MY MY13 Written off last week (Buying the wreck back off insurance company)

[DETROITCANDY]

Poor Polo got spit roasted last week by two taxis, heavy impact in the rear pushed me into another taxi in front.
I'm not at fault and the car has been declared a repairable write-off.
Do people think that the wreck is worth more whole or broken up?

Car was bought Sept 2012, has 23,000km on the clock and has had a brand new engine & gearbox replaced under warranty in the last 6 months.

Things of value that I can think of are:

engine (Old CAV one burnt oil, brand new CTH engine replaced @ 18,500km, hasn't burnt a drop since, runs beautifully)
gearbox ( gearbox replaced under warranty @ 16,000km, has had latest specification oil since new, not a problem since)
airbag (drivers)
airbag (passengers)
Gti Steering Wheel
My13 Gti 17" Detroit wheels & OEM tyres (70-80% tread, rotated every 5k)
Gti interior Tartan (seats)
Gti Interior (door cards)
Gti Gearshift
Gti Handbrake
RCD510 (?) Standard MY13 Stereo
Bluetooth touch adaptor and module
Gti Instrument Cluster
Side Mirrors
LH front
RH Front
LH rear
RH rear
Gti Brakes

Anything else worth taking off the car?







There was no mechanical damage to the car, I drove it home from the accident with no holes in radiator or intercooler, AC worked perfectly, everything like normal, car drove perfectly straight.

[TSI_Dan]

A terrible sight. ******** taxi drivers strike again! You'd think after spending as long as they do on the road you'd think they'd get better at driving......

[ATYPIC]

Oh jeepers...sorry to hear this sh#tful and unfortunate news. I always see your car as you are a neighbour.

[readerr0r]

Did the airbags deploy/is it classed as a repairable writeoff? Mine was classed as repairable and it fetched quite a bit of money (for my insurer) and was then repaired and rebirthed. Not sure if you'll get your money back on parts if so...

[tigger73]

Wow doesn't take much to write off the car if the airbags aren't deployed and main chassis is still OK.

Hope you get out of it financially OK.

Depending on your insurance some replace with a new car if it's under 2 years old.

If the car is stock I probably wouldn't worry about buying it back unless you were going to fix it yourself and sell it for a reasonable profit.

[ill0gitech]

At least you're ok.
Repairable write off on a drivable car? Was the chassis twisted or something?
How much did they assess the repairs at?

[DETROITCANDY]

Did the airbags deploy/is it classed as a repairable writeoff? Mine was classed as repairable and it fetched quite a bit of money (for my insurer) and was then repaired and rebirthed. Not sure if you'll get your money back on parts if so...

Yeah its classed as a repairable writeoff, the airbags didn't deploy, neither did the seatbelt pre-tensioners. The only thing that happened it the drivers seat reclined, I had to wind it back up into position. Do you know how much yours went for at auction? Mine did have a 5 year warranty on the gearbox and further 3 years on the engine, I doubt that it would be carried over by VW if I were to sell those parts out of the car, still a cheaper option for someone out of warranty with a stuffed early production engine, compared to the 10k I was quoted by VW.

[DETROITCANDY]

Wow doesn't take much to write off the car if the airbags aren't deployed and main chassis is still OK.

Hope you get out of it financially OK.

Depending on your insurance some replace with a new car if it's under 2 years old.

If the car is stock I probably wouldn't worry about buying it back unless you were going to fix it yourself and sell it for a reasonable profit.

I thought I was going to be sore, but because I didn't turn around after seeing what was coming in the rear-view my neck was ok.
I doubt I could have gotten more than the $27.5k market value if I were to sell it. It's insured with Shannons as my daily so I have choice of repairer, I took it to the most prestigious body shop I could find and made sure they knew I was very fussy, unfortunately Shannons only do new for old under 12 months.

[DETROITCANDY]

At least you're ok.
Repairable write off on a drivable car? Was the chassis twisted or something?
How much did they assess the repairs at?

The bill of parts that could be easily seen without stripping the car down came to over $11K .
They didn't wan't to risk throwing more money stripping the car down (mainly at the rear) to see what else was bent under the car and still declaring it a write off. I'm pretty sure the beaver panel was damaged, yet the boot is still sealed and still opens & closes like new.

[readerr0r]

Yeah its classed as a repairable writeoff, the airbags didn't deploy, neither did the seatbelt pre-tensioners. The only thing that happened it the drivers seat reclined, I had to wind it back up into position. Do you know how much yours went for at auction? Mine did have a 5 year warranty on the gearbox and further 3 years on the engine, I doubt that it would be carried over by VW if I were to sell those parts out of the car, still a cheaper option for someone out of warranty with a stuffed early production engine, compared to the 10k I was quoted by VW.

https://www.icloud.com/photostream/#A35oqs3qP4l7t for how mine ended up, zero damage on the front. I'm not sure how much it sold for because i don't think Pickles reveals prices afterwards but its currently for sale on carsales for $20K (no affil with me at all).

Vic has much tougher laws when it comes to buying and selling repairable writeoffs though, so maybe it'd fetch less at auctions there.

Also funny thing, the rear hatch still opened, closed and locked perfectly

[amazeer]

head/tail lights are probably worth decent money. and the grill if not damaged.

The trouble with stripping it for parts is that you need to store them until you find someone who needs them bad enough to pay what they are worth. I've stripped a couple of air cooled cars and a mate does subarus. My advice dont buy it to part out unless you have a lot of patience. I found new projects and needed the room so some things had to be dumped on ebay and others got given away.

But you do get lucky sometimes, I sold a couple of used malpassi fuel regulators for more than what I paid new, resold mitsubishi factory alloys for more than I paid (they were cheaper than factory hub caps believe it or not), my used haltech efi system went to sweden for a very good price. My daughter who was 5 or 6 at the time insisted she be able to put some stuff too. $5 for a Care Bear that was free with a McDonalds happy meal! Ebay is a strange place.

[DETROITCANDY]

head/tail lights are probably worth decent money. and the grill if not damaged.

The trouble with stripping it for parts is that you need to store them until you find someone who needs them bad enough to pay what they are worth. I've stripped a couple of air cooled cars and a mate does subarus. My advice dont buy it to part out unless you have a lot of patience. I found new projects and needed the room so some things had to be dumped on ebay and others got given away.

But you do get lucky sometimes, I sold a couple of used malpassi fuel regulators for more than what I paid new, resold mitsubishi factory alloys for more than I paid (they were cheaper than factory hub caps believe it or not), my used haltech efi system went to sweden for a very good price. My daughter who was 5 or 6 at the time insisted she be able to put some stuff too. $5 for a Care Bear that was free with a McDonalds happy meal! Ebay is a strange place.

Yeah I'm not to keen to start stripping the car for a few $10 parts that people need, I would have thought that with 180+ pages on the forums of people complaining about oil consumption or other issues with the engines that someone might have a need to replace their engine or gearbox out of warranty, not through the dealership. If I could sell the engine & gearbox then it would be easy to start trying to sell all the other parts of value while they are still on the car and pull them off as required.

Would have thought with all the non Gti's out and about, there would be some owners that would want to replace some parts with Gti bits.

[LukePolo]

https://www.icloud.com/photostream/#A35oqs3qP4l7t for how mine ended up, zero damage on the front. I'm not sure how much it sold for because i don't think Pickles reveals prices afterwards but its currently for sale on carsales for $20K (no affil with me at all).

Vic has much tougher laws when it comes to buying and selling repairable writeoffs though, so maybe it'd fetch less at auctions there.

Also funny thing, the rear hatch still opened, closed and locked perfectly

Holy S*** what rear ended you?!

[gavs]

Yeah I'm not to keen to start stripping the car for a few $10 parts that people need, I would have thought that with 180+ pages on the forums of people complaining about oil consumption or other issues with the engines that someone might have a need to replace their engine or gearbox out of warranty, not through the dealership. If I could sell the engine & gearbox then it would be easy to start trying to sell all the other parts of value while they are still on the car and pull them off as required.

Would have thought with all the non Gti's out and about, there would be some owners that would want to replace some parts with Gti bits.

To give you an idea though mate, a 2nd hand, non burning 1.4 twincharged engine is going for around the $1600 mark from wreckers here in Melbourne so don't expect to be able to get a lot of coin for the parts.... Yes there is a demand but in reality a proper engine rebuild will cost less than a motor an be better for the car anyway. The dsg might be slightly more valuable but the price of the failing parts (clutches and mechatronics units) has dropped to remove the 300%+ markup over other countries and in reality, the mech unit is all you can use 2nd hand. The clutches can't be reused, you need to also be able to reflash the computer when installing a new mech unit and with the amount of variants out there you might come across issues if you sell the unit to someone who's car won't accept that variation of mechatronics unit. Internal the gear train and the diff are pretty bullet proof so unless someone has done something stupid or wants a spare, it's a lot of hassle for you for not much return.

[DETROITCANDY]

To give you an idea though mate, a 2nd hand, non burning 1.4 twincharged engine is going for around the $1600 mark from wreckers here in Melbourne so don't expect to be able to get a lot of coin for the parts.... Yes there is a demand but in reality a proper engine rebuild will cost less than a motor an be better for the car anyway. The dsg might be slightly more valuable but the price of the failing parts (clutches and mechatronics units) has dropped to remove the 300%+ markup over other countries and in reality, the mech unit is all you can use 2nd hand. The clutches can't be reused, you need to also be able to reflash the computer when installing a new mech unit and with the amount of variants out there you might come across issues if you sell the unit to someone who's car won't accept that variation of mechatronics unit. Internal the gear train and the diff are pretty bullet proof so unless someone has done something stupid or wants a spare, it's a lot of hassle for you for not much return.

Thanks Gavs for the realistic possible outcomes of parting it out. Seems like you've done your homework.
I'm surprised the clutches can't be reused, didn't think that they would be worth much secondhand, thought they would just go with the gearbox as a unit. I finally got a chance to have a good look at the wreck last night, there is soo much stuff that is just scratched or scuffed, but was marked for replacement by the panel beaters, it seems like it could be repaired fairly easily on the cheap and be a daily hack if I didn't need it back to 'as new'. It would still need the rear end stripped and pulled on a jig, before going over the pits for a VIV ($800?). Still unsure what to do with it at this stage, either way its going to sit around for a bit until I have the time.
What wreckers do you look up for VW stuff?