A luxury car could get totaled in a low-speed crash due to 1 expensive factor
Car insurance. Nobody wants to pay for it. But all drivers should. Still, having comprehensive car insurance coverage is far from a guarantee that your beloved ride will get repaired after a crash. No, even a small wreck might be enough to turn your luxury car into a totaled write-off. Especially if it has an all-aluminum body.
An aluminum body could be the difference between a luxury car getting a repair or becoming a write-off
Some luxury sports cars, like the Porsche 911, are nearly depreciation-proof. They defy the industry norms of shrugging off nearly 50% of their original value in the first five years of ownership. Others, however, lose lots of value until they’re practically affordable. And that’s good news for budget-minded luxury car fans. That is, before a crash.
Take the Jaguar F-TYPE, for example. A base-model 2014 Jaguar F-TYPE with a convertible top has a KBB value of around $19,101. A price point like that makes an 11-year-old F-TYPE a tempting prospect for sports car fans seeking a thoroughly depreciated performance bargain.
But it also makes the F-TYPE and its expansive, solid aluminum panels susceptible to becoming an insurance write-off. It’s not just the F-TYPE, either. Popular cars like the Mercedes-Benz SL, Jaguar XJ, and Aston Martin DB9 made use of the lightweight metal.
Granted, the aluminum body panels are attractive and weight-saving. However, the raw materials are quite expensive. Quite a bit more expensive than your typical plastic, steel, or fiberglass paneling. Make no mention of the cost of manufacture. After all, aluminum doesn’t shape itself into a big, wide, single-piece quarter panel.
As a result, even a slow-speed crash can rack up huge repair costs. And those costs can quickly overshadow the depreciated value of a luxury car. Should that happen, your insurance provider won’t hesitate to total out your car, even for a crash that doesn’t look so bad at a glance.
Things get even worse with pricier, more advanced materials like carbon fiber. Take the Alfa Romeo 4C. The stunning little roadster can creep below the $40,000 mark, depending on mileage and title status. However, its carbon fiber chassis is obscenely expensive to repair in the event of a crash.
