which insurers will insure an ex write off?

[Jonathan Lawson]

Can anybody please direct me to a company that would insure a lotus elan that has had two previous write offs, (CAT C 10/09/07 & CAT D 06/08/01). My insurance broker can't provide me with any options. Should I pull out of the purchase or is there still hope for this Elan ?

[WillB]

Ouch!

If you are a member of SELOC, u2u a member on there called 'junks' (Phil). He's also on here, but I'm not sure how often he logs on.

He sells quite a few damaged repaired Loti and is a nice guy, so should be able to point you in the right direction.

I do have to say, with all the good Elans out there at the moment for sale at good prices, what's attracted you to a car that's been written off twice??

[Jonathan Lawson]

65000 miles £3100

[WillB]

Ah, so it's not even very cheap then

If you decide it is the one for you make sure you get it properly inspected. FInd a local Lotus specialist and get them to give it the once over.

Cat C can be heavy damage and not always properly repaired.

Also worth considering the hassle of selling it on when you come to sell it.

[Jonathan Lawson]

The cheapest I have seen is £2900, which had also been written off, I have been looking for about a month and have found that if it is under £4000 then they are usually high miles, written off or quite tatty, do you think I should wait, if so what sort of elan will I get for about £3500, as that is my budget. thanks for coms as i need opinions on this.

[WillB]

There's a member on here called Jackonicko, who's obsessed with the Elan market.

He'll be along soon to give some advice

Personally I'd recommend pushing your budget up to £4-5k, you'll get FAR more car for your money than the £1500 cost difference.

If you can get yourself over to Hethel this weekend no doubt they'll be many Elans up for sale.

Good luck in the hunt. To be honest a month is not long to be looking, hold out for a good one.

£3100 on a Elan that has been written off twice is not money well spent IMHO

[Jonathan Lawson]

Thanks for the advice, much appreciated

[Specky]

What Will says...

I've just bought a car that's been wrote off and crashed at least twice...(£1500)

I wouldn't pay much more... the damage becomes more apparent a you strip the car down to it's component parts...

I'd only pay a set amount for a damaged car and only if the retail value for it's component parts are more than the value of the car... It's a no brainner really..

If in any doubt steer clear...

TTFN

[Jackonicko]

Did someone rub my lamp?

Simple advice: AVOID!

I looked into buying a good write-off - new wishbones, etc. and found that insuring and re-selling would have been VERY difficult indeed. With the plummeting price of Elans, I'd suggest that a write off is often probably best being broken.

Listen to what Specky says. He's an ace Elan mechanic and a professional aircraft engineer, so putting things right won't always entail high-priced help for him. It would do for most of us.

Listen to WillB, too. If he says a car isn't "even very cheap" then it really isn't a bargain. Will is (I hope he won't mind me saying) a wealthy chap with impeccable taste and very high standards, and he sells a lot of VERY good cars at a competitive but 'premium' price (I'm not being rude, premium cars warrant that). So his idea of cheap and my idea of cheap are not always the same. If I say a car is priced a bit high, then take it with a pinch of salt - I'm a bit of a bargain-hunting price pessimistic so-and-so. But if Will tells you something is over-priced, then just believe him.

You have a low budget, but this year you could have bought several decent Elans for that money. Especially if you're limited to a low amount this year, but could afford to spend more in chunks spread over the coming months - a new hood this winter, a respray next summer, new wishbones next winter, etc. You'll end up spending more overall, but don't need to pony up £6 k right now.

Don't be put off by tatty, just use it as a negotiating tactic. Even a good respray is not that expensive, and you can drive the car while you save up for it. Mine has measles on its nose and leprosy on its arse, but still turns heads and gets admiring comments, and it will get resprayed in next year's budget!

Don't be put off by high mileage. Do you want a car that's been off the road for a few years having major repairs, or sitting SORNed in a damp garage that has 60k miles on it, or an enthusiast's car, lovingly maintained, regularly driven, that has 90k, or even 120k?

This Isuzu lump is pretty bulletproof, and replacement engines will become more easily available as more cars are broken. You could have bought three good running engines this summer, for stupidly small amounts of money.

The best cars out there at two price points are both fairly high mileage - RussC's black one is superb - and even with 98.5k on the clock outshines anything else in the £6-7k range, though Sportmotive have a nice silver one at the top of the band, and there's a nice silver NA out there, too. And find and chat to SurferPhil. A man less aggressive in selling his car it would be hard to find. When I was looking he bent over backwards offering help, advice and counsel, and never once pushed his car to me - but if red is your bag, H362JPR is the mutts nuts, and the high mileage hides a VERY comprehensive rebuild.

And remember that the second hand and sports car markets are in freefall. This IS a buyer's market, and asking prices should be used as no more than guidance. You should be able to knock 10% off most asking prices. In the last couple of weeks, we've seen several AutoTrader and Pistonheads cars being quietly re-advertised with asking prices slashed by as much as a grand, while more recent eBay auctions have ended with 'No Bids' or having failed to meet their reserves than have sold 'normally'.

Within your budget (£3,500) you could look at LEC members Beats and Nickhawks cars. Beats may have withdrawn his, but it's a very pukka car, while Nick's has had the CHG and cambelt done, has Air Con (!!!), but needs a new thermostat (pennies) and a new valve lifter ("which will cost around £600 if done by Steve Williams"), while the seat could do with a new diaphragm (£12 and an hour's work or less) and the pax window needs looking at. But these are 'deferrable defects' and the car is driveable, NOW, and is smart and well looked after.

But if you could put another £1k in your budget, you'd have a VERY much wider choice. £4.5 k and you're within spitting distance of SurferPhil's car, or the Nottingham 91k miler that failed to go at £4k recently (Item number: 330265209194).

I'm puzzled as to which car you're considering. Where is it advertised? The only 65,000 mile car at that sort of price I have on my list are G707KTX (silver, Trade, Lyons Farm, been on sale for ages), and a Calypso H661NHB in Glasgow that got no bids.

Assuming that it's the Lyon's Farm car, the interior is non-standard and looks a bit cheap, the Elan and SE badges have fallen off, the hood needs replacing, the lower 'lip' is missing, and there's something about the pics that would make me want to check whether it had had a recent cheap respray. If the mileage is pukka (and I'd want to check the service history VERY closely) that would compensate for some of the problems, but not (in my view) for the Cat C and Cat D history. With that, I'd say it's worth less than £2,500.