Goodbye ECOdiesel - totaled while parked @ 429,466 miles

tditom

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Sep 5, 2001
Location
Jackson, MI
TDI
formerly: 2001 Golf GL, '97 Passat (RIP) '98 NB, '05 B5 sedan
My condolences, guys.

Outstanding video evidence. She was clearly going well in excess of 25 mph. I hope she is prosecuted with everything possible. Her parents should ban her from driving their vehicles after seeing the video. They should take away her cell phone too!
 

PDJetta

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Nov 6, 2003
Location
Northern Virginia
TDI
'04 Jetta GLS TDI Pumpe Duce Platinum Grey w/ Leather
Sorry about your loss. That stinks! Unfortunately, the biggest risk to the demise of the VW diesel automobile is accidents, since they last so long.

--Nate
 

ZiggyTheHamster

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 28, 2009
Location
Richmond, CA
TDI
2009 VW Jetta TDI
Look at the distance covered from 5:12:55 - 5:13:00.How far is that in five seconds?
That's the same clip I'm talking about; I'm just using the YouTube timestamps instead.

If you knew how far she travelled (3-4 houses) in 5 seconds, you ought to be able to convince the police she was speeding. There's another "rule of thumb" that the police can use when looking at the damage and skid marks to determine impact speed. Those combined should indicate she is well in excess of 25 MPH. I would peg her at 40 MPH at impact, and I would say she didn't hit the brakes until AFTER she struck the car.

Personally, I'd get a hold of an accident lawyer and bleed her dry. I don't know what their fee is, but I imagine even with their fee, you'd recoup what you want out of the car.
 

KITEWAGON

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 29, 2009
Location
Seacoast, NH
TDI
2014 Touareg Exec, 2014 JSW
My condolences. That is pretty great to have it all on video with multiple shots too. Its just luck it was an object and not a kid on a bicycle because she was cruising and on the wrong side of the road. Terrible driving, she ought to have her license suspended for that.
 

Abaddon2501

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 9, 2010
Location
Tampa FL
TDI
2003 Jetta Wagon TDI Auto
I'm sorry to hear about your poor Jetta. Hope you don't get screwed by the insurance company. A few things I found hopefully will help you.

You may be entitled to payment for sales tax and registration fees for a new car. There are 29 states that require auto insurers to pay for the sales tax when you replace your totaled vehicle with either a new or used car.

Under the law in Virginia, the insurance company must only reimburse your expenses; therefore, you are often responsible for renting and paying for a rental car in advance.
 

Digital Corpus

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Mar 14, 2008
Location
Ontario, California
TDI
'97 B4 w/ 236K mi body, 46K mi soul
Averaged over 4 frames, covering ~.25-.28 seconds. Specifically the first four full frames from when you car started moving. Your front wheel has an average of a 25 pixel width and moved 231 pixels between the 4 frames. You have between a 10.72 and 12 fps video. In those 4 frames (though 3 used since the first one is time 0) your car moved about 147 in.

This translates to 29.85-33.41 mph after impact
 
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MikeS_18

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Feb 18, 2005
Location
Bow, NH
TDI
'03 Jetta Wagon, '13 Passat SE, '64 Ford Econoline
Averaged over 4 frames, covering ~.25-.28 seconds. Specifically the first four full frames from when you car started moving. Your front wheel has an average of a 25 pixel width and moved 231 pixels between the 4 frames. You have between a 10.72 and 12 fps video. In those 4 frames (though 3 used since the first one is time 0) your car moved about 147 in.

This translates to 29.85-33.41 mph after impact
so... not much going on today in your neck of the woods? ;)
 

Softrockrenegade

Veteran Member
Joined
Aug 25, 2011
Location
Howellbama, NJ
TDI
None...2011 Golf DSG (replaced by VW W/) 2013 Passat SE 6M(bought back) Current 2017 sportwagen TSI 4Motion.
I see insurance buy back project !!! Engine is still good right ?
 

richmondvatdi

Veteran Member
Joined
Feb 5, 2005
Location
Chesterfield, Virginia
TDI
2005 Passat Wagon 5-speed,2003 Jetta GL Wagon, 2003 Jetta GLS Wagon, 2013 CC 2.0T
Breaks my heart...

Just brought my teenage daughter in here and made her look at the pics and watch the video.
 

yatzee

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Jan 4, 2004
Location
Montreal, Qc
TDI
see sig
Funny but not - when I was a kid, my folks had a 1971 Rover 2000TC. They took the bus to work and the car stayed in the driveway. We lived on a 1 way street - it was quite busy, but safe.

Some bozo drove the wrong way down the 1 way street and to avoid traffic jumped the curb and smashed the old Rover. Hit her right about in the same place. Car was unfortunately totalled. They got a couple bucks out of the insurance, but after owning the car for 15 years (if I recall), my father was a bit crushed.
 

ymz

Top Post Dawg
Joined
May 12, 2003
Location
Between Toronto & Montreal
TDI
2003 Jetta TDI Wagon, 2003 Jetta TDI Wagon
Aw... give the kid a break... she's obviously a new driver, given her age... and as for her excuse... we should encourage her in her pursuit of joining the Swat team...

Sorry to read of this!!! Now I'm a bit more inspired (?) to install that surveillance system I bought a couple of years ago...

Good luck dealing with the Powers That Bee...

Yuri
 

TonyJetta

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Sep 15, 2005
Location
Tucson, Az
TDI
'15 Jetta TDI SE / '06 Jetta TDI DSG Pkg0 / '96 Passat TDI
Jason,
Sorry for your loss!

Glad that no one was physically hurt.

Tony
 

T-Roy

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 14, 2010
Location
Virginia
TDI
'92 ECOdiesel AHU
My daily driver is a black '92 ECOdiesel so this really made me hurt inside. My ECOdiesel has tons of sentimental value (just VALUE period over the years! Unfortunately not the value insurance peeps tally on though :() to me so I can only imagine losing such a car...I offer my true heartfelt condolences for your loss of such an efficient and simple machine.

I would at least be glad she didn't touch that amazing little turbo IDI under the hood...make that baby live on forever. I pray mine makes it to 500k without incident, it is all stock and still kickin' with 490 psi in all cylinders on the original, never rebuilt engine at nearly 400k. The headbolts have never been touched since they were torqued down in Wolfsburg, Germany in 91/92. I replaced the original AVX with another AVX a few months ago since I burnt out the 5th gear. It's only on its second lifetime clutch, one CV axle replaced, replaced both main seals, and a re-sealed injection pump are the only things outside of normal maintenance it has needed in 20 years (my dad was the original owner since new, it was handed down to me as my first car, I drove it for awhile then it sat for 5 years and when I decided to start driving it again, we went out cycled the glow plugs a few times, cranked a little bit and it fired right up and ran like a top on the half tank of good ol' LSD still in it! I had forgotten how much I loved that "old tractor" smell it puts out on cold idle :) I also resealed the injection pump and did the timing belt service at this time, the main seals I did when replacing transmission since they were leaking. I reckon my 5th gear that went out had over 300k miles on it alone since mostly highway driving) ...don't lose it to some moron at an auction who probably thinks since "it's a diesel" that it's ok to spray ether into it every morning to make it start!

And that video!

Seeing her come around from the background and then up your street was like watching a scene from a horror movie! :eek: I probably won't stop thinking about your loss and that video for a few days...just shows how quickly and randomly anything can happen!

Regards,
-Troy
 

RacerTodd

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 28, 2007
Location
Kirkland, WA
TDI
2001 Golf TDI
This is why I considering getting an insurance quote from one of the classic cars insurers - Grundy in particular. They have a program now where they insure not only classic cars but daily drivers as well.

The biggest reason I like them is that they do agreed value policies, meaning that you insure the car for an fixed amount and if it's totaled, that is how much you get for the car. No hassling over value. No annual mileage limits, but they do insist the car is parked in a locked garage.

In my case I have an '86 GTI, bought brand new and now has 270K miles in original, never restored or modded condition. Regular insurance companies would value it at maybe $500-1000. Trying to find a replacement and getting it to the condition of my current car would cost much more than that.

Same with my '01 TDI. With 300K+ miles, it'd be tough to get a decent blue book price for it then find a replacement and get it to top running condition.
 

Bugwithaltitude

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 10, 2006
Location
Ft Collins, CO
TDI
2005 Blue Lagoon New Beetle GLS TDI
How sad! If her parents have any sense at all they should come down on her pretty hard for this one. If they don't, the next fatality will be a human. :mad:

Good luck to you.
 

POWERSTROKE

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Jul 17, 2000
Location
Staten Island (The Dump)
TDI
2002 Golf
Give her a break? My wife was hit while walking the dog with me back in December by an Expedition. On the sidewalk. She has rods and screws after both bones broke and came through the skin. A car is a responsibility. My wife may never walk right again. I have little compassion for people futzing around with cell phones in the car.
 

jasonTDI

TDI GURU Vendor , w/Business number
Joined
Apr 26, 2001
Location
Oregon, WI
TDI
20' RAM 3500 CCLB dually HO/Aisan. 2019 Cherokee 2.0T
Jebusz PS....Had no idea. Hope she heals and the SOB was well insured.
 

PeterV

TDIClub Enthusiast, HO5G Doyen & Zen Master
Joined
Aug 17, 2000
Location
So, NH.
TDI
2000 Jetta 5 sp.
This is why I considering getting an insurance quote from one of the classic cars insurers - Grundy in particular. They have a program now where they insure not only classic cars but daily drivers as well.

The biggest reason I like them is that they do agreed value policies, meaning that you insure the car for an fixed amount and if it's totaled, that is how much you get for the car. No hassling over value. No annual mileage limits, but they do insist the car is parked in a locked garage.

In my case I have an '86 GTI, bought brand new and now has 270K miles in original, never restored or modded condition. Regular insurance companies would value it at maybe $500-1000. Trying to find a replacement and getting it to the condition of my current car would cost much more than that.

Same with my '01 TDI. With 300K+ miles, it'd be tough to get a decent blue book price for it then find a replacement and get it to top running condition.
Grundy has a VERY limited useage clause. http://www.chevelles.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-79276.html

Though somewhat out dated There seems to be better choices.
 

pcguru

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 6, 2009
Location
Hamilton, Ontario
TDI
2002 Jetta 2005 Passat 2000 Gulf
Do you have bees out already??
I looked it up and bees are the most active 72-75
At tempatures below 50 bees are immobile
 

bhtooefr

TDIClub Enthusiast, ToofTek Inventor
Joined
Oct 16, 2005
Location
Newark, OH
TDI
None
And I'd guess it'd be way too expensive to get a custom unlimited use agreed value policy, so the best bet for insuring an undervalued car may be, look at how much you'd be willing to spend on insurance for the car, and put that amount, minus the cost of normal coverage, in the bank. Basically, be your own insurance company for covering your own car's damage above and beyond market value.

Then, if you're not at fault, sue the other guy('s insurance company) to get the rest of the damage covered.
 
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