Another one had an accident
 

Not happy with my Sainsbury's delivery this afternoon. Th driver chose to rearrange the front of my S8 :mad:

I'm supposed to be driving it to Ireland on Tuesday too...

Attachment 13832

caught, fault admitted and insurance ok?

Sucks to see this happening to our cars, its like they are magnets for bad drivers, I know they are big, but it seems all of our damage comes from when we aren't even in them!

Yeah, he was delivering to us anyway. I've called Audi Ensurance so will see what happens now. Bristol Audi will be fixing it.

Damn :(

Really feel for you Pete. I hope you get it fixed soon.

Thanks, it's just that I could really do without the hassle now! I'm getting an A8 hire car as replacement though and on the plus side, I no longer need to fit the PDC sensor I bought from A8 Parts as it should now be fixed under the insurance!

Thats really crap!! its bad when you do it yourself but doubly so when some asole does it to you. :(

Sorry to hear this and can emphathise after mine was hit recently. Glad to hear that fault wasn't questioned - too easy for people to say it was the other way around!

The driver was very apologetic about it. Just an accident and no one was hurt.

My concern now is that the insurance company may write it off, there's a fair amount of stuff needing replacing on the front plus the hire car...:Confused:

The hire car is irrelevant to write-off decisions, they need to do that as the collision screwed up your travel plans. It's a cost they have to bear whatever.

Insist on a repair, it's your right, the damage doesn't look significant.
If they argue insist they find an equivalent replacement first - you know they can't!

That argument worked for me on my first S8, and it was stolen and crashed with no-one found to blame/charge. Over £20K to fix but they did it! :eek:

Omg these people you saw mine not as bad as that it got wrote off that was for just two doors some one left there handbrake off it rolled into mine then on mothers day a women pulls out ito the side of me look in my pic folders you will see damage hope you get it fixed

This looks mainly cosmetic, so as long as the bonnet and wings aren't damaged you should be fine. New bonnets are LHD only and have to be modified to fit, which takes time/labour.

Assuming it's limited to bumper, grills, under headlight trims etc then it won't be cheap but shouldn't write the car off.

Those little painted trims under the headlights are about £40 each unpainted. Parking sensors, using genuine parts, are over £100 each.

It does look mostly to be plastic parts that are broken so hopefully will be ok, although the driver's side light has lifted a bit so not sure what's broken underneath everything. The whole crash bar has been pulled forward too. Should find out more next week when the garage get it.

As I understand it, when the damage is light/cosmetic, the decision whether to write it off or not is yours to make, not theirs.

I was in a similar situation with a previous A8 I had about 10 years ago when some elderly bloke ran in to the back of me (without braking @ 30-40mph) while I was stopped at a set of temporary traffic lights. His car, a flimsy little Ford focus, was obliterated by the impact (engine pushed right back, almost nothing left of the front end) while my car had a cracked bumper, a small dent in the boot lid and a broken exhaust mount. Fortunately he admitted fault immediately (told me he didn't see the stationary cars because he was looking at some houses at the side of the road!).

The insurance company valued my car pretty low (something like £2.5K from memory). They estimated that the repair (inc. a brand new bumper, boot lid and exhaust) would exceed the value of the car so they were pushing to write it off. I don't remember exactly how the process worked (partly because I had someone deal with the insurance company on my behalf) but I ended up keeping the car and received £1600 from the insurance instead. Essentially I think you 'buy back' your car from them and they deduct it's salvage value from what they would've paid you to replace it. If dealt with correctly, as long as the damage is only light, no insurance write-off should be registered against the car.

In the end, I had the existing bumper and boot-lid repaired and repainted and the broken exhaust mount replaced for a little over £600, leaving me nearly £1000 in profit!

Damn that sucks :mad:

I had many near-misses in my '99 where people just didn't see it. How do you not see a car that big? The A4 and A6 are nothing like as bad. Its very odd.

I have workshop facilities in the SW if you do end up in a payout and fix it yourself situation +++

gutted to see this damage makes me rage :mad:

that can easily be repaired damage looks minor i would not be happy if they complain about it being a write off

stand your ground and get it back looking mint again +++

Thanks everyone, I'll certainly stand my ground that they don't write it off. My hire car arrived today and it's rather nice!

Attachment 13844

Sainsbury's should bend over backwards to make sure you're happy with how they handle this - and that includes getting it fixed to your satisfaction, regardless of what the insurance company may say.

And looking on the bright side - you get to pile the miles for the Ireland trip on an Audi hire car, and not your own S8 ;)

You have my total sympathy. It is heart rending when you look after them so well.

So I've received a copy of the quotation... It's coming in at £3,482+vat.

Most of this is for parts at £2,502, not helped that it seems a new headlamp is required at £889.

Only some paintwork required on the body, no new panels required, which is a relief. It's with Sainsbury's to approve now, they've already (obviously) admitted liability.

Assuming you have bi-xenons they're defo extortionate new!

Worth asking to keep the old one as a source for spares :)

You do realise you'll now have one shiny new headlight and one duller old one. You need someone to reverse into the other side now.

That's a good point :( let's hope it won't stand out too much. I think I'm a little more concerned that the chrome strips on the front bumper will be nice and shiny when all the others are a little milky.

Don't worry, you can polish the existing light and it'll get close to the newer one.

Fingers crossed for you, buddy. +++

The outer lens can be replaced without buying a whole new unit, but they're a funny design anyway so I don't expect any difference to be noticeable.

This is taking a while to sort...

Apparently it's borderline uneconomical to repair. :mad: They are going to send an engineer out to asses my car, maybe he'll just do a desktop assessment. Possibly the good thing is that there are only a couple for sale and at decent prices (including a LHD one at £15k!). Maybe this will help on a valuation I don't know, I guess it depends on the engineer knowing the difference between an A8 and an S8.

I'm going to stand my ground that it's repaired as the D2 S8 is a fairly rare car and hard to replace. I've also asked the garage if the headlamp is damaged or could be used, since this is adding a lot to the estimate. They've said that the bracket is broken but could be bonded if this reduces the estimate enough.

Time will tell... In the meantime I still have the D4 hire car.

Th D4 hire car will be costing them more than the headlight and probably the full repair :Confused:

Is it one of the top tabs which screws to the slam panel? You can get repair kits for those for about £20 - 4D0998121A. They screw to the housing in place of the broken tab.

I know, you'd think they would worry about that more than the cost to repair the car.

I'm not sure it's the tab, it looks more like the housing. I can't see for myself yet as too far away, but here is the photo from the estimate.

Attachment 13926

There doesn't look to be anything wrong there :Confused:

If you look carefully he is pointing to a small crack. I didn't notice it the first time. It seems a waste to replace the whole unit just because of that.

Not happy...
 

It seems the engineer has given my car a 'market value' of £2500. :Confused: This being the reason for writing it off.

I can find two for sale, one being Professor Peach's (although he's taken a deposit now) at £7k and another which has no photos and suggest it's a 1998 pre-facelift at £8k.

What's the best way to tell them they're ignorant pen pushers and it's worth more than the £2,500? Just forward the adverts or something else? :Confused::mad:

I don't think you'll be able to persuade them to change their valuation. I think they use reference data, based on trade values, that they have to adhere to.

Like I said earlier (here), same thing happened to me. It should be possible to get them to agree to give you a cash payout instead. In which case you would get to keep the car (without any recorded write-off against it) and the £2.5K that they would've paid you to replace it, though they may offer less as a cash payout, or deduct the scrap value. You're then free to take the car anywhere you like for the repair and have it repaired with used parts if you prefer.

Ffs thats total BS :mad: I paid more than that for mine with known engine problems.

Can't you negotiate the value by showing other similar examples? I've done that before although it was a long time ago. If they consider it a write-off and pay out surely it does get recorded?

Oh and another thing - I was looking at my headlight the other day and it looks *exactly* like your picture. Is someone mistaking the gap between the rubber seal and the plastic housing as a crack? If it doesn't need a headlight could you get them to just repair the bodywork?

This - keep it polite.

They need to put you back into pre-claim position, that could be by repairing your car, they could find you an equivalent car that you are happy with or they can give you a cash settlement.

If they are insistent on cash (or if you prefer that and they agree) then ask them to find you another similar car for sale for £2,500. Bear in mind, you are not a trader so it is retail value that counts - not trade. Alternatively you may be able to agree a partial payment/keep the car also known as a contract repair, they pay you and you get it fixed as you see fit.

Good luck with your negotiations +++

I used that "find me one the same for that price" when insurers were thinking of writing off my PF S8 some years ago (stolen, crashed and recovered with major body damage). I knew they couldn't, not least because it was pretty much unique.

They fixed it. Cost a LOT - I saw the bills, needed a whole new rear quarter panel which is a MASSIVE piece of aluminium.

That's terrible - did you persue this through Audi Assurance as you mentioned at the start? I thought if it was the third party who was liable, they couldn't write it off so easily. I know you have a duty to mitigate your losses but it's not like your car is damaged all over, it's just a minor shunt that happens to be on a rare classic performance car as as such, I think it is reasonable that you expect it to be repaired.

Maybe send them this link......

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/search/used/cars/audi/s8/

+++

Thanks everyone. +++ Hopefully I'll get it sorted, of course it means I need the hire car for longer although I will be mitigating my losses by changing it for something a little smaller. Maybe an A6 or Q5, not sure our rear facing car seat would work well in anything much smaller.

This is the thing, they've offered £2.5k but will 'dispose of the salvage', so presumably if I say I want to fix it myself they'll reduce this 'offer'...

I've no idea on the headlight, but it seems that it's fairly insignificant given the valuation at this point. You'd think they would know and I've told the garage I'm happy for it to be repaired.

I've sent them the links for these:

Professor Peach Now sold though.

Dealer Pre-Facelift? No photos. :tuttut:

What I think has happened is that they've used the Glasses guide (I think Audi Ensurance lady even said that). This appears to base the value on a standard A8 as I've done a basic valuation on their website and it came back at £1.5k, they've then added on the 'optional extras' (although standard equipment on an S8) to give the value at £2.5k.

I think they'll want to deduct what they would've got for it as scrap. I'm fairly sure that's what happened in my case. If they're valuing it at £2.5K in good working condition, their valuation as a damaged/scrap vehicle shouldn't be more than a few hundred quid. I would imagine a good body shop could make it as good as new for much less than the insurer's estimate by repairing existing parts or using used parts, so the pay-out should more than cover it.

This is the perfect advice, they are under contract to return you to your pre-accident position

And never accept the first offer, wait until at least the 3rd

And see if you can get any help from the legal expenses element of your insurance if you have it