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DCC suspension replacement - advice from accident

Coolrunning39

Go Kart Newbie
Location
Denver
Morning friends!

I am the guy who waited some time to get his 16 R with the thread “who’s Golf R is this - Schomp BMW.” Without talking about it too much, another driver hit me 4 days after buying that Golf R from the BMW dealership(over 3 weeks ago now). Both myself and the other driver are fine but they were found at fault which makes my side easier from insurance.

Insurance is not looking to total my car but there was damage to the entire driver side but primarily to the driver front left side. I was shoved over a 7in curb onto the sidewalk thus giving impact on all 4 sides. Both front tires burst and I have been told no underbody damage was done(Haldex, exhaust, oil pan, etc.).

Here is my concern. They are replacing everything suspension related to that driver front left side and are saying there is nothing wrong with the rest of the suspension around the car. I am working with a VW dealer and VW approved body shop.

Could there a problem with only replacing one DCC suspension setup(shock, spring) and leaving the rest of the car with the original setup with 23,000 miles on it? Should VW/insurance be replacing all 4 corners like you would a tire set? My gut says to replace all 4 as I would have one brand new DCC unit and 3 “used/tired” ones that also sustained impact being shoved over a curb.

interested in learning more here so thank you!
 

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Golfs everyday

Autocross Newbie
Location
USA
Ideally you will want to replace all 4 but need to keep things in perspective that it is a 2016 car with 23k miles and now involved in an accident. I won’t be perfect unfortunately. Honestly I would get it fixed asap and sell to get another R with no damage or new.
 

KevinC

Autocross Champion
Location
The land of Wyatt Earp & Doc Holliday
Car(s)
'19 Golf R, '21 M2c
23k miles? Yeah you don't want to replace dampers on only one side, all 4 should be done. I'd tell the insurance company that this is what you want, and if they give you any backlash, get a mechanic to write you a note stating that this is his recommendation. Better yet, someone from a company like Bilstein or Koni. Good luck, and sorry to hear that your "new" car got clobbered so quickly after buying it.
 

Coolrunning39

Go Kart Newbie
Location
Denver
Thank you for both responses as that all makes sense to me. We will be doing a “diminished value claim” after the work is done to offset the price which will help.

unsure if I’ll just keep the car or start over really. I bet the body shop or insurance is only saying the one side of dampers because it’ll come damn near close to totaling it out if they have to do a full setup.
 

The Fed

Old Guys Rule
Location
Florida
You told the other guy's insurance company your car is to be restored to pre-crash condition, not merely repaired, right?

The shop can submit a supplemental claim for the struts. I doubt they will.

Let us know what the insurance company says when you tell them you want diminished value. I'm pretty sure you're going to need to sue them in small claims court for them to even listen to you. Then if you're lucky they'll weigh the cost for litigation against how much you want. Small companies hire local lawyers. Or they could have the attitude they'll fight you to the end for a dollar. What also could happen is the judge thinks it's a stupid claim and rule against you.
 
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Coolrunning39

Go Kart Newbie
Location
Denver
You told the other guy's insurance company your car is to be restored to pre-crash condition, not merely repaired, right?

The shop can submit a supplemental claim for the struts. I doubt they will.

Let us know what the insurance company says when you tell them you want diminished value. I'm pretty sure you're going to need to sue them in small claims court for them to even listen to you. Then if you're lucky they'll weigh the cost for litigation against how much you want. Small companies hire local lawyers. Or they could have the attitude they'll fight you to the end for a dollar. What also could happen is the judge thinks it's a stupid claim and rule against you.

I couldn’t tell you what I told them 3 weeks ago at this point to be honest. The diminished value claim process has been super easy and pretty straight forward so far which is great. It’s a whole system they already have set up so that’s awesome.

Im not a young kid who stretched his money to get this Golf R but I sure wouldn’t go to court for a measly $5,000 of lost value. With a family, 2 businesses and our love of breweries... no time for court for me ??

So do you think I should do all new dampers on all corners as well?
 
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The Fed

Old Guys Rule
Location
Florida
I couldn’t tell you what I told them 3 weeks ago at this point to be honest. The diminished value claim process has been super easy and pretty straight forward so far which is great. It’s a whole system they already have set up so that’s awesome.

Im not a young kid who stretched his money to get this Golf R but I sure wouldn’t go to court for a measly $5,000 of lost value. With a family, 2 businesses and our love of breweries... no time for court for me ??

So do you think I should do all new dampers on all corners as well?
Not right now. I have 20-21K on mine and don't notice any deterioration in ride quality yet. I realize it can so slow it's not noticed, but I'm pretty particular about a soft ride. Ideally, they should all be the same but you can say the same thing about tires. If you have 7,000 miles on your tires and needed to replace one, you probably wouldn't get 4 new ones. There's also the argument for replace all of the struts since they need to align the car. Another argument is you might not want to keep the car after all so why put the money into it. Or get hit by another idiot.

That's great news about diminished value. What company does the other guy have?
 

Coolrunning39

Go Kart Newbie
Location
Denver
Not right now. I have 20-21K on mine and don't notice any deterioration in ride quality yet. I realize it can so slow it's not noticed, but I'm pretty particular about a soft ride. Ideally, they should all be the same but you can say the same thing about tires. If you have 7,000 miles on your tires and needed to replace one, you probably wouldn't get 4 new ones. There's also the argument for replace all of the struts since they need to align the car. Another argument is you might not want to keep the car after all so why put the money into it. Or get hit by another idiot.

That's great news about diminished value. What company does the other guy have?

All of what you said is fair here. I know they have priced out new tires since the front 2 were blown out on impact. I’ll push them and see what else I can get lol.

The other person has Geico and They have been great to work with so far. They informed me since it was not my fault that I can claim the diminished value but the person who hit me cannot. Thought that was interesting.
 

jimlloyd40

Autocross Champion
Location
Phoenix
Car(s)
2018 SE DSG
All of what you said is fair here. I know they have priced out new tires since the front 2 were blown out on impact. I’ll push them and see what else I can get lol.

The other person has Geico and They have been great to work with so far. They informed me since it was not my fault that I can claim the diminished value but the person who hit me cannot. Thought that was interesting.

Makes sense that the person who was at fault can't claim diminished value.
 
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