Linus Van Pelt

Thanks bud, I saw what happened to yours... :shock: makes the damage I recieved look quite tame, but I guess the effect is still the same :cry: Yes, I realise that it could have been a lot worse, if we'd hit head on, it wouldn't just be the car in pieces I fear... :pale: Still no news on any potential culprits... though to be honest it was probably a stolen motor, so there's not much chance of getting any further with it. Having seen 'the system' in action first hand, even if they did find someone, it would only be a "your word against mine"... which is going to go nowhere fast... You're right about what you said in your own thread... being without your C really suxxors :shaking: Cheers, DtM.

Thanks again for all the support! No, I haven't got the car back yet :cry: but when I do, I'll post some piccies of the result (and I might even get around to putting something up in the members gallery :lol:) In the interests of not getting caught out like this again, my insurance is up for renewal this month. Since I now have the maximum 5yrs NC (65% discount), I increased the voluntary excess to counter the extra I've now decided to pay for NC protection... I could have got it last year, but the extra was a quite a bit more. Obviously with hindsight... :roll: I'm quite impressed that Direct Line reduced my cover by about £200 for the extra years NC this time around... (I have 1 year 'free' NC' so no other company can compete!) I think the moral of this story is to serioulsy consider getting NC protection... given just how much our cars cost to put back together, it's got to be worthwhile doing? DtM.

...reading an auto mag at AmD recently, and it mentioned Audi are bringing out an RS3... 3.2V6 (a la R32), mated to TWIN turbos... 350bhp+ ... in an A3?????? :shock: I think Audi must be serious... :lol:

I had the same problem with mine... What I did was just change the old silver badge bit, and use the old rubbery bit and plastic thang... (descriptive huh?) :lol: I think there's actually some clip you also need to get, but I never bothered as it's stayed put when I changed it over... In retrospect, I think they gave me the wrong one, becuase the plastic bit's that go in the holes were too close together & the black rubber surround was at the wrong angle... probably a Passat/Jetta one or something instead... I'm sure someone who can actually help will be along soon :mrgreen: DtM.

I'm with Kev on this one... I have spent about 6K on my C in the last two years (excluding my recent enforced repair spending :cry: )... and when I look at what I've done with that, only about 1/2 of it is directly related to servicing and ESSENTIAL repairs. However, I wasn't as well informed as I should have been, so I got caught out with a high mileage motor, roundabout the time a lot of things needed replacing/renewing. Virtually all the parts on my C were still the factory fitted originals, so it's not really that suprising they all went at around 90-100K miles and 7-8 years worth of use... It could be argued on a number of items, they could have survived for a year or too more, but I wasn't prepared to take the risk. Currently driving a Pug 306 1.9D as a courtesy car whilst my C is in the bodyshop... like I needed it, but it's a good reminder of just what a superb car the C really, really is. I'm sure most people on this forum would agree that the extra expense you MAY get over another car, is more than outweighed by the sheer joy of owning/driving a C. ...oh and that :mrgreen: factor is priceless! DtM.

...or if you're really lucky (like me), the bolt shears and then you run the risk of having to replace the front subframe :shock: ...thankfully, mr mechanic (thank you sir), managed to get it off without having to change the subframe... 8) but I'm sure there was some welding involved afterwards... ...and relax. DtM.

Thanks for support guys, Yes, but that's my choice (although it doesn't feel much like it :lol:). In the so called 'real world', I'm supposed to claim and then the insurance company picks up the bill... however in 'real life', they're going to get their money back one way or the other (higher premiums) and I just know they're going to take one look at the prices for parts and say write-off (and then give me as little as possible for it), something I'm not prepared to let happen. If it was just an ordinary car, with ordinary prices, claiming or repairing wouldn't really be an issue, but when you can get a complete door for your average motor at say £300+VAT, on the C it's £670+VAT for the outer shell and £280+VAT for the door skin... :shock: In my limited experience, that's exactly what they're doing. Best one I saw was a bog standard sierra, made to look like a cosworth, and the tax disc was for a JCB... :roll: We used to charge disqualified drivers with no insurance, for all the good that did :mad: Mind you, when all is said and done, it's nice to know that our cars are built like tanks... :mrgreen: considering that swipe had a combined speed of over 120mph, I thought it stood up rather well, I didn't even realise it was more than the wing mirror until I got out and looked! Cheers again all, (at least my car had clean underwear on... see how clean my car is :lol: you can see the wheels and everything! - and the forum sticker, so expertly installed by our resident admin :wink: ) DtM

Thanks guys, Yea, I did the maths on the ins. and worked out this was the best way. If I claimed, they'd get me back with increased premiums (currently on 4yrs NCB), and if they wort it off and I got another C it would have to be a VR, so insurance would be silly money again... I've spent something like £6K on my C in the last two years, mainly replacing and renewing, so I don't really want to throw that all away and start again. I needed to get the bodywork sorted out at some point anyway. I did turn around and go back (b*ggered if I was going to work after that), but no sign of anyone...) When we realised how much it was going to cost to replace (way more than the value of the car :shock: ) we decided on repair... to be fair, the bodyshop guy did everything he possibly could to keep the £'s down to what I could manage (-xx hrs labour, 1/2 price paint etc.), head panel beater chap said he could fix it all, just that it would take some time They're also going to fix the damage the car already had on the n/s (about 2yrs ago from a parking f*ckwit), I may as well, I was going to get around to it eventually anyway :lol: So basically, a new wing mirror, more moulding's than you can shake a stick at and then repair rear bumper, RH rear wing, RH Door, RH B post outer, o/s front wing (+LH wing rear, LH door front & LH front wing from the other damage). They were also kind enough to give me a courtesy car. I've never actually driven a tractor before (306 Diesel).... wheelspin in 3rd! ...that'll be the torque then! DtM

...not a lot more to say really... ...very early morning, pitch dark, the car approaching appears to be partly on my side of the road, both doing about 60ish, I turn away realising they're actually quite a way over the wrong side of the road, car appears to veer into me at the last moment, even though I'm still trying to move further over... not quite enough it seems... ...bye, bye wing mirror then *thump*, watch as they continue merrily onwards (without braking). I stopped by some lights to find the o/s side absolutely fecked... :( ...result, 4 figure repair bill, 2 weeks in the bodyshop... :pale: (I've spent too many hours and £'s on it to let the insurance people just write it off, besides, I have no one to claim against anyway) ...oh well, at least it'll come out looking like new... DtM.

...I always thought 'drilled' discs were bad? Risk of cracking, questionable benefit (with less surface area to grip) etc? I thought most performance cars just went with grooved discs, and those that do have holes, are molded with them in, rather than drilled through later on...? Just curious... DtM.

...why can't the buggers just smash the fecking window :mad: :mad: :mad: (had my old Golf done in a similar way at least three times, when all else failed, then they smashed the window, and the alarm duly went off so they scarpered... :mad: ) My sympathies for you m8, where's the live feed from the battery to the door handles when you need it :lol: ...ahhh, there it is... http://www.lcars.eu.org/autotaser.uk/ (shamelessly ripped from another thread in here) DtM.

AFAIK, Cat 1 doesn't have to have proximity sensors to qualify for the rating. My advice would be to go for decent Cat 1, preferably without all the fancy bell & whistles that invariably end up waking you in the middle of the night for no reason! :lol: Paranoid car alarms have all the usefulness of chocolate fire guards... people tend to ignore them these days anyway. I'd also reccomend a stoplock or something similar for the added visual deterrent if you're feeling a bit unsure when you park it somewhere you're not familiar with. (...in light of GringoG60's post, I'll just add that I have a Cobra Cat1 on my C, and have been perfectly happy with it for the 2yrs I've owned it) DtM.

Burn the Heretic! :evil: The correct answer was (e) None of the above (I'll stick with my C thanks) :wink: DtM

...and a boxster, elise, VX220... or an Impreza Turbo... (for the same IG as the 2.0) ...still I know which one I'd rather have :lol: DtM.

:lol: Well, the 2.0 lump was from the Passat, and it's generally recognised that you can do much more power/mod wise with 1.8 than you can with the 2.0. ...unless you're talking stupid money & turbos, then it's a bit moot... :lol: I think the 1.8 guys take the 2.0 bottom end, but short of having a machined racing cam, you're not going to get any huge gains in power. Oh, VW Driver says 8.2/8.3 for the 0-60 (1.8/2.0) DtM.

...by 0.1 sec (0-60)... see this thread for more info and discussion: http://corrado.atx-hosting.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=3424 (if you've got a Yahoo! ID, you can download the pdf I have of the 2.0 vs 1.8 test in VW Driver...) http://corrado.atx-hosting.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=3602 DtM.

If you even think about going any where near North Wales, I have six words of advice for you... North Wales Chief Constable Richard Brunstrom :shock: :lol: (If you don't know who he is, I suggest you google) :mrgreen:

Thanks John. Some kind soul has written 26/06/01 on the current battery, so I think it's just the dirt :oops: Good advice when I do need to change it though, thanks! DtM.

My C is definitely struggling to start now it's cold, and there's certainly crud on the battery contacts... (no idea where the starter motor lives?). Could some kind soul please give me the idiots guide to taking the battery connections off to clean the contacts such that I don't electrocute myself... Presumably, it's remove the -ve lead, then the +ve and replace in reverse order? ...just call me Marvin :roll:

Just in case anyone's interested, I have put the pdf's of the above files in my Yahoo! briefcase... If you let me know your Yahoo! ID I can give you the access to download them. (They originally came off the ol' CCGB site I think) Sadly, Yahoo! don't do public folders anymore... :cry: http://uk.f1.pg.briefcase.yahoo.com/duncanthemad DtM.

Wow, they can steer with their wings? :shock: I would have thought that the pedals would have been too difficult to get to with those tiny feet & legs... ...or are we talking Ostrich's & Emu's here? :mrgreen: DtM. (edited to add pics...)

I don't claim to be an expert but as far as I know... Yes there were six 'Campaign' models, whose main feature was a special custom coloured interior . At least one of these is gone now, not sure about the other five, although we have least one, if not two owners on this forum. VW made one each for the top six VW dealerships in the UK, a sort of bonus for the dealers who sold the most Corrados over here. 500 Storms, 250 in Blue, 250 in Green, 'Storm' badging, special alloys, leather interior as standard. I think 10 of each were also Automatics rather than manual. There is also one Storm in the Wolfsburg museum in Germany. I've no idea how many are left, but they are still going for a premium over here. Again, as with the Campaign, the Storm model was exclusive to the UK on account of how well sales of the Corrado did over here. The only reason you probably havn't got them where you are, is simply down to the cost of transporting it over there. Since you have different regualtions over there, I don't know if you'd have to have it modified to comply with regulations...? I would assume it's just a question of money, but since the Storm, whilst being limited edition, is really only a specially badged VR6, you'd have to reaaaaaaaally want one, to pay the extra when you could so much more easily pick up a good example of the SLC. Just my 2 cents... DtM.

what you mean you never went to Bicester Village Factory Outlets....... :wink: Are you kidding? :shock: I need all my spare money to pay for the work on my C!!!! :lol: my credit cards only so big y'know... :wink: ...and it's okay 'cause 'er indoors was just that... :mrgreen: DtM.

(I appreciate that not everyone has had good experiences with them but...) I haven't had the best of luck with my C. I love it to pieces, but I do sometimes wish I'd spent more time researching and getting it checked out before I bought it, oh well you live and learn. After AmD serviced my C last week, I mentioned that I had oil leaks and steering problems. They diagnosed the steering faults to a fubar'd lower wishbone... Took it to them today, arrived early (08.30), they said four hours... I left at just before 18.00 (Bicester is a really cr*p place to spend a day :lol:) Anyway, faulty wishbone, ping, off not a problem. Other wishbone, bolt stuck. Tried everything including drilling it. They came out and said, if the bolt shears you might be looking at a new sub frame, you know, the bit that the engine sits on :shock: Okay, I say, give it go (famous last words) The bolt sheared. B@gger. However, refusing to be beaten, and with much cursing and frowning at one of the office staff when asked if he was okay, our valiant mechanic refused to be beaten... some folding, welding and painting later, he manages to fix it, without having to replace the sub frame (which would have required the engine and gearbox out). Respect due for a job well done, my C's handling has been miraculously restored. That's the third time my C has given them such a hard time, but they still keep letting me bring it back to them... :roll: DtM

...and at weekends my name is mandy... :lol: Seriously though, welcome to the forum! My first car (Mk3 Golf 1.4L) was named "Jessica" after a very good friend in the US told me it had to have a name, I then sold it to my now darling wife (which funded my C :wink:), who then renamed it (and gave it a sex change) calling it simply "Bob". She has since nicknamed my C "Mr. Vroom"... :mrgreen: