I hate Ipswich - Now fixed!! :) :)

[MoonlightVR 0]

Check the link above for a detailed view on how this is done. Dinkus it appears these are the instructions you need to cut one off another car.

 

Isn't he going to be better off buying the (secondhand) new one?

[dinkus 10]

Hmm interesting thread on Vortex, I hadn't realised the replacement panel went round the back of the car as well

 

Edit: Oh ok looking at that ETKA pic, it doesn't.. so what's that new piece of metal in the workshop then?

 

Edit edit: ohhh gotcha, it's a corner of another C and they're taking the panel they need off it. Clever.

 

Just got the quote this morning and it's £2,555 to do the whole shebang (inc. fixing the scratch on the spoiler, scuff on rear bumper and parking dings in the drivers door - all weren't anything to do with me!).

 

It says all parts will be charged at manufacturer's list price...

Front wing - £190!

Rear panel....wait for it.... £442!

both plus VAT!

 

(so actually £223 and £520)

 

Bit expensive, but I was guessing for around the £2.5k mark, so luckily not entirely shcoking. I'm going to try and take it to another place today to get a quote from them as well, see what they say.

 

It makes the insurance claim issue a little interesting though... what % of the car's value makes it a write off? Or is it just up to the indivdual assessor?

[MoonlightVR 0]

It varies mate. On newer cars it usually comes down to a %age of the cars value as it's easier to value a newer car. On an older car it's alot more pie in the sky cos it depends on the cars "market" value, mileage, condition etc As a rough rule of thumb if it exceeds 50% of the cars value it's written off.

 

I would start to collect ads of similar cars showing the market value dinkus, cos this will be the biggest bone of contention with your insurers. As we all know the book/market value quoted by insurance companies is alot lower than the prices we think and hope they are worth. Having documentary evidence from Autotrader ads of similar cars will help alot. A receipt of purchase from when you bought the car will also help as you bought the car recently right? (assuming it wasn't dirt cheap!) If course they could then turn around and say you should have an agreed value policy, but ignore this and build up your advert evidence!

 

Make a big deal about the extras making your car rarer and more valuable than standard.

 

Who are your insurance underwriters?

[dinkus 10]

Thanks for all the advice MoonlightVR, it's a big help.

 

I'm with elephant.co.uk cos they were cheap :roll: so this could be interesting. However, the other body shop that is known to be good round here is actually elephant approved. So I'm gonna take the car to them on Monday to see what they say.

 

The total price so far of £2.5k includes VAT as well as all the extra bits that I'm sure the insurance company wouldn't pay for. So I know the labour rates would be higher for insurance work, but they wouldn't pay VAT either. With any luck not claiming the additional work on the insurance will bring the price down under £2k and make it claimable without writing the car off. I can then get the workshop to add up the extra bits and charge me separately for them.

 

As far as car value goes, I don't actually have a receipt for the car, but I will start gathering ads for it. I reckon with all the options and wotnot it was worth £5.5-£6k, but if anyone wants to give me other suggestions, please do. I'm not going to settle for them giving me a value less than that, I'm sure they will say something rediculous like £3.5k value, so we'll hacve fun and games trying to get a real value out of them. I did have to put in a value of the car when I applied for the insurance though, so hopefully that will count for something.

[MoonlightVR 0]

No worries. Are elephant the underwriters or just the broker? Have a look on your policy docs. I think elephant are just brokers? Underwriters like Lloyds, Norwich Union and Axa are pretty common.

All you can do is collect evidence and prepare for battle! :lol:

[Scott 0]

I can tell you now mate - no insurer in this world is going to give you £5.5 - 6k for a VR6 unless it had an agreed value on it with the insurer.

 

They will offer you £3.5 - 4k...

 

Its why I have agreed value insurance.

 

The value you gave or the car is what you valued the car at - not the insurers - unfortunately they will look up prices on autotrader and then consult trade guides and offer you something between it.

 

I had nearly 6 months of grief with my old 16V 2 yrs ago... its alot worse now apparently! :cry:

 

But like suggested get adverts from everywhere with high values, auto trader, ccgb, vw magazines, etc and that will count for something.

 

Cheers

 

Scott

[dinkus 10]

MoonlightVR, It's actually underwritten by Admiral I think, but they're part of the same company.

 

Scott, well that seems a bit ludicrous valuing it at £3.5k, because surely if they are going to write it off the would then have to provide a new car of equal spec. There's no way under the sun you can do that for £4k, even if you were a dealer royally screwing over someone with a decent car you'd still only get one for £5k.

 

I've already got 10 ads off autotrader printed out with lesser specs for £5.5k... it's all good ammo.

 

Edit: Although... if I can come to an arrangement with the bodyshop that the bill to the insurance comanpy doesn't exceed £1,750 or somesuch then I pay the rest it could all be ok. But the more the insurance company pay for the better.

[Scott 0]

Yup but these are insurance companies we are talking about - they dont just give you what they want..... it took me nearly 6 months to get a payout that was happy with on my old Corrado.... all they see is a ten yr old car... and then see the trade guides....

 

Just best to be warned :wink:

 

But best of luck!

[Storm 0]

Dinkus, its to nice to scrap, think about how hard its going to be to replace. Start to look for a rado being broken in the area where you can get the bits. I sounds as if there are a couple of forum members in your area that could help you prep that rear wing. Stripping your car and reassembling the front end is like doing meccano. That will save you around £700. Body shop should be happy if the panels are straight and they will be if you really take your time.

 

You can disassemble the front & rear and mask up the interior. Anything that saves them time is £35-50 per hour off of the bill.

[dinkus 10]

Dinkus, its to nice to scrap, think about how hard its going to be to replace. Start to look for a rado being broken in the area where you can get the bits. I sounds as if there are a couple of forum members in your area that could help you prep that rear wing. Stripping your car and reassembling the front end is like doing meccano. That will save you around £700. Body shop should be happy if the panels are straight and they will be if you really take your time.

 

You can disassemble the front & rear and mask up the interior. Anything that saves them time is £35-50 per hour off of the bill.

 

Yeah it's not gonna get scrapped, don't worry!

 

I can take the front wing off myself and it'll make it easier to change the serpentine belt and tensioner that needs doing anyway while I'm in there.

 

The rear is a bit harder, but I'll relieve Crazymarcel's mate of his rear panel which should lighten the price. The sunroof also rattles and the seats need a proper clean, so I could take the roof lining and all but the drivers seat out first as well.

 

I'll see what the elephant approved place quotes for just the insurance claimable damage first, then go from there.

 

I don't mind arguing with the insurance company, it's just the time it takes cos it will delay getting the car fixed.

[Scruffythefirst 0]

you want some help then? Although I'm absolutely rubbish with bodywork.

[Blair 0]

Only just saw this - very, very sorry to see that dinkus :(

 

Not a lot I can add (apart from my condolences) as a lot as been said already. There are so many "mix'n'match" solutions open to you though, I'm sure you can keep the repair costs down and ensure it's not a write-off.

 

For a start, if you can source that brand new rear quarter and a new front wing privately (front wings should be no bother to get, isn't there something going on at Santa Pod tomorrow...?) you could ask the bodyshop to quote simply on labour & paint - because, as you said, otherwise they'll source the parts at full VAG price.

 

It might be worth a tentative call to your insurance company and ask for a definitive answer on what the threshold would be for your car to be written off. They have all the details, they can consult their nasty little black book (you know, the one full of all the sick jokes about how much they think our cars are worth) and should be able to give you an answer. If pressed for WHY you're asking, just say you're concerned because you heard of someone else on the Corrado forum having their car written off for quite a small amount of damage (which wouldn't be a lie :) )

 

Strictly-speaking you're supposed to advise them of ANY accident (whether a claim will be made or not), as the police told me when I recently reported that a lorry had shunted my car, warped the plastic of the rear bumper then refused to give his details. He got back in his cab, kept shouting "move your f***ing car" whilst I was writing down the details of the haulage firm, phone number & reg plate off his cab (he wasn't very bright clearly). He finally screamed "move your f***ing car before I move it for you!" as he revved his engine and started shunting towards the back of the car again, at which point I finished taking down the details, got back in the car and got out of there (with my witness in the passenger seat who had also got out and seen the damage). But I digress...

 

Anyway, back ON topic...as I said, there are a number of ways you can combine things to get it done to ensure it won't be written off. Sorry there's not much more I can do to help - sounds like you've found a decent bodyshop already, but if you get twitchy and want somewhere with a personal recommendation I know the place who used to do the bodywork on all the BRMotorsport demo cars, I've had some work done there in the past and they're excellent. The downside is they're near Rugby!

 

All the best, hope it all works out fine (I'm sure it will :) )

[dinkus 10]

you want some help then? Although I'm absolutely rubbish with bodywork.

 

Nah it's ok, I'm ok for now. I'll let you know if your spanner services are required tho :)

 

BlairThanks for your comments, I'm sure I'll sort something out, it's just a case of getting a respectable amount of money out of the insurance company. The asking of hypothetical questions is a good one though, ugh another thing for Monday I think.

 

I know I'm *technicallly* supposed to tell them regardless, but we shall see.. if they're not gonna give me money to fix my car (rather than writing it off) AND they want to increase my premiums they can go umm 'take a hike' :)

[Blair 0]

Yeah, I meant to say "you're supposed to tell them...but loads of people don't!" :)

 

Best of British luck to you, sir!

[dinkus 10]

Latest update: I took the car down to the other bodyshop I knew today to get them to quote on it, but they wanted £30 just to tell me a price and we about as helpful as a jammed open sunroof. Luckily I hear that their work is good, even if they are slightly pikey gits.

 

So, as this obviously happened yesterday *ahem*, I bit the bullet and called elephant to make a claim. The stupendously nice girl on the other end was very helpful and took all the details and faxed them over to the same bodyshop I'd been to earlier in the day. So I now have to call the bodyshop again tomorrow and arrange to take it back down there for a proper insurance quote.

 

Now, this is the interesting maths bit... the original quote from a known-to-be-expensive place was £2550 inc a few extra bits. So, my excess is £500 :shock:, which takes the actual cost to elephant down to £2k, then minus the cost of the extra bits I wanted done too (I'll pay for them separately) and we're looking at about £1750ish cost to elephant. Which, even with their silly valuation of the car's value should still be ok (just) for getting repaired instead of written off. But we shall see...

[stevemac 0]

Hope you have more insurance company luck than I usually get - they've written off everything that I've crashed so far :oops:

 

Just remembered - there was 1 that wasn't written off. Some idiot ran into the back of me in traffic on the M1 about 2 years ago - that vehicle was repaired !!

[dinkus 10]

Hope you have more insurance company luck than I usually get - they've written off everything that I've crashed so far :oops:

 

You make it sound like a weekly occurance? :)

 

Well last time I smashed something up I got away with it not being a write off by about |--| much, so hopefully I can do it again. We shall see though.

[stevemac 0]

Hope you have more insurance company luck than I usually get - they've written off everything that I've crashed so far :oops:

 

You make it sound like a weekly occurance? :)

 

5 cars & 1 panel van so far :oops:

 

Hope you get sorted soon :wink:

[dinkus 10]

5 cars & 1 panel van so far :oops:

 

Hope you get sorted soon :wink:

 

:lol: nice one!

 

Hopefully repair work will start this week, depending on how much I have to argue with the insurance company... no idea how long it's gonna take, but I guess a good few weeks?

[crazymarcel 0]

Dinkus,

 

spoke to my mate, he rang up vw and its about 520 or somethin with vat for the panel.

 

He would take 350 if u want it, i dont have any pics, but could get u some if u wanted, but too be honest its just a big black quarter panel, no damage no problems, just how it come from vw, still with the stickers etc on it.. He also has the window if u need it or the rear panel.

 

I dont mind if u dont want it can get yours sorted elsewhere, but if u do want it, its only in Norwich.

[dinkus 10]

I'd certainly like the panel & window and that's a damn good price, so I'll see what the guys at the bodyshop say tomorrow.

 

I'll PM you when I know for sure I'll get it and I can come pop over to pick it up.

 

Thanks dude ;)

[crazymarcel 0]

No problem mate :D

[dinkus 10]

So the car went in to get the official insurance quote at P&R today and the guy there was the most miserable sod on the face of the planet and generally not very helpful as far as write off/being ok went. But it sounds like they do a good job, so hopefully the work will be ok if/when they do it.

 

I've now got to wait for elephant to get back in touch with me and give me the verdict. If I haven't heard anything by Friday, I'll call them.

[Supercharged 2]

Good luck mate - Its gonna be a close one!!

[dinkus 10]

Yeah tell me about it, but hopefully I'll be able to argue them round and get them to cough up for repairs.

 

If there is anything mechanical that needs fixing, I'll try and get them to leave it and I'll do it myself. The panel from Crazymarcel should also help a fair bit. We shall see though, it's just a case of waiting it out now.