments. Kaz you're spot-on again and I'll see if I can get my hands on the paperwork. Cheers.
arrithedog, Nov 5, 5:14pm
Purely as a driver, not an expert, I would never buy a car thats been written off. And when you eventually want to sell it again, thats where you might struggle. There's a lot of people like me around.
donz01, Nov 5, 6:52pm
I have a mates written off car sitting at my place because he has moved to aussie and his insurance co is going to pick it up from here. I can count around 30 hail damage dents over the entire car.All he wanted was it fixed so he could sell it for around $3500. Insurance wrote it off and gave him $6000. He was so happy with their idea. It will probably end up going through Turners and be sold for $1000-$2000 dereged as a write off.
rob_man, Nov 5, 7:06pm
It's not a foregone conclusion that it will be dereged, if there's only cosmetic damage they can be sold still registered.
tigra, Nov 5, 7:07pm
Just wondering - was it a write-off in NZ or overseas
tigra, Nov 5, 7:08pm
Turners damaged cars sell a few cars with plates.
kaymay88, Nov 5, 8:40pm
yes. provided the paperwork was in order. I would want copies or receipts for the work that was done, and the engineers certificate or report to confirm that the chassis etc is straight and the car has been repaired to a satisfactory standard.

One of my current bikes I bought cheap as a write off. I repaired it myself but made sure I got it signed off and have kept the paperwork to show any future owners.

Its now my daily ride and probably the best deal I have had on a bike
trogedon, Nov 6, 7:33am
Its the re sale that maybe difficult - getting a lower priced &/or no one wanting to buy it. If you're going to keep it for a long time it could be a good buy.
kazbanz, Nov 6, 3:31pm
OP to answer your question NO I would not buy a written off/rebuilt car.
A few reasons . The first odvious. I don't want a rep for buying damaged cars
The second being that Ive seen some of the truely bodgy work carried out and hidden by nice paint
The third being once into the chasis of a car I'm not convinced that unless the entire section of chasis is replaced the car is as safe as it was from the factory.
The only way I'd buy a damaged vehicle would be a motorcycle and being darn sure all (structural) damaged parts were replaced
clanky, Nov 6, 5:33pm
JMTCW. In UK, a write-off was defined by the insurance company as whether the cost of the repairs with genuine EOM parts in a main dealer repair shop ADDED to the cost the insurance company could sell the car for, were greater than the value of the car. So 6-month old Jag, with wing damage was a write off under the above formula. Buy it back, get a good panel, get a mate to spray it and you have a nearly new car for the cost of the damaged one. Also, a mate of mine used to repair badly smashed Ford Fiestas and Escorts (very popular in UK) by buying new body shells from Ford and rebuilding them. Shells were dead cheap - $1500 for a Fiesta, $1800 for an Escort, $2000 for an E30 BMW (those were the days).