woofster

It really is surprising to many people how some seemingly minor-looking damage on these cars turn into a write-off. My A4 recently got hit in the rear quarter panel. There was incidental damage to the wheels, rear door, and rear bumper as well. It was handily declared a write-off.

Good thing no one was hurt and that insurance will pay you out a sum of which you can start thinking about spending on your next vehicle!

halik

Aluminum cars are essentially instant write off, it's incredibly difficult to weld aluminum space frames without warping them.

mishar

Aluminum welding is easy with the right equipment and skills. Problem is small number of aluminum cars. To pay back rarely used equipment they have to charge more. Because of that most of body shops won't bother with it, leaving more space for even higher prices to the few specialized.

But front end is almost all bolt on. Not so with the rear.

TSHong

So true, now I have an S8 nose. Looks good in my opinion.

rrosario22

I could definitely see it being that much to repair.

Insurance paid a little bit shy of $26K. Included lost sales tax credit. My A8L was fully loaded with every option by previous owner. Massaging seats, alcantara headliner, refrigerator (never used), etc... Had 83K miles. Very happy with the settlement. Crazy thing is that I got what I bought the car for, 2.5 years ago. I got a great deal when I bought it.

rrosario22

For anyone buying a new car, I highly recommend gap/total loss coverage. With how expensive our cars are to repair, if my car was newer and the insurance company decided to total, i would be upside down on it. Losing money.

s4master1

Totally agree

FlyTyinFool

Sorry, I didn't see an answer to that question. But I may have missed it.

I ask for several reasons:

1. Obviously adds to repair cost
2. I thought their minimum deployment vehicle speed was 5-10 MPH
3. It sounds like both vehicles weren't go all that fast (relatively speaking). But, what if the other car was doing 50+ and you were only going 15-20 MPH? I would HOPE airbags deploy in that situation.