A2 no more

ianjohnsonws14

ianjohnsonws14

Member
After four years and two A2s we no longer own one. SWMBO was hit by a "lady driver" who failed to give way at a roundabout two weeks ago. Impact was not enough to set off any of the airbags and caused what appeared to be minor damage but it looks as if the rear wheel angle has been caused by a bend to the space frame and they called yesterday to say they were writing it off! It was 20 months old and cost >17k new, insurance payout looks like 9.5k - the gap insurance is looking a good deal now.

She was shaken and is fine and has had an A3 2.0TDI as a courtesy car (thanks to Accident Exchange) but will have to give it back next week.

After some discussion last night she wants to replace it with an EOS!

Will post the chassis number in the next few days since I would not be surprised to find this on a garage forecourt in a month or so.
 
She doesn't want it back - I have not seen it yet but am going to collect personal possessions from it this afternoon.

The problem with Aluminium is that it ages and when you can form most grades when it is "fresh" you cannot do it six months later. This means that if the space frame gets bent (and there is suspension damage to the car) you may not be able to bend it back, as you can with steel, without breaking it. Work hardening behaviour is also different.

If there is space frame damage I do not want it back, the gap insurance will soften the pain.
 
Ian
Really sorry about your A2. I would be really sad to lose mine through an accident. You are not quite right, however, about bending of aluminium. Aluminium extrusions do "age" and this does affect the bending properties but over a considerable time, years not 22 months. The A2 spaceframe is assembled and then placed in a large oven and all the extrusions and 6000 series alloy castings are artificiallly aged this has the effect of increacing the mechanical properties of the alloy but also reduces the formability. In other words the structure becomes stronger this way. As a part of this process the mechanical properties are fixed and there is hardly any change over time. There is very little work hardening effect with extrusions. There are grades of aluminium which are heat treatable (as in A2's) and work hardening grades which are not (Jag XJ's). The Jag is also not easy to repair but is of a monocoque construction and rivetted so I think will have a bit more scope.

The reason for writing off is due to the combination of the wide tolerance levels of the aluminium profiles combined with huge springback. Bending of extrusions is very difficult as they do not offer high levels of formability in the first place and a bodyshop would be lucky to pull it back into place even after several attempts. Yes you are right in that the aged material may not have enough formability left to allow the amount of tugging and pulling needed to find the correct position and may even snap through fatigue. Also what would the service life of that part be if during the repair the part was taken past its forming limit? There would be an unacceptable risk to the repairer who in fact could not know the true effects of his repair.
 
ianjohnsonws14 said:
After four years and two A2s we no longer own one. SWMBO was hit by a "lady driver" who failed to give way at a roundabout two weeks ago. Impact was not enough to set off any of the airbags and caused what appeared to be minor damage but it looks as if the rear wheel angle has been caused by a bend to the space frame and they called yesterday to say they were writing it off! It was 20 months old and cost >17k new, insurance payout looks like 9.5k - the gap insurance is looking a good deal now.

She was shaken and is fine and has had an A3 2.0TDI as a courtesy car (thanks to Accident Exchange) but will have to give it back next week.

After some discussion last night she wants to replace it with an EOS!

Will post the chassis number in the next few days since I would not be surprised to find this on a garage forecourt in a month or so.
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Sorry to hear about this, when my A2 was hit from behind the rear axle broke away giving a bent appearance like yours shows, I have been shown in the body shop that certain suspension components are designed to break in a manner to protect the space frame behind, the rear axle has 4 bolt fixings that can move and the front has a cast alunimium mounting for the suspension arms, if you want to keep the car insist it is looked at by an Audi Spaceframe body shop, I think it is repairable in the right hands!
 
ianjohnsonws14 said:
It was 20 months old and cost >17k new, insurance payout looks like 9.5k - the gap insurance is looking a good deal now.
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Ian, really sorry to hear your A2 is going - the damage seems so minor - but glad to hear your other half is OK.

I hit a another pothole today :-( Didn't see it coming as I was focusing on a large white van that was overtaking me doing 70+ on a narrow B road, so there would have been no way I could have avoided it even if I saw the pot hole coming. But I felt it and heard not a bang but more of a cracking noise. I then reminded myself that I must look into gap insurance as I was thinking (and your post this evening shows) that A2s may be easily written off.

What insurer provided your gap insurance and what was the premium? Have any other members this insurance?
 
Mark - When I was at ABB and we were buiding aluminium trains from a mix of extrusions and castings in the nineties we had some extrusions that we stretch formed and these had to be done within 3 months of extrusion or they broke in the stretch forming machine - Alsuisse told us it was the aging of the aluminium.

tdiman - we fell out with Tesco who wanted the car to go to their approved repairer so they could ensure warranty on any parts fitted, we insisted it went to an Audi approved repairer to protect the remains of the three year warranty on the whole car! It went in to Shorade in Cannock who are an Audi approved aluminimum repairer (Never seen so many bent Porches in one place), Churchill are paying out and thier assessor has written it off. The guy I spoke to at Shorade was not surprised, he said that space frame is not damaged but insurance assessors get frightened when they hear the word "aluminium". Shorade say it is repairable but we are still getting the deal we would prefer since SWMBO wanted to change it next year and this way we have much more cash towards the new one.

Alan - gap insurance was from Audi at £400, I was new to it then but I know now that their price was expensive and I will go in armed with quotes next time. Web checks show similar cover availabe today for £225! Just do a google on Gap insurance.
 
Alan - gap insurance was from Audi at £400, I was new to it then but I know now that their price was expensive and I will go in armed with quotes next time. Web checks show similar cover availabe today for £225! Just do a google on Gap insurance.[/QUOTE]

Be careful though, not all GAP insurance is the same, I too have the Audi one and it cast me £300 for a £13500 value, I have had one before via Alliance & Leicester which only paid out the difference between write off value & loan balance, the Audi one I have will pay out many different ways, at least your insurance company finally let you have an Ally body shop look at, not many people realise that it is their right to chose where they have the car repaired, it is too easy to cause more irreprable damage to an ally car repaired with the wrong tools even! they usually say you can't have the courtesy car but most Audi repairers will sort one out for you anyway, they will even get you into an equivalent car via accident exchange, I had a very nice A3FSI sportback for 2 weeks while mine was in!
 
ianjohnsonws14 said:
Web checks show similar cover availabe today for £225! Just do a google on Gap insurance.
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Thanks. I've checked out a number on the web and they only cover if the policy is taken out within 90 or 180 days of purchase.

Edit: Found http://www.shortfallcover.co.uk which covers vehicles without time limit. E.g. online quote:
4 Year Cover
• Car Value < £20,000
• £10,000 Claim Limit
Policy Price: £261.00
(Incl. Insurance Premium Tax)

Other options are 1, 2 or 3 years and £5K or £20K (I think) claim limit
 
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The VIN is *****************.
VIN removed as car now changed hands and owner knows the history - IJ
 
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In case it does end up fixed we now have our number on retention and the new reg. number allocatted to the car is *******.
Number removed - new owner knows the cars history.
 
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SWMBO received a letter today from a guy from Winsford who has bought the car from the insurer to repair for his mother - we are sending him the spare key that Churchill did not want! Have also told him about the web-site.

At least he knows the cars history!
 
I think he'll have a peach of a car once he's shelled out for the repairs.

There are replacement frame members which can be put in place of the bent ones, keeping costs low-ish. I would have thought about £3k would be about what he'll pay to get it straight (literally) again.

Cheers,
Mike
 
GAP INSURANCE - I bought my A2 a couple of months back and Audi wanted £395 for GAP, it was the end of the month and I thought it was too expensive, I get home and a message is left on my phone "we'll do it for £350", next day its £295, I ended up paying £250 from Audi - if you hang on it seems to quickly get cheaper. I guess it actually costs Audi about £200 and the rest is profit. Gap insurance works in the same way as car sales - the dealers have to meet targets as to how many policies they sell so they have to meet monthly targets, so cars & policies are cheaper at the end of the month. For that sort of money it seems a bit of a no brainer
 
eeek that sounds expensive. I was offered gap insurance from a dealer who wanted nearly £300 but if you look on the net you can get gap insurance from as little as £120 dont need to get it from a dealer all they are doing is getting big fat commission from selling it to you
 
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