Stat write off SE goes for over 5K today at pickles

[Patrick Bramston]

I thought I might bid on an 04 SE today at Pickles Canberra to get some bits for an NB8A I just bought.. HOLY SMOKES the auctioneer couldn't stop laughing when the bidding just kept going and going..How can a 12 year old smashed up MX5 go for $5500 with charges.If someone here bought they might like to explain why..Surely the running gear if it's good is only worth $3k tops..

[zossy1]

There hasn't been a decent buy in an NA/NB car at the NSW or ACT auctions in over 12 months. There are too many people trying their hand at backyard car breaking nowadays - at least in Sydney there are.

Five years ago, we bought a very lightly damaged NA8 Clubman that was immaculate apart from a very light front hit and had under 100K kms. We paid $1K on the trailer. That same car today would fetch 4-5 times that on recent form. The prices are manic.

And yeah - whoever paid that for that car needs their head examined. Sorry if that someone is a forum member - that's how I feel. Good luck getting that sort of $$ out of that car... The strange thing is, it takes two to bid a car that high so it isn't just the buyer.

[Lokiel]

Just trying to build up the list of parts $$$ to see if it's worth it:

$3000 Running gear
$500 Leather seats (more if they're in excellent condition)
$50 Matching steering wheel $50
$400 SE manifold+turbo
$100 SE downpipe+exhaust
$200 SE from lip
$150 SE bonnet+spoiler
$400 SE 17" Racing Hart boat anchors (some idiot kid will buy them because they think they "look cool")

I think $5000 isn't a bad price to pay, there's still a lot of other bits to part-out (eg. engine, trim, panels)

[zossy1]

The right side wheels were fubar from going sideways over a curb and into a bank. So at best you might get 2 wheels, and anyone who has bought a few cars from the auctions knows you never presume in undamaged wheels anyway as the forklift tines often (30+%) crack the inside of the wheels.

Bonnet and spoiler were both written off, as was the nose and all the right side panels. Chances are, at least one of your right side Bilsteins are gone as well, and possibly a right side brake caliper too - it went in hard at the lower front.

Getting $3K out of the engine, gearbox and diff of a 200,000km SE is theoretically possible, but you would be sitting on the parts for a while. Id say $2.5K is more realistic. Remember the diff is a 3.6 open unit - not worth much.

Lightyear just put up an SE turbo kit minus down pipe for $450. That's cheap, but that's your competition when you're selling parts.

I'm barely seeing $4500 in parts out of this car - maybe a little more you're very patient - but not $5,500. And you still have to pull it apart, and get rid of the residual (and scrap prices are zero ATM too). In short, you're paying to do work.

Not to worry - I haven't bought a car from auction in a long time now because I just don't see the value. Maybe others do, or they are finding $$ I can't get out of a wreck. If so, good luck to them and I'll stop my whinging now.

[Boyracer]

Yeah as stated there were at least 2 crazy people willing to pay that much for it, sometimes there are people will pay more just cause they want it....

[Patrick Bramston]

the bidding was ballistic.. Hard to tell but it like more than 2 bidders. The crazy thing is the motor and gearbox could be rat sh*t and the body was pretty bad.. I think $1500 would be tops to get any value out of it..

[Boyracer]

Bog stock 8B in any condition will go for over $2k...SE always has quite a big premium over...

[Patrick Bramston]

I just bought a NB8A auto with NSW rego for $3800.. 195K's, legal tyres , nice interior.A few small body marks. How can a stat write off smashed one be worth 2K.

[bruce]

So people are stupid? What's new.

[greenMachine]

I can see one scenario under which paying that sort of price, or at least a price above the "usual", might make some sense.

I am thinking about somebody who might have an NB8B, wants to go the turbo route but the registration rules do not allow him to turbo his car. He goes to an engineer (or the registration authority) and says that he wants to build an SE replica and register it as an MX5 SE, that he proposes to do this by purchasing a wreck and transferring all the SE parts into his car. Assuming he gets a green light, he buys the wreck, transfers the parts, and gets his registration. Having got his registration, well we know what happens then.

If he needs an engineer, because he is "recreating" a factory car the engineer presumably would feel less exposed and perhaps cost less as a result. But the big benefit is, doing something that the rules would otherwise prevent.

Whether this is even possible, I don't know. If it is possible, whether something like this would be cheaper than just buying one in the first place, is another unknown (bearing in mind that this class of purchaser would not be looking for the most pristine and most loved example, and would therefore be happy to settle for a tatty, cheap one). Obviously, the purchaser is not interested in selling his current car, and buying a decent SE.

The suggestions in the posts above about the bidders may be the correct explanation, and is certainly the most likely. However the price does hint at there being more involved than a simple stripping exercise.

[Lokiel]

^
I think timk did something along those lines, it was easier to get RWC for a turboed car if the original engine came with a turbo - he put an SE engine into an NA8A with the factory turbo and, "Having got his registration, well we know what happened then.".

[NitroDann]

Engineering is really not that costly at all.

[Boyracer]

Imagine a NA with a full SE conversion...I'm gonna do that one day...

I still have lots of SE stuff in the shed if anyone needs something...

[zossy1]

I've dríven several SEs. My turbo Clubby was a better car in every respect - every single respect... except in a traffic jam on a 35 degree day, and the long range cruise (the clubby didn't have much sound deadening).

And that was nothing more than a Garrett 2560 BEGi kit and a DIYPNP with a home brew road tune. A really good tune would have solved it's minor heat soak foibles.

Imagine a NA with a full SE conversion...I'm gonna do that one day...

I still have lots of SE stuff in the shed if anyone needs something...

[NitroDann]

The old blokes love the idea of the SE.