Mate had an immaculate BX petrol few years ago. He was indoor bowling when someone rushed in telling him it was in flames. Total write off.

So, at long last a final update on the incinerated A3.

Before Christmas I phoned the insurance company to chase progress on the claim.

The car had been removed shortly after we claimed and taken to a breakers yard where it was to be examined by the insurance company's engineers. We were told that they had made a preliminary report but could not rule out the fire having been deliberately set through an accelerant being poured on the dashboard and that further forensic investigation would be required.

I called back after Christmas and was told that our claim was being dealt with by "another department" and gave me a telephone number.

I called this number several times and after being given explicit warnings about giving false or misleading information and other proclamations relating to fraudulent activity I presumed I was being asked to deal with their fraud department. Unfortunately I never got to speak to anyone as everytime I got through I was put in a queue and nobody picked up for at least 30 minutes. Each time I called I had to hang up as other people needed my attention.

As you can imagine this was quite stressful as we were concerned the insurance company suspected us of making a fraudulent claim.

I was resolved to take some time off work so I could sit undisturbed in the queue to try to get to the bottom when I received an e-mail from the insurers. They said that they had valued the car at £1,500 and would be arranging payment in the next few days.

We are still awaitng the payment confirmation but it is a great relief that this incident is finally coming to an end.

We had already replaced the car and they transferred the policy to the new car.

We bought the car around 6 years ago, our son-in-law worked for a Fiat dealer at the time and they had taken the Audi in part exchange.

We had 6 years and 40,000 miles for £300.