Conference terri::cars_uk

Hmm,

My girlfirends workmate had his car in a crash, and his nice set of
tools went mising inbetween the car getting nicked and him picking it
up. The thieves didn't even open the boot!

Similiar stories suggest that certain garages will SWOP your tyres for
a part worn set!!!


Greg

    
    My sisters Fiat broke down and was towed by the AA, to a neraby garage,
    after getting it fixed she drove it home without looking under the
    bonnet ( this is where the spare tyre is ), a week later she noticed it
    was missing and rang them and was told "Dont know anything about your
    tyre", the AA rang them and they found it 2 seconds later, they forgot 
    to replace it after fixing the car. Hmmmmm likely story
    

    Had a not-too-dissimilar experience a number of years ago.
    
    The car I had at the time was driven into by a van and was
    subsequently towed to a nearby garage.  It was kept here until
    the insurance company assessors got round to investigating if
    it should be repaired or written off.
    
    Eventually it was decided it was a write-off (no doubt really)
    and I then had to haggle about the value of the vehicle.
    Of course, I valued the car a bit more highly than the
    insurance company and I queried why they did not think it
    was worth anything like I felt.  One of the reasons was that
    they said it was 'unclean and untidy' on the inside.  Not a
    surprise when you consider that it had been left outside at
    the back of the garage with very little glass in it, although
    plenty of rain, leaves, etc found there way in...
    
    More surprising was that they said it had very poor tyres fitted.
    I disagreed with this, since it had a good set of tyres which
    were less than 2 months old !  Eventually, I agreed a value and
    got some money for the car.  The main reason for agreeing was
    that I could not use my n.c.b. until this issue was sorted.
    
    Later on, I found out that the garage owner had changed the wheels
    and tyres for a smaller size, with knackered remoulds fitted !
    
    By the time I got to hear of this, it was too late, but it all
    goes to add to the distrust of the motor industry.
    
    J.R.

    As I am about to take the lease mobile in for a new set of tyres PHH
    would welcome someone swapping them for a part worn set ;-)

    Re .0
    
    Same happened to me a year or so ago when I took in a lease car for a
    service.
    
    I noticed something was amis when I saw that one wheel hub was suddenly
    rather rusty and a bit bent.  However, I couldn't prove what condition
    the car had been in before I handed it over to the garage
    
    There's another well known scam - removing fuel.  It can't be detected
    by the fuel gauge as that's not accurate enough.  However, I keep fuel
    consumption figures in order to see how healthy (or otherwise) my cars
    are.  Strangely, they always seem unhealthy when a garage service comes
    between refills.  Again, I can't actually prove that anything illegal
    has taken place.
    
    Greg.

	There is a way to get round these garages that con you.

	I have a friend who tried this and it did work.

	Next time you have a service put a mark on items like oilfilter
	plugs etc. If the garage claims that they replaced them then you
	can check. If they haven't then just take the car back and complain.
	Most garages will say "Oh we are sorry it must have been forgotten"
	or "The mechanic that did it is not here" 

	Make enough fuss and you'll probably get a free service.

	Even if you don't get anywhere at least you know whether to
	trust that garage again or not.

    If the change of fuel is too small for the guage to detect, maybe it's
    just been used runnnig the engine for a long period to warm it up and
    check setting.
    
    Richard

	I had a similar experience to that detailed in .3

	When my stolen car was found by police minus lots of relevant bits,
	ie. Wheels, Stereo, Dashboard etc. It was transported to Horncastle's
	for an estimate. The estimate was very fair and I sent it off to 
	Eagle Star expecting to be back on the road in no time.
	
	However, it seems that the assessor employed by Eagle Star decided
	that the car was a write-off, and they offered me a fraction of 
	the worth of the car. I wrote to them complaining that the car had
	lots of expensive parts, which of course were not present when the
	car was inspected. This cut no ice, so I wrote to the company that 
	supplied the car, asking them to confirm the specification of the
	car and its value, to Eagle Star. This they kindly did, but still
	the insurance company stood firm.

	At this point I decided that buying back the 'write-off' might
	be more cost effective, so I contacted Horncastle's. "Oh that was
	carted off to a scrapyard weeks ago" said the cheery chap on the
	phone. S*@t !! The car could not be located at the scrapyard, so I
	couldn't even cash in the tax disc. I had to settle for Eagle Star's
	miserly pay off.

	I suspect foul-play somewhere along the line.


			p1

>	be more cost effective, so I contacted Horncastle's. "Oh that was
>	carted off to a scrapyard weeks ago" said the cheery chap on the
>	phone. S*@t !! The car could not be located at the scrapyard, so I

If this was really the case, then Horncastle's were negligent in looking after
your property and you should have a case to sue them for it's loss.  
Unfortunately you already seem to have accepted the pay-off, so your case has
been weakened to the point where you don't have seem to one any more.

I've also been in a simular situation as .8 with regards to the insurance
company's attitude. I persisted with my claim and they doubled their offer.

/Dave.

    I have heard, although maybe someone in this notes file can confirm it
    that cars which are fully comprehensively insured cannot be bought
    back from insurance companies in the case of them being written off.
    
    Apparently this is something to do with a deal between the insurance 
    companies and the scrapyards.....
    
    Helen.

    
    Not true.
    
    I bought back my Cavalier which was written off (maybe this only
    applies to wrecked cars, rather than purely fiscal total-losses?).
    
    Mark