Photo: Catalin Garmacea
If this story turns out to be true, it could be one of the funniest, most outrageous things we've read all year. Here's the gist of it: Korean driver has fender bender in his Audi A8; insurance company gives needs to give him an R8 lease car that cost them $25,000; he refuses; they insist. The end!
According to a Reddit discussion topic, the Korean laws dictate that an insurance company needs to put the motorists in an equivalent car, even if they caused the accident. After getting involved in a somewhat serious fender-bender with his Audi A8 (as in large sedan), a driver finds out that he will be driving an Audi R8 (as in mid-engined sportscar) for 2 weeks while his sedan is fixed.
The cost? $1,800 per day, which adds up to $25,200 for the whole two weeks. The Audi A8 driver reportedly offers the insurance company to fix the car himself and receive only $20,000, which is half of what rental and repair bill adds up to ($25,000 plus $14,000 for the A8 repair). But the company refuses.
On top of that, the R8 they want to give him isn't even in the same city, so it has to be brought to him on a trailer.
Frustrated with the bureaucratic and cost inefficient insurance system, the Audi owner decided to do what any of us would when faced with a free R8. He takes a 10-day vacation and puts the pedal to the metal. Over the first 3 days, he clocks no less than 1,000 miles (1600 km) on the German 2-door. That will put a serious dent in the residual value.
An R8 would cost about $10,000 to rent for a couple of weeks in Beverly Hills or Miami. So what's going on here? The whole story seemed a little weird until we learnt that in South Korea, import models like these two Audis we mentioned are very heavily taxed. Apparently, that R8 can cost as much as $600,000, which is absurd.
So here's a tutorial on how to drive an awesome car in Korea:
Step 1: Wreck your car
Step 2: Call the insurance company
Step 3: Enjoy something much better than you had
The cost? $1,800 per day, which adds up to $25,200 for the whole two weeks. The Audi A8 driver reportedly offers the insurance company to fix the car himself and receive only $20,000, which is half of what rental and repair bill adds up to ($25,000 plus $14,000 for the A8 repair). But the company refuses.
On top of that, the R8 they want to give him isn't even in the same city, so it has to be brought to him on a trailer.
Frustrated with the bureaucratic and cost inefficient insurance system, the Audi owner decided to do what any of us would when faced with a free R8. He takes a 10-day vacation and puts the pedal to the metal. Over the first 3 days, he clocks no less than 1,000 miles (1600 km) on the German 2-door. That will put a serious dent in the residual value.
An R8 would cost about $10,000 to rent for a couple of weeks in Beverly Hills or Miami. So what's going on here? The whole story seemed a little weird until we learnt that in South Korea, import models like these two Audis we mentioned are very heavily taxed. Apparently, that R8 can cost as much as $600,000, which is absurd.
So here's a tutorial on how to drive an awesome car in Korea:
Step 1: Wreck your car
Step 2: Call the insurance company
Step 3: Enjoy something much better than you had
Google News