D2 was rear ended at car wash. what's next?

[Spanker]

Only just seen this Sergey. What a horrible feeling this must have left you with.

I recall seeing the car at Durker Roods Hotel last year and admiring the attention to detail that had gone into the presentation and upkeep of it. I recall voting it as my second favourite A8 at the meeting.
Such a shame.

My first aqua blue A8 2.8 (given to MJ and now in the possession of Mike) had some slight damage to the rear arch and my insurance company wrote it off. The driver who hit it didn't inform me (it happened whilst the car was parked overnight) so I had to take the hit on the no claims bonus.
The damage to the aluminium, in my eyes, was repairable but Direct Line weren't interested in that. Their assessor asked me how much I paid for it. I told him £1950 and he said: "OK, I'm prepared to pay you that". I wish I had exaggerated the car cost now a little.
I got my payment and then happened to ask what was going to happen to the car. He told me a local company would collect it for parts so I asked how much for me to buy back. He said "£80" so I didn't bother haggling.

I bought Big Red (now also with MJ) with damage to the rear (replacement boot lid sourced from Prestige Motors) and the rear quarter section where the light is recessed had damage and creasing to the aluminium. The garage next door to my workplace did a fair job at fixing the creasing and repainting so fettling aluminium back from a creased and buckled state can be done to an acceptable standard.

As for getting an acceptable settlement price (if it goes that way), Oxon Classic Cars (formerly Oxford Autosports) usually have inflated prices on show for their A8's and S8's when they have them.
Their 3.7 QS is advertised at £5250 (unless you look here or here)

Admittedly the guy has no clue on pricing (see here or here or here for the same car) but it may help if you are trying to negotiate a settlement (not sure how what financial value you put on your car before the accident).

But food for thought......

Good luck whichever way it goes.

[Adrian E]

saloons are a bugger to repair if the replacement panel/section goes near the C pillar, whether steel or aluminium. Difficult to disguise a repair in that area in the long term. It CAN be done, but most repairers won't do it to that standard and eventually it'll start to show. Maybe 5 years down the line, but eventually.

[notorious]

Thank you Dean and all other friends!
Awesome info!

>> What does it look like where the blue arrow is with the boot open?

MJ, internal black plastic panels have all shifted a little when boot is open.
I'll try to make a picture later.

[MikkiJayne]

The thought occurs that it might be worth making an inventory of all the good / new / unusual stuff you've fitted to it, then we can consider what effort might be needed to swap that over to a replacement D2. Re-shelling is a misnomer for 'swapping all the good stuff' really, since a replacement would be complete to start with.

Also consider that if you can find a low-mileage (<100K) replacement, you save £1200 on cam tensioners alone, potentially much of the rest of the engine work we were considering too. We could spend that time swapping stuff over instead.

[Goran]

Sergey if you are going to re-shell everything but the engine why not upgrade to a 4.2 or S8?

[MikkiJayne]

That was my thinking too - no reason to stick specifically to a 3.7.

I find 3.7s happen by accident simply because the car is in the right place at the right time. My first one was like that, ditto General Vod. I think Neil probably got his for the same reason.

So, when searching for a replacement, as long as it has a V8 its all good The uber-rare Sergey-only steel front hubs won't swap on to an S8, but an FE would have steel hubs anyway.

[Adrian E]

I think Sergey found the power delivery a little too 'immediate' in my old S8 (or maybe it was my fairly heavy right foot?!) but suspect a 4.2 would be an easier find, in a very small pool of candidates.

Need to start random searching of eBay, Gumtree, Pistonheads etc etc. I've started seeing a really tidy P plate 4.2 near me (although it could be a private plate, as it looks like a facelift to me)

[The_Laird]

Originally Posted by MikkiJayne

The thought occurs that it might be worth making an inventory of all the good / new / unusual stuff you've fitted to it, then we can consider what effort might be needed to swap that over to a replacement D2.

Might be a much shorter list if he made an inventory of the new stuff he hasn’t fitted to it!

[RS6]

Absolutely gutted to see this please keep us posted with updates hopefully something can be done to repair it or at least transfer parts to another car

[ainarssems]

Gearbox ratios are a bit of letdown on S8, it's not really a track car with the size and weight and auto box so no need for such short 5th gear.

Same with B6 S4 very short 6th gear but why? Its limited to 155mph and can do 153mph in 5th before hitting rev limiter so what's the point, it's not like 6th gear will offer any performance benefits, it's only there for cruising so why not make it so that car has 2000 rpm @70mph instead of 3000rpm? At least they changed it on later S cars with them being 1800-2000rpm @70mph. If I was going to keep S4 long time I would probably swap in 6th gear from TDI .

Anyway rant over and pdfs attached with some D2 gearbox ratios