Anyone who has waited on a repair estimate after a crash knows the knot in the stomach that comes with it. Now imagine that estimate is for a Lamborghini Aventador SVJ. The owner behind @tomi-auto faced exactly that after a crash wrecked his.
He says he bought the car in 2021 for £330,000 with zero miles on it. According to him, he was sitting in it when an Audi R8 rear-ended him and pushed him into an oncoming Tesla, spinning the SVJ around. Luckily, he walked away. The car did not.
Seeing The Car In Pieces
Eighteen days after the crash, he went to Nemesis Coachworks, a UK shop that inspects and rebuilds crash-damaged supercars. By then, the crew had already taken the SVJ apart.
“Yeah, this is my car in two separate pieces,” he says after seeing it.
Co-owner Tariq walks him through the damage. First, the front frame: it is destroyed, and only a new one will do. The carbon fibre tub looks intact, but it still needs an ultrasound to rule out hidden cracks. Still, the host points out that if the frame had not given way, his body would have taken the force instead.
An Engine That Moved
However, the back of the car is in worse shape. The crash shoved the V12 forward, snapped its mounts and pinched some pipes. Cracks also run through the rear frame and cross-braces, and the suspension sits twisted.
“I can see that the engine isn’t where it’s supposed to be,” he says.
On top of that, he suspects the gearbox moved with it, and he doubts the exhaust will survive. He was already fond of the car’s colour and full carbon options, and he says he had planned to keep it forever and one day give it to his son.
The Parts Bill
Next, Tariq reads through a parts list priced from Lamborghini. He says drive shafts are £14,000, a differential is £20,000, the two front shock absorbers are £33,000 and the steering rack is £12,000. The rear bumper and its carbon parts alone come to about £50,000.
Before the reveal, the host asks several friends to guess. Their answers range from £50,000 to about £400,000. Even so, all of them come in low.
“£610,227 and fifteen pence,” Tariq says.
That figure is parts only, Tariq says. It leaves out labour, paint, the carbon tub, the broken mounts and any gearbox work. With the parts added, Tariq says the rebuilt car would carry a price tag of close to a million pounds.
What To Know About A Write-Off
His situation highlights a few things worth knowing if your own car is ever declared a write-off:
- Get an independent inspection before the insurer decides, so you know the true extent of the damage.
- Learn the write-off categories used where you live, because some mean a car can never return to the road.
- Ask whether you can buy the car back, and what that would cost.
- Price the parts before you commit to a rebuild. Estimates based on gut feeling are often far too low.
- Remember that a repaired car may be worth less than one that never had a crash.
Where The Lamborghini Aventador SVJ Stands Now
For now, though, the decision isn’t his to make. He says the insurer still has to decide which category the car falls into, and the ultrasound results on the tub are still pending.
If the rules allow a rebuild, he says he may look for second-hand parts and work with other rebuilders to bring the cost down. If not, this Lamborghini Aventador SVJ will never drive on the road again.
More from Fast Lane Only
