broken car in the south of france......
Discussion
My friend just called – him and his girlfriend are in France on holiday – near Brive – and his car has died. Its a 2001 diesel A3 done about 50 / 60k I think.
Apparently its been running a bit rough for a while – drove it down on Saturday – on Sunday after being driven 2 or 3k its lost all its coolant and stopped, got the car recovered to a garage – and the mechanic says the engine needs a rebuild………..he can’t get the exact details right now as neither of them have the french vocab for cylinder head. Personally I think it sounds like its had no oil in it – its run dry / overheated and is now dead – but am open to suggestions? He says there were no warning lights on until it stopped – I’d have thought on low oil level or pressure you would get an indication?
He doesn’t have AA so calling them up and getting it recovered to the UK is going to be expensive. I’ve no idea what the car is worth but it can’t be all that much?
Options currently are
Pay to have it recovered to the UK – where the damage might be terminal anyway so a waste of money.
Walk away from it, fly home and buy a new car.
Take it to a different garage – get it repaired
Sell it in France broken…..being RHD I’m thinking there wont be a massive market for it.
Basically does anyone else have any ideas? Ways to get it back without costing the earth? Any ideas what could be wrong with it / how much to sort it once its back?
Apparently its been running a bit rough for a while – drove it down on Saturday – on Sunday after being driven 2 or 3k its lost all its coolant and stopped, got the car recovered to a garage – and the mechanic says the engine needs a rebuild………..he can’t get the exact details right now as neither of them have the french vocab for cylinder head. Personally I think it sounds like its had no oil in it – its run dry / overheated and is now dead – but am open to suggestions? He says there were no warning lights on until it stopped – I’d have thought on low oil level or pressure you would get an indication?
He doesn’t have AA so calling them up and getting it recovered to the UK is going to be expensive. I’ve no idea what the car is worth but it can’t be all that much?
Options currently are
Pay to have it recovered to the UK – where the damage might be terminal anyway so a waste of money.
Walk away from it, fly home and buy a new car.
Take it to a different garage – get it repaired
Sell it in France broken…..being RHD I’m thinking there wont be a massive market for it.
Basically does anyone else have any ideas? Ways to get it back without costing the earth? Any ideas what could be wrong with it / how much to sort it once its back?
Find a French speaker (PH maybe?) and get them to confirm the diagnosis. If its not worth it, consider scraping it and see what the value would be. Dont dump it - modern communications between France, UK, Germany etc means they will track you down eventually and probably drop a large fine, so not advisable.
I broke down in France once - AA organised collection and recovery of car to a local dealer and a hire car for me to get back to the UK. Authorised the repair to the car and collected it two weeks later. Cost a few quid to sort out, but actually cheaper to have the repair on the continent than it would have been in the UK - so all up broken even.
I broke down in France once - AA organised collection and recovery of car to a local dealer and a hire car for me to get back to the UK. Authorised the repair to the car and collected it two weeks later. Cost a few quid to sort out, but actually cheaper to have the repair on the continent than it would have been in the UK - so all up broken even.
esuuv said:
Walk away from it, fly home and buy a new car.
I'd be looking at doing this ^Mate had a bike die in Germany, they hired a van and took the bike back to the UK in that - not as easy with a car.
ETA: When I say 'walk away' I'd be looking to scrap it over there or similar.
Edited by oOTomOo on Wednesday 15th September 11:39
esuuv said:
Apparently its been running a bit rough for a while – drove it down on Saturday – on Sunday after being driven 2 or 3k its lost all its coolant and stopped,
So the car hasn't been running well for a while and he just drove down to the south of France in it! Sounds like a prize idiot.I had a similar problem with an L322 Range Rover, it decided that it was time to recreate the Angel Falls outside a restaurant. I spent most of the meal with the French equivalent of the yellow pages and my phone.
Half an hour later I had arranged recovery, the next day I went ot the garage and arranged for it to go to a Land Rover garage.
2 Days later I had the car back with a new radiator and various other bits, the upside was that it was infinitly cheaper than it would have been over here. The even bigger upside was that we could relax by the pool for a day insead of visiting Tourist traps and old villages as the OH has a mind to do!
So all is not lost, but the above only really works is you can out shrug and out gesticulate the locals whilst speaking their language....it does get results as they normally treat the Non lingo speaking Anglais with disdain.
Half an hour later I had arranged recovery, the next day I went ot the garage and arranged for it to go to a Land Rover garage.
2 Days later I had the car back with a new radiator and various other bits, the upside was that it was infinitly cheaper than it would have been over here. The even bigger upside was that we could relax by the pool for a day insead of visiting Tourist traps and old villages as the OH has a mind to do!
So all is not lost, but the above only really works is you can out shrug and out gesticulate the locals whilst speaking their language....it does get results as they normally treat the Non lingo speaking Anglais with disdain.
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