A low-mileage Corrado bites the dust :(

[Trev16v 0]

Hi all,

 

This is my first post on this forum, although I have been registered for a year or so ever since buying my wife her 2L 16V Corrado for her birthday last year. This was a lovely low mileage example (in the order of 65,000 miles) with immaculate fully documented VW history. Last week someone went into the back of it. If that wasn't awful enough, this happened on her birthday this year! So exactly twelve months later, it's dead. We're both absolutely bloody gutted.

 

 

 

 

 

Fortunately the other driver is insured with Direct Line and has admitted liability straight away, but I'm dreading the process of trying to justify a decent payout from them. I'm hoping to be able to get something in the order of £2500 at the very least, because looking at adverts on here, Autotrader and Pistonheads shows that you certainly cannot get a decent 2L 16V for much less than that, unless it's one that has been driven to the moon and back and full of fag burns! And there are one or two nice looking 2L 16Vs I've enquired about that could be a suitable replacement.

 

I know this is a totally pointless idea really considering I could probably find a bare Corrado shell somewhere for dirt cheap, but I did try to find the price for a replacement quarter panel. I reckon that the shell itself is probably still straight in terms of the chassis arms and so on. If I could have obtained a new quarter for reasonable money, I would fit it myself. But a phone call to VW gives a price that's well, well over £500, and I can't find anyone doing them aftermarket. So I don't know - maybe I could find someone who'd cut a quarter from an old knackered shell (one that's even more knackered than ours?! :eek:) or just find a bare intact shell from somewhere, and re-home all of the low-mileage components from our car into it.

 

Ah well. Anyway, thought I'd share the woes!

 

Trev (Oxfordshire)

[boost monkey 0]

It's a sad tale Trev, sorry to hear it.

 

reshelling really is your best option financially I think, unless you can find a good bodyshop that will do it for really really cheap.

 

on the upside you are in oxfordshire which makes you 100% cooler now.

 

8)

 

I'm in headington in the O-town, you should pop by sometime!

[Trev16v 0]

Good evening! Yes we're in Wantage and it'd certainly be good to meet anyone local.

 

If I could get a quarter panel I would be prepared to do the welding work myself; I'd just have to get a body shop to paint it. I fancy the challengine of doing it. But you are right - a new shell will always be cheaper and less hard work!

 

Trev

[shaung60 0]

Trev,

Sorry to hear about that. Hope you are both OK and it was just the car that suffered the damage.

As with any insurance company, don't take their first offer. Direct Line made millions in profit last year so can afford to give you a decent payout.

Should you decide to fix it then I am slowly breaking a late 16V that had less than 85,000 on the clock. I'd be willing to cut out as much of the shell that you would need.

Regards,

Shaun.

[boost monkey 0]

Good evening! Yes we're in Wantage and it'd certainly be good to meet anyone local.

 

If I could get a quarter panel I would be prepared to do the welding work myself; I'd just have to get a body shop to paint it. I fancy the challengine of doing it. But you are right - a new shell will always be cheaper and less hard work!

 

Trev

 

There's about four of is local, my brother has a silver G60 (off the road at the mo) and he works up near kidlington way iirc. Plus poll250 is local as is M.

[Trev16v 0]

Trev,

Sorry to hear about that. Hope you are both OK and it was just the car that suffered the damage.

As with any insurance company, don't take their first offer. Direct Line made millions in profit last year so can afford to give you a decent payout.

Should you decide to fix it then I am slowly breaking a late 16V that had less than 85,000 on the clock. I'd be willing to cut out as much of the shell that you would need.

Regards,

Shaun.

 

Shaun,

 

It was just the wife driving and he has whiplash, but she's okay. With regards to the shell and cutting out metalwork, thank you for this offer. This is certainly worth considering. How much do you think you'd want to do this? Also, could the shell that you have be used complete, or is it damaged? I have seen a few apparently perfectly good Corrados being broken, and presumably perfectly good shells are being scrapped.

 

Anyone have any opinion about whether replacement of the quarter panel and straightening of the inner quarter and rear panel will be the end of the story, or is there likely to be more serious damage? For instance, as you can see, the door gap has been greatly reduced. When I look at the quarter panel, because the impact was very low down on the rear bumper, the quarter panel has been kind of pushed fowards, and kind of twisted anti-clockwise, if that makes sense. So I am hoping that this is all just distortion of the quarter panel and rear panel, and that nothing has happened to the chassis leg itself.

 

Regards

 

Trev

[boost monkey 0]

Trev,

 

from a stresses point of view, if you can see that the panel gap between door and shell has been reduced this isn't a good sign. :(

 

Sounds like the bumper would have transmitted the force through it's arms into the chassis legs and also some axial / rotary forces which have buckled the rear panel slightly. Was the impact at an acute angle perhaps?

 

Do you have any pictures of the floorpan or even the boot floor? My thinking is that if there was enough force for shockwaves to deform the bodywork up by the doors, then the whole rear end may be out of alignment a little :( :(

 

Hope you get it all sorted though, we're rooting for you!

[rado-steve 0]

Agree with Boost Monkey!!!! If the boot floor is bent or any kinks in the roof It's Scrap I'm affraid! I wouldn't be happy about fixing it though with the panel gaps in the door so badly distorted......

 

I had to put a 1/4 on mine, manged to get a genuine one from a VAG dealers that had one in stock £100 plus the VAT!!! It came from South Herts VW!!! Try some stealers you never know what they have lying about.....

 

Try and find a red front ended corrado with light damage as just a wing, front panel and lights is enough to write off a corrado these days and trans fer all you're good bits over!!!

 

Such a shame for what looks like an immaculate car!!!

[dr_mat 0]

If the rest of the car is good, buy it back, scrap the chassis and strip mine it...

 

I'm with the guys above: you know yourself you won't quite trust the car after it's been bent like that, no matter what you do to it.

[Yandards 0]

A great shame, just goes to highlight the need for agreed value on Corrados these days, you only need to change the suspension and top mounts and you have spent more than most are worth right now :(

 

I do agree on the buyback though, under 70,000 miles of wear on items like seats are things that the people that are in Corrado ownership for the long term should be buying up.