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RIP no. 237

matt81irl

New Member
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??
 
Actually gutted for you pal.
Must be devastating.

Glad your alright, that's the main thing. Cars can be replaced.
 
I'm really sorry to hear of your accident, good to see you've walked away though.

Insurance companies safety card sometimes is "how much did you value the car on your policy?" . . . They don't tend to go above your valuation in my experience by much
 
Absolutely, health is always the main thing and isn't to be underestimated.

So now comes replacing the irreplaceable :-(



Could admin please move this to the right section please.
 
Like the others dude, glad you and anyone else is ok. I think we can all relate to the stomach churn you get when you see this sort of thing. Hope you get what you want from the insurance company :approve:
 
Gutted to see this mate :( so sorry as the car looked very very well looked after. At least you are in one piece. Hope you get a decent settlement. :salut:
 
sam bignell":32sg0y7z said:
I'm really sorry to hear of your accident, good to see you've walked away though.

Insurance companies safety card sometimes is "how much did you value the car on your policy?" . . . They don't tend to go above your valuation in my experience by much

I'll have to dig my policy out and see what's what on it.

But here's a question, what if it could be argued prices have went up since it was valued for the policy!?
It's been a while since I last looked at how much vee's are selling for (few years) and it really seems like they are holding their value very well despite the cars obviously becoming older with a few more miles on them.
 
Cheers guys.

I haven't had a traffic collision since the day I started driving 13ish years ago and would consider myself quite a defensive driver, but in cases like this there is just nothing you can do to avoid an accident. You really are subject to other people's 'lapses of concentration'.

Certainly makes you feel very mortal. Expect the unexpected!!
 
That's bad news m8 but as said above at least your ok, what a shame , thing is with insurance company's they will not pay out above your valuation ( sorry)
 
Sorry to read about your loss Matt, but as said before it's replaceable but your not. Look on the bright side your here to tell the story.
Best thing you could do is provide your insurance with all the vees for sale as you 'should' be able to replace your car 'like for like' with the payout. Hope you get a quick and reasonable settlement.
 
Sorry to see/hear this, but glad you are okay, and that nobody was hurt.......but I am sure you must be gutted.

Best is to gather as much intelligence (i.e. adverts for cars for sale, magazine articles etc) as you can re values. If you want to send me a PM with your email address and I will see what I can dig up re magazine articles on values, scan and email them to you.

All the best.
 
oh man, sorry to read this, I'm truly gutted for you, but reiterate that the car is just a car and I'm glad your ok - ringing ear aside.

I hope your experience with the insurance company is too painful and hope you get another v6 back in your life.
 
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