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For what it's worth my definition of a sleeper is something that's a base model, totally unassuming that you wouldn't give a second look at....

I once photographed a blue Lada for Street Machine in Holland - it was just a blue Lada with white plastic wheel trims. Nothing else, just a blue Lada. Flip the bonnet, it had a built 302 small block....

Same meet, a Mazda 323 - green stock-ish steels, again nothing special - ran 11's with a nitous injected Rover V8....

My recipe is a car I have - stone stock Chevette in pale green. The interior will remain stock, steering wheel stock, everything inside as factory as you can get. No gauges, nothing at all to give the game away.
I also have a 2.0-litre Ecotec to which I'd build to a built VXR spec - aim for BHP in the 350-400-range. Keep the exhaust quiet and fit a Scimitar back axle and keep the wheels as close to the standard steels as possible.

To me, a sleeper does not have alloys, gauges, race seats, cages or anything else that says fast. The sole message is - "This is dead slow; boring even...!"

The whole aim for me is to lull you into a false sense of security - then blow your f"""in doors off!


That's a sleeper!

Hope that helps?

I need one of these pups in my life...bookmarked

[quote author="Aaron" source="/post/2131268/thread" timestamp="144489950

Spoke to the place it's being stored as well but they can't release the truck until the fee's are paid. I wonder if Axa accept that my vehicle would cost say £5k to replace via import, whether that may change their mind on it being written off?

All the advice you've had is spot-on. I thought I'd just wade in as I'm a Chartered Insurance Broker. Some of those textbooks rubbed off on me! ;-)

The principle is called 'Indemnity' - the idea that you should be put back in the same position as you were before the accident.

You'll be surprised at how far you'll get just using that term - a mate rolled his T5 a few years back, got a lowball offer from Direct Line and it was upped by £1k once he phoned back and said his mate who's an Insurance Broker had explained Indemnity to him. ;-)

I was shunted in the rear many moons ago and the Fiesta I had at the time was written off. 'How much did you pay for it?' £1100. 'How much do you think it's worth?' £1900. 'Fair enough'. Because I could prove that was what it would cost for me to go out and buy the same model right away. The fact that I'd bought it cheap at Auction has no bearing.

This is a legal principle so, don't worry about how far you push it, this is what you're entitled to.

I'm not sure you need to worry about a Solicitor. I know insurers get a bad press but, honestly, I think as someone else said, that AXA just haven't the foggiest about its value. I recently had to add a Moggie Convertible to a client's Fleet policy temporarily. I looked around and figured £15k was about right but, sure enough, the Underwriter pointed out that they would only pay out market value. Yes mate, that's the figure I've put in! The mainstream insurers don't really get old cars!

I'm afraid I expect Accident Exchange are just interested in how much they get out of the Credit Hire. Depending on what they've put you in, they're likely billing AXA £65-£150 a day. They're not really going to be too bothered how long this drags on for!

I see reference to Datman's ad. That would be a good example of value if that was fairly recent. Otherwise, as others have said, use the NZ ads as evidence + shipping. That appears to be the only way you could get back into the position you were in before the accident.