Has anyone seen any of the Wrecks to Riches programs on the discoveryturbo channel ?
Don't know if they've been broadcast on terrestial or freeview at all.
Essentially they are buying cat C or D write-offs and repairing them for they claim " a fraction of their forecourt cost"
Would love to know anyones opinions on what they've seen so far !
So far most of the cars have come in about £1 - 2K above their repair estimates, and from what I have seen only about £2k less than their forecourt price, which I reckon so far has been about 90% of an undamaged vehicle.
They do of course claim at the start of each episode " a well-repaired cat-C or D write-off is worth 70% of the value of an undamaged car".
Obviously they have yet to manage this..........
Most cars have had unexpected and difficult to detect damage only apparent once striped down (which I would have expected) - Surely this is why they are in the salvagers as the insurance assessors ahve already worked out there is something nasty lurking underneath.
Also the labour charges they get from their bodyshop always seems pretty low compared to the amount of work and number of people seen doing stuff. I expect thebodyshop is hapy to do cheap work while thre is a camera running
From watching the show I get the opinion that for the average Joe Public it is not easily possible unless you are in the motor trade and/or have your own workshop and bodywork/mechaical skills
Does anyone think it ispossible to economically repair a Cat-C or D write-off, and what is its true market value compared to undamaged ?
I would have thought much less than 70% as most people would run a mile if a car came up as a Cat-C/D write-off when they did an HPI check.
Certainly I think if you later tried to part-ex at a main-dealer they would not touch it ?
Would love to know peoples opinions/experiences after seeing this program !
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Not all Cat Ds need any work at all, of course. My Jetta was/would have been Cat D about 13 years ago. The boot floor was lightly crumpled by a rear-end collision. The boot lid opened and closed fine, and the lights were undamaged, but at £800 pre-crash value the other party's insurers offered me £750 cash. I ran it for another three years before selling it for £300 with an MoT.
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its quite rare that people actually hpi cars before they purchase, and main dealers will take a recorded car in swap , just "usually" send it to auction, it will do good money if it was recorded a long time ago probably less 10% than non recorded, supply and demand you see, ive got it you want it,
theres very little profit to be made nowadays from buying a cat c/d car especially if your not kitted up to diy, far better to scan the ads, and pick up a straight little sweetie that wants a buff/service/short mot.
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The VX220 that was done up in the series at least a year ago (the episodes shown yesterday were repeats) is still up for sale. The punter didn't want it, but I thought Connor (the bodyshop owner) was going to buy it instead?
tinyurl.com/2p6k7o
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I watched a few of these last night. Interesting programme, but only about 15 minutes per 30 minute programme was original content as the rest was recap after recap-drives me mad!
Anyway, I had to chuckle at the VX220 which they restored for a "fraction" of a equivalent car dealer price. I think it was about £2k less. Not sure I would call that a fraction. And although they add in labour charges to the restore cost, are they true labour charges a garage would charge you or handyman labour charges?
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I too laughed at the VX220 - it hardly seemed worth all the hassle for something only costing £2k less. And bear in mind that the re-sale value will be lower. and also much more difficult to resell as a being a write-off would I thought scare the buyers.... unless it is just SO desirable - although it seems from their website (link above !) that it is still for sale 1year later.
So perhaps people don't wnat to buy a write-off even though a desirable car after all ?
I thnk you are right about the labour charges.
Someof those cars had weeks of work, and they were only charged £1500 labour...... A lot of places will rack that up in a single day, easily.
Methinks a case of cheap labour 'cos the cameras watching....... or perhaps they have some kind of "pre-nuptial" contract made with the bodyshop and TV Co. to limit the labour costs to a certain level, just to protect the TV Co ??
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Interestingly Surrey_Scientist if you follow the link that DD gave, then the car is registered as a cat "w", never heard of this but if its the same as "x" as the site goes on to say then this vauxhall is not registered as a total loss and could be sold "clean" ie not on the hpi register.
This new category was introduced as a way for insurance companies to get maximum wonga for salvage vehicles after the vic check came in
It is also a fact that all vehicles have to be advised to swansea irrespective of whether an insurance claim has been made so a nice little back door way of beating the system
Dodgy ground me always thinks
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