[Adrian E]

Hi Sergey

I had similar issues dealing with someone acting as a 3rd party accident management co on behalf of the numpty that drove into the S5. I decided to go through my own insurer in the end. it is clear the 3rd party agent's main interest is in keeping the total bill down.

You can still do the same. Tell your insurer they are messing you about, with the top end valuation they've given you so far. Ask what they can do. My bet is that the salvage buy back figure will be way lower, but you still get your £8k valuation.

Don't forget where there is no question of liability on you, your insurer will be quite happy to look after you, knowing they can simply send the bill to the 3rd party and it will have to be paid, assuming no questionable costs for credit hire cars.....

On your question a couple of pages back if I'd go back to a D2, I don't know if I could answer to be honest. I loved my S8, and I knew it pretty well. If I bought another I'd always be comparing it to that, but since the main reason for selling it was that it just wasn't practical for the kind of use I needed a car for, I can't imagine a circumstance where a D2 S8 was the answer to the question. if I had another big Audi I suspect a C7 S6 or RS6 would feature higher up the wish list, because it does load lugging of the kind I need a big car for. The S5 just about does that now.

I have a classic (bizarrely in this case the 2nd example of the type I've owned, but the 1st was a bit of a dog!) which lives down at my parents. I use it once every couple of years, for a couple of months over the summer, and then put it away again. I really don't know why I keep hold of it! My dad asked if I was considering selling it, but at the moment I can't bring myself to. The advantage of that car is it's half the size of a D2, so garaging isn't such a problem, and aside from a cambelt every 5 years and getting stuff to work 20+ years after most were scrapped, it's relatively painless to own. It is, however, a hatchback, which means I can use it at weekends for lugging my hobby stuff about.

If I had a barn to store a selection of cars in, all in working order, all legal to use on a whim, I'd definitely have another (lottery garage territory)