Write-off repair

[Radebe2k]

Step son ran into the back of another car, corner to corner contact but it looks as if he clocked the rear wheel of their car with his front drivers side, as the wheel was turned it has bent the steering arm and buggered the guard,

Panel is easy to replace, the steering arm shouldn't be too many hassles either, but insurance have written the car off as they would replace the whole suspension and possibly rack too.

It was a low speed impact so initially looks fairly superficial. Are the Mk4's weak or strong on the front?

Basically after advice on what else I ought to consider (steering rack, struts, shocks, control arms, CVs), we have a buy-back figure and have gone through costs of basic replacement parts, inspection and examination, re-registration and all that jazz.

Ta

[h100vw]

Will the car have cost you 50% of the un-damaged value when it's back on the street? ie They give you the car and $4k. You get it roadworthy again for $2k and have money in the bank.

If not, take the payout and buy something else.

You haven't mentioned what model, that would be a massive factor in the economics. Finding a good 1600 gearbox is like collecting baby unicorn tears for a bath.

[Radebe2k]

It's a basic model with the 1.6 SE engine, I understand the finances of it all just trying to gauge if it's worth it. we will still be well-in pocket if we do get a payout and buy back.

In impacts such as the one he had, are the steering arms the weak link to save other components?

Any info is good as my step-daughter has a new Beetle too so most of the stuff learnt on one will work on the other!

[h100vw]

Cars are disposable at best, so i am not seeing them design in weak points. The insurance company will be looking at worst case scenarios, so replacing the rack so the owner doesn't come back 10 minutes after getting the car returned, with steering problems is high on their agenda.

Have you seen a list from the assessor or can you get it? I might just proceed by missing out the expensive stuff and see what you can get everything else for from a breakers.

Try CamdenGTI in Sydney. No idea what you might be able to get in WA. Matt has lots of stuff on the shelf and tons of cars in the yard.

[Radebe2k]

what you've said matches up with what I reckon we could get away with, we have the list and it's a side of a4 without all the other mumbo-jumbo, basically anything that doesn't make up the chassis of the car is on there, and a question mark over the rack as that would have to be inspected before judging if it wasn't buggered too, although saying that they have moved the car around the yard so that would suggest that most is ok.

I guess it's a case of getting the wheels straight again then getting it checked for alignment as if he's bent the control arms etc. then we are looking bigger $$$.

If we get it back and then find it's uneconomical to do then at least i guess parting it out would be an option, given that you say the gearboxes are as common as rocking horse poo then we could make a bit of extra.

[Hillbilly]

Is it legally registerable after the write off In some states once its written off thats it.

There are repairable write offs and complete write offs.

Might pay to check first

[JustCruisn]

The 2 writeoffs are simply those which are uneconomical to repair and those which are not safe for repair.
If you are spinning the spanners yourself it is likely to be cheaper to buy back the wreck. But for me the rest of the car would have to be fairly special to make me want to do that.

[wai]

It comes down to whether the collapsible points of the structure have "worked". There are necking points on the structure that are designed to fail. If they are deformed, then it is extremely difficult and costly to do an acceptable repair.