For Sale Potential good buy for somebody - 2007 w/ 116K miles needs body work

Location

United States

My wife wrecked my LC and I took a settlement from the insurance company, but the truck is now for sale. I get nothing from anyone buying this - I've already been bought out and have no connection to the sale - but I hate seeing it go to waste. Here is a link to the auction at IAAI. The IAA stock number is 27552815:

Used Toyota Land Cruiser for Sale & Salvage Auction Online - IAA

Used Toyota Land Cruiser for sale & salvage auction online or at a location near me. Find great deals on thousands of Toyota Land Cruiser for auction in US & Internationally.

www.iaai.com

Details on the car: It's a 2007 with 116K miles that was in great condition. I completed the nav system conversion just a couple months before the crash, so this has a fully modern stereo with Apple CarPlay and the google equivalent, plus a new amplifier, all new speakers, etc. I'm the second owner. I bought the car in Seattle in 2010 and shipped it to Phoenix where it has been since. There is no rust at all. The combination of the low miles, no rust, good condition (before the wreck of course), and the nav conversion work make this a very unique car for somebody.

The wreck and aftermath: This was a 3 car accident so both the front and rear bumpers were damaged as well as the hood and both front quarter panels. There was no structural damage to the frame, suspension, engine, etc., but there was some damage to the radiator, radiator fan and clutch, and some nearby parts. Later tonight I'll try and post a full report from the body shop.

This went back and forth between me, the body shop, and the insurance company multiple times about whether it was going to be repaired or totaled. Long story short, the body shop screwed up and started doing repairs even though nobody ever gave them permission as I was still negotiating with the insurance company for payout amounts. The end result was I got paid to walk away and the insurance company paid the body shop for whatever work they already completed. I do not know what they did, but from the photos it's possible they had already sourced some parts (can't tell).

The body shop was 100% convinced the repairs were easy and would result in a fully reliable car, in fact probably better than it was before since the expensive damage was just cosmetic but they were replacing some of the cooling system stuff with new. The home run for this car would be to ditch the cost of repairing the OEM bumpers and go straight to aftermarket stuff anyway.

I can testify to the condition of the car before the wreck, but I don't know what happened once the body shop and salvage yard got hold of it. Since I don't own an LC any longer, I am unlikely to check this board often, but I'll try to log on occasionally and answer questions if anyone wants to pick up this car. Again - I have no affiliation with this car any longer and just wanted to let LC enthusiasts know about an opportunity to pick up a low mileage truck that needs some work AND that already had the nav system converted to a modern system.

 

[kgrove]

Attached is the breakdown from the bodyshop of what they told the insurance company it would cost to restore the car. I felt like it was padded and you could certainly shave a good chunk of the $14K in repairs by doing a better job sourcing parts or skipping some of the stuff for aftermarket parts like ARB bumpers or something. I tried to upload another report that had detailed photos of each of the damaged areas and parts, but it was over 17MB and exceeded the allowable attachment size. If anyone knows how to post larger attachments, let me know and I'll try to post it.

 

[JunkCrzr89]

Thanks for sharing. I actually might try to scoop this up, fix it, and keep it. Couple of big ticket items on the repair list, though (rad support, air box, hood, etc). Did the airbags deploy?

 

[kgrove]

Attached is the dash of this car after the nav conversion project and a big part of what would make this truck a unique buy for somebody. Most of you probably don't follow the nav conversion thread, but here's a quick summary: This conversion stripped out the nav system and touch screen and replaced those with dedicated HVAC controls and a new trip computer, thus allowing a modern touch screen stereo, in this case an Alpine ilx-w650, rather than a cassette deck. A couple of the parts required to do this nav conversion are now close to impossible to find, so my former LC may be one of the last ones to get the conversion. While doing this conversion, I also replaced all speakers and added a new amplifier, so the sound system is very good in a classy adult kind of way... not a booming system to show off to the other kids. I had pre-wired it to replace the backup camera, but my wife wrecked the car before I got to it. The RCA video input is waiting under the passenger seat, so to restore the backup camera function you'd either have to buy a new camera and wire that to the back gate or you'd have to take the OEM camera and do the voltage conversion to make it work.

In the photo you'll see a USB cable coming past the gear shift lever to where I mounted the USB plug that connects a phone directly to the stereo for better integration as well as charging. The piece by the seat heater switches is just a suction cup mounted magnetic phone holder.

 

[kgrove]

Thanks for sharing. I actually might try to scoop this up, fix it, and keep it. Couple of big ticket items on the repair list, though (rad support, air box, etc). Did the airbags deploy?

The airbags did not deploy and all the glass was intact. I was not there for the accident, but I get the impression everything on the inside was fully functional until the fire department disconnected the battery since the radiator was spilling water. Once the body shop and salvage yard got hold of it... who knows.

 

[kgrove]

BTW - I should add to pre-empt questions of concern since I've had a few... Nobody was hurt in the accident. It was a 3 car gang bang on the freeway, but none of the 5-6 people between the 3 cars had as much as a scratch. This LC - my former car, driven at the time by my wife - was the cream in the Oreo (I thought it wise to switch metaphors to stay appropriate) and took some damage to both bumpers. The first impact was the front bumper and the damage was pretty small at the time. About 10 seconds later, a driver hit from the rear and since the front panels had already bent slightly, the rear impact ended up damaging the front more than the rear... kind of like how a can with a dent in it crumples easily where an intact can can bear some weight.

 

[jerryb]

looks like they got both front quarters, and the rear hatch parts installed or sitting in the pics, tape on the rear from the primer spray.
new oil cooler you see looks freshly black, the washer bottle looks brand new white. I wonder if they started it at all after doing the fan, clutch and all the metal pieces, it would seem they did get it far enough to at least start it. It will be really lame if they are no fobs, the guts part of it mean, at least there's a key.
just thinking, if it's a plus 20k car vin matching no carfax ding, maybe it's a 12-15k car with all that in AS REPAIRED condition?
as it sits, maybe 8-9k car needing respray, hood and whatever lights, do-dad trim, mirror and whatever little things, AHC and AC work/repair? techstream key coding or reflash fresh.
The center assembly is worth Xk all day and will never be worth less, that's just my guess. Since the virus thing not one single person has emailed me about non nav.
I think a normal person would need 5k to make it derivable and pay someone else to paint. Might take one of us 1-3k, me at least and have someone else paint it.
so I think you wouldn't want to be into it for more than 13?? after all fixes, so maybe 7-8k auction buy.

I'd pay ten for it, thinking I'd want to keep a 100k mile 2007 non nav for more than 7 years at 15k miles a year puts it at 217k miles and still probably worth >10k in 2027
just my opinion.

 

[FxFormat]

Man that damage doesn't look bad at all, i'd scoop that up in a heartbeat for anything under 10. OP, what was the buy back price for the vehicle, did the insurance gave you that option? Too bad it's so far or else i'd scoop that up, there are tons of rigs around me for 2-3K with high mileage and issues, i can buy and just cannibalize stuff over.

 

[jerryb]

I read that repair order, sheesh, stock toyota parts cost less than the parts they're using. Lights for 250 lol. \
right off the bat I could install every single one of those parts for free and buy them all for less than their buy price.
that sucks!

 

[JunkCrzr89]

I read that repair order, sheesh, stock toyota parts cost less than the parts they're using. Lights for 250 lol. \
right off the bat I could install every single one of those parts for free and buy them all for less than their buy price.
that sucks!

I thought the same thing when I read it.

 

[OilHammer]

Looks like a typical body shop scam to me. (Just my uneducated opinion). Take apart the car quickly to "assess" the full damage. Use the insurance book for FULL VALUE on any part that isn't 100% intact. They do this in hopes of driving the price up and being paid for their "work" to date. They probably had it looking like that in 1 hr or less. If they got the job- Buy used parts wherever possible, do crappy paint prep, and return/sell for massive profit. I don't care that they need to make money, but I have yet to see a respray hold up anywhere near as well as a factory paint. Me? I'd buy that, after market bumps front rear, sliders, put a new hood on, spray it myself, then put a wrap on it. Done. It has lots of life left and 200's are too fat to really wheel.

 

[kgrove]

Man that damage doesn't look bad at all, i'd scoop that up in a heartbeat for anything under 10. OP, what was the buy back price for the vehicle, did the insurance gave you that option? Too bad it's so far or else i'd scoop that up, there are tons of rigs around me for 2-3K with high mileage and issues, i can buy and just cannibalize stuff over.

I asked for a buy-back price several times but never received it. Long story below - don't read if you don't need to... read it if you want ideas for how to beat up an insurance company.

It was a real mess dealing with the insurance company. At first they estimated the repairs at about $8K, so it was going to be repaired, not totaled, and was sent to the body shop. The body shop tore the car apart to start repair and found more stuff (big surprise) that brought the repair cost to $14K, and about the same time the salvage yard surprised the insurance company and bid I think $7500 (or thereabouts) of the carcass, so now the insurance company decides it's cheaper for them to total the car and buy me off for about 21K. I scream bloody murder about the 21K being too low because they judged my car to be "good", but the LCs in their comparisons to be "excellent", so I looked at their comps. Of the three used for the 21K valuation, 2 had been in wrecks (mine hadn't) and the 3rd they reported was for sale for a lower price than it actually was on a dealers website, plus according to carfax had miraculously changed colors half way through it's ownership. They also presented 3 additional LCs, not used in the calculation but for corroberating support, and of those three 1 had a rusty underbody, 1 had been in a wreck, and 1 had a vin that could not be located.

Faced with all that, the insurance company boosted their valuation to 23K, so reversed course yet again and declared the truck repairable. I said "not so fast... what about diminished value? You're going to repair my truck and leave me with a car that is probably worth at least $5K less and then throw me out to fight with 4 different insurance companies involved in the wreck to figure out who is going to pay me for diminished value". The body shop apparently looked in the system ands started doing repairs, though nobody authorized them to do so. After a bunch of back and forth, I convinced the insurance company my LC was worth $27K, in part because of the nav conversion, so with that it made more sense to take the settlement and I never asked for a buy-out price. I think in the end the insurance company probably settled on the higher number not so much because they agreed but because I built a good enough case that they could pass that cost along to the at-fault driver's insurance company. Grossed up for sales tax but less my deductible, I ended up getting about $28.4K for my truck, which at first sounds really high, but in context is probably reasonable. It's nearly impossible to find an LC with mileage that low and that has been in dry climates where there is no rust or accident history, as the insurance company found out when locating comps. Once you add the rarity of the nav conversion and this thing was a unicorn. It still will be a unicorn for somebody, although a unicorn with a tarnished carfax report. I thought about buying it from the salvage yard myself, but I'd be worried about the apparent conflict of interest raising suspicions.

 

[FxFormat]

Wow good to know, and glad you fought them to get what you really deserve out of the price. Insurance companies are crooks, they take money from you each month and when it comes time to pay, they try to lowball you over it, and after that, raise your rates. That wreck is not bad at all, looks like a fender bender to me, so for you to buy it back is out of the question right now right? If you can scoop that up for cheap, someone on mud will happily pay you more for it if you don't decide to keep it yourself. Just don't want some scumbag at a mom and pop shop to buy it, cover up with bare minimum repair and sell for 20 or something. Keep this in the community

 

[kgrove]

I've thought about buying it since I know it's history, but I'm concerned the insurance company could think that's tantamount to insurance fraud - from their eyes, I argue for a high payout, sew confusion between them and the body shop, then swoop in after the fact and buy the carcass for resale. I'd have both the full payout from the full retail value of the car AND profit from the resale of the wreck. It probably would be fine since they are independent decisions that they agreed to, but makes me uncomfortable personally benefiting from the resale after they already fairly compensated me to walk away.

 

[VegasLX470]

when is it set to be sold? looks like although no frame damage or airbags deployed it will be a branded " SALVAGED " title

 

[SORANOV]

Boy that's on my watch list! don't bid me up lol
BTW everything is fixable except the hood, its a two day job at the most

 

[kgrove]

Last I checked they had not set an auction date. I don't know enough about AZ salvage titles. I know had I taken the repair option, it would not have shown as salvaged, though a history report would still show an accident. It doesn't make sense that I could have repaired it and had a clean title, but somebody else could not buy it and do the same repairs, so maybe there's a way to change the status based on the degree of damage? Clearly as salvaged titles go, this one would be pretty damn clean, maybe not for resale purposes, but definitely for a long-term owner.

I know a buddy of mine is going down to the salvage yard to inspect the car and see what the body shop did and what parts are already on hand or installed. I know he's interested. I'll post if I hear anything useful back from him.

 

[kgrove]

It looks like the auction is scheduled for Tuesday May 12th. I don't have any additional information yet about what happened at the body shop between the wreck and sending it to the auction house. Clearly it still needs a hood, paint, and re-assembly of the body panels and bumpers shown in the photos, but I don't know how many of the non-cosmetic repairs have already been done and how many still remain.

 

[dirtfinder]

is it just me or does it look like they've already been taking parts off? door handle and trim, panels, tailgate and lights those don't just fall off.

 

[SORANOV]

is it just me or does it look like they've already been taking parts off? door handle and trim, panels, tailgate and lights those don't just fall off.

Body shops do that but many of them are kind enough to pack everything and leave them inside the vehicle. I've seen bad ones too