[george57l]

I am technically still the owner of a 2012 XC70 T6 Polestar.

Two weeks ago someone side-swiped me on the front nearside wheel, at speed (me doing 45-50?). Passenger door bashed and hinges a bit stuck, front wing bashed, rear door scraped and front nearside wheel not quite where it should be, but it drove 30 yards to get to a lay-by and then another 10 yards, ok, later. Recovered on low loader. Did not see recovery as taxi arrived (big thanks to Volvo Assistance!) just as low loader guy was starting to prep for loading.

When I go to see it at the repairer, the front wheel is sitting on a dolly at 70/80 degrees to the car - not overly suprised as the wheel was definitely not sitting in the right place in the wheel arch when I left it.

Then I was told the driveshaft had somehow become detached from the gearbox! (Not being very mechanical, I'm not sure how that could have come about. Did it happen in the accident? Did it happen when the car was dragged on to the low loader? We'll never know.)

Repairs are now estimated at well into five figures (£12k? £14k?) and heading to a risk area where until the driveshaft is reunited with gearbox nobody knows if that's it, or more damage needs more parts and labour (even a new gearbox at £7k, if that was damaged when the driveshaft came out, or so I'm told), so now the third party's insurer (who accepted 100% liability the day of the accident) wants to write the car off rather than take the risk on repairs.

Third party's insurer offers me £15.3k. I laugh. Paid £21k two years ago, when it still had only 20k miles and it still has only 40k miles - on a 6 year old car. Which was very extensively specified at new - I can hardly find an option the original buyer did NOT order. And it's a Polestar, remember.

Currently awaiting insurer's revised valuation (they now accept the first number was wrong).
I'm not prepared to ask for the salvage, and risk funding unknown repairs myself, and they are pretty adamant it is "beyond economical repair" even, I suspect, if they end up offering me a much improved valuation that is a few thousand pounds more than current repair estimate.

But here's the rub:

- There was ONE available XC70 T6 in the whole country via Volvo Selekt when I bought it (which is WHY I bought it - needed to dump my diesel V70 AWD as I no longer did the mileage and "soot filter full' was getting rather tedious). So I knew it was a rare car, then - to say nothing of being Polestar too.

- There was ONE XC70 T6 available at a Volvo dealer this week for £23k, one year younger than mine, which I would have bought like a shot had the insurer settled properly and more quickly rather than causing delay by arguing about valuation before eventually realising it was wrong. I'd have bought it even if I had ended up slightly out of pocket by having to supplement the insurer's offer to buy this one. They are hard to find.

Guess what? The Volvo dealer sold that car this morning. Damn!

Anyone thinking of chopping in a 2012 or later XC70 T6 for a new Volvo of some sort any time soon?
If so, do drop me a line!
Please?
Pretty please?
;-)