Walesy

Estorils! :)

Cheers Kip, that's really kind of you, but having never been a member in my 11 years of ownership, it wouldn't be right! :lol: I've had two lengthy conversations with them with regards to value, they have said that due to it being an 8v and not a VR6 or G60 they don't value it at any more than £1700, simple as that. I've been tasked with finding them evidence that it's worth more but frankly it's difficult due to the fact that it's probably not! :lol: If I'm honest, I didn't pay £1700 for it 2 years and 20k miles ago so I'd be quite happy with that as a payout :) I could only find 2 8v's on the market, the black Auto one linked above, and a horribly modded white one for £900 or something, hardly worth using as an example!

I've sent them a link to the rado you kindly found on Autotrader, listing the differences that would make mine worth a few quid more, apparently they don't take mileage into account when valuing older vehicles, which is silly, I tried explaining that mileage has a huge effect on value with this type of car, but I think I was edging towards 'it's a classic car' territory which will inevitably force the 'you should have insured it as such' reply - so I'm treading carefully :lol:

First offer's in already, not surprising considering the brand new all singing and dancing toyota courtesy car on my drive (must admit, I could get used to it - literally all the toys you could imagine!) - Anyway they've come up with £1700 as the valutation, not a bad start IMO!

Cheers all :) Things are still a bit sch1tty here, but hopefully the doctor will sign her off for a couple of weeks for her to recoup - the physiological impact seems to be as bad as the physical one at the moment so I really hope she can get over that quickly! Butterfly, oops I misunderstood, skim reading! Thanks though, i'll keep that in mind. OSV - I didn't remove the Corrado badge sorry, just the VW one (wasn't aware the Corrado badges are obsolete whereas I'm sure the VW ones are as I paid a fortune for mine!)

Wow, thanks VERY much for that, looks almost identical, awesome.

Cheers all, and cheers for the PM's. Regarding the wipers, I haven't heard back from Audi and it's the least of my worries really, I will sort it out on Monday, thanks for the tips. I'm not really sure that I'll be putting up a huge fight about getting the car back, I certainly wouldn't be putting it back on the road if I bought it back and I'm not sure that I can be arsed with breaking it etc, I'll see how I feel about it after the weekend :) I did however managed to swipe the rear VW badge off it yesterday when I was collecting her belongings from it, so that'll go on Ebay :lol: The extent of the damage was quite shocking when looking around it in the compound, the pics on here dont really capture how bad the damage was in the drivers footwell, how she managed to get out of it with both of her legs/feet in tact I've literally no idea. Em's has been pretty rough for the last day or so - VERY uncomfortable, nauseous, and emotional. One of the worst things for her is that she can't lift our son or do anything for/with him which is upsetting him as well as her, aside from the pain etc. She's also a bit freaked out by how much worse it could have been if it wasn't for various factors, so hasn't slept much etc etc - all in it's a pretty shcitty situation :( Butterfly, cheers, any tips on how you achieved that payout would be appreciated, I'm assuming I'll have to send some pics/info on the car and try my best to find other treasured examples for sale and send links etc, I would like to get as much as £2000 as I think that's what it was worth.

Thanks for the post, that's good information. The insurance company (Bell) have told me that it is against their policy to let me have the car back if it's deemed as unsafe to put back on the road, I have told them that I would like to have it back.

Yacobwood, I'll see what Audi come back with, if I'm honest it'd be preferable if they just give me my money back as it's a 35 mile round trip for me to pick them up etc, however if they dont refund me, to answer your questions; I would want roughly what they owe me, I think it was £130 for the two arms and two blades, obviously I'd cover postage etc. Yes, it's all you need to complete the mod, just screw them on it'll take a few mins. Yes I would send the receipt with the wiper kit unopened. I'll let you know when they've rung me back.-

Yeah, we'll see what they come up with, I think we all know that it'll be a fight to get much more than a grand for it, I almost feel like sending them a link to this thread to show it was a cherished example! :lol: As a side note, I ordered a set of Audi TT arms and blades for it the same I day I started this thread, was supposed to be picking them up today but have just rung Audi to ask for a refund and they cant refund me for the arms as they were a special order :( the fella I spoke to is going to speak to his boss but If I have to buy them still then does anyone here want them for what they cost me? (can't remember how much, think they were about £50 each or somewhere around that price)

Yeah, the fella that hit her was 'foreign' lets say, so looking at how far over the line he was I wouldn't be surprised if he had forgotten what side of the road we drive on in the UK. I'm on the insurance trail now, I can only assume that it'll be a compete write off - the insurance company have said that if it's deemed unsafe to be back on the road then I'm not allowed to have the car back to take bits off it, which will be a shame as there's a fair bit of meat on the bones. My wife (Emily) is a bit rough this morning, very stiff and she's been sick a few times, just shock I expect, she's just totally gutted about the car, as is my boy :( And yep, believe it or not one of the first things I thought was about this thread, how bloody weird!

No, he was with me thankfully :)

Well, in a bizarrely timed twist of fate, some numpty was more concerned with getting mud on his wheels than the dangers of driving around a blind bend on the wrong side of the road, which has sorta put a stop to our plans of keeping the rado indefinitely! The car now looks like this, as of 4pm this evening. Fortunately my wife walked away from it relatively unhurt, she was taken to hospital by ambulance and kept in a neck brace until they'd x-rayed etc, she's very saw and shaken but OK. Luckily it was only a couple of miles from our house so I was there within a few mins, she'd been up to Taunton and back which is a good 300 mile round trip and managed to do this around the corner from home, typical! Anyway, i'll make sure I'm sitting down when the insurance company give me my offer, I expect I'll be lucky if they come forward with a grand first off. ---------- Post added at 11:23 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:16 PM ---------- Oh, and they arrested the fella that hit her, and he admitted full liability to the police once they'd cautioned him.

Its down to personal preference I suppose mate, no point arguing about it and I'm really not trying to convince everyone that they should own an 8v, that's really not the point of the thread, we all have our different reasons for loving our Rados, whether it be a modded/standard/600bhp monster/race car/blah blah :) As for the age old 8v vs 16v, I've owned enough of each of them in different Corrados over enough years and miles to have made my own mind up what I prefer, I will never own a 16v Corrado again, ever :lol: I realise 8v's don't suit everyone but having gone through the full loop I'm happy with my tiny penis. As I said at the top, the 8v has received bad press and 99% of the time it's from those that have never owned let alone driven one ;) Speak to those that have owned them and also those that own an 8v and VR6 and they seem to agree. Although, I wouldn't say no to a Mystic 24v on the drive as well! :)

:lol: I don't think the 8v would suit you at all Kev, but don't knock it until you've tried it, it's really a much better engine in a Corrado than the 16v, and it'll drive far better than you'd think. I had a MK3 Cab with the same engine and it was a pig to drive compared to the rado. I remember Jeremy at RKE having the same opinion as you, his 2.0 16v compound charged rado pushes out just over 400bhp so he's used to big power, but he was shocked at how nice to drive the 8v is in a Rado, after driving mine back from Bournemouth for me when I bought it he was not only surprised at how punchy it was but also how bloody smooth and comfy it was as standard after a 3-4 hour motorway drive. :tongue:

Exactly 8)

Ha! nor me :)

Yeah it's completely stock apart from the stereo, so standard VW shocks and springs, it handles brilliantly and is nice and comfy so no intentions to change it, obviously they do look better with a 40mm drop but I don't want to compromise the ride quality at all, and it's nice to have it standard! It's an ADY, and the car's covered around 92k miles (last time I drove it!) - we picked it up a couple of years ago when it had done around 75k from the second owner from new, she had owned it for 11 years! she was very upset to see it go but it was making way for a new Scirocco in black which she was looking forward to, she had owned a black Mk2 Scirocco before the Corrado too :) The only thing my wife wants to change is the registration, she thinks of 'NARKY' when she sees it, so it'll probably get a private plate at some point. Again, great to see some support on here for the little 8v, after all these years of bad mouthing! :lol:

Yeah the old 16v vs 8v debate goes back a long way I suppose, having owned 5 16v's and 3 8v's I know which I prefer! Historically there's more of a VR6 vs G60 debate on here but I think nowadays most people accept that they're very different and different strokes for different folks, again I've owned both and personally prefer the G60 but that's not to say the VR6 isn't an awesome motor in it's own right :) And I'll keep that in mind Butterfly, I'm a bugger for changing my mind when it comes to cars, but for the moment the plan is that it's going to live down the side of the house where it hopefully won't deteriorate too much!

Having been a long time fan of the rado 8v, its nice to see that at long last Im not on my own in appreciating what a great and well suited engine it is in a Corrado. For years they suffered really bad press on here, 99% of which came from people who have never owned or driven one, so it's great to see a few people on here using them and spreading the word on what a great all round package they provide :D My first rado was a black M reg 8v that I bought when it was 5 years old, I owned it for 3 years then sold it on at a profit to a lady that lived up the road from me who pestered me into letting it go, i've regretted it ever since but was pleased to see recently that she still owns the car nearly 8 years later! she obviously loves it as much as I did! Since selling it I've gone through countless other rados, tried numerous suspension set ups and all the variants but have come back to realising that the standard black 8v is the rado for me (or my wife, more specifically :lol: ) - they really are a great combination of looks, handling, performance, reliability and economy as far as I'm concerned. I live in Cornwall which is a maze of twisty country lanes and roads, so the 121bhp and plenty of low down torque is perfectly adequate, coupled with 35-40mpg it makes for pretty much the perfect car. Anyway, just thought i'd put a thread up because it's pleasing to see I'm not on my own any more on here in rating the 8v as a great car, this is the 3rd one I've owned and despite our plans to park it up and retire it from daily duties some time this year, having considered selling or part-exing it, I really don't think i'll be selling up and I've reserved a space on our driveway for it to live. Long live the 8v! 8)

T4 for me!, the ultimate all rounder vehicle IMO 8)

If you're at all concerned about MPG then I'd recommend the 2.0 8v, an average of 35mpg is easy to achieve, rock solid and cheap/easy to maintain. As for reliability, you'll hear mixed stories, but in my experience (owned various rados for the past 10 years +) they're unbelievably reliable, my wifes current 8v has been her daily for the last 2 years and she covers 300-400 miles a week in it and its NEVER put a foot wrong, it flew through it's MOT a couple of months ago with no advisories despite the fact that we've not done a thing to it all year. Take your time finding a good one that's been looked after and hasn't been too messed with and it should be fine.

Haha, that's a posh one, not like my old thing which is a hand-me-down, gratefully received though! even if it did look like this when I got it :lol: As for hearths, I made mine out of a snooker table slate which I picked up for £80, they're great as they're really thick so meet regulations, one slate was enough for me to cut a hearth and a doorstep from and it looks much better than I thought it would when its in! While the pics out, there's a vent at the top of the stove above the glass, it doesn't seem to do anything, does anyone know what its purpose is and when/if I should be using it for something? :lol:

All well and good until you're at the critical money shot moment and the chimney goes up in flames or dumps it's innards on your lounge floor! :lol:

Yep, ridiculous quotes, but that doesn't mean it has to cost that much! I've been recommended to use this company for flue, it's good quality HETAS approved stuff and at half the price that most people want to charge - http://stores.ebay.co.uk/fluestore - you'll probably need about 10m for an average sized 2 story house and they sell it at £14 a meter - then phone around local chimney sweeps, a lot of them will have roof ladders and will be more than capable of chucking the lining down, no problem at all, and at no-where near the price that these fire installation companies. My chimney sweep will do it for £200, so that's a cost of less than £400 all in, whereas a local fire installation specialist wanted 3 times that to do the same job (but obviously they'll give me the HETAS paperwork which the chimney sweep can't). As for the stove itself, they're pricey, I was lucky to be given mine for nothing, although it did need a bit of a refurb which I did myself.