When I got a loaner while my car was at the dealership, I was liable for it. So I don't see how they can disclaim liability for your car while it's in their possession.

I think what they are saying is that it was the truck drivers fault, not theirs. You would need to work with his/her insurance not the dealer. If the truck swung out to make a right turn then they would be at fault as they left their lane of traffic. Call your insurance company now and let them deal with it.

If its not the fault of the Audi tech that was driving your kind of screwed...

On each Repair Order you sign, in the small print you authorize the dealer to perform test drives. So its pretty much the same thing if you gave your car to a friend to drive and it was in the same accident.

Which means you can't hold the dealer liable for any accidents. If there was a police report stating there was excessive speed or reckless driving you could persue legal action against the technician driving... but not the dealer itself. The dealer runs every technician DMV records once a year so they can say they have "safe" drivers.

What you have to do is go after the truck driver at fault's insurance company. With the police report and estimates of damage. hopefully in your case you can get one who will just total the car.

You don't want this fixed....

I think you are I correct. The dealer is responsible for returning the car back to you in the same condition they received it. Think about it, they can't crash a car and not have some type of liability. All this aside, just contact your insurance company and let them handle it. That's what insurance is for. Your rates will not go up

bump 'cause I want to know the outcome.

It's still in process. Unfortunately this is one of those things that takes a while to sort through. Will post an update when everything is resolved.

So, some aggressive letters from my attorney (which was provided at no cost through my university - take heed students!!) over the holidays resulted in the dealership settling the claim through their insurance (i.e. given the circumstances, they had nothing that they could've done to put the responsibility on me). I also had no option since my personal insurance said they cannot guarantee a premium hike, although I was nowhere near the accident at the time.

It was a good result, and I gave the dealership the opportunity to come up with a comparable replacement using their internal access to off-lease inventory. In the end they couldn't come up with anything, and I couldn't come up with anything comparable myself without shelling out some extra $$$.

All in all, the experience was a learning one for me, including Audi of America's refusal to intervene nor make me feel comfortable with the brand. They also made a crapload of money for the past 13 months, none of which they compensated me with. All in all, this has made me consider other options and my wife and I purchased our replacement last week. FINALLY.

now that this is resolved, see pics of the car below. The car deflected off the orange 18 wheeler in the background of pic 1 before creating the mess. Front airbags deployed and the car damages appraised to >$17k.

Next time you take your car in for service, check your odometer and be wary of who drives/ does work on it. Also give them a stern warning.

The "test drive" that they took on the car amounted to 10 MILES... the technician was younger than 20 years old.

Reminds me of a similar post in the M5 Board of a tech at a Texas dealer who crashed a customers car.
Glad it was resolved.

can you even get that car for 17k. Seems like you should have got more. Miles? What car did u end up buying?