the other intresting fact is that cars that are bought by people living near the sea also rust fairly badly and that's by just the salt in the air imagine what the slight imersion in the water has done to it with all that salt having accumilated in all the various nooks and cranies? from what you have said, teh insurance is being a pain the the proverbials, just get a soliciter on teh case and make them shell out or, in hindsight, you should have just left the car there and then called the insurance company to tell them the tide came in when you were looking and they need to recover the vehicle to a place whee they can asses the damage if there is ever a leasson that needs to be learnt well, its that whenever dealing with an insurance comapny and you know they will shaft you, leave the car where it is and tell them to come and pick it up that way the onus is on them to protect their investment my mate waited 4 weeks for someone from the insurance comapny to pick up his car after he pranged it when they still hadn't come ruond he decided to help himself to large chunks of the more intresting stuff he had fitted (nitified of mods and everything) they were there the enxt day