Hello. I'm hoping to get some opinions / advice. I was rear ended recently in my 2006 2.0 Tfsi (petrol turbo) A6 Avant. It's an older petrol car, I know. It has however been looked after particularly well, serviced every year, bodywork kept well, always clean, fluids always topped up, never thrashed. only 130k kms. The damage however extends to the rear bumper, exhaust, and boot lid (estate car).
The value I have been given for writing it off is €4500. Which at first thought seems a decent amount all said and done. But I've been looking at trying to price this up myself and there aren't any like this available in Ireland at the moment. To import one from the UK, same car, works out over €7k. Now, yes the markets are different, but currently if I wanted to replace the car for the same, this is how much it would cost me.
Finally, I've also got confused with my options. Can anyone describe what salvage and keep the car means?
TIA for any helpful replies and suggestions. Cheers
The value of 4500 is what they have determined to be the current market value of the car here. Unfortunately even though there are little or no similar cars for sale here they won't pay what it costs to import one from the UK. You could try to negotiate a slightly higher valuation stating the above case but you won't get anywhere near 7k for it.
Salvage is basically what a scrap dealer will offer to buy the car from the insurance company for as the car will become the insurance company's property once you agree to accept their settlement figure.
Keeping the car in the above context would mean that you can buy the car back off the insurance company for it's salvage value and look to get it repaired yourself. They will deduct the salvage value from the write off amount they agree to settle with you. For example if they salvage value is 1500 they they will settle 3000 + the car.
If you can source the replacement parts for reasonable money that's way cheaper than buying a replacement car then it makes to buy the car back off them and get it repaired yourself. The bumper and boot lid might be straight forward enough to source from a scrap yard though take into account the possibility of having to get them resprayed if you cannot find them in the same colour as your existing car. The exhaust might have to be bought brand new as one from a scrap yard might be uneconomical if it's been sitting in the elements for some time.
