What's it worth?

[flyingllama]

Hi everyone,

I have my 1987 G Limited SC AW11 (Targa Top) insured with AA for $5k, and I'm currently in the process of restoring it to as close to showroom as I can manage (fixing a few dings, all new paint, fixing interior and exterior trim, etc), and I'm now looking into getting it's agreed value increased - which is proving difficult. According to their "all knowing" book of car values an AW11 is only worth 2-3k, and according to their out of date salesman a Supercharged AW11 only sells for 2k on TradeMe (I wish I bought mine that cheap and in this condition).

I have a few questions for you all:
1) Am I just dreaming when I think that an AW11 in an excellent condition should be worth 8-9k? As this is essentially what I'm aiming for.

2) Do we have anyone in the club who is able to give accurate car valuations? I ask because AA have said the only way they'll increase the agreed value is if I give them some sort of proof.

3) Failing the above, does anyone recommend another insurance company who properly understands the value of modern-classic cars?

I'd also just add that I have no intention of selling this AW11 (this is my childhood dream coming true in my adult years), I want to get the correct valuation for this car so that if someone else writes it off I might be able to purchase another AW11 in similar condition.


Thanks so much for your time!

Chris

[Alsw20]

Move it to classic cover. Limited mileage but they will agree on a higher value.

[flyingllama]

Thanks for the reply, I will definitely check them out.

I was also able to get a quote from Vero who (after some debate) agreed to insure it for $7k. However for an extra $2k of cover, it was going to cost me an extra $750 a year over what I'm paying at AA. However it is possible that this is just their general rates for 25 year olds, so it will be interesting to see if at the end of December their quote for me changes.

[GDII]

This is no help with insurance but I don't think the TOMS wheels were a factory option. You could ask Toyota directly or I can ask for you but I'm pretty sure they weren't.

[flyingllama]

This is no help with insurance but I don't think the TOMS wheels were a factory option. You could ask Toyota directly or I can ask for you but I'm pretty sure they weren't.

Yea I've been looking into it a bit more since the original post, and I think you're right. They were most likely purchased afterwards. A bit of a shame, but oh well.

[CJ]

my insurance company (ami) eventually decided that my car was too attention seeking for them to cover. They have a sister company, CLIC, which deals with AMI customers with modified or classic/rare cars. They asked me to simply get two appraisals from car dealers. I could then take this as a base number, then had to tell them everything i had done/spent/changed on the car. We then came up with a number i wanted it insured for and they told me the yearly cost. If i wanted to i could reduce/increase this to get a premium that i was happy with. If i stayed with AMI they would only insure my car based on the average value of replacing the car to a similar year base model.

[Alsw20]

I got a quote from Classic Cover for my NZ assembled '85 Corolla GT. $6k cover was $212 per year, $100 excess, Limited to 5000km a year.

[mickeyduck]

*** EDIT: I started this thread because of an email from Chris aka flyingllama but I only spotted his earlier thread some days later, so I have moved his posts to here hence they now appear above. This is a topic we really do need to work on folks cos it can either pay or it can cost us a lot of money... END OF EDIT ***

I'd like to start a thread here to track the value of the MR2.

The idea is, so we get a decent resource of evidence to throw at the likes of insurance companies for "agreed value" purposes, etc.

I'd like it if we could please do the following to help it along:

Post up details of your MR2: Year, NA / SC / turbo etc.
Post up what you paid for it.
Maybe add in what you've spent on it...

If you sold your MR2, post up what you got for it.

If you see an MR2 for sale on Trademe, screen shot the listing and post it here. With a link to it too maybe? Even if they close, they still serve as a reference...

NB: to post a picture, use the "upload attachment" thing below, then "place inline". It's not exactly difficult...

I'll get the ball rolling with a few Trademe things to start with.

Here's "Gizmo" the car that started this club, up for sale recently. This AW did sell for about $9,000

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing ... =549591877" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Picture 11.png (270.28 KiB) Viewed 8528 times

Here's a few other AW's:

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing ... =544183553" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Picture 12.png (243.24 KiB) Viewed 8528 times

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing ... =548614959" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Picture 13.png (285.88 KiB) Viewed 8528 times

[ClanFever]

Well I've seen 3 different mr2s in Wellington, one was de-reg with a crappy motor, one had a very nice TICK TICK TICK which deafened you as you drove it, and another one which had no engine, and they all went for about $1200. I got mine with it's reg and good everything for $750, reason I got mine so cheap as the guy I got it off had just got a GT and stole a few parts off mine then sold it. Good for me as mine's a track hack anyway and the stuff that didn't exist was coming off anyway. I had to spend about $1500 getting a new clutch and wof so $2250 for a road legal and driveable mr2 for me. That's for a 91 sw20 in fairly stock form, 210,000km. I know of one girl who's selling her manual 1990 mr2, 200,000km (I think) with new cambelt, for $2000, but it's got some sort of electrical problem which drains the battery over night regardless if the battery is 5 years old or 24 hours old. So I'd say for an early model none turbo sw20 you're looking at 1000-2000 for a worse example, and 3000-4000 for a better one.

[Benckj]

The problem with a thread like this is that it becomes out of date very quickly. The market conditions change just as much as the cars themselves. If you wanted to have a decent usable list then create a table which lists car model, details, sold price and year (month) sold. After you have enough data you could trend the information to evaluate current new worth.

[Logan]

Not to mention the "value" of cars changes in different areas of the country.

[mickeyduck]

I see recently AW's that 5 years ago would sell for $4,000 today can sell for twice that. Yet my insurer is happy to tell me they'll pay out $1,000 cos the car's old even though I paid $4,500 for it and have been paying premiums to match.

Any info we can gather regards the value of our cars may help us secure better value from our insurers, is all.

If everyone thinks this is a waste of time I'll delete the thread but I figured maybe it was worth a shot...

[simonaszakra]

i think it is vital that we make insurance companies realize that these cars are worth more than your average 80's carolla.

an easy answer is insure it as a classic car with swann insurance. they ask you what agreed value you would like to put on the car.
my 88 20v blacktop ins insured with them for an agreed value of $6000. i pay $280 per year for full cover including ,glass,road side and track/race insurance.

the only catch is that you can only drive it about twice a week (classic car)

my solution to this is buy 3 AW11's and just rotate which one you drive. all up it is actually cheaper for me to do this than get full cover on one car



estimated value 3k ish

manual, bluetop, sunroof, 210k, Tom's C3R rims



88 20v blacktop, manual, trd shocks and springs,

bought for 3k could probs sell for 4k

[mickeyduck]

That's the spirit Simon!

And frankly I'd think your AW's are worth more than that. Depending on condition of things by maybe up to a couple of grand? It's just a case of having a little patience if selling because things are moving slowly due to the GFC. But I've seen a few AW's here sell for $7,000 plus over the last year. Not that there's many AW's here full stop... Just takes a little longer to sell them than you might like, is all. But it's that way for anything now eh.

I will enquire re your insurer. Though I'm down to one drivable AW now which is a big problem as it's therefore become my daily...

One newly joined member put the question to me about can the club help get better agreed value insurance for his restoration project AW, which is why I posted this thread. And I can see where he's coming from...

So thanks for the input mate. Good helpful stuff.

[Joel]

I was surprised to see Gizmo up for sale again so soon.
AW prices are definitely on the rise and good examples are becoming rarer and rarer.
There seems to be a pretty big gap between what people are asking and what people are prepared to pay as always though.

Here is my brief MR2 history:


AW11 Supercharger Auto
25,000km
$10,000 (in about 1994ish)


AW11 NA
130,000km
$3,300 (2004)
Sold to club member Paul (Baldockboy) for $3,300 (2007)


MR-S Manual
150,000km
$7,000 (2010)
Sold for $7,500