General Chat

My (leased) car has been vandalised, keyed, window smashed, tyres slashed etc. The object of all this seems to be the instrument pod which is away with Black Jack David.

I am unlikely to see it again :-( as it will be a Cat D at best.

Currently I am driving a mini for the first time since the 80s.
Although it is a bit bigger and certainly more comfy than the CooperS I sold to raise a house deposit it actually feels and drives like a mini should. It even keeps to the mini ethos of maltreating unfortunates in the rear seats. There is room for the cat basket so mustn't grumble.

Why would anybody key paintwork and slash tyres to get to an instrument pod?

It is an electric car. The on street charging points are unpopular.
the instrument has all the software Inc security.

But no alarm on the car?

Nobody takes the slightest notice of alarms in N London, cars, broken into vans, shops, houses ... for property nobody hurt police arrival time is 48 hrs if you are lucky. Car / burglary clearup rate if around 10%.

a popular way of making a few dollars is cut off the CAT from a diesel SUV. often setting off the alarm. Quite often this goes on in broad daylight nobody gives a button. Tyres/wheels are another target - a wheel bolt breaker is just a few pounds.

With a biz lease a car all this hassle all the grief is somebody else's problem inc;uding gap payment. I'll get a replacement on next week. I shall just have to be careful with the mini and put it into the parking at night. Msybe bright red id not the best color.

It is so annoying.

I wonder if that attitude is spreading around the country as no one here takes the slightest bit of notice when a car alarm goes off either - and we live in a very small city.

About thirty years ago, just after our son passed his test and before he got his own car, he borrowed his Dad's and parked it on the main road in a village when he visited his uncle - across the road from uncle's home. Blow me down - the wheel trims were missing when he came out of his uncle's.

OH was not best pleased .... Words to the effect 'the thieving little toe-rags' and worse crossed his lips.

Just before last Christmas my son found someone had taken the LED headlights out of his Landrover. He expected to find the wires attaching them had been cut or pulled out roughly, but no - whoever took them had very carefully unscrewed the screws holding them in and carefully unplugged the wiring. They even left the screws neatly lined up on the bumper.

I wouldn't like to say what he called them but at least it made it an easier job to replace them.

The police did at least come and knock on doors round about but no one heard anything and it must have been overnight.

Kath. x

And I know you don't live a million miles away from me, Kath. :-D

Your son was lucky that the police attended rather than just giving him an incident number.

Someone stole my catalytic converter from underneath my car while parked in a busy Tesco's car park at 11 in the morning. They used cutting tools to remove it and it cost me over a £1,000 to replace it as they had damaged the entire exhaust system :-| :-| :-P

Belle, I'd have been spitting bricks - in a busy car park where many must have walked past! :-|

Exactly, Joy...the Police said that, sadly, it takes just a couple of minutes :-|. They steal them for their precious metals ie Palladium & Rhodium :-|

You're right Joy. He didn't expect the police to attend. However it was the following day and nothing came of it. Land Rovers are expensive cars though and the headlights were over £600.

Kath. x