Crashed GTI - What to do next?

[bert]

Gavs - what you've described is exactly what my mechanic has mentioned, hence the large price tag. Suspension, steering and floor sills he mentioned as the big items plus obviously panels and a heap of minor work. The photos don't do it justice, this was a fairly serious hit. The $8k was the approximate quote he gave me knowing I'd be paying cash, he said that if it was on insurance it'd easily be 10+.

Once I get the full quote I'll have a look through it but it looks 95% likely at this stage that it won't be worth the cost of repair.

[Manaz]

Once I get the full quote I'll have a look through it but it looks 95% likely at this stage that it won't be worth the cost of repair.

That was my gut feeling when I saw it. Terrible thing to have happened, I guess the silver lining is that all people involved got out safely.

Parting it out (slow as that may be) may recoup you a few grand.

[gavs]

Yeah, that sucks dude. When I read 55kph, I thought it was a serious hit.

On a side note, this might be a good opportunity to do some decent upgrading.... You might be able to look at getting away with the panel and floor-pan work through your guy, but it could be possible to salvage something from nothing by doing a "refresh" instead of "repair" to the suspension etc.....

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[bert]

On a side note, this might be a good opportunity to do some decent upgrading.... You might be able to look at getting away with the panel and floor-pan work through your guy, but it could be possible to salvage something from nothing by doing a "refresh" instead of "repair" to the suspension etc.....

PM sent

Haha, that would be nice. But the finances do not allow - I bought an apartment (1st home) 3 days before the accident and the accident happened on the way home from the new place (stopped by to get a photo with the Sold sticker on the board...).

The ups and downs of life. From to in 10 minutes.

[gavs]

Hey Bert,

Was just doing some searching on the net and found this on ecs tuning. Probably looking more and more attractive of late as the aussie dollar vs the USD is getting darn close to parity!!

http://www.ecstuning.com/Volkswagen-Golf_IV--2.0/Suspension/OEM/ES259954/

This is the ecs stage 3 suspension refresh kit, which includes new control arms, new tie rods and rod ends, all associated bushings etc and bolts. Cost: USD$234. Converted to aussie dollar as of this morning and it comes to AUD$258.57 plus shipping. So long as your sub frame and strut towers are all ok and intact, for approx $450 you could replace majority of the suspension and steering components that are most likely to be damaged with better than original parts!

For that price, you would be lucky to get 2 rear control arm bushes ($50 each) 2 strut mount rubbers ($70 each) 2 sway bar "D" bushes ($48 each) and maybe 1 control arm from a vw dealer, which is where an accident repair place will get the parts from.....

The only other things i'd be concerned about are the strut towers themselves, the anti roll bar, which you could probably get from a wrecker and just re-bush anyway, the steering rack itself and the drive shaft on that side. I had a new driver's side shaft fitted on my golf a couple of months ago so I could check the price if you want...

Again, don't give up hope mate, $8k sounds about right for a workshop to source and fit parts and repair the panel damage, but you could probably do it MUCH cheaper, you just need to know where to look

[bert]

90% likely to be looking to sell the car whole - pending receiving the quote hopefully this afternoon.

See http://www.vwwatercooled.org.au/newf...ad.php?t=36189 for details