End of an era - Q1 Wrecked

[DrewQ45]

[QUOTE=Q451990]More pictures... these were taken today after the fender and bumper were removed.



Heath, I'm so sorry that this happened. A truck backed into me the other day causing minor damage to the hood...I can't imagine how you feel. Dont know what you plan to do. If it helps, think I can get the air intake, bumper reinforcement and even the front support cheap for you. There is also a transmission sitting in the car I speak of but I can't vouch for it. I'm in Atl btw.

On another note... the pic above is visual proof that no after market cold air intake is needed...the Q already has CAI. That horn looking device to the left of the red circle is the mouth of the air intake. This sits BEFORE the radiator and pulls nothing but cold air. Waste of time to fool with it.

...Drew....

[Q451990]

Quick update... I ran the transmission test (turn knob on dash while car in D, turn key on, shift to 3 and floor, shift to two, shift to 1 and floor) but the test never even started. Typically the orange box next to the AT CHECK message will turn on during the test - but in this case nothing. I think the transmission issue is electrical in nature. In any case State Farm is totaling the car so as far as I'm concerned the only issue now is $$. If we get close I'll ask for whatever we're at plus I keep the car. At that point I'll do a very rapid part-out (as in one week from delivery to my garage to hauling off whatever is left). This assumes that no one wants a project Q and would want to buy her as a whole. If any of you have parted out a Q lately, what kind of $$ do you think I should be able to clear? I'm thinking TB, MAF at about $100 each eBay priced.... FPCU, injectors, fuel pump (quiet 50k), possibly remanfactured speaker/amp assemblies (or may keep for future Q2 use) reman. ABS actuator, wheels, ECU?, TCU if not fried, a few other things, and then that's it. I wouldn't really want to get into parting out big things that would require a lift. Drive shaft maybe, but no transmission - etc.

Again, just bouncing ideas... let me know what you guys think!

Heath

[maxnix]

Quality transplants that live on in NICO G50 are a beautiful thing!

[3rd Q]

Heath,

Well, the good thing is you'll still have a Q in your driveway even after this one goes.

On the parts car I bought, I cleared about $700 above what I paid for it for things like MAF, ECU, TCU, window regulators, AC compressor, speakers, various interior trim pieces, plus I transferred maybe $400 of parts to my car. I also ended up pulling plenum, heads, etc. to keep for myself.

I think you are best off to pull the accessible things and be done with it. While I learned a great deal about the car by parting it out, it is way too time intensive a process unless you've got a lot of spare time or don't value your time too highly.

Good luck with the insurance guys!Paul

[Jeff Williams]

Heath, the key to the whole issue is agreed value of the car. Work with teh adjuster on this, to get it up in the $4000 range. Then, get the body shop to give you an estimate that is 75% of the value. Get the insurance to pay the 75% of the value, which they will.

There is nothing fishy about this at all. You are just keeping the car, and the insurance company pays out without any liability down the road. They will probably not cover the car, until you proove the repairs have been done, but as Wes has said, you can get used parts, and a cheap paint job for half of what the current estimate is.

Now, you have the car with a clean title, and the money. It is up to you whether you want to fix it or part it out. You can then get a cheaper repair shop to fix it and then wholesale the car to some young Q enthusiest, for a sweetheart deal.

You have then saved a Q from the wrecking yard, and added to the NICO family, a Win-Win situation!

[texasoil]

The 'truth' of this matter is th eonly way you even come out even is to bill the other guys insurance for lost income, pain and suffering,etc. These ARE real injuries to you--and you are entitled to be made whole by the offending party for those injuries. You can probably get the State Farm adjuster to do right by you and cut a check for 'proper' repair of your car by reminding him that you are not, as yet, seeking monies for your 'injuries' , including loss of billable time. He will quickly agree to settle the claim, knowing he is doing the right thing all around. IF you have to use a lawyer--things get real expensive for them quickly and nobody benefits ecpt the lawyer.

[natsoundup1]

Heath as you know firsthand.... parting out isn't the problem..it's the people who say they want stuff..and then back out...

all said..i think i got between 16-1700 for mine.... parted.

in some cases, i almost gave away the parts....

just lurking today (smile)

Lee

[Q451990]

The 'truth' of this matter is th eonly way you even come out even is to bill the other guys insurance for lost income, pain and suffering,etc. These ARE real injuries to you--and you are entitled to be made whole by the offending party for those injuries. You can probably get the State Farm adjuster to do right by you and cut a check for 'proper' repair of your car by reminding him that you are not, as yet, seeking monies for your 'injuries' , including loss of billable time. He will quickly agree to settle the claim, knowing he is doing the right thing all around. IF you have to use a lawyer--things get real expensive for them quickly and nobody benefits ecpt the lawyer.

I've been keeping a log of every minutes I spent on this... it's getting ugly. Divide gross annual income by 2080 hours. They'll love my rate. Not as high as my CPA or Infiniti Service, but enough to get their attention if it comes to that.

in some cases, i almost gave away the parts....

And I appreciated it

Heath

[breaksr]

Heath, my heart goes out to you. Check out ebay some guy selling parts for a black Q:http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors...QrdZ1

Rob,'91 Q 191,000 (cleaning plenum currently)

[Q451990]

OK... here's the end of the story. I finally finished my negotiations and picked up the check from State Farm on Friday. For everyone out there that has service records and can take the time to negotiate a settlement - there is hope. My final settlement was over $5K with my retaining Q1! I'm not sure how much of it was that I lucked out with the individual adjustors that I was working with at SF - but here's how it all went down.

Their first offer was $3K (NADA average retail) plus a tag and tax allowance. I immediately fired back with about $7700 - which was high retail plus the cost of chain guides, and remanufactured Bose amp assemblies, plus tint, and remote start.

We negotiated back and forth, with them saying my value wasn't reflected in the market. I told them that I was well aware that market value and cost to replace was not the same. However, the car wasn't for sale when the guy hit me... so the value that was applicable was what it would cost to replace the car. I also pulled a TexasOil and threw out that I had been tracking every minute of the time it had taken... and that I wasn't asking for this, but if we couldn't work something out it would be a factor.

I sent the adjustor to NICO for an education on the chain guide issue and it almost backfired on me. They even pointed a 90Q in NICO classifieds that looks good... I can't remember which one (white, about 205K for $2500) that had guides done. But the ad also mentioned that one or more amp needed to be rebuilt, and that the p/s rack might need to be replaced. Amazingly after you add those two items to $2500 plus shipping to SC - we were close to my request again

In any case I think it became a situation of "what will it cost to make him go away"

Now I have Q1 in the garage. It will become a part-out project unless I can sell her as-is to someone with a whole lot more time than me.

Heath
Modified by Q451990 at 12:03 PM 2/6/2006

[Q451990]

We replaced her with a new 05 G35 that had very minor storm damage from hurricane Wilma. We drove to West Palm Beach last Sunday and bought her last Monday afternoon. I think a coconut must have hit her on the nose...

Here's a picture from the auction - I'll post more later when I get a chance to wash her and take some more.



Heath

[HashiriyaS14]

OK... here's the end of the story. I finally finished my negotiations and picked up the check from State Farm on Friday. For everyone out there that has service records and can take the time to negotiate a settlement - there is hope. My final settlement was over $5K with my retaining Q1! I'm not sure how much of it was that I lucked out with the individual adjustors that I was working with at SF - but here's how it all went down.

That's great! Good to hear.

[szh]

We replaced her with a new 05 G35 that had very minor storm damage from hurricane Wilma. We drove to West Palm Beach last Sunday and bought her last Monday afternoon. I think a coconut must have hit her on the nose...

Here's a picture from the auction - I'll post more later when I get a chance to wash her and take some more.



Heath

Very, very nice!!!

But, please make sure it never sat in water . Take off the door panels and if you see any highwater marks inside, you have a disaster looking for a place to happen in the future.

Z

[elwesso]

Congrats heath!!

[Q451990]

Very, very nice!!!

But, please make sure it never sat in water . Take off the door panels and if you see any highwater marks inside, you have a disaster looking for a place to happen in the future.

Z

I checked several things and I don't see any evidence of water damage. From looking at where they were all parked I think they were fine. My understanding is that West Palm (at least as far inland as this dealership is) didn't have flooding... mostly wind damage.

Heath

[louiegz]

I haven't kept up with this thread for a while, but I'm glad that it worked out ok for you, Heath. I was reading what I missed and I found something interesting with the whole wheel spin and transmission failure problem. I've had the same thing happen to me twice in the snow. In fact it happened to me when I went to my weekend home in the Poconos. My house is down a hill on a dirt road and they can't get all the snow off the dirt part of the road. Going back up the hill I normally done have a problem because I have snow tires, but that Sunday it was a little warm and raining and the combination of the two Zambonied the snow into ice and I had a ***** of a time getting up the hill. Half way up I got stuck. I turned off the traction control and started spinning tires. I was at it for about 5 minutes and the rear tires got stuck in a snow pile. I stopped and my wife went to call for help. While she was gone I tried again and I got it out and got up the hill to the paved road. When I got to the main road, I punched the gas and it hardly pulled. It seemed to me like the transmission was in some kind of fail safe mode and was only driving on third. I stopped to get some gas and when I turned on the Q again, the dash LCD said “Transmission Malfunction”. It stayed on for a few seconds and then it said “OK”. When I pulled away, the transmission worked normally. I'm assuming two things, when I restarted the Q the transmission must have reset, and I got out of the snow pile because the transmission was in third. Now it works fine. Maybe you should rethink the whole parting out of the Q1 because there might not be anything wrong with the transmission and get some cheap body work done on it and keep it or sell it whole and let someone else get the body fixed. I hope this helps, Heath.

[Q451990]

I had the car flat-bedded home, recharged the battery, and as far as I can tell the transmission is fine. I have no idea what happened... To my knowledge there was never a "Transmission Malfunction" message on the dash, but I wasn't driving it then. For all I know he had the emergency brake set.

I have her listed in the classified section of the forum. I would really like to sell her as a whole to someone who can fix and drive her... even though I could probably clear more $$ parting it out. During my second drive today I was thinking that it's a real shame to part out a car that runs and drives as well as this one does. The problem is that no matter how I add things up, the best financial option is parting it out...

Heath