Car Grief

Friday night someone, visited my drive and poured Nitromos, over the car roof , bonnet, and every panel, Saturday morning I discovered it stripped bare to the metal

I know of no enemies, after working what is called Split shifts 11:00_ 14:30 then 17:00-22:00 for thirty years, I did not really have any true friends or aquaintances, Now retired for 18 months, even less people,

I have lived in my home with the neighbours for over 40 years, Although being English and living all this time in Scotland, I have never had a problem and never a fall out
I give my fruit and veg out when available, and quite a few a loan of the odd £20 or so, and depending on who sometimes never take it back

It was definitely me who was targeted as no other car was attacked
The police were good, but again unable to help, as I have no one to accuse other than pure speculation

Recently one house was busted as a cannabis farm, he is my suspected attacker, purely because I am the only one in the street, who dresses in a suit and tie, I think he thinks it was me who reported him IT WAS NOT I DID NOT EVEN KNOW HE WAS AT IT and after the court case his house was sold, he left the street at 05:00 on the Saturday morning ?

My RAC insurance has been very helpful, They took the claim instantly, then pointed out that apart from my Voluntary excess there was also a compulsory excess, so the total to pay was now £450 cash
Then they transferred me to their underwriter on a premium number to THE CO-OP who then informed me that although Vandalism was on their policy as a not at fault, it was only if you had paid the Fully comp PLUS, which I did not know even existed, so they advised me I had lost my seven years no claim bonus, and they would pass my call to central repair centre
who would send out an assessor
The assessor phoned and advised me I would have to take the car to them as it was driveable

I took it more or less straight away, he checked it over, and advised me that to spray the door posts they had to smash the windscreen as it is bonded in
Later the insurance company phoned and advised me that I also had a £60 excess for windscreen replacement, and I was to take my car to their specialist garage

I got to the garage, and they confirmed all that would need to be done, then advised me they were shut for the next two and a half weeks for the summer holidays

I am to take the car to them AUG 20th providing the car is not written off due to cost of repairs, Which they would inform me before six tonight of the decision (they did not)

The policy states, if written off then the value of an equivalent car wold be paid
The only car I can find on the internet and garages is over twice the mileage ie 120k valued for sale at £7500,dealer or £6700 private, the insurance insist the value of these cars is £4999 The cars are all over the garages at £7k -£8k

I am sweating on the result as I have always had the car fully maintaind by the dealer, and had, every part replaced as required, latest being un needed brake disks and pads, along with, tie rods, but I like to keep it tip top

I am sweating buckets tonight and afraid, The car is a Special Edition of the remaining 926 in the world six years old, full trim (It is just a Skoda Fabia SE VRS 07 PLATE) But special to me as I bought it new, and the edition number is my home number, and by surprise so is the reg plate
Well the embossed leather seats with the number is 28 and the Reg is WTZ which relates to my house name of WITZEND

Sorry for the drain but I am sick, I could not face my meal tonight

 

Gutted for you jack, It's amazing that there are people in the world that do such things for "kicks"!!

Happened to a mate And his neighbours a few month back. Some scroat thought it was dead funny to pour brake fluid on a load of cars, from the roof, down the panels, bonnet and boot. The amount of damage he/she caused amounts to tens of thousands. No CCTV so no evidence on who did it. Unbelievable!

 

Thanks Al
Apart from the damage, I am totally (*&^*^%$ off with the insurance SCAM

You can not drive legally without insurance, they charge you lots for insurance, then when you need to make a claim they charge you even more, plus for the next five years, even bigger insurance premiums
I have driven over 1.5 million miles over 35 years accident free, and they do me for this total vandalism claim SCREWED

Six years ago I had the same, guy in a range rover smashed my previous car, and wrote a note, so neighbours did not bother, the note said Ha ha sorry they think I am giving you my details, We knew who it was, even had the paint on his tow ball, but no joy, they could not provide the Reg Number so not pursued, Just me left to foot the bill and build a new no claims bonus

Hit and run is classed as an at fault claim
All the police did was breathalise ME and asked me to produce my MOT and insurance cert

My statement 1.5 Million miles is true, both of these claims were when I was no where near the vehicle,
The mileage was with my company service car 260 miles a day for years and years not one incident

Jack McH

 

Oh Jack I am so sorry , I can offer nothing else but and sympathy.xx

 

So sorry to read your tale Jack. It wouldn't be so bad if the animal who did it had been caught, though it still wouldn't improve the situation regarding your costs of repair or replacement.
We've just had to stump up nearly £700 for an insurance repair to our motor home, plus loss of part of my NCD. The insurance renewal notice came in two weeks ago so the hassle with insurer prompted me to look around and I've just taken out a policy with another company - it's a better policy and £170 cheaper too.

John's suggestion regarding a spray shop sounds worth investigating, it might save you a lot of money and hassle.

 

Sorry to hear about this Jack, that is awful.

I know its no consolation, but from what I gather, it may not have been personal. Sounds like you have a really nice car, and some total scumbags resent people having nice stuff. Also, isn't the VRS the high performance spec one? Is it possible that someone with a similar car in the area has 'upset' one of the Saxo brigade but refusing to let the saxo win or something?

As for insurance. I agree 100%. It is a legal form of theft. You could withdraw your claim and price up a respray independently. Of course it will still sting financially, but maybe not as much. If you decide to do that though, check with the insurance company first, as now the claim is in their system, they may try to stop you from withdrawing it.

If you continue with the claim and it ends up at write-off, you can contest that decision, although knowing insurance companies that will just add another year onto the settlement time. As for what they'll give you for the car if it is written off, you can also contest that. It is industry standard practice to offer a much lower value first, as most simply accept it. When its contested, they then drag their heels a bit, maybe court gets mentioned by either you or them, then they offer a bit more. I know this because I worked in the insurance industry for a while. I once had to fight a case for my dad. His car had been destroyed in a head on collision, when the other car went out of control at excessive speed, crossed onto his side of the road, and according to the copper heading up the accident investigation, the only reason there were survivors is because my dad took evasive action. He didn't have time to get out of the way, but he's started to swerve left at the point of impact resulting in the worst of the impact force being dissipated down the side of his car, which ended up banana shaped. The insurance company offered £250. I wrote to them and said that my dad felt so insulted by the offer that he was going to refer the case to the court, and that I'd convinced him to give the insurance company another 7 days to either revise their offer to a more sensible amount, or explain where we could buy a car of similar quality for £250. A few weeks later the revised offer of several grand arrived.

 

No one deserves to have that done to them/their possessions

As for the insurance company ....

 

I took everyones advice, and this morning, visited several body and spray shops
The cheapest was a back street spray shop £1700 others went up to £2500

When I got home there was a message to phone the garage, which I did, The good news was
the insurers have authorised all the work, along with a courtesy car
The bad news is the Garage closes on Friday for the annual two weeks holiday "Fair Fortnight"
So my car lives on and it gets sorted Aug 20th, estimate seven days, which fits with FC's information
Clueless correct The Special Edition VRS is the Saxo boys dream car :-)

Regards Jack McH

 

That's great news Jack

 

So relieved, having read from the beginning Jack, that there may be a God up there that will see you through all this.
It sickens me,
my thoughts are with you this evening,
Jenny

 

Sorry to hear your news Jack. There are some real swines out there! As it happened on a Friday night the damage is normally put down to drunks, but I shouldn't think there's many drunks carrying this sort of stuff around with them.

I'm glad to hear your insurance company have taken full responsibility......as they should! The fact that you have to wait for the car to be done is just an inconvenience in comparison. I hope all goes well with the work on the car, good luck.

 

Sorry to hear this news jack. People who do this to other people property should be hung drawn and quartered full stop.
Glad you have it all on the way to being sorted now