Time to first damage (The Golf Accident Thread)

[Jasonpb]

Think I have a jinxed car, driving straight down the road and a silly old b&$^$ pulled straight out in front of me from an alley way. Went straight onto ABS and stopped with about 5cm spare, old lady just kept on driving as if nothing happened even though I had my horn held down.

Worrying part is 50km/h straight into the drivers side of a 1980s ford laser probably would have killed her.

[Ryan_R]

Oh dear - I hope you didn't have the beige leather seats

Some people really shouldn't be on the roads

[jj77]

5 months 5 days after picking up my GTI Mk6 - I will remember Rememberance Day.

Find out tomorrow if it can be saved.

Luckily my wife is all right - she was getting ready to pick me up from hospital (after a knee operation) where I thought I would not be able to drive my car for 4 days - it will be a little longer now.

Ouch - it's painful to see the pics. Glad to hear that your wife is alright. I hope everything goes well, GTi Crow. Keep us updated.

J

[jj77]

The GTI is my first brand new car purchased, can't believe how anally paranoid I was (still am after 7weeks). Here are some embarassing habits I got into; going around looking for the widest bay or emptiest area of the car park and parking as far from the crowd as possible. As if this wasn't enough, I started memorizing the number plates of the cars parked next to mine!
I find parking next to more expensive/newer cars helps ease my mind . If s*** happens, someone else is gonna hurt more than me
Yea kerbs are a b**** esp for the detroits.

OMG I thought I was the only one does that and + my brother. It sounds selfish but good to hear that others are going through a painful process to find a safe spot to park the car. I would also go around to find parking next to more expensive/newer cars AND also clean cars - I think those who look after their car would pay the same attention/respect not to damage other people's cars.

J

[GTi Crow]

Wouldnt the fault be on the guy who had put on the incorrect signal. Without that, there would not have been an accident? I would argue that.

Can't prove it and police look at it in black and white - car entering the road from a private entrance (shopping centre) is normally considered at fault so it seems. The question of who could have avoided the accident if driving with due care is another completely different issue and not taken into account it seems. Anyway, fault is not something to discuss, only what the insurance company are going to do is the only thing that interests me.

Which insurer? And have they decided to repair or write off? My pug 308 had similar damage. Insured with AAMI. 6 months to repair via 3 different repairers. Never insuring with AAMI again and will ensure that if I crash any other car in the future, need to make sure it's a write off... The car will never be the same post repairs... Take 100s of photos pre repair work... You have to protect yourself... Get repairs then checked by a reputable VW dealer...

RAA - they have been good so far. Looks like they will authorise repair - not quite enough to write-off - I guess all those options I paid for counted against me in that decision. My major concern is that the two rails the car is built on both have a crimp in them. Evidently there is a process that the rails can be cut at a specific point as the crimp is near then end and new section fitted without affecting crash ability of car. The crash repair has been authorised to strip the front of the car to make sure there is no further damaged they haven't anticipated - such as broken engine mountings etc. (which would probably make car a write-off).

The crash repair is the authorised VW repairer for Adelaide (made sure car was trucked to them after crash) and the motor will be taken apart and put back together by the local VW dealer's service area, so I can't get better support than that. Did a really good job repairing my son's Polo GTi a few years ago. Here is the part that hurts - 3 to 4 months to be repaired. Throw in Christmas period and the fact parts will have to come from Germany and time flies.

Major problem is how do I get through the period until I have my GTI back. Had been considering upgrading my wife's drive - may now have to buy a new one and sell her old one when the GTI is on the road again - this option has some cost downside as I hate privately selling cars and I might have to wait for the car anyway, but it is a good time with all the sales on to buy at the moment.

[Corey_R]

Well, with any luck mate, as they're pulling it apart, they'll find more damage and the cost will get to a point where they just right it off.
That's what happened with my MKV GTI.

[ratedr]

Never insure with Suncorp if you have any regard to the protection of your property or safety. Avoid GIO, AAMI, APIA, Just Car, etc etc... Under Suncorp, avoid at all costs. Down right cheap and the cars are lining up at IVIC, independent smash repair inspection centre.

[MurphyTheElf]

I feel for this poor TDI owner:



The missus and I were out walking the dog in the middle of suburbia, and along comes this TDI doing handbrakies around corners like a madman. I couldn't help but comment on how the bloke was driving it like he stole it. Turns out I was spot on.

[DeanoTDI]

There is someone who obviously doesn't care about the 103TDI getting around Sydney atm. Silver Comfortline with front VW badge missing, dented front NS bumper with bruise, N/S Mirror Missing, N/S bodywork Scraped and dented on both doors. Hole in Bumper on O/S rear and not to mention she was smoking in it! i didnt pay much attention to the Alloys but they'd probably be scratched to the ****house too.

[AdamD]

The missus and I were out walking the dog in the middle of suburbia, and along comes this TDI doing handbrakies around corners like a madman. I couldn't help but comment on how the bloke was driving it like he stole it. Turns out I was spot on.

Slightly OT here - I wonder how you'd pinch one without having access to the keys. Or maybe this ******* did.

You were able to report his description to the police?