There ought to be a law against this

[hatters]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LOTUS-ELAN-1- ... 3cc25772eb

Take a look at this ,With the number of Elans diminishing by the month they shouldn't be allowed to break these cars when they can be put back on the road with very little effort
Its a disgrace IMO

[Brit-Car-Nut]

I am certainly not standing up for DVB, but it is possible that the front suspension and chassis were destroyed in the wreck. They get the cars from the Insurance companies or from owners that try to sell lightly damaged cars on eBay/Pistonheads only to be offered insulting prices. I know of two other cars recently broken on eBay that had repairable issues but when offered, the seller couldn't raise more than 1,000 quid. They had no idea the tail lights were worth almost that much.

If there was a market for rebuildables, then DVB wouldn't be able to buy their stock at prices low enough to gouge the market with spares. Remember, only a small portion of Elan owners are members of LEC and don't have any idea what the car is worth except what the insurance company tells them.

There should be a larger effort within LEC to try to reach everyone and invite them to the group. I always talk the LEC up when I meet Elan owners.

I am also suprised that a member or two don't belong to the Auto Dealer collective and couldn't have access to the wrecks just like DVB. My guess is DVB has offered a fixed, high price for salvage based on age and mileage. That is how it works in the US. The local insurance main offices have made arrangements with breakers or rebuilders that promise a higher price than they can get at the salvage sales. I used to do that with MGs in the Southeast US. I had a huge assortment of good quality USED parts to go with my NEW parts inventory.

At least they are offering the parts to anyone that will pay their prices. A lot of cars in the US just get crushed right away if nobody wants to spend the time to disassemble them.

DVB should be questioned by eBay for listing pictures of a RED car but describing it as GREEN. You have no way of knowing if anything they say is accurate for the parts they are selling.

Anyway, just my 2 cents worth...

[rip]

The biggest problem is that accident repairers rip off insurance companies.
A repair quote for more than 60% of the vehicle value is enough to write it off.
If the owner is not willing to insist on buying the vehicle back & get it repaired themselves then it gets sold as salvage.

[JIMBO]

As they say, one man's meat is another man's poison.
Look on the bright side, more parts to keep ours going, and less Elans on the road which will eventually push the prices up.
Look how the original Elan has rocketed in value over the last five years so we only have to wait for another twenty five years for ours to reach those levels.
Jim

[Brit-Car-Nut]

The biggest problem is that accident repairers rip off insurance companies.
A repair quote for more than 60% of the vehicle value is enough to write it off.
If the owner is not willing to insist on buying the vehicle back & get it repaired themselves then it gets sold as salvage.

Agreed - BUT - Not everyone can arrange for the repairs or has the time or ability to break the car. Owners need to replace the car, so need to get things over quickly.

Buyers are equally at fault as DVB can't sell anything for more than the public will pay. They seem to have a willing market that will pay their inflated prices. Until that ends, they will get the wrecks and the remaining car owners will suffer if they want to keep the car on the road.

[Brit-Car-Nut]

As they say, one man's meat is another man's poison.
Look on the bright side, more parts to keep ours going, and less Elans on the road which will eventually push the prices up.
Look how the original Elan has rocketed in value over the last five years so we only have to wait for another twenty five years for ours to reach those levels.
Jim

Unfortunately, the car is currently worth more for parts than as a driver. Scarcity doesn't assure a rising car value, not when the cost of parts to keep it running are too expensive.

The super "cheap" cars being offered are causing more issues than the wrecks. Too many young buyers don't seem to care about putting it back to original, and awful lot seem to want to change a lot of the design to make it more like modern cars. I am not saying this is wrong, but there are more and more cars that are frankensteins driving around and they will eventually lower the value of all of the model - correct, original examples and modified alike.

[rip]

It would be nice to just boycott money-grabbers like DVB, but there are many owners unaware of their practices & if they were the only source of a part I desperately needed to get my car back on the road, would I SORN it for a principle?
I would like to say yes, but I may see things differently if I was actually put in such a position.

[Brit-Car-Nut]

I think we all would have to think hard if it was down to paying an inflated price for the only available parts to be found on short notice.

I have been supporting the regular eBay people selling their parts. I am hoping to end up with enough to never have to resort to someone like DVB.

That is why I push Aftersales parts. When they are gone, we are going to be in a worse place than we are now.

[ashm]

I recently bought a part via eBay. When I picked the part up and talked to the seller, it turned out his Elan had been in top-notch running order, having been well cared for and with no faults whatsoever.
Simple fact was, he could no longer justify having the car due to family circumstances. Having advertised it for a long time and never receiving any realistic offers, he reluctantly decided to break it. He said he's recouped many times more than the highest offer he received for the running car. Can't really blame him and he loved the car and didn't want to break it, but was forced to as there just isn't really market demand for running Elans at the moment. Disappointing
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[hatters]

I recently bought a part via eBay. When I picked the part up and talked to the seller, it turned out his Elan had been in top-notch running order, having been well cared for and with no faults whatsoever.
Simple fact was, he could no longer justify having the car due to family circumstances. Having advertised it for a long time and never receiving any realistic offers, he reluctantly decided to break it. He said he's recouped many times more than the highest offer he received for the running car. Can't really blame him and he loved the car and didn't want to break it, but was forced to as there just isn't really market demand for running Elans at the moment. Disappointing
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Yes very disappointing indeed

[nitroman]

Economics is the driver of all things save for sentimentality. Mechanical & biological entities all break down with sufficient time. Yes, given excessive expenditure of funds you could 'pickle' a vehicle such that it will still look new the day you die, otherwise you have to accept the fact that cars succumb to the elements faster than we do.