The death of a good friend

[Albervin]

On the night of Australia Day my Superb V6 wagon was struck by lightning. All computers were down and the battery discharged itself. All attempts at resuscitation have failed so it has been written off. only 40,000km and still immaculate, it is so unfair. I was on Phillip Island at the time and I live in Wollongong. Up until then not one problem with it.

[Rooboy]

Ouch! That sucks and so far from home. Sorry for your loss.

[dArK5HaD0w]

Fark Me!!!
And u had the V6 version!
Bugger.
Sorry to hear that.

[DreamensioN]

Far out... what are the odds of that!

So insurance taking care of it? Or....?

[woofy]

Far out... what are the odds of that!

So insurance taking care of it? Or....?

Well I walked out that earlier this week near my house in the rain, and about 2min after I walked past a small tree a huge lightning bolt hit it when I was further down the street. There had been no lightning or thunder at all until then and I had an umbrella, albeit one without any metal in it....but still. Never know what might happen.

[Albervin]

Shannons will pay $30K plus towing plus airfare home. They will then offer the wreck (?) to me. What is it worth? Do I want to deal with that. It was a lovely car but now//...? I have put a deposit on a Golf R Wolfsburg Wagon which is being fitted with a tow bar which is not normal. It will have factory warranty on it even though it is not compliant. ?!?! So many cars today do not have towing compliance it is difficult to choose.What the does not have is push button tail gate and the neat Skoda additions. What it does have is AWD, 213Kw, digital dash and leather, heated seats (like my Superb) but only driver's electric adjustment of seat. See next post for my dealing with Southern Classic Cars in Wollongong.

[Albervin]

Yes. It was a weapon and a dear friend.

[Albervin]

Southern Classic Cars of Wollongong. Where to begin??! In 1999 I traded a 1985 BMW 323i on an Audi Aw 1.8 Turbo quattro. Good deal and happy. Then I found the service dept. was charging for work not done. Not happy. I found an independent mechanic who was Audi/Skoda/VW trained and happy again. I then looked for a car in 2011 that could fill my needs and the Skoda Super 191FSI Wagon. I bought it from the dealer in Canberra and that says heaps about Wollongong (where I live). I went back to Southern Classic last Friday where I was told Alcantara is the belly leather of a cow turned inside out to make suede! WTF!!! I was also told the Octavia RS 245 does not have an umbrella. So when I know more than the sales person it is an instant no-go area. On the other hand, the sales person at Latrobe Valley VW has done cartwheels and back flips to keep me happy. No bull****, a real deal. He is supplying a permit to move to get me from Vic. to NSW AND picking me up from the airport. Tow bar is costing $500 instead of $1,600, plus a customer package. I am also going to ask for a full tank of petrol to get me home and I am sure that will happen. Can you see the difference here?

[Guest001]

He must be really keen to sell check for ripples in the paint LOL

[Ozsko]

I bought a Superb from Southern Classic about six years ago and had no problems with servicing but their sales dept is another story altogether. I wanted to buy a Tiguan and spoke to one of the sales team about it in person. When I wanted to put money on the table for a deposit I rang them for a firm price and they wanted me to come in just to get a price. I was shopping dealers on the phone and no way was I going to waste two hours or more to listen to their psychological sales BS as all I wanted was a number. The sales guy was all for it but his manager wouldn't hear about it so they lost out. I rang VW Mittagong and they gave me a quote over the phone with no problems or questions so they got the deal.

[kamold]

It might be possible to revive it, but you'd have to be willing to potentially replace the majority of the electronic control modules.
First thing you'd need to do would be have an auto electrician give it a going over to see if it is possible to at least get a battery working in it, and a diagnostics connection to the gateway.
Then you can interrogate the car and see what modules (if any?) respond.
Work though replacements if it's worthwhile or sell the car for body/interior parts.

Would be a fun project to try and re-animate the car I reckon...

[Ozsko]

It might be possible to revive it, but you'd have to be willing to potentially replace the majority of the electronic control modules.
First thing you'd need to do would be have an auto electrician give it a going over to see if they it is possible to at least get a battery working in it, and a diagnostics connection to the gateway.
Then you can interrogate the car and see what modules (if any?) respond.
Work though replacements if it's worthwhile or sell the car for body/interior parts.

Would be a fun project to try and re-animate the car I reckon...

A very deep hole to enter I would reckon, I have seen similar, my son was involved in one and in the end they washed their hands of it as the predicted costs became stupid and that was only the initial diagnosis using OEM systems.

[kamold]

Yeah I'd say it would be something you'd have to be prepared to have sitting in a shed to tinker on when time was available, and await cheap parts from wreckers in Europe as they became obviously faulty.
It might just be a handful of parts that got damaged, all the way up to all the wiring throughout the car is totally fried...

[Albervin]

Shannons will offer the wreck (?) to me first but no idea how much they would want. Realistically you wouldn't want to pay more then $3k. I would imagine the panels, interior, wheels, gearbox etc. would have a combined value of about $5k, maybe more.

[Ozsko]

I can't see a big market for used Superb parts, it is not that sort of car. The gearbox for instance is full of electronics on the control side so the only parts salvageable would be the mechanical stuff. The same with the seats, the electric window motors in the doors and so on. I reckon any Superb Mk2 would be a write off with any half decent bump especially if the air bags get fired.