Wow what a dreadful thing to happen - my commiserations. In all honestly I would have thought this situation would be really up to the insurers to sort out. Who insures you car? Whether it's mechanical fault or arson or whatever, if your car is damaged by fire then surely the insurers should be the ones finding you a new car and then seeking compensation from VW - not you? That's the whole point of having insurance in the first place, right?

If I were in your shoes - first thing I would do would be to read ALL of the small print in your insurance policy to make sure they are not taking you for a ride... If you can quote them parts of their own policy while on the phone to them it'll certainly help your cause.

Next step would be to take some legal advice (do you have a lawyer close to you or your family that can help out?).

Lastly at the risk of sounding trite I would consider trying to use the media to get some help or at least publiciy... the Daily Mail I'm sure would love to hear about this kind of thing. Jeremy Vine / Radio 2. Watchdog perhaps? (Although I'm not sure how interested they are in one-off things like this). I'm also pretty sure that What Car? Magazine used to have a page or a section where they helped readers out who had problems like this where either dealers or insurers were giving customers a hard time.

Keep us posted and best of luck resolving the situation...

Cheers, Jules

So have you actually spoken to the insurance company? What have they said in response to your comments?

At the moment you've told us what VW have said and done but you haven't told us how the insurance company are behaving.

Did VW service the car? If they did in my mind then its a double whammy. I would shake the insurance company up and have them do their job, I.e get you back on the road with little financial loss. VW and their dealers should be ashamed be ashamed of thewir shabby treatment of you. Get legal advice as to the possibility of sueing them. Glad your dog is ok, better to lose the car than your dog!

Unfortunately Sara is one of those OPs who asks for advice but never comes back to tell us the outcome. This happened last October.

But the comments above are clearly right: car fires are an insurance job unless the cause of the fire can be PROVED to be a fault with the car. Otrherwise every wee punter would torch their car just before the end of the warranty period, make sure the car was totally gutted, and claim on the warranty. (I'm not suggesting that the OP, who sounds genuine, did that or even left a smouldering cigarette stub in the car - but she would have hads to prove that she didn't.)

Glad the dog is ok and the offspring were not in the car. Can't see anyway VW will help you but the dealer who services your car and presumably supplied it could at least give you a decent deal on a replacement car....I know... very optimistic.

Awful thing to happen. Are you with the AA/RAC and if so have you the legal aid? A mate has an 8 year Tiguan diesel which had an major engine problem and VW did the work gratis...came to over 3K. Citizens advice may be able to help, they can get you a solicitors appointment for peanuts. Your own insurance should sort it out and hopefully you have a courtesy car with your policy.