Insurance buyback after track incident
 

So the unthinkable happened and I hit a track barrier during a hpde. Track insurance totalled my car (it has extensive body and frame damage), but it still runs and can move around! I've had some time to process, and am considering my options:

1. Buy back my car from insurance for about 2-2.5k. My drivetrain only has about 30k miles on it. So then Id buy another roller or flood/hail damaged salvage title and put my drivetrain into that. Might be a *long* project.

2. Buy back my car from insurance and part it out. How painful will a part out be? I have a fairly decent garage and I can borrow tools like cranes and the like to get the engine out. But palletization and shipping to buyers makes me wary.

3. Just let it all go, and look for a running cheap car that I can turn into a track rat.

What would you guys do?

I would see what the difference in payout is between letting it go and keeping it. If the difference is only $2,500 I'd keep it all day. Used engines are selling for $3,500 if you go the part out route, a stripped chassis goes for around $150-$200 to the scrapper plus all the other parts. Just be advised, that listing, selling and shipping parts gets tediuos.

If you are looking to buy a rolling chassis to transfer everything into to have another track car, that is a great option as well.

Where would you buy a rolling chassis for this platform? I'm looking at all these auction sites, iaai copart etc, and all the good flood/hail/blown engine cars are 2000 miles away

Been there. I bought mine back and repaired it.


Where did you get the $2000-2500 number from? I hope I'm not bursting any bubble here, but purchasing my car back from Lockton was 3x that.

I donno, just a guess based on what Im seeing on copart and iaai sales for similarly damaged cars. The adjustor, my mechanic everyone says that its got frame damage and all the airbags went off. Id be totally at peace letting it go if they want 5-10k for itm

So how long did it take you to fix it? Was yours totaled and did you have any frame damage? If you did, did you do all the frame straightening yourself?

Mine was totaled with frame damage (some detail on that here - I really need to finish writing Part IV). Airbags did not deploy. I did not repair the frame damage myself.



~2.5 years went by between me wrecking it and getting it back on the road, but much of that time was waiting to get the car back, mulling over what I should do with it, waiting for Varis parts to arrive on my side of the planet, getting it repaired at a trusted Collision Center, performing some minor touches, getting the car re-titled, aligned, etc.


It was worth it, but I also have quite a bit of sentimental value tied up in the car.

Check your policy fine print. there are sometimes fixed buyback pricing included in the details. it's often a % of the settlement value, roughly 15-20% last time I heard a number. so if they settle for $10k, then your buyback will be roughly $2k.

If you get a good adjuster that's willing to talk to you, sometimes they're willing to work with you. especially if the chassis is significantly damaged, it will bring low $ at insurance auction so they're more willing to let you keep it.

I blew the engine in my race car (first weekend I raced it. oof). so I bought a 2017 parts car from auction. thought it would be easy to pull the drivetrain and other good race-car-worthy-parts and then sell the shell and interior. ~3 years later I still have most of the interior and a shell sitting in my driveway on blocks with fenders, bumpers, and spare wheels held in place with zip ties so it looks like a normal car from the road. (My HOA hates me I'm sure.) Point is, getting rid of parts at a reasonable value and getting people to ACTUALLY SHOW UP WITH CASH is a royal PITA. I cannot tell you how many times I've heard "can you hold it for me until payday?" and then they never show up, or they want something for 1/4 the going price "I'm building on a budget man, give me a break!"..

I hate dealing with parting cars out and all the flakes and weirdos.

That said, if your drivetrain is in good shape, pull the drivetrain in an afternoon and you can sell a good running engine for >$3500. pull any mods, suspension, brakes, wheels, etc, then drag the bent shell to a scrap yard (better have title in hand!). You can do that in a weekend and make your money back from the insurance buyback. BUT you need storage room and patience to deal with flakes.

just my $0.02.

All those sites can recommend transport companies to deliver them to your door for an additional fee.

Pics of the "frame damage"? Lots of times insurance companies just total due to airbag deployment...or core support damage....all that is pretty easily fixed.

I've put back together quite a few, including my own a few times. All purchased from online auctions, and from local individuals from all over the country. 5 years ago you could get one for less than 3k, now a days...I very rarely see them go for under 5k...

Turns out the buyback is around 4k. My damage was pretty extensive:

https://bashify.io/images/TTDdyx
https://bashify.io/images/rKbmbx
https://bashify.io/images/MzwH0a
https://bashify.io/images/DIOfyi

If you want to spend the time and effort, if it brings you joy, and if you have the skills, then sure. Otherwise, this is a huge waste of time and money, since time IS money.

I have kids, itll be easier to start from scratch and build a locost with them or something when they can start helping. Right now I'm leaning towards just letting it go.

I don't think it'll be easy either way, but a locost will give more satisfaction, I bet.