176 replies to this topic

[Mangham54]

You see we all made assumptions on the extent of the damage.... Wrongly or Rightly. Just lets hope for Tom that this does not have to turn into deceased VX220. And for the rest of us lets just hope for the same thing. After all the squabbling on here recently can we refocus on what matters and simply help a fellow owner.

[Baron Von Scubadaddy]

Very similar to damage I got when some one reversed into my front end what happens is the light cluster gets pushed into the void behind it and rips it's self off the car in doing so takes the piece of the clam it's fixed to with it . best thing to do would be to get a clam that has opposing damage and cut off the bit you need and then stick it on your clam The bracket could be very simple to make in fibre glass but I know nothing of how to do this so can't comment. I had mine replaced and repaired but ..... I wanted a new front clam ! I was getting red stone chips also I drove around in a europa for a while and an slk But mine is my daily drive to insurace claim was the only way to go after all we do all pay for it . Yeah go on say "yeah but you having a europa effects our insurance cost" Bollocks insurance goes up anyway we have no way of controlling that I whilst we are paying for it we should get the best on offer !

Edited by Baron Von Scubadaddy, 08 December 2009 - 11:32 PM.

[NickB787]

Front clam + headlight =nearly 2.5K plus labour

[Mangham54]

Feeling the VX love tonight boys and girls


this is what this place is about
not being a *****

So is this the correct place to thank the person in question for hosting the enlarged pic on FB so we can clearly see the number plate?

I see a X coming on there...

Image edited... So unless anyone has downloaded and distributed it no harm done.

[Yellow_or_black?]

You see we all made assumptions on the extent of the damage....

Not all - some of us said: don't jump to conclusions when you don't have the facts; and then got sighed at

All we had was the OP's description; I was going to ask if he had photos - but I assumed he'd have posted them if he had

[TOMVX220]

Front clam + headlight =nearly 2.5K plus labour

I thought a new front clam was more like £3000?

Say for example the value of my car is £8000, would they write it off if the repair was 2.5k plus labour?

[TOMVX220]

Feeling the VX love tonight boys and girls


this is what this place is about
not being a *****

So is this the correct place to thank the person in question for hosting the enlarged pic on FB so we can clearly see the number plate?

I see a X coming on there...

Image edited... So unless anyone has downloaded and distributed it no harm done.

Thanks for your help Mate, i'll let you know what they say, hopefully i'll hear something tomorrow

[Crazyfrog (Fab)]

Front clam + headlight =nearly 2.5K plus labour

second hand clam £600+ebaylight £200 or less
do it yourself job=£0 labour +spray £280.00 =£1080
sale of the clam on ebay second hand £500 plus broken light
total cost £600

[VIX]

Just to say sorry to see this. Glad you are ok. You absolutely have to get the car checked by a VX220 or Lotus specialist and take it from there. It is pointless people second guessing the damage on the basis of a photograph - especially to the crash structure and suspension mounting points. Good luck.

Edited by VIX, 08 December 2009 - 11:40 PM.

[TOMVX220]

Question....... if the worst happens and they say they wont repair it, could I turn round and say, give me the car back and i'll sort it myself, involving no claims etc..... Is that a possibility?

[jules_s]

Image edited... So unless anyone has downloaded and distributed it no harm done.

Noted. and seen.

FWIW that wasn't a dig at you....but sooner or later somebody was going to post the reg plate in this thread for posterity....

[Tail-end Charlie]

Threads like this one keep me in line. I don't often get it wrong with the driving of cars, but if you get it wrong with that Turbo then the car will let you know... Otherwise lets remember it's still a relatively heavy piece of kit sitting on four little patches of rubber pressing onto the ground. You'd think it was going to spontaneously take off the way some people talk. Having said that I don't envy those whose cars who are modded up to the eyeballs right now. It's hard enough to keep disciplined with 200horses never mind about 220, 250 or even more!!

Edited by Tail-end Charlie, 09 December 2009 - 12:31 AM.

[Yellow_or_black?]

I actually thought the Walshy Day would be teaching me how to correct a stepping out of the back-end/spin So a skid pan day would do that?

The aim of the Walshy Day is very much road-related - he did explain in some circumstances what relevance tasks you do would have to a real-life scenario (although I would have liked some more of that - to be able to understand why I was doing each task, when I would use what I learnt, and why)

[Kieran B]

Spun doing no more than 30 mph going down a motorway slip road

Are these kind of spins in the wet, not something that could affect any high powered / RWD car ?
As people posting on here sometimes give the impression that the Vx220 is the only type of car that this could happen to

100% correct.

Not obviously commenting on this or any other individual incident but I think theres a combination of factors that gives us our annual "culling season"

Light car gives low grip in poor conditions
Short wheelbase and sharp setup VX lends itself to swapping ends quite easily
VX's dont quite have as much steering lock as I've known some cars making a slide that tiny bit harder to deal with.
Can quite often be peoples first experience of RWD cars
The big one of course is no traction control/ESP to keep you on the black stuff

Same is true of a lot of other cars of course. S2000 forums will probably get busy this time of year as a lot of earlier s2ks didnt have TC. We have a roundabout near work that claims S2K's every winter without fail.

I don't go in for the Diesel on road thing TBH. I've never seen anything like that in 12 years of driving.

I didnt see the diesel to be honest, but the crash did happen whilst leaving the petrol station at the motorway service station. I was just going off what the AA guy said, he did say that an elderly lady had crashed in the same place last week too. I have a BMW 130i so its not my only RWD car but agreed, traction control makes a big difference.

Not 100% sure if this is true or not, but I heard If some one has crashed due to a fault on the road (diesel, oil etc) and the highway patrol / counsel hasn’t cleared the cause of it after its been reported, they are liable if some one crashes again.. not sure how the law works.. but may be worth looking in to ?

[2.2 NA]

its still a relatively heavy piece of kit sitting on four little patches of rubber pressing onto the ground. You'd think it was going to spontaneously take off the way some people talk.

I'm glad someone said that!

[rik]

Same is true of a lot of other cars of course. S2000 forums will probably get busy this time of year as a lot of earlier s2ks didnt have TC. We have a roundabout near work that claims S2K's every winter without fail.

seen this happen to a s2000 on a roundabout near me too... it's not just vx220s

You have my sympathies with your accident, the very same thing could have happened to me within a few months of getting my car in 2006. Luckily it only fishtailed a bit and never actually spun. I can guarentee I wasnt doing over 30 but it's not really the speed that matters, I have since learned that a balanced throttle pedal is a great thing when cornering; even if I'm doing no speed at all I always balance it, and definately don't accelerate mid corner unless you are ready to instantly correct what will happen i.e. on your way to work take it easy, on a track have a go at it

And I have hit diesel entering a roundabout too, it's not nice and you know when youve hit it as it's like ice.. it's not just a myth.. luckily it was in 2mph traffic

I would put it down to learning experience and be glad as it could always be worse

[nige]

Really sorry to hear about your accident tom. if theres anything i can do don't hesitate to get in touch and I'll do my best to help. Been there myself so know how you feel. Nige

[Mangham54]

Jules, Thank you for clearing the air, I had taken it as a bit of a jibe, so apologies for reacting to your post. I was just thinking that I was trying to help Tom by posting up the pic after he had asked if I could remind him how to do it and that you were sounding off. I had also smudged the pic on Photobucket, but hadn't saved it properly. As to YorB, I correct myself, not all of us had made assumptions, but some had just based on Tom's initial account and to VIX you are quite correct, the picture does not give any robust clues to the non-visible damage, but when blending Tom's account with the picture it does sound more positive. Let's all just hope that this isn't another write-off. But whatever the outcome the biggest positive is that Tom is Ok. Knowing the peice of road that it happened on, thank goodness it wasn't a little further down the sliproad as entering the main cariage way sideways just there would be daisies for sure!

Edited by Mangham54, 09 December 2009 - 07:40 AM.

[Nev]

Oh dear. It IS hard to drive these cars in the wet, especially the turbocharged cars. Yesterday, I had a huge wheelspin myself at about 50 MPH when I accidentally caught some boost off the turbo. Thankfully I was pointing in a straight line and the car behaved itself. I live in fear of the shame of announcing my own crash on here one day! Maybe you can buy the car back off the insurance company and fix it up yourself?

[styles]

I had the following done in august after a 4x4 thought it would be a great idea to drive through me at a set of lights - front clam repair and spray new head light 2 new front alloys 1 new tyre new n/s front wheel assembly. This included wishbone, hub carrier, abs unit and some other stuff. Total bill was over £6k. The insurance repaired it. I did have a hell of a lot of trouble but I just kept on them. Don't write your car off until you know.