Mk5 r32 write off advice

[TomEP]

One of guys at work has a 07 plate r32 with only 46k on clock, dsg, bucket seats. Got hit from behind by a disco last week, impact was quite high on boot rather than on rear bumper. Car still runs.

Insurance company want to write it off and have offered £9.5k. He can buy it for £2.5k from them - they say repair bill is £9k which sounds bloody high. It's his wives car and she is quite attached to it. On basis the buckets and engine alone will be worth more than £2.5k he is thinking of buying it.

Does anyone know a decent repairer around Oxford way who could take a look at it? He knows it will be cat d but this doesn't really bother him as he'll run it into ground

[SMB]

Are the rear quarters damaged? If the hit was high it will most likely need , a new tailgate, perhaps a floor, rear panel, and repairs to qtrs. if that's the case it will probably be quoted to repainting all the back end and most of the way down the sides if not end to end. In my old mk5 I was hit from the rear by a transit, repair cost was 4k in 2009', and that included only one qtr panel being repaired. The key is probably that they expect the car to be off the road for at least 4 weeks , and the settlement accounts for hire car charges ontop of the repair estimate, and this is a chance to cut their losses early.

For me the car was never the same post repair, it went back once as corrosion started to appear around the joins, was repaired again under warranty and sold shortly after. And that was from a vw approved repair centre.

[rich83]

Take settlement (9.5k is good offer IMO) and buy the car back.... then break it. You'll get about a 800-1000 just for the front 2 seats.

[SuperchargedVR6]

Increasingly common to crush cars instead of repairing them these days. Probably just as well because workmanship quality absolutely sucks in this country. I'd rather take the money and start over than let some apathetic apes hand back a botch job.