Thank you Audi.

[Macduff]

For building a strong car and Britax for their ISOFIX car seats.

This is what was left of ours after we were pushed off the road by a car we were overtaking. We were doing about 60 at the time. We hit a roadsign that flipped us at least once resulting in us landing back on the road. I think it saved our lives as we would have been into very big trees otherwise.

The other car was a Grande Punto. He walked away too but his engine ended up another 50 feet down the road!

I was kept in hospital overnight but my wife and kids were discharged yesterday evening.

My two brothers-in-law came out and have taken more pictures which I'll post up once I get them.

Many thanks must go to the fire, ambulance and police who where there within minutes, to the air ambulance crew for the flight into Aberdeen with my kids and to the staff at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary for all their help.

Just waiting for the police to come and take statements and for the bruising to go down.

 

[pjmspeedy]

:sign_omg: what an impact that is! Thank god your all ok.

I too got slammed into the side when trying to overtake a car just before Christmas in my wife's car. I was doing between 50-55mph but luckly we didn't hit anything else other than the third party but we just narrowled missed going down a slope and hitting a house!

 

[Nilz]

Flippin heck!!!

Thank God you guys are all ok, that looks horrible, at least you are all ok!!

 

[yendall24]

god bless audi glad to hear you are all ok it slows you down a bit when you see pictures like this all the best to you and yours

 

[quattrojames]

Jesus! That front wheel! OMG!

Respect to Audi indeed. So glad everyone was ok, its very reassuring for all of us with families to see that our cars can stand up to that if it's ever needed.

 

[istoo]

jesus flipping christ.
Going by the name your nearish to me, so glad to hear you all walked from that, especially the kids.

 

[1210tech]

holy ****, that is a bingo and a half!

glad to hear you and your family are ok

 

[bubstar]

WOW! That's a big one, glad to hear you're all ok.

 

[golf]

How in God's name did you walk away from that?!

Get the insurance money and go buy yourself another Audi.

 

[zeratul]

Glad your all came out of this ok.
All the best - it can't be easy.

 

[steve_malton]

Gee thats a big un, glad to hear that you are all ok.

 

[docurley]

All I can say is WOW.

 

[Macduff]

UPDATE.

Still waiting to give statements but the other driver has now changed his story and is blaming us. He says that we drove into him.

I've not seen his car but there's a lot of his paint on our left wing which indicates that we were alongside him at the time. My wife didn't turn into him so the only conclusion is that he drove into us.

He simply didn't indicate or check his mirrors and blindspot so why won't he just accept responsibility.

 

[Chris79]

Did the other driver speed up then closing the door so to speak?

We were hit by an articluated lorry on Boxing day so know how you feel! I went straight out and bought another, very impressed with A4's in a crash.

Chris

 

[Mikey]

I suggest you do the lottery tomorrow. man how do you survive THAT?!?!?!

 

[joost]

Holy crap! The car can be replaced, the main thing is you are all ok. Any tips for the Euromillions numbers tonight???

 

[andywa]

****** me... that looks pretty awful glad to hear all are well.

 

[J7USS]

That has got to be the worse wreckage Ive seen ever and known anyone one to come out alive!! Cars can be replaced and the main thing here is you all lived to tell the tale.

The more you look at it the worse it looks.
....and he's trying to put the blame on you, what a *****, He hasnt got no conscience, how could anyone who at fault try and switch it around after seeing what you have caused expecially knowing your children were in the car aswell. Needs a good nuttin ....then leaving somewhere!!

 

[Chris79]

Fingers crossed you get sorted soon, if its your word against his then it could take a while, last time I had an accident with no witnesses it took a court date to get the 3rd party to own up - that took 13 months!

Are you looking for another car yet?

All the best.

Chris

 

[Marc1]

Wow Macduff that was quite an accident! Pleased to hear you are all ok. A bit of peace of mind for the rest of us that we've hopefully chosen as safe a car as we can.

 

[Macduff]

Thanks Guys

Hopefully it'll get sorted quickly as there was a couple behind us who witnessed the whole event and said that he pulled out into the side of us.

I had a couple of A4 test drives this week. A 2.0TDI 143 FWD and a 170 Quattro. I actually preferred the FWD car as the Quattro had more pronounced understeer. They were both on the optional 19" wheels with 255 tyres which I think are too big for the car. MPG wasn't bad on the test route I took - the FWD got about 40 and the Quattro 36.6.

Just have to see what the insurance settlement comes out as and then decide what we're going to do. The decision also depends on my job situation as I've got an opportunity in Canada so don't want to be stuck with a car until that's decided one way or the other.

 

[aragorn]

i'm surprised the quattro seemed to understeer more. Did they have the same tyres on? If the quattro was on crappy things, and the FWD was on decent rubber, that would most likely explain it...

I guess it is a bit heavier, but i'd have thaught that under power thru a corner, it would understeer later, due to less power being fed to the front wheels...

Ok if you took both cars into a bend, dipped the clutch and wound the steering over, the quattro would fare worse, as its heavier, but in normal driving i'd have thaught the quattro would have felt more planted?

 

[Macduff]

i'm surprised the quattro seemed to understeer more. Did they have the same tyres on? If the quattro was on crappy things, and the FWD was on decent rubber, that would most likely explain it...

I guess it is a bit heavier, but i'd have thaught that under power thru a corner, it would understeer later, due to less power being fed to the front wheels...

Ok if you took both cars into a bend, dipped the clutch and wound the steering over, the quattro would fare worse, as its heavier, but in normal driving i'd have thaught the quattro would have felt more planted?

Tyre brands were the same (can't remember brand but I did check). No idea why it would understeer more but it did. However I may have been going a tad faster in the Quattro but I wasn't looking at the speedo.

 

[gavt]

Hi there, glad to hear you are all fine. I too chose an A4 after attanding a head-on crash (I'm a firefighter) in which the sole occupant of an A4 walked away (or limped) with only a swollen ankle due to impact braking whilst the driver of the Vitara was airlifted to hospital (was ok glad to say). The audi's door still opened fully even although the roof was kinked but the Vitars looked as though it had driven over a landmine. A very strong car and a must for the family!

 

[Chris79]

Glad you got a witness.

People keep mentioning understeer in Quattro's, what kind of speed do you need to get it sliding? I'm clearly too steady, just written off my 2002 2.5 TDI Q Avant Sport - rubbish tyres and never even offered to break traction. Replaced that with a 3.0 tdi B7 Quattro Avant S-Line - same result!

My wifes Golf GT TDI will understeer in a sharp bend at 40+ mph in the wet.

My boss drives an A5 3.0 tdi quattro - he says that will slide when pushed.

Cheers Chris

 

[Niknak]

OMG looks like you were very lucky to walk away from that, good luck with the insurance.

 

[SMc]

Thanks Guys

Hopefully it'll get sorted quickly as there was a couple behind us who witnessed the whole event and said that he pulled out into the side of us.

Thats great news, you'll be okay then, the other driver will definitely be found liable for that if there is a witness. You'd think the **** would have a conscious eh!

Good luck on your new car choice.

 

[aragorn]

People keep mentioning understeer in Quattro's, what kind of speed do you need to get it sliding? I'm clearly too steady, just written off my 2002 2.5 TDI Q Avant Sport - rubbish tyres and never even offered to break traction. Replaced that with a 3.0 tdi B7 Quattro Avant S-Line - same result!

My wifes Golf GT TDI will understeer in a sharp bend at 40+ mph in the wet.

My boss drives an A5 3.0 tdi quattro - he says that will slide when pushed.

Give it enough speed into a bend and it will eventually understeer. You'll find that trying to get it to do so in the dry is seriously dodgy, if you've never had the car understeer, i'd imagine you'd be quite surprised just how quick you can push the car round a bend, but when it does let go bad things can happen, as you will be carrying a LOT of speed...

If you want to get a feel for it, find a big quiet wet roundabout with plenty of room and do a few laps round it slowly increasing your speed until you feel the understeer, its easier to control in the wet generally, as your not going quite as fast when it does let go.

And if your going to try, make sure the rear tyres are better than the fronts, otherwise when you lift off to correct the understeer, you'll end up swapping ends.

FWD and 4wd cars will tend to understeer first, primarily because they're set up to be as safe as possible by the manufacturer, especially when most normal people, when faced with their car doing something they dont like is to lift off and brake. Do that with some oversteer and you'll likely end up pointing the wrong way.