like a couple of years ago.... now why would you post that this accident is recent?

 

"Last March I posted pics"

 

Depending on the state, a lot of adjustors work independently and may get kickbacks from body shops for not totalling a vehicle. We went through this in Mass when the adjustor clearly lowballed a claim on our allroad with very obvious frame and suspension damage. They lowball the estimate and then the body shop continues to submit addendums to the claim after the work starts. It is rare for an insurance company to stop paying after the work has started.

 

explained. Hidden damages are often found, the repair began, money spent, more than expected was found, you can not go back. You are an unfortunate victim of circumstance. Thanks for sharing your plight.

 

And somehow I cannot find it in my heart to feel sorry for the insurance companies getting rooked...

 

That sucks that they didn't catch all that stuff earlier and now you're stuck with the car. Unfortunately, now that they're committed, they probably have to see it through to keep from taking an even bigger bath on the claim. Sucks to be them, and I bet someone got a beating for it. Ah, who cares--it's an insurance company. It couldn't happen to a better bunch of guys. Feh.

I hope I'm not raining on your parade, but in my experience working in a body shop/race shop/fabrication shop, cars with frame damage usually eat tires a lot quicker than usual--even a good alignment will not completely remedy it. We had a customer car to prep for amateur track days and discovered that race-compound tires would barely last three 30-minute sessions. The car sure looked straight and aligned just fine. Later we discovered that the guy turned it into a race car because he bought it as a salvage title car that had been totaled. After that, we told him there was nothing else we could do for liability reasons. I personally would not have put that car back on the track. No farking way.

In addition, wind whistles, squeaks and rattles and water leakage through door seals are not uncommon, however I've noticed that the allroad has very, very good door seals so that may compensate somewhat for a tweeted body. A bent rear driveshaft and broken motor mounts (holy crap that must have been a hard hit! I'm glad you're OK) would make me worry about transmission and/or crankshaft damage, too.

Although they can do amazing things these days, cars with bent frames or unibody cars with damaged subframes are never as good as new. Once heavy-gauge metal is bent, it's virtually impossible to unbend it to the point that it is as strong and as straight as original. And if they're cutting and welding on new pieces, that's rarely done on a vehicle-specific jig (who the heck would have an allroad jig?). It's usually an eyeball thing or a very basic jig with only one or two reference points.

Did the dealer actually pay for warranty work after learning about all this damage, or did the insurance company pick up the tab on the turbos, too? If Audi paid for it, I'm shocked.

The diminished value claim below is a very valid one. Look into it. As long as the insurance company is bleeding money, you may as well join the lions at the feast.

I'm really sorry to read about this. I've been fortunate enough to have never experienced anything like this on the street.

Man, that really sucks.

 

will need to recover from it so they'll off-load this burden to us.

Not sure how it really works here, but in order to avoid this kind of business practice back home the adjuster must be TUV certified.
Given that anyone can make a mistake - this practice as you described here is costing us more money in the end.

Actually, I'd call this bribery which is under all circumstances neither ethical nor legal. Making profit from someone else's misfortunes is just business below the belt.....darn greedy bastards.

 

Spent quite a bit of time and money at Jackson Racing making a darn quick sleeper (not like the ricers of today). 7 months into ownership I got hit by a 16 year old kid who had his license for a grand total of two weeks driving a 1976 Bonneville. Really not much of a contest, the Bonneville won and drove home, while the Prelude was scraped onto a flatbed and driven to the body shop.

Same situation, adjuster said $6-7K damage to a $18K car. Eight months and $26K later I got the car back. (During that time I went through 5 loaner cars because they only allow so much mileage per car.) Once I got the car back it was no where near correct and that's when the lawsuits began.

I eventually won and with the money from the settlement got a new to me Buick Regal Grand National.

Needless to say only the body shop made out on the deal. So I can feel your pain.

Do not settle until it is right, and then push for a little more.

 

Thanks for the latest update, please keep it coming. Sad story; crooked adjuster per Chris C?

 

I have an 80 S. It's in my pic poster.