Chat A2 written off whilst getting new tyres fitted at National Tyres!

ecurb

A2OC Donor
Fellow A2 enthusiasts,

I am posting here to share a warning about how my A2 which has survived over 200k miles of safe driving along with good maintenance has been written off as a Category S last week.

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Can you tell what's wrong with it? You would be forgiven if you can't see anything obvious.

What happened?

Well I was wanting to get new tyres fitted for the A2 and had heard good things about the Avon tyres brand, which National Tyres were doing a special offer on.

After dropping the car off and coming back a few hours later, we noticed that the staff at National Tyres hadn't jacked the Audi at the correct point ?

Oh dear!

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The Aluminium and plastic skirting below the drivers side had been caved in.

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After pointing out their mistake, they quickly got another jack to lift up the car at the wishbone so the other jack could be correctly repositioned.

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(note the jack in the correct position at the rear driver side)

I immediately went to an approved Audi body-shop and got a damage estimate (approx £1200), which was forwarded onto National Tyres with a complaint letter.

They then referred me to their insurer Allianz who handled the case.

Now fast forward to this week, and I have just been told by Allianz that they have gone ahead and put a Category S (structural) on the car without informing me and whilst still negotiating a settlement.

Conclusion

Stay away from National Tyres unless you want your A2 to be written off!

I planned to enjoy my A2 for many more years and eventually store it for the future, this ambition has now been "written off".

Feel free to share this around other motoring communities.

If you have any advice or similar stories please share them here.

It is truly sad we have a society which wants to scrap vehicles at the slightest bit of damage.
 
It can be welded for a couple of hundred. Please see my thread here
 
I’m not clued you with the current markers, but the car remains your property. You can still continue to use it surely?

Absolutely shocking service from untrained monkeys.
 
Wow bad one hope it works out for you ............Is there a simple guide to the correct front and rear trolley jacking points on the forum?.
 
Wow bad one hope it works out for you ............Is there a simple guide to the correct front and rear trolley jacking points on the forum?.

Stick your hand underneath at the fornt and back of the sill. Feel for a flat rubber grommet....jack it there.
 
A category S car can be repaired, it is not necessarily a write-off. If your insurance company pays you more than £1200, you're in profit!

RAB
 
Point out to the insurance company that it's still your car, not theirs, they don't get to write it off for this.
 
Sorry to hear about this, how frustrating this must be for you :mad:

Happened once to me to. My trusted garage thought one day it was a good idea to jack my old A2 underneath the sills at the rear, resulting in both sills damaged. They admitted the mistake and replaced the sills. This "little" mistake unfortunately happens far too often. Since then, before my A2 goes to any garage, I put on the sills temporary home-made stickers reminding to jack the car using the correct points. It's also worth, before dropping the car, to have a quick chat and remind them verbally.
I hope everything gets resolved quickly!
 
INteresting had the same thing happen to me by the fabled worst mechanic in the world. I even stopped him the act of cracking my sills and denting the car in whilst I heard the noises - he was 'cracking' on regardless until i told him to stop. I replaced the sills but still have the dents - are these relatively easy to repair and if so who would do that as I'm assuming its not quite a pdr style repair?

Asking for myself but realise it may be of help to the OP
 
Surely as has been said, it's still your property. May be worth discussing buy back, if they are prepared to cough up £1200. I would be inclined to make a window poster warning against NTS!

Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk
 
I bought an A2 Fsi in Black, looked lovely in pictures with Red leather interior as runs & drives from an insurance company registered as CAT S,
when the car arrived it drove lovely & looked fine until I jacked it up realizing that some one had put jacks under the floor & pushed in the floor panels also damaging the plastic side skirts.

After spending a day with a couple of bits of 2X2 wood, hammer & 2 new side skirts, it all looked fine, went for mot straight through, been using the
car for 10 months & no problems.

Sold the Red leather interior & it paid for the car, repairs, mot & been driving a free car for 10 months now. but locked away my other black FSi with all the extras for special days.

The pushing of the aluminium floor to straighten it was very easy & having changed the skirts you would never know the car is a CAT S.

All good fun A2,s but sorry to hear you had to go through with this incident specially when you liked your car. :mad:
 
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All too common problem I'm afraid. Happened at my trusted garage. They knew full well about the plastic sills and the aluminum floor but there was a brain fart moment occurred using the 4 post lift. Don't know who was more angry about it. Them or me. ??. All sorted with new sills and some floor pan manipulating. No real harm done. I believe in some extreme cases the Electrics on the passenger foootwell have been damaged by poor jacking.
 
Surely the insurer has to make an offer, and you then accept it, or not?
Until you've agreed, they can't make it an official "write off"
As everyone says, it's your car till you accept their offer, when it becomes theirs.
Maybe worth a call to your insurer, after all, they need to know as you'll have to declare it later, for renewal or vehicle changes.
Mac.
 
We've got a 3 dented non-jacking points and at least two cracked sills in 3 cars - at the front in all cases - it unfortunately seems to go with the territory and preceded my ownership in at 2 of the cases. @Ami - the idea of pushing the dents out is appealing - how did you get access to the reverse of the dent - through the driver's / passenger's underfloor space panels?
 
We've got a 3 dented non-jacking points and at least two cracked sills in 3 cars - at the front in all cases - it unfortunately seems to go with the territory and preceded my ownership in at 2 of the cases. @Ami - the idea of pushing the dents out is appealing - how did you get access to the reverse of the dent - through the driver's / passenger's underfloor space panels?
just got inside the footwell with various shaped & cut bits of wood & hammered out the dents with a heavy hammer untill it all pushed out & looked straight
removed the aluminium cover in the front passenger & driver footwell & disconnected the battery/electrical connections, it was not as difficult as you may think.
the change of side skirts was very easy
hope this helps
 
Feel your pain, it's a terrible way to treat a customer especially as the car means so much to you.

Unfortunately i got a puncture when getting our cam belt done by "Gary" over in stains. Managed to get to Merit tyres just a short drive away with the help of the compressor. When i tried to explain to the tyre fitters to "please be careful when jacking it up" the looks i got and short shrift.It worked as i showed them where the jacking points are but I get fed up having to explain to these monkeys only to be treated like your some kind of idiot and the look of "what do you know"? :rolleyes:

Think i'll now use temporary signs as TYP 8Z mentioned, seams a good idea!
 
Yea I am still in negotiation with Allianz but they told me that it has been reported by their engineer to MIAFTR as a Category S without them telling me during the whole process.
 
This is way too common.

I ALWAYS tell them that it is all aluminium under there and to Jack it up on the suspension only.
They often get their junior staff to Jack the cars up and even sone of the experienced ones don’t realise.

You can not rely on them knowing it is all aluminium.
Yes, it is their fault if they damage it, but as in this case it can still end in a write-off or at best a category S on your pride and joy.

Alway tell the garage/ Tyre place when having work done.
Sorry to hear this has happened again.
Steve B
 
I ALWAYS tell them that it is all aluminium under there and to Jack it up on the suspension only.
Steve, you can't even do that on a 1.2Tdi. To avoid this problem, I always take the wheels only to the tyre depot. Surely for any car, you should only jack on the jacking points.

RAB
 
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