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jray3

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 6, 2011
Messages
1,871
Location
Tacoma area, WA
Flooded LEAFs were going for pennies on the dollar until folks discovered that the hermetically-sealed battery pack was impervious to Hurricane Sandy, and now a severely crashed LEAF can hardly be had for under $6k, once all the fees are considered.

On the flip side, it's amazing what apparently tiny damage will total a car these days. Check out this totalled Smart EV.

http://www.salvageautosauction.com/...-Sale/lot-23413685/Courtice-Ontario/id/1/pg/1

I found it after noticing that electric Smart 'engines' list for half the price of salvaged Smart gasoline engines. ($1100-1800 vs $2200 and up)

A friend who owns a successful autobody franchise claims that his will be the last generation of serious collision repairmen. He says that if it can't be fixed with a bolt-on part, labor costs and perceived risk from measures such as frame straightening and extensive wiring harness repair price those repairs right out of the market.

Any insurance experts here? This plus the screwy residual values on EV leases has made me suspect either incompetence or impropriety in the auto insurance industry.
 
Seriously? That's totalled?

Smart car body pieces must be expensive :lol: .

I guess if the battery is leased, then there wouldn't be much value in the car. I wonder how Daimler handles the battery lease in this situation.

You see how much difficulty some people have had with the i-MiEV after a minor collision. A fender and two doors almost totalled one.
 
EVTV bought a Smart without battery pack. They would have had to buy a new pack in order to lease it (yes, that's correct). The price was 30.000 USD, but came down to 8.000 USD eventually. Until they decided there's a broken connector and they'd have to swap the powertrain too (yes, that's correct too). Then they refused to give the pack anymore, because it needed reprogramming the ECU and they wouldn't do it without swapping the powertrain. So, don't buy a Smart ED. Batteries are NOT included in any scenario. Lease if you must have one.
 
OK WHAT is that pokey thing on the front fender ... Is that for City driving to get the Pedestrians out of the way faster ?

LOL
 
jray3 said:
On the flip side, it's amazing what apparently tiny damage will total a car these days.
Yep, it happened to my Mazda Protege a few years back... rear-ended, looked about like that. Estimated $5K to repair, car valued ~$7.5K, IIRC, so the insurance company called it totalled. :(

The really annoying thing was, it happened when I was just coming back from an emissions test. It had passed. (At least I don't have to worry about that anymore.)
 
If you're talking about the metal piece sticking out of the front, that is a recovery hook. It's used to winch a car back up onto the road.
 
Many times an insurance claim for a wrecked car also includes a rental car allowance for the owner - However long it takes to get him his car back, he's driving a rental. If the car in question has a supply chain for parts which reaches back to the country of manufacture, the cost of air freighting the parts *or* the added delays if the parts are shipped by boat cn add up very quickly. Add to this the *possibility* that once the repairmen takes the car apart (which they usually don't even begin until they think they have all the needed parts on hand) he may find even more parts which need to be ordered which adds up to even more delay. All those delays can add up to significant money, so if there is any question that it may be a more difficult repair than it appears, it's safer to total the car and write off the loss, at least from the insurance company's point of view

Don
 
Seems they have upped the anti on the buyout price for the Leaf Leases. $7,000

Nissan KNOWS that if the market is flooded with used Leaf cars it will be really bad. The price for Used will drop like a rock and that is bad news.

Can't wait to see what happens....
 
isn't that what is happening already with the iMiev? Going for well under $10,000. I just got mine today!

-Randy
 
israndy said:
isn't that what is happening already with the iMiev? Going for well under $10,000. I just got mine today!

-Randy
Congrats ! Put a new posting in the i-MiEV owners section :)
 
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