Beating the crunch

Sadly, not the credit crunch this time:(

However, in the spirit of 'it's good to share', and my last car-borne outing had a relatively happy outcome (our re-engined Golf doing sterling work as we speak... long may it continue to do so), let's try again.

Monday was, according to the Daily Telegraph, 'the most stressful day of the year.' Well, yes, I could get around to accepting that.

For this was the day my tropics-trained missus met black ice for the first time, and that's one postbox that won't be taking mail for a wee while.

Now it was an incredibly slow impact, as even the airbags didn't go off.

And, though it really... really looks worse in the picture, after a quick gander my hopes were raised.

Sure, all the crumple zones had done what they were meant to, but as far as I could gather, beyond the front, bonnet and a few important bits of engine that bore the brunt, it was all in one piece. And nothing major bent any further back.

Sadly, this seems not enough to be worth saving to the counters of beans at my insurers. I guess the cost of mending came in above the cost of slipping us the road value and, well, money talks.

So again I am presented with a series of dilemmas that span the whole gamut from enviro to eco.. nomic.

Take the money and get a replacement? If so, maybe an existing LPG? Or try and 'save' it. I am not sure what one can do, but assuming they give me the write-off value I can still 'buy' it from them and then try and fix it. But... is it worth it?

Another journey is embraked upon which I'll share....

UPDATE

The plot thick... well, goes further downhill.

It really is not worth trying to save. It can be fixed, but to do so would take something like £5k, and that's to end up with a car 'worth' £1300 (according to the nice man from Norwich Union - I then had to spend all day yesterday 'proving' it was worth more, and ended up in some bizarre Marrakesh-market haggle. Not what I expected from a top insurer).

I am now on the trail of some dual/bifuels, and they do seem to be like hen's teeth. Especially at the budget I have set. A further 'complication' is that having chatted with a few garages they seem to think getting a factory-fitted option is much safer to a retro-fitted kit version, and that reduces things a lot more. So far all I am seeing is a few Volvos.

The hunt continues....