2000 4.2Q got hit, parts question & is it worth the battle?
 

Silly woman turned into my wife's 2000 4.2Q on Friday.
Drivers & rear door toast, need to check RF suspension & wheel, my wife jumped a curb trying to avoid the hit.

Car only has 61K on it and is very sweet (post from when I bought it )
Just put new brakes & tires on it; I was going to road trip to VA for college visits with my kids next wknd...looks like the Tahoe is making that run.

Weighing my options, my insurance company wants to total it.
I may tell them to hold off and put a claim into the other driver's insurance; one of my buddies is a lawyer for an ins company and will ghost write it for me.
(The other driver is a dingbat, who fully admitted to my wife and the police it was her fault...several times!)

I think I found a couple door skins, but I'm not sure what the lower exterior trim pcs are called.
Both are pulled off the mounting clips & will need to be replaced.
Can someone clue me in?

What do you guys think? Worth the fight?

Thanks
Ted

If you can find doors in the same color, you can do it yourself in about four hours. The blades (I think that's what they are called) can be polished, and, with a little heat from a heat gun, can be straightened to be not noticeable (they are at ankle level to most people, so not a big deal if they have wrinkles.) 3M makes a pretty stout mounting tape that can be used for mounting.

As for the suspension pieces, readily available.

Take the total. Ask for the buy-back price, Deduct that from the total price and spend a fraction of that money to fix it yourself. If you can get the other driver's insurance to assume responsibility and write you a check, go that way. Under no circumstances should you turn over your title to either insurance company, or they will brand it as "salvage", reducing the eventual value of the car to another buyer.

I see cars with worse damage running around all the time, although not necessarily Audi's. Based on your post it sounds like the other driver is on the hook for this. Having said this I would be reluctant to sign anything without consulting legal advice. I also agree with george that you should pursue getting the car back on a buy back from the insurance company. If they total it it is because they determined that the repairs total up more than the value of the car. Even if you replace the entire doors and I think you would come out ahead. I really don't think it looks all that bad according to the photos.

Have you confirmed the person who hit you wants her insurance company to handle this? Sometimes they prefer to pay for it out of pocket. If both insurance companies have been alerted this may be too late. Not trying to cheat anyone here, just some prefer to not involve the insurance companies. Further, if you have a willingness to do the repairs then this may not be a particularly high cost event. You could even get paid for the damage and not repair it at all. Or, repair it at your convenience. If the car does not have a loan on it then you are not obligated to repair it.

Clancy:
Accident rpt due today, see how that looks. Other driver def at fault!
My preference is to get her ins to pay for repair and keep driving it.
KBB is about $3500, no way I'd find another one like this if that's all they're gonna shell out.

Prepping myself for a fight with insurance!

That sounds about right on a price for that car. They go way down in price as they age. If you can do a buy-back and pick up a couple of replacement doors you will probably come out ahead. If the other driver's insurance pays for the damage then again, replace the doors and any suspension parts needed and happy motoring!

Looks like you can get good used doors for about $250 each. Swapping doors does not sound like fun but, hey, you're an Audi owner so you are accustomed to that. The big question in my mind is the cost for a quality paint match. I think a shop that does really high quality paint and color match will be quite expensive.

I have a 2002 A6 4.2 with sport package, etc. It was hit in the front and declared a total. (Trailor hitch on SUV went through the bumper and punctured radiator) The insurance company valued it at $6,700 and I bought it back for about $800.00 And had it repaired and actually came out with a profit. Any decent body shop should be able to match the paint. With those low miles I would definitely have it repaired.
With the money left over I had a Kenwood DDX9703S with Apple CarPlay and rear camera installed.
https://www.audiworld.com/forums/a6-...4-2-a-2923710/

My A6 4.2 with 199,400 miles