chimaera

Insurance quotes are always sky-high because they are done through estimating software that assumes a lot about what's damaged underneath, uses book values for time and prices for new parts at retail. Ask around you for recommendations for a good body shop that you can rely on, bring their estimator to see the car and get an accurate quote for the repair. As I mentioned in another thread, you also need to push your insurance company MUCH harder on their valuation if you are genuinely struggling to find a similar car for the money they are offering. They are always going to lowball on their first offer in the hopes that you'll go away and they save on the payout. You have done a lot of research already trying to find a car, put that together in a file and send it to them, and ask them to come back with a realistic offer. It took me nearly three weeks to get my insurance company to cop themselves on when I had to go through this, it was hell, but I got the result I needed and got an almost identical car to replace the writeoff. If you want a good result here you will need to put in the effort to chase the insurance company because they are really not your friend when it comes to parting with money.

Sounds like you need to have a deep and meaningful conversation with the insurance company about their valuation: if what you say is true you're being fleeced by them. Show them the ads with prices of actual cars similar to yours and don't take no for an answer.

Why not pop out the master cylinder and take a look at it rather than just guessing? Could also be a blockage in the line if anything got in there.

Or the more likely possibility is that the MAP sensor has failed, it's not unknown for it to happen. One way to check is to swap in a known good sensor and see if the problem persists.

I've gone through a lot of the details here:

If it's anything like here, the only hard time limit you'll face is the expiry of your insurance policy if you don't take it back up. When this happened to me a number of years ago I had a month from the date of the collision before my policy would be cancelled. I wouldn't put myself under as much time pressure as you're doing to yourself. I know it's awkward being without a car, or out of pocket on a rental, but it's nothing like as bad as living with a car you don't particularly like because you bought it in a hurry. One option is to buy a cheap runaround to tide you over, something that's easy to flog on later when you've found something you like.

This is the thread:

I have this one: https://www.cars-equipment.com/en/shop/skoda/oem-rvc-rear-view-highline-camera/?tpl=product_detail There's a thread around somewhere with instructions for fitting, I'll look for it in a sec. Looks like this with a trailer hooked up

Oh it's super handy for hitching up the caravan, I can get right in under the coupling no hassle.

If the gauge is behaving erratically it's probably the coolant temperature sensor. Bad thermostat is going to result in the engine staying cooler than it should be but the gauge will still be stable.

Interestingly, when you have a reversing camera fitted it keeps the camera on when a trailer is hitched. Very handy for getting the towball lined up, and for reversing the trailer too as it's much easier to check your angles.

Stuff that could stop the car dead would include the cam/crank sensors - it uses these to determine the position of the camshaft and crankshaft so it can time the injection pulses correctly. If it doesn't know where they are it may run badly or not at all. A timing belt that has skipped a tooth could do this too, possible without damaging the pistons/valves. I doubt it's the injectors since the chances of all 4 failing simultaneously are really low. It could be the lift pump, but you say that has been checked out and is ok. I would find out if fuel is getting through the injectors and into the engine as the next step. You should smell unburned fuel in the exhaust if they are, and possibly see some white smoke. If fuel is getting in then the injection system is fine and it's probably a sensor/control issue. The Skoda service manuals have a lot of detail on troubleshooting injection problems, so I'd suggest your mechanic gets a copy of this before going much further. If the problem hasn't revealed itself as something obvious then it's going to take detailed troubleshooting by someone who knows what they're doing to find it.

All relays and fuses ok? What's the fuel filter like? Is fuel getting into the engine when cranking? Timing belt ok? Cam/crankshaft position sensors ok?

That's pretty much irrelevant to the OP's question. The damage has happened and talking about wheel/tyre sizes is going off on an unnecessary tangent. First off, I'd suggest a thorough examination of all suspension components on that side, and check that the wheels are true (assuming you haven't already done this). An impact significant enough to burst a shock absorber could well have caused more damage and you should make sure everything else is ok before driving the car. On the fuel range, I don't think what you're reporting is actually a problem. The range is computed based on recent average fuel consumption and the assumption that you will continue at this level to the end of the tank. At 70 mph you're consuming more fuel than at 50 mph and expected range is therefore going to drop. When you slow back down, the car recomputes range based on your now current consumption and it goes back up. You probably haven't noticed it before, but now that you've had a major problem your brain is seeing things from a different perspective and conflating normal (if slightly weird) vehicle behaviour with the major damage and jumping to conclusions. For all the problems this impact might have caused, I don't think this is one. If you're concerned that something is damaged, you can do two things. First, verify the speedometer and odometer against a GPS device (your phone would do). The fuel consumption reading (which feeds into the range estimate) is computed from the fuel injection pulses and vehicle speed/distance, and I would say that failure of speed/distance measurement is more likely, since failure of fuel injection monitoring indicates a major engine fault and the engine would not be running at all well. GPS is accurate enough to verify any problems that might exist here. On the motorway, go into cruise at different speeds and see if the GPS agrees to check speedometer (they will probably disagree by around 5 % with the vehicle speedometer being higher). While you're out for this drive, monitor the trip meter or odometer and log the distance on the GPS unit as well. These should agree more or less exactly. Second, you can verify MFD fuel consumption vs actual fuel consumption. Brim the tank and zero out MFD memory 2 (this one retains its data even when the car is switched off for long periods). After using at least half the tank, refill the tank to the brim and note the fuel quantity needed to do so. Use the distance travelled figure from MFD 2 to compute the average fuel consumption from this fuel quantity. Now compare this to the average fuel consumption recorded in MFD 2: if the values agree within 15 % you're probably fine.

So that means a different wiring kit and a little more work. The driver's side sill trims have to be lifted to run the harness from the boot up to the fuse panel at the end of the dash. This video goes through the install (I haven't watched it but it was recommended on another thread about towbars): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAwJmN74qG4

Always replace springs and dampers in pairs. Having a mismatch side to side is potentially dangerous.

There are usually two copies of it, one in the spare wheel well and a second inside the cover of the service book. If you can't find either, you can always sign up for an hour on erWin and download the build sheet there. The code for factory towing prep is 1D7; if you see 1D0 you don't have any factory towing prep. The OEM towbar is made by Prof Svar, possibly sourceable outside the dealer network but I never checked. Westfalia make a very similar one and also supply an electrical kit that's similar to the OE one (though I don't think it has coding/diagnostic support). IIRC I spent around €200 on the towbar and €300 for the electrics from my local dealer but that was 7 years ago.

The OE Skoda towbar will be the least effort to fit, and the inside of the bumper has the cutout area marked already. The build label will have the option code for Factory Towing Prep if it's installed - I can't remember what the code should be, but if you put all the codes into a decoder online you'll be able to see if it's there. Factory prep means the wiring from the fuse panel to the boot is factory fitted. You still need to remove the boot trim panels to fit the controller and the rest of the wiring. Skoda's 13 pin kit is worth getting IMO for minimum fuss during install and no worries down the line about compatibility with different trailers.

Hill hold will make no difference to the wind back procedure. Hill hold uses the ABS pump to apply the rear brakes using the hydraulic circuit, so not really different to applying the pedal from the caliper's perspective. When the car is off the brake can be wound back normally. If your windback tool has a square drive on it, you could use a ratchet or breaker bar to get it moving initially. I'd also check that the handbrake is off.

What is the actual size of the tyres it has?

They are both the same product, Ross-Tech sell direct, but they also have a network of distributors. If the reseller you found is UK based, you may save on customs charges buying from them instead of Ross-Tech.

It sounds like the OP's car has a fuelling issue rather than DPF. If it's consistently filling up with soot it points to the engine running very rich, and that's where I'd start looking.

I have the Ring RSC808 and I had no trouble finding space for it in the engine bay of my Superb (2012 CR170). I've only just bought it so I can't comment on long term performance but it's doing the job fine for now.

No. Get a working battery and connect it to the very weak battery using jump leads in parallel (+ve to +ve, -ve to -ve). Then connect the smart charger. The combined voltage of the two batteries should now be high enough for the smart charger to kick in and do its thing.

With those numbers you're running very close to (if not over) the car's MAM/DGVW. Looking at the manual, your max weight is 2102 kg and unladen weight is quoted at 1539 kg, so you have about 560 kg to work with at best. Also note that the maximum permissible roof load for the Combi is 100 kg.