Something to ponder

We all tend to come onto forums and complain about this and that and how something squeeks or rattles or just plain doesn't work. Hopefully below will show you just why we pay that little bit more for our cars and when it really matters the strength of these cars are second to none.

My car is a fabulous silver s3 2007 reg with only 12k on the clock. It's stunning and I have had it about 6 or 7 months. On thursday we had some of the worst winds I have known for a while here in the north west. I was at a meal in Chorley and on returning to Blackpool on the M55 there was some debris covering the outside and a little on the middle lane. The xenons picked it out really well so I slowed and pulled into the middle lane, a lorry was in the inside lane and a car about 50 metres behind in the middle lane. On the outside lane a guy powered through the debris which then lifted up a large panel of what looked like polystyrene but must have been something along the lines of a upvc windowframe, the wind then caught it and it blew right into my car hittin the bonnet while still rising and smashing into the A Pillar.

I carried on as myself and the person in the car with me thought it was simply some polystyrene, it did make a very loud sound but the car was not affected in it's motion.


I got home and my heart sank, the damage cause is horrible to look at on what was an un-blemished car. In the morning i investigated a little more and realise in all honesty I am lucky to be alive had it landed just a foot the other way i'd have been in trouble. The guy at the bodyshop said if I was in a peugeot or hyundai or the like I would be dead right now, but the super reinforced a pillars saved the day. So thank you Ingolstadt for keeping me safe.....

Not involving insurance cos it wud go down as a blame claim and it not my fault! So a nasty little grand bill before chrimbo :-(

I have, but did a couple of quotes having a claim and it pushed it up £250 which multiplied over 5 years is harsh! And £600 excess to start

And the NCAP is pure ********, it's just a test of a head on impact and side impact, the rear test only looks at whiplash not the integrity of how the car holds together, it's been shown over and over again it doesn't factor crashes that actually happy. And you can't even attain a 5th star without provisions for pedestrians.

People who deal with accidents every day at a bodyshop over pointless controlled tests know what cars have the structural strength and I would much rather go with their view than a rating system designed to generate sales which is exactly what it is. How many crashes are actually straight head on or side on? I'm sure i saw in auto express the biggest crash was rear impact from person behind not stopping in time.

I have seen the damage to my mates megane from a 30mph rear impact, if there had been children in the back they would have been dead, he still needs pysio 4 years after it happened! I remember seeing a pic on here of an A3 which had a rear impact from a van and was still in pretty sound shape.

So I think i'll stick with the s3 and people can take from this what they want. All I was doing was passing on comments given to me by people who deal with the accidents.

I have come to realise I was lucky rather than just being angry about it being damaged. I am very thankful I wasn't on my motorbike!

The guy at the bodyshop am using is a good friend of my dads cos he is ground liason officer for the Red Arrows here in Blackpool and has got his son to see the reds and sit in the planes, he just said that BMW and Audi/VW hold up the best in the accidents they see and the worst they see are Hyundai and Peugeout. I know someone who owns a bodyshop and can get everything at cost but he told me to use them anyway becasuse they are the only decent Audi approved bodyshop around.

One thing that has always given me confidence is the thickness of the metal, if you press a door on a VAG car it stays firm, when you press a french car the whole body panel bends! That doesn't inspire confidence to me but it may to others.

Just like to say thanks for the kind comments!

Richard