Again I am going to continue to tell you about cars which are damaged in an accident. This time, it is about cars which have then been repaired and were taken to an auction.
In the issue before the last one, I told you about damaged cars sold on a “as is where is” basis. Do you remember that? I explained to you that there is a market where sometimes fixers or panel beaters buy damaged cars at auction and sell them after a repair either at their places or at auction. How about if we, JPC does this?
Look at the photos at right side. They are of Suzuki Jimny, a SUV-type compact car with a 0.66L engine. They are very popular among youths as well as old people. This one, called “Wild Wind”, is a special model designed similar to a full-scale 4WD; it has water-proof fabric seats, heating system for the front seats and full-flat rear seats to give generous luggage space. This is the car for outdoor lovers.
The first Japanese owner of the car bought it new but had a slip while driving 6 months later, he had a 360 degree counter-clockwise skid, then hit the road side strips and an electric pole and made big dents in the rear hatch-back and in the left side of the body. Unfortunately, the car was not insured, so he had to either pay for the repair cost or sell it as it was.He first contacted the dealer he had bought the car from and was told that it would cost 1,200,000 if they ask a panel beater to fix it. He was very upset because you can buy a whole new car for that price, he then asked a large dealer who buy damaged cars. He was told that they would buy his car as it was for JPY300,000. Not being happy with either of the offers, he finally contacted us.
We put a few different things into consideration: the market price for the same cars in a similar condition, the current condition, cost of the repair, etc. and decided the best choice for the customer: sell it at auction after a repair as an “R” car. We deal with so many cars, we have a good network of people: panel beaters, painters, glass dealers and mechanics. These people are all professional and skilled in their areas. We can give our customers a reasonable price for the repair.
This time, I asked one of the panel beaters for help. Within the budget of JPY220,000 for labour and JPY50,000 for the parts (JPY270,000 in total) for a complete repair, he fixed it perfectly after 2 weeks. This is the photo after the repair.
Because we could not get a second-hand part for the spare tyre cover at the rear, we had to use a new one. If we had found a second-hand part, we could have cut the cost more. Actually, we did find a near-new part in different colour, but a “Wild Wind” has to have its body and the spare tyre cover in the same colour. We thought that having the body & spare tyre cover in a different colour might lower the value of the car, so we ordered a new one in blue. What do you think? Can you believe that it was involved in such a big accident? I think they did a great job.
Of course, there are some who did not provide good service among all those professionals we used and we had to delete their names off our list. So the ones we still use are the ones who we can guarantee your satisfaction in their area of expertise. The panel beater is one of them.
So, it was ready to be taken to auction. How much do you think we sold it for? I will tell you in the next issue.
To be continued…
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(Editor)
JPC TRADE CO.,LTD.
Kato building 4F, 1-1-2 Furuishiba, Koto-ku, Tokyo
Japan Used Motor Vehicle Exporters Association (JUMVEA)
TEL : +81-3-5245-7731
FAX : +81-3-3643-4955
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