[s-cars] S4 Smashed

[Karl N. Matthias]

Hey listers--

I have a pearl white 1993 S4 which I bought in May and have been very much
enjoying.  I parked it on the street overnight about 2 weeks ago, around
the corner from my fiancee's house in a nice suburb of Columbus, OH, and
someone decided to steal a car and joy-ride it around her neighborhood
crashing into anything which happened to be in the way.  The police figure
my car was hit at about 50mph in a side-swipe 3/4 impact that caved-in
both driver's side doors and tore a huge hole in the rear door.  The
B-pillar looks a little bent, and the rear door is kind of bunched-up and
wrapped around it.  Every panel on that side was hit except the rear one,
and the rocker is dented, too.  The wheel was hit, and the mirror is
toast.  After all that, I tried to drive it and the transmission won't
really go into 1st or 2nd gear, without a lot of effort.

I am now dealing with the insurance @$$holes who insist that the
transmission couldn't possibly have been damaged in this way by the
impact.  I called 9 shops in town (including both dealers--who wouldn't
take it) before I found one who would actually open the box for the
insurance company to examine.  The insurance jerks are insisting that they
see the damage and "determine whether or not it was caused by the
accident" before they will pay to have it repaired.  Like the guy who
comes to look at it will know what could or could not be caused by an
accident...  And he's predisposed to thinking it's not from the accident.
So the shop that's looking at it tells me "I just don't see how this
problem could have been caused by an impact, it sounds like a bent shift
fork from power shifting."  I don't power shift and the car worked fine,
without a single transmission problem before the impact.  Anyone had to
deal with this mess before?  Any advice, evidence, etc is much
appreciated!

On a side note... The car was in pristine condition when I bought it, with
110,000 miles but more or less factory condition.  The leather seats were
a little scuffed, but everything else was flawless.  The insurance company
thinks all the damage (minus the transmission) can be repaired for $3450
which includes used doors since new ones are not available.  I think they
are high on something.

Any help, advice, experience with the transmission issue is greatly
appreciated.  Thanks!

Karl