New car

[Shada]

Hello new to the forum and just bought our first hybrid.

its a 2015 65 plate with 29k and just won the auction from a salvage company.

it has been damaged at the front but that's not a concern as I think at the price it will cost a lot less repaired than buying a retail one.

having never driven one before I can't wait for it to arrive, hopefully will be here in a week or two and can start repairs over the Christmas holidays.

few questions may follow however my first question is how did your insurance premiums fair from moving from a diesel to hybrid for anyone who has done so?

[Pink]

Hi Shada and welcome to the forum ! 

I changed from a diesel just over a month ago. An 08 530d to a 64 300h. My premium hardly moved, it went up a massive £12 to £360 (Direct Line).   Good luck with your car when it arrives, I’m sure you’ll love it !

[200h]

do you have any photos of the car before any repairs have been done

[Shada]

Thankyou both for the warm welcome and swift replies. Firstly I'm not very tech savvy and don't know how to post photos.

the car was purchased through a friends copart account so not seen it in the flesh yet myself.

im a mechanic by trade so repairs to it will be through my contacts within the trade and will be to my standard therefore won't be concerned about bodge repairs on the cheap!

the car was bought to replace my wife's 12 year old vectra diesel, a car we owned for 5 years and had great service from. if it were mine it would have been on the buisness insurance and I wouldn't have asked about the change.

i personally am a Volvo fan through and through, my wife wanted an Audi (over my dead body) and I fancied an s60 r design, (she said she wasn't old enough to drive a Volvo yet) 

She mentioned she seen a Lexus pass a few times on her commute to work and really liked how it looked and being in the trade I really didn't feel a modern diesel would be a good idea for our use, compermise and here we are😀 (My friend had an is200 and I loved it)

i still have an early s60 and a 2011 v70 Volvo as my own daily driver but they get beat stupid with work towing and taking dogs out, the Lexus il only drive maby once a month but my wife will use it every day.

[Pink]

Good luck with the repairs and yes it would be great to see some before and after pics.

Sounds like a petrol hybrid could be well suited if you think that a modern diesel (with its need for mega motorway miles to stay happy) isn’t really the best idea.

Be interested to know how your wife finds the drive with the cvt after the Vectra (manual?) ... or maybe you’ll decide she’s better off in a Volvo!! 😁

[Shada]

The auto is the only thing putting her off the car, she has only driven one auto before when I needed picked up and an auto merc was the only car with keys at home, she didn't like it as she was braking with her left foot and confused herself!

il do my best to upload picks from the iPad when it arrives.

being in the trade I've seen how cars fold! If i was to be in a head on id prefer to be in the volvo.

she is still in her 20's so fair enough style over comfort and safety it is (just like her shoes) tbh I'm just glad we are not spending stupid money on an over priced over rated un relayable fashion statement of an audi wich every corner you turn another one passes driven by a chav in dept to their eyeballs paying for the thing and thinking they are gods gift!

[LexusIS300h]

Happy new Lexus Shada, a great model choice to. You will love it,  ever get a chance to have a go in it once it’s fixed. I love the auto box on this car, cvt is pretty good. A tip for your wife is for her to sit with her left leg pulled back against the seat, away from the pedals. When there is any action required, such as braking, just use the nearest foot to the pedal. Or tell her to imagine she is only driving with one leg.

My wife will drive nothing other than an auto, to the point I don’t think she could drive a manual any more even if she tried. She absolutely loves our Lexus

[DAN@ADRIAN FLUX]

Hi and welcome.

If you do ever need any help with insurance at all then please fell free to drop me a line.

Regards.

Dan.

[Malc]

On 11/10/2018 at 1:47 AM, Shada said:

being in the trade I've seen how cars fold!

a while ago with my first Ls400 a Nissan Micra behind me didn't stop at the lights when I did, rear end smash for me, well, one corner of the rear bumper a little askew, easily fixed BUT the Nissan was crunched totally back to the steering wheel ..........  flattened 

driver unhurt though and apologetic for not stopping

Malc

[Bluesman]

Welcome to the LOC, good luck with the repairs.

[Shada]

Thanks to all. Really can't wait for the car to arrive. Regretting telling the transport company that I was in no rush.

[C Mclean]

On 11/10/2018 at 1:47 AM, Shada said:

she didn't like it as she was braking with her left foot and confused herself!

Honest John motoring site is passionate about left foot braking. But in my case it’s the worst thing I could do. After driving since the late sixties on motorbikes, crash gearboxes, splitter, range change and even pre select gearboxes, the last thing I do is relearn driving to left foot brake.

[royoftherovers]

1 hour ago, C Mclean said:

Honest John motoring site is passionate about left foot braking. But in my case it’s the worst thing I could do. After driving since the late sixties on motorbikes, crash gearboxes, splitter, range change and even pre select gearboxes, the last thing I do is relearn driving to left foot brake.

The worst thing I could do too!

I tried it once and nearly broke my nose on the windscreen.

 I know HJ has been a passionate advocate of left foot braking, but I could not do it anymore than I could cross a road without looking both ways.

[route66]

On 11/9/2018 at 7:53 PM, Shada said:

Hello new to the forum and just bought our first hybrid.

its a 2015 65 plate with 29k and just won the auction from a salvage company.

it has been damaged at the front but that's not a concern as I think at the price it will cost a lot less repaired than buying a retail one.

having never driven one before I can't wait for it to arrive, hopefully will be here in a week or two and can start repairs over the Christmas holidays.

few questions may follow however my first question is how did your insurance premiums fair from moving from a diesel to hybrid for anyone who has done so?

Hi Shada & Welcome!

I'm guessing this was a cat C or D? I don't think the diesel -> hybrid move is a big deal, however insurers often make a song and dance (& sometimes do so anually!) over "written off" cars. Have you got any quotes yet?

 

[wharfhouse]

2 hours ago, royoftherovers said:

The worst thing I could do too!

I tried it once and nearly broke my nose on the windscreen.

 I know HJ has been a passionate advocate of left foot braking, but I could not do it anymore than I could cross a road without looking both ways.

Funny - I did some karting a few months ago and could left foot brake and modulate quite happily - really enjoyed it - but when I tried it in a road car like you just couldn't stop smoothly... so gave up on it for road cars - also drive wife's and daughter's manual cars from time to time anyway so probably best not doing left foot braking anyway!

[Shada]

11 hours ago, route66 said:

Hi Shada & Welcome!

I'm guessing this was a cat C or D? I don't think the diesel -> hybrid move is a big deal, however insurers often make a song and dance (& sometimes do so anually!) over "written off" cars. Have you got any quotes yet?

 

insurance cats have changed in the last year its now cat n or cat s. cat n non structural or cat s structural. although how they grade them is a joke.

a car well hit can still be cat n and a car with a scrape on the front and rear bumper can be cat s as they class it hit front and rear.

any car with a door boot or bonnet that wont open is automaticly cat s even if its just a stuck latch! the lexus we bought is cat s as the bonnet is stuck.

most cars ive scourced for family have been damaged repaired, the retail value takes such a drop and they are often honest cars so theres a bargain to be had provided they are properly repaired.

ive never known any issue insuring a cat car and the premium isnt affected.  however if they ever get hit again the payout is less just like the retail value.

im not bothered about this as if i have this car finnished for 6 or 7k less than retail and it does get hit again the payout will still cover more than what the car cost us and would allow me to go for yet another salvage.

 

[Shada]

47575048_images (1) (1).zip

47575048_images (1).zip

[wharfhouse]

It will be interesting what it costs to repair that. I hit a lorry tyre on the motorway a year ago on the front nearside and sustained similar damage though not as bad as that (no metal body work damage just the bumper fog light and DRL etc) and the insurance repair cost was £13,000 - just under the write off value. The repair was done at Lexus and was perfect but the car was in the body shop for 8 weeks. Mine did need a new wiring loom in the engine bay as where the fog light was ripped out it damaged the wiring and it is all one harness (fog light isn't on a plug) and so to put it back to factory spec they wouldn't splice anything in - the part harness cost £4,000...

[Shada]

Looking on eBay the headlight and drl are going to be a scary price! Ive kinda guessed around 3k for repair. Though looking at the pictures again I suspect the steering on the front right may have suffered more than origeonaly thought.

[wharfhouse]

1 minute ago, Shada said:

Looking on eBay the headlight and drl are going to be a scary price! Ive kinda guessed around 3k for repair. Though looking at the pictures again I suspect the steering on the front right may have suffered more than origeonaly thought.

The parts list I looked at after my accident ran to 3 pages - from parts of a few pence to the harness at £4k. I didn't have any suspension damage and I think that's what kept it under write off value. The insurance company took a long time deciding and asked Lexus to double check before they sanctioned repairs. 

[wharfhouse]

I found the three images that I took on the side of the motorway of my damage - it was night so a bit difficult to see - but you can see the extent of the damage and similarity. Looks like the pop-up hood activated on yours too which will need new parts too (it didn't on mine fortunately).

 

[Pink]

Thanks Shada, that’s a fair bit of repair work to do ! 

[route66]

10 hours ago, Shada said:

Looking on eBay the headlight and drl are going to be a scary price! Ive kinda guessed around 3k for repair. Though looking at the pictures again I suspect the steering on the front right may have suffered more than origeonaly thought.

Are you willing to say what you paid for it? That will put some perspective to the repair costs ...

When I was looking for an IS300H a little over a year ago, I looked at a few CAT C/D cars but quickly decided against for a number of reasons including:

• Purchase cost
  Average savings of only about £2-3K (but that's on cars already repaired, I've seen damaged IS300Hs sold on eBay for < £5K)
• Repair costs.
  The ones I looked at were already repaired but felt I wouldn't go down that road because I'm not in the trade and don't have a good friend who is a crash-repair specialist.
• Ongoing, annual grief over insurance.
  Don't know about the UK, but many Irish insurers will simply not insure a CAT C/D - now S/N - car and some that do will only do for existing customers and will require an engineers report.
• Resale Value.
  Only not an issue if you are going to hold on to it long enough for this to be irrelevant.

[Shada]

We paid £6719 for the car and probably another 300 transport when it arrives, so hopefully be as new for around 10k.

thats a crazy. Price for a loom, it could be soldered and heat shrinked for a few pennies in materials, just like dealers do on recalls, it's good enough then!

but if the insurance is paying nobody seems to care, Then question the premiums! That looks a lot of damage for a tyre, was your upper grill ok or was that broke too? Any radiator damage?

[200h]

Hi Shada

try this company they always have IS300h for breaking

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2015-Lexus-IS300H-Hybrid-BREAKING-Engine-Gearbox-Door-Lamp-Seat-Bumper-Mirror/273533688495?hash=item3fafe0daaf:g:m4gAAOSwjUxbPgYc