Next Car - Audi or Volkswagen

Still waiting on the insurance for the car, though just seems like I am waiting for somebody senior enough to make the decision.

Anyway, spent some part of the weekend looking at cars.

Visited Audi, as usual it's not very helpful place to go. A bit of a snobby place to be honest and then I couldn't get to drive a car. Also the place is full of cars the regular guy isn't going to buy. There were 2 R8's and then Q7's, S6's.

The A4 Avant looks very nice but I was actually more impressed with the Passat CC. I hadn't realised this car existed until I saw it in the showroom. We were looking at the Passat estate, but this car really looks fantastic. It is a four door coupe with 4 seats. The car looks a bit like a Merc.

So can't make up my mind between an A4 Avant and the Passat CC.

Update on water

Well heard the inevitable news from the garage, that the cost of the repairs make the car classified as a CAT D loss - i.e. roadworthy, but un-economic.

I guess the running chassis can be sold for a decent amount - but a 2nd hand engine and some of the interior - and you have a solid runner again.

Need to think about what's next.

The Volvo ownership hasn't been trouble free.

How long does damage assessment take?

The car was taken to the garage for "damage assessment". This was on Monday morning. By Thursday evening have not had any word from the garage.

Disaster with floods.

Got stuck in a flood and none of the extra gadgets or ground clearance worked !

The past few days in UK has seen some very heavy rain and a lot of flooding. I was caught in a flash flood, with water running off fields. It is a dip in a small farm road which had collected a large pool of water. As was about to get to the end of the flooded area and drive out of the dip, the engine suddenly died on me. With the waters rising I had to get out of the car and recover my things.

AA doesn't recover you from water. Initially they said they would come within an hour. Then they said they were busy and wouldn't come at all until I got the car clear of water - there suggestion was to call the fire brigade. I am sure they had more important things to do than this.

So I needed the help of a friendly farmer to tow the car out of the water. The electric hand brake had decided to activate and couldn't be released - so luckily the tractor had enough power to pull the car the few metres - and didn't break the tow hook in doing so.

With the car out of the water, the AA would then tow the car home (not to a garage because they were closed). All types of warning signs came on the screen..

So now left with a wet soggy interior and. The warning signs have disappeared apart from low battery - but the car is not happy about starting.

Have tried to dry out the interior as best as I can until I wait for the garage to pick up the car.

Very frustrating. When I look at how deep the water was. It was relatively shallow, about at the level of the silver/plastic strip below the bumper.

I have seen much smaller less powerful cars negotiate roads deeper than that.

The only thing I can think is that one corner dipped into a pot hole which upset the electrics - cutting the engine for a second - which lost me the momentum. Then I was stuck.

Many thanks to the friendly farmer.