Engine gone pop while in Spain! What now?
 

Morning all.

So what an absolute disaster. I don't use the forum so much now, but for those who don't know i currently work in Gibraltar (live in Spain) and took my S2000 (2005 GT) with me, i mean, what better place to have one than somewhere with an average of 320 days sunshine a year and some of the most amazing roads in Europe.

So last weekend, driving along the autovia i hears something hit the car and then the sound of something chink the exhaust as it passed under, no biggie, bit of road debris maybe? Withing 5 mins, and with no engine temp rise i notice my throttle position relative to my speed didn't match, muted the radio and heard the K&N sucking in more air than it normal would, the kind when under load, then almost immediately the signs where there that it was going to break down, as quickly as i could i whipped it into neutral and rolled onto the hard shoulder where just as i came to a stop the engine made a mixture of bottom end noises that could drive any mechanically minded man to suck through his teeth and then cut out, oil smoke and steam giving me more confirmation of a disaster. Gets out the car, well, something had obviously hit the car, and sods law perfectly through the front scoop, smashed the air con and the radiator. Not good. However i did manage to retrieve the thing that hit it, was like an industrial sized bolt, which i assume fell of something or was flicked up off the road from a vehicle ahead of me.

So the car was recovered by a grua and the next day it was taken to a garage i have anything done on it at. He's basically confirmed it kaput. Insurance doing the usual, inspecting the damage, opening a claim, would need to claim off my own insurance. The engineer who looked at it barely showed an interest and then handed the mechanic a form which authorizes for repairs but the claims team haven't spoken to me yet.

Left in a predicament now, because my plan was to put the car to bed this year as i was going to buy a Focus RS and keep the S as an investment, after every car ive owned is now eye wateringly valuable, such as my 1978 Series X RS2000 i sold for 8k and you cant find one for less than £50k now. Cost of a 2nd hand engine is a fortune, plus labour etc, i imagine they will want to write it off, but hell no do i want them to scrap the car, other than a polish it wants for nothing, the car is mint, but then if was able to have it repaired id lose a ton of no claims and the focus would be a nightmare.

Literally no idea what to do, £600 to put it on a trailer and send it home, which would be a damn site nicer end to the story to let someone have a project than it being killed here.

How does this all work, because ive never had a car written off before, i heard about buy back and alsorts. Really need some advice.

you can write it off and buy it back, probably for not much because without a good motor it's not worth much.

interesting how they would see this claim from a risk perspective. unlucky rather than went sideways into a tree stupido.

putting it back on the road will cost you £3.5k+ (about £500 fitting) as engines are expensive. You have little option but to claim :( (that is what insurance is for) but i imagine your insurers will want no part of this and will, as you say, give you a cheque and tell you to do one. I don't think they could even get a new F20C if they wanted one.

meanwhile this is an ad for zunsport grilles.. bugger..

Yeah i have a feeling they'll just go here's a cheque, now crushy crushy. But how does this whole buying it back work, they say offer me for arguments sake £6k, and if i want the car back they say give us £2k. But then its all still battered by NCB right?

I've seen a few engines knocking around here and facebook etc on various groups, even a tasty forged engine. But, as an investment, given the sheer number of episodes of Chasing Classic Cars and Fast & Loud ive watched, a non numbers matching car would be worth bugger all down the line.

you can update the numbers with the dvla surely? i dont think we are talking Ferrari f355 here are we? or 7k miles from new? saw a restored rally escort asking £65k at a show this weekend, didnt even have an escort engine (bonus imo).

buyback would be very cheap i reckon, prob sub £1k

your insurance may not be as bad as you imagine. fingers crossed mate.

You mean like my old one below. I guess i'll wait to hear what the insurance say, part of me thinks given the nature of how stupid things are out here to get done, and costly, i would sooner tell them to just forget it and someone from the UK take the car off me for cheap and have a great project.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.s2k...be29410af4.jpg
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.s2k...0be12db8b5.jpg

haha mk1 but yes similar. not an f20c though

Worth also bearing in mind that if you buy it back following a write off scenario, it will still be classified as a (presumably CAT D) write off. Thats not a problem in itself, but it will possibly affect residual value and might also affect insurance. Some insurance companies it makes no difference, but for some it will carry a premium, and some wont touch it.

Unfortunate.

Generally speaking, if the repair is around 50% of value, it's a write-off. Could you find someone to 'repair' it for less than that and keep it until you're ready to do the job properly, if you intended to keep it anyway?

Had completely forgot about that. Ah boll*cks.

@Nick Graves at the time of thinking of putting it away in the garage over here it was in its current state, only just popped over 100k, all fine, and maybe take the cover off in 5 or 10 years time. Keep it longer/put it on the road or see it as an investment, but that option seems less of an investment or collector piece now.

Nice weapon.