Is it wrong?

[adamsimmons 0]

Hi,

 

I'm wondering if some of you guys can give me some suggestions. Basically some one kindly crashed into my VR just before christmas, it has been in the garage up until now. Now they have informed me that they are going to write it off on a cat c and only give me a grand for it. I know it wasn't in concourse condition but by no means it was a dog, it's in better than average condition, and has had a new engine in the past year. It only had 2 broken headlights, a dent in the bonnet and a split front bumper. The repairs came in at £1800 which I know is a bit high and I can find the parts cheaper, but as I said they have written it off, I think it should be a CAT D at most. But to cut the story short, I am now out of pocket and without a car as they are coming to pick up the hire car tomorrow.

 

My options are either fix the car and be driving round in a cat c car with the resale value of an out of date pizza (if i ever came to sell it), or convert a MK2 golf with all the tunnig gear from the corrado, so it will still have the soul. I know its not the corrado but its sort of half way, and maybe will have a better chance of selling it in the future, if it ever came to that.

 

What I would like to ask is if the conversion is as straight forward it looks or are there any crazy complications that I could come across. I know it may seem a little wrong to kill a corrado but I would prefer to be driving round in a car that hasn't been written off.

 

I hope some one can give me a few pointers or some advice.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Adam

[mimjed 0]

doesnt sound wrong to me. you can pass the shell on to someone that needs it to keep it alive.

 

fairly straight forward to swap into a mk2. better off to start with a digifant though as it has the later wiring/fuseboard, and so much easier to start with an ecu model.

 

we did a vr into an early 1.3 mk2 and that was a right bitch.

 

on the plus side at least you know whats happening now, better than sitting around with your thumb up your ass

[Philuk 0]

can you request it being fixed if you werent at fault? surely you can reject that offer and get some better cash??

[dukest 0]

is the £1k as well as getting the car back? its not so bad if thats the case as you'll still have a lot of car left to make up the missing value.

 

either way mk2 would be cool but at worst then hopefully you can bump them up as phil says?

[gixxer 0]

I was under the impression that if the accident was caused by someone else , you are entitled to have the car fixed to the standard it was before the accident regardless of the cost, if claiming from their insurance.

 

I may be wrong, but I'm sure there are people on here with more knowledge of this than myself.

[Josh Waddi 0]

Hiya mate,

 

I wouldnt be accepting £1k for a VR. When mine was written off (1.8 16V) they offered me £550 initially. Managed to negotiate to £1100. I work in insurance and can confrim if the costs of repairs to the vehicle exceeds the value then they will write it off. But if you can prove the cost of your VR is say £1800 or more you may have a chance at negotiating repairs. I would definatly keep the car and the salvage value is negotiable still. From what you have mentioned about your VR i would say £2K settlement with keeping the remains. If you have any problems or issues drop me a PM and i will help if needed.

[lilfuzzer 1]

Hiya mate,

 

I wouldnt be accepting £1k for a VR. When mine was written off (1.8 16V) they offered me £550 initially. Managed to negotiate to £1100. I work in insurance and can confrim if the costs of repairs to the vehicle exceeds the value then they will write it off. But if you can prove the cost of your VR is say £1800 or more you may have a chance at negotiating repairs. I would definatly keep the car and the salvage value is negotiable still. From what you have mentioned about your VR i would say £2K settlement with keeping the remains. If you have any problems or issues drop me a PM and i will help if needed.

 

Some good advice there Josh :notworthy:

[bigrichi 0]

All good advice re negotiating for a better settlement figure.

I unfortunately wrote of my (now ex) girlfriends car off last summer.

Was a 55 plate 206cc with 9000 miles on it.

Her insurance offered something like 5k for it but we disputed that and sent in examples from autotrader of similar ones for sale up to 8k.

Her insurance eventually came back and settled at 7k.

 

Looking on autotrader just now the cheapest VR is nearly 1800 with examples up to 3k.

 

Must be worth a phone call to your insurance company??

 

Richi

[adamsimmons 0]

Cheers for all the help guys. It is much appreciated. I have legal help with my insurance so they said that they will try and get more, the problem is that the company that gave me the hire car accepted it on my behalf, which I was slightly miffed about. The company is called Drive Assist, if any one has used them before, hopefully not though.

 

I think I may go down the MK2 route, I know it has been done a million times, but I fancy getting my hands dirty again, I had so little probs with the corrado that I never needed to fix any thing. I need some time to play :)

 

Does anyone have any suggestions on which MK2 is the best to use for the conversion, as Mimjed said the models that use the Digifant system are the easiest but I'm unsure which models they are. I feel fairly compentant at doing the conversion as I've done a few bits and bobs before, but if possible wouldn't mind some pointers to help me in the right direction.

 

If anyone know of a shell for a mk2 going near the cardiff area too :)

 

Also, will have loads of bits from the corrado for sale once I finish it. So if anyone needs any bits I will start to put them up in the for sale part once I've gone ahead with the swap.

 

Thanks for your help again guys.

[MikLSP 0]

I hate insurance companies, they're very quick to boost your premium for a nice car but then won't ever pay out for one!

 

My first car was a MkI Golf and that was written off while parked up! Some idiot was towing a trailer full of bricks and decided to go too fast and/or not connect it properly. It detached from his car and plowed into the back of my Golf :(

 

The insurance sent me to some "independent valuation centre" which was basically an ex bent copper in Burnley who came up with a value of £300. I took it to a VW specialist who gave a counter valuation of £1500! ;)

With negotiation I got £700 and kept the car which I then sold for parts and ended up with just over £1000.

 

So I would definitely say DON'T accept their valuation without trying to get it higher and if, as others suggest, you can push to get the repair done I would go for that.

[Josh Waddi 0]

Hi Mate

 

Drive Assist cant legally accept offers on your behalf. There only a credit hire org. When you agree to the pre-accident value they should get you to sign for the agreed amount. If you have not signed you can still have your say.

 

Drive Assist may ask you to accept this payment as an interim payment and they will negotiate the rest, but dont agree to this, they will give you the lower amount, take thier car back and leave you to it.

 

Seriously you will be kicking yourself if you dont negotiate, when you do your conversion and monies run low or some things seem expensive, you will stop and think, imagine if i got an extra £800 - £1000 for my old VR. I could have bought some nice new, expensive rims. :norty: