Help Needed, car written off today

P

PaulA2

Well-Known Member
It is with a very heavy heart that I must report that I received news today that my car has been declared as a total loss by the insurance company.

WIthout the boring detail it was flood damage caused by driving through water. All was fine till white van drove through the other way creating the mother of waves. Anyway never going near water again! Car ended up at Audi dealer due to "specialist" damage being beyond the approved insurance repairers.

Engine gone, ECU suspect as is the convenience unit plus poss turbo damage.

To say I am gutted is beyond how I feel right now. I very much doubt the insurance will value the car sensibly but we shall see. The other issue I have is that it has the sports red leather, RNSe that I installed and I would like to safeguard these as no other cars (tdi sports) are specced with these in the uk at the moment. I feel the only way is to safeguard these is to take the car plus cash settlement. Firstly what is it worth:

2003 tdi sport 102k with immaculate documented history, working open sky roof, red leather, RNSe with bluetooth, fogs plus usual sport spec. 2 owner car that was v clean for age and miles.

Secondly salvage value if I keep the car as insurance payout

options:

1. I can then either swap engine myself - keep same car but concerns are water ingress in electrics
2. Swap interior dash etc into replacement car then sell complete car for spares - realistic ebay sale values of complete salvageable car?
3. Take the money and run, least hastle but cant stomach to loose the spec!

Mind is all over the place at the moment and need to devise a plan!

Thanks in advance for any pointers.

Paul
 
90PS TDIs are like rocking-horse poo.

You will have a *very* hard time finding one. OTOH, how much are you prepared to put into it?

Do you have the space to take it apart? If it's "only" the engine / turbo + ECU and CCU, you're looking at a couple of grand to fix and maybe a month to take it apart. You'll get some back - gearbox a couple of hundred quid and other parts too, but in this case I'd say "rebuild" if you have the liquid assets to deal with it (no pun intended!).

Bret
 
This is not good news, if it means this much to you & you can afford to be with out it for a while & feel you can carry out all that is needed, I would keep :)

If you look on some of the VW forums, people drag old split screen campers, beetles etc out of all sorts of places & restore them & I've seen some that have been sitting in a field for years with no interior, wheels or engine :)

It is worth doing :)
 
Hi Paul,

Sorry to hear of this disaster.

There are many options available depending on exactly what the damage report suggests.
I would anticipate a settlement value of around 5K based on the year, mileage and the leather. Most of the other options listed are not given any weight by the insurer.

Depending on the estimated cost of repair, and the category of loss, you may be lucky enough to buy-back at around 1-1.5K. If the repair cost is greater than 130% of the Pre-Accident Value the category of loss may be B, and your insurer will not allow you to buy-back.

Hope this helps

Jeff
 
HI Guys

Thanks for the feedback so far! The estimate handed to my insurance company was 5k!! Not surprising it was totalled! Never thought of it being cat b. I really would love to retain interior and dash with rns though as like hens teeth!

Dreaded waiting game now.

Paul
 
So sorry to hear this news. Agree with Chris, push for more than £5k settlement. If you have the time and the will, you can hopefully get it back on the road. As long as you were planning to keep the car it makes no odds that its a write off. The alternative could be a long wait and a bit more money to buy something anywhere near what you had. Sorry once again :(
 
Paul,

One option available is to “replace” parts that the insurer doesn’t wish to credit you for, but you’ll have to work fast.

For example, if your seats are important to you could replace the interior with a less desirable interior (cloth for instance). The car would still have a full interior, so the insurer couldn’t complain, and you’d have your old interior to re-fit in to your next purchase.

This can be done with MOST things on your car, as long as you have something to put in place.

PM me if you need any advice as I’ve recently done something similar

Cheers

Jeff
 
Really sorry to hear about your car. Understand how you feel. When I had my Scirrocco written off years ago i let the insurance keep it and forever regretted it. Always atricky one with electrics, I hit some flood water with my A6 3 years ago setting of a chain of electrical gremlins. Had some warning lights 'repaired' cough....and traded it for my current A2....... wwould it be viable to get a VAg COm fault code check carried out and see whether that gives any clues how far the electrics are affected beyond what you already know?

I think i would be investigating a repair on teh basis you have nothing to loose and everything to gain.
 
Jeff,

This idea had crossed my mind but not sure how receptive audi would be to this as I think they have already tried their best to encourage repairing of the car despite the costs to my insurer due to its condition and spec. Other slight issue is that the audi dealer is 1.5 hours away so cant really just pop down.

Adrian,

I am lucky enough to have vagcom so content with scanning and coding etc but the passenger footwell was drowned so I reckon it could be asking for trouble!

I wish I did get the van details but it was the usual non-despript plain white van and its surprising how hard it is to see through a wave of water!

Thanks again for the encouragement, pleased to hear you value it the same as what I was hoping for. Watch this space for future updates.
 
Really feel for you Paul but think you need to decide whether you wish to take on the restoring project before they come back to you with a figure. Let me explain.

Before buying our A2 we had an Alfa 166, stunning rare car that my other half managed to park in front of an on coming vehicle - bang - write off. The insurers came back to me with a low settlement figure which I rejected. They then came back to me with a slightly improved offer based on two local comparable cars that were for sale. Their comparisons were inferior cars because to find a like for like was very difficult which could be the same scenario for you. We ended up getting the original offer doubled.

Now the dilemma for you is that if you want to restore the car you want to buy back at as low a price as possible, so avoid the above negotiation, but If you want to go for the cash then you will need to be prepared to negotiate hard. Hence my reasoning you need to make your decision asap.
 
ULP said:
I'm sorry to hear your misfortune, I take it getting details of the van wasn't possible...
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Slightly off topic here, what good would getting the van details have done? Are you honestly suggesting that the van driver was culpable?
 
The aim of this thread was to seek advice on the best way to resolve the situation as it stands. I will not go into the detail of the complete event as it simply is not what I believe would be right. I have also asked myself the question more times than I care to remember what if I had not even tried to go through etc etc.
 
PaulA2 said:
The aim of this thread was to seek advice on the best way to resolve the situation as it stands.
Click to expand...

Agreed, which is why I started by saying slightly off topic.

I was just curious as to what ULP would have hoped to gain by having the van driver`s details.

Best of luck anyway. Believe me, there is life after an A2.........
 
A car that i wanted to keep was reversed into by a milk float a few years ago. I paid for some of the parts to repair the car and the insurance paid the labour and painting costs. Meant i kept the car. Not sure if they will still do this sort of thing . I took the view that it was going to cost me anyway with having to find another car and of course i wouldn't have got enough from the insurance to replace it without adding money myself.
 
Having re-read this thread maybe its simply time to 'move-on' to other cars. However much i like my A2 I am not sure I would buy another now if something happened to mine. I would always be comparing it and the chances of getting a good A2TDi with OSS (an absolute must have for me) are now rapidly receding.
 
time to move on.. even if you find another A2 and transplant all the bits from your current one it will never be the same... you will always be comparing it with the one you had before. if you reuse your drowned one you will just open yourself up to a world of issues with reliability... and you will eventually get fed up with it

As lovely as the car was.. you will never get it back 100% and will spend a lot of time and energy to chase this holy grail... time to move on and try something else...
 
ULP said:
As you've asked the question twice...

Creating a bow-wave to the extent it has flooded a car would potentially leave the driver of the van responsible. By having the reg number, it would allow the insurance companies to establish if that is the case. It may not be, of course, but without the registration number there is no chance of this being an option.

Happy?
Click to expand...

I`d think the chances of getting the blame placed on the driver of the van would be very difficult indeed. In fact it`d be impossible I`d have thought.

How on earth would you hope to establish that the magnitude of the opposing bow wave caused the flooding?

Where there`s a blame there`s a claim eh?
 
ULP said:
Stong difference between the ambulance chaser and genuine blame, but that's for the insurance companies to establish whether it is or not.

Having had one car hit by a joy-rider (who legged it) and another forced off the road by a HGV whose number I was unable to take the ramifications of footing the excess and increased insurance premiums are long-lasting. The reg number would give Paul the best chance of minimising his liabilites.

It was an innocent question but clearly it's got your handbag into full swing. No matter.
Click to expand...

You`re hardly comparing apples with apples though.

Both drivers were at fault I`d have though from the perspective of insurers. The water was of a depth that driving in it was at best, unwise.

I don`t have a handbag thanks, just an interest in the point you were trying to make.

Have a nice weekend.
 
^^^^^^ this isn't helping the OP even if it does raise some interesting legal issues. When I drove through flood water which turned out vto be deeper than I realised in my A6 3 years ago I knew it was my fault and with the horrendous quote I was given to sort out the known electrical faults with no gaurantee there would not be other problems I traded it PDQ, in part to 'save' my onsurance.

Back to the OP and have you reached a conclusion yet?
 
Thanks very much for the advise from all parties. At the end of the day the the moral of the story if in any doubt .... dont!

In an attempt to lighten the post I am sure those that witnessed me climbing out of my window rolled up trousers and bare feet plunging into the water to push it out must have seen the "funny" elements to it! Thankfully no appearance on utube as yet! I am trying to focus on this to avoid getting too down about it!

I have grabbed the situation by its proverbials today and dragged the poor wifey and daughter to look at other cars! Usually I am not afraid to travel to see the "right" car but due to significant work and other commitments and the need to get some reliable wheels sorted I have narrowed the search to try and remain local.

I have trawled the dealers in an attempt to cover all angles ranging from new to cars that I hope will leave it a no cost swap. If an A2 was near to me I would without doubt be getting one and trying to retain the seats and nav from mine (which I may still do pending the insurance offer/negotiation).

Currently I hope to get the sensible offer from my insurance company and buy a car I have found near to me. Same brand different model.

I know how rare leathers and rnse/double din dashes are for the a2 so I may even try and retain these to assist any forum members who have been wanting these items.

Thanks all for your input, advice and I appreciate the feedback.
 
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