Hi all,
Posting this up for information and reference purposes.
At 8.45am on Monday morning 12th August my beloved mk2 was murdered by a red Volkswagen beetle.
I was on my way to work and approaching a side road to my left, the Volkswagen beetle was approaching me on the opposite side of the road and decided turn down the side road without the common courtesy of waiting until i had passed by. I was literally meters away. This was a 60mph road.
I had two options - slam on the brakes and have a a full head on collision, or hit the brakes while ducking to the left (where there was no other cars as the beetle had panicked and stopped in what was my lane. Other cars were still coming from the opposite side of the road). I choose to avoid the beetle as much as i could and head to the side.
Fortunately I wasn't doing near 60mph and I avoided a head on impact, unfortunately I couldn't avoid the beetle completely. The beetle got me in the front drivers wheel, up the side of the car and eventually the rear drivers side wheel. This set of the drivers seat airbag, sent me towards and down a ditch, through a fence at narrow angle meaning I had at least five posts to contend with and landed me in a field. Hairy!
Once I landed, I braced myself for the pain to kick in, but much to my amazement none of my bones or blood made a bid to GTFO.
I got out and went to check on the lady driving the beetle who was physically fine, but soon after she started to become very upset...understandable considering what she just witnessed due to her actions. The beetle literally had a hole the size of a forearm on the front bumper which absolutely staggered me, as the noise and impact I felt lead me to believe the whole front of the bettle would be smashed in. I soon after realised the explosion of the airbag was responsible for some of the noise, which has resulted in my hear still 'ringing' as I'm writing this amongst other aches and pains.
A witness came and gave me his details fairly quick telling me he witnessed the whole thing, and the police turned up and talked with the driver of the Volkswagen beetle who admitted full responsibility at the scene.
If any of you guys are into your bikes and keeping up to date with the Ulster Grand Prix road race this week...I 'landed' right in the middle of the Lindsay Hairpin much to the dismay of the marshals erecting safety padding to posts and gates immediately near by! The repair of a fence was the last thing they needed, so I was told...but hey!
Anyhoo after what seemed like a thousand calls to insurance companies using my other ear, which is weird btw, the car was eventually recovered to a local accident repair centre. I called them today to see what the status was, to which they confirmed my initial suspicions...that the car is a total loss.
Here's a few pics:












And in its former glory:

Now I'm left to wait on what I will be offered by the insurance company. Does any body have any experience with this?
I done a quick free car valuation and it returned an average value of £7500. Is this likely to be my settlement figure as I have trawled a few websites with vee's for sale with values ranging from low teens to near £20k for mk2's (obviously mileage, age and colour dependant, etc).
It would be good to know if I can expect a realistic private sale value as a settlement or even a like for like replacement??
Posting this up for information and reference purposes.
At 8.45am on Monday morning 12th August my beloved mk2 was murdered by a red Volkswagen beetle.
I was on my way to work and approaching a side road to my left, the Volkswagen beetle was approaching me on the opposite side of the road and decided turn down the side road without the common courtesy of waiting until i had passed by. I was literally meters away. This was a 60mph road.
I had two options - slam on the brakes and have a a full head on collision, or hit the brakes while ducking to the left (where there was no other cars as the beetle had panicked and stopped in what was my lane. Other cars were still coming from the opposite side of the road). I choose to avoid the beetle as much as i could and head to the side.
Fortunately I wasn't doing near 60mph and I avoided a head on impact, unfortunately I couldn't avoid the beetle completely. The beetle got me in the front drivers wheel, up the side of the car and eventually the rear drivers side wheel. This set of the drivers seat airbag, sent me towards and down a ditch, through a fence at narrow angle meaning I had at least five posts to contend with and landed me in a field. Hairy!
Once I landed, I braced myself for the pain to kick in, but much to my amazement none of my bones or blood made a bid to GTFO.
I got out and went to check on the lady driving the beetle who was physically fine, but soon after she started to become very upset...understandable considering what she just witnessed due to her actions. The beetle literally had a hole the size of a forearm on the front bumper which absolutely staggered me, as the noise and impact I felt lead me to believe the whole front of the bettle would be smashed in. I soon after realised the explosion of the airbag was responsible for some of the noise, which has resulted in my hear still 'ringing' as I'm writing this amongst other aches and pains.
A witness came and gave me his details fairly quick telling me he witnessed the whole thing, and the police turned up and talked with the driver of the Volkswagen beetle who admitted full responsibility at the scene.
If any of you guys are into your bikes and keeping up to date with the Ulster Grand Prix road race this week...I 'landed' right in the middle of the Lindsay Hairpin much to the dismay of the marshals erecting safety padding to posts and gates immediately near by! The repair of a fence was the last thing they needed, so I was told...but hey!
Anyhoo after what seemed like a thousand calls to insurance companies using my other ear, which is weird btw, the car was eventually recovered to a local accident repair centre. I called them today to see what the status was, to which they confirmed my initial suspicions...that the car is a total loss.
Here's a few pics:












And in its former glory:

Now I'm left to wait on what I will be offered by the insurance company. Does any body have any experience with this?
I done a quick free car valuation and it returned an average value of £7500. Is this likely to be my settlement figure as I have trawled a few websites with vee's for sale with values ranging from low teens to near £20k for mk2's (obviously mileage, age and colour dependant, etc).
It would be good to know if I can expect a realistic private sale value as a settlement or even a like for like replacement??