I Totaled My A4
 

Was bookin it down a skinny, curvy road. Usually go down it at like 60ish, and drift it nicely just by pure speed. Decided to go faster this time. Did a beautiful huge drift, but my car nicked some itty bitty ruts on the edge of the road, and it snapped the other direction, slid towards the left side of the road, hit the curb and a street lamp while sideways, and slid into a ditch. Front Left wheel was not attached to the car anymore, front left control arm and driveshaft were severed, back left wheel was popped, front left fender was dented (from street lamp), trunk lid was dented (from a tree that was poking out that stopped my car from sliding down the ditch), some part of the suspension on the front right tire is broken, left lights are broken, and the tree branches left their mark on the side of the car. It was a nice drift, but it snapped into bassackwards oversteer, and i heard my car hit the lamp (although i thought it was just the sound of me hitting the curb), and I was shook left and right not too violently. Air bags did not go off. I did not believe it actually happened because i was having such a good day and was so carefree that i thought i was going to just wake up or drive off with minimal damage. That wasn't quite the case. The police came, but i didn't get a ticket (whew). The officer said i would have to pay for the pole and the tree, obviously, but i just figured out my insurance will cover it. After i came to a stop, i got out of the car, without a scratch or bruise or whiplash. All i got was a couple scratches from climbing up the thornbushes when exiting my car. It was a dark but dry day, btw. I also have full coverage, but have not got an estimate yet. My dad works at an autobody shop, but he says it will cost around $10k to fix, while the Kelly Blue Book for it is $7500, so my insurance will claim it as totaled. Now I am totally screwed...but atleast I was the only one involved. My whole life is centered around cars, yet i went and crashed my baby. I guess it was an error i could have never anticipated or expected, considering i have only had my license for 2 or 3 months. Way too little experience to be driving like i was, but it was an addiction that i could not stop. These A4's are too much fun to drift. Back to the point...Does anybody have any idea what blue book value i will get for my car? KBB, Edmunds, Nada? Or something else? I have Encompass Insurance. My car is a 1997 Audi A4 1.8T Quattro with 156k miles, cloth sport seats, premium sound, sunroof, premium wheels, mp3 (single CD), and Front Side Air Bags (I think). It also has the obvious standard equipment. The car was in excellent condition besides the cv joints and a few things that are now hidden by the crash damage. I want an estimate of what i will get so I can figure out what price range to shop for my next car. Thanks for ANY help and for reading my sob story.

Here are the pics

First off... I think your name fits you... second... post pics. LOL

Josh

Just beat me to the pics part... lol

How much faster was a little faster?

dayum. You had an a4 as your first car? Lucky. I guess im not doing too bad ive got a 2000 a4 1.8t quattro as my second. Not sure what you'll get money wise... Was this a tar or dirt road. I cant imagine drifting my a4 by pure speed on pavement. Props to you though if it was on tar even though its pretty stupid. WOW you really f-ed it up huh?

You're lucky you didn't get hurt, but I remember those days, just that it was with a 944 and it happened a few times on mountain passes in So Cal. Anywho, let me tell you that the insurance company is going to make you wish this never happened, just to set your expectations. Usually, they try to get you to take a reduced settlement ($$$) and devalue your car to oblivion. Have your dad's auto shop make the call and try to get your best value from them. Threaten to leave the company, find as many estimates of other cars similar to yours around your neighborhood for comparison (cause you would have to re-buy one of them to replace yours, right?).

You did a number to your old racer, there. You should get an award for most damaged car to leave the driver untouched... that or a Buick

He doesn't get the award... I do... when I was 13 I rolled a Ford Ranger off roading and walked away w/o a scratch. The truck didn't have such a good out come. To be honest though I think this was rather wreckless of the OP. At that age the worst I did was take a turn too fast and do a 180 in the middle of road didn't hit anything till i was only moving like 10 mph then I rolled into the curb and stopped.

my a4 is my first car too..

I am not going to pretend that I didn't do stupid things when I was your age but I was lucky enough to have people around me to smack some sense into me then I might be dead right now. So what you did was stupid and you could have hurt yourself badly or worse, hurt someone else. KBB on your car is about $5,100, probably expect to get about $4,000 from insurance.

thanks for the estimate jzobie. i was going maybe 70. it was a really really nice drift on pavement but i hit the ruts on the road.

you might be able to get more money by parting the car out... selling every good piece there is... people in the classifieds are always looking for stufff