Car Nicked From Dealer - What Do I Do Now?

[VSKeith]

rlg43p said:

wibble cb said:

While I feel for the OP, you’ve been very ‘unlucky’ let’s call it….. equally, the poor thieving so and so's who ‘stole’ it must be a bit put out as well - it doesn’t even run.

Eh.....?

[rlg43p]

Any update on the outcome OP?

[PurpleTurtle]

I suspect that the OP’s Mito will have been “stolen” by unspecified means, conveniently out of view of any kind of CCTV.

It will have made its way to a friendly car crusher who isn’t too fussed about proper disposal procedures, quite possibly taking a detour via the breaker’s yard for untraceable Mito parts.

The selling dealer is up to their neck in this, all in my opinion, of course.

[DonkeyApple]

PurpleTurtle said:

I suspect that the OP’s Mito will have been “stolen” by unspecified means, conveniently out of view of any kind of CCTV.

It will have made its way to a friendly car crusher who isn’t too fussed about proper disposal procedures, quite possibly taking a detour via the breaker’s yard for untraceable Mito parts.

The selling dealer is up to their neck in this, all in my opinion, of course.

It does sound like the sort of tale that will fall apart at every point.

A gamble on punting out a scrapper at £2k on the off chance that it lasted long enough beyond consumer rights etc. And then conveniently make it disappear from a third party location that it was sent to despite not being economically viable to send on to another business for fixing.

It does all sound like a not very bright geeza thinking insurance fraud is a smart solution.

But, then one has to ask just why would a dealer bother taking on the risk of punting a scrapper when they could front the sale as a private vendor and swerve everything? Surely, that's the de facto path for shifting utter junk?

And then you come back to the OP's observation that the car was screwed on the test drive. The dealer must have noticed that or already known and still pressed on with the sale. Was that a punt on a DPF clearing on the 100 mile drive home or was the whole thing triggered by the fact that the customer was going to be 100 miles away?

Regardless of whether the vendor is A a bit dim, B grifting or C completely legit and honourable and just had a series of long odds misfortunes that one just wouldn't believe, I think the unfortunate lesson for the OP and anyone else seeking to buy a cheap car is to shop local not travel 100 miles to be a stranger in a lion's den and to stick with more typical clunker brands and models. Ie cheap, old Alfa Mito from some geezer 100 miles away or cheap, old Honda Jazz from down the road? Casinos don't like the latter.

[......]

rlg43p said:

Any update on the outcome OP?

Essentially, no change since Friday's update. Still chasing for CCTV.

Insurer reckons it's a split liability claim.

I think it's been broken for parts too by now. Which is a shame. I've had some right scrap cars -the MiTo was the most expensive car I've had by a long way, even after adjusting for inflation; parents raised me the bangernomics route, which I was hoping to avoid - and the MiTo had loads of life left in it compared to the various dilapidated vehicles that have been on the drive over the decades.

I might be older than I'd like to be, but I'm not Honda Jazz old. (No offence intended to any Honda Jazz owners) Still, any port in a storm... Had two Hondas actually, of the two wheeled variety, and both didn't end well. One started knocking, the other expired in a cloud of white smoke.

...

Maybe I should get an EV.

[BertBert]

Liability split between whom?
Are you just claiming from your insurance co OP?

[SiH]

BertBert said:

Liability split between whom?
Are you just claiming from your insurance co OP?

Hopefully the split liability is split between the dealer and the garage they sent the car to, rather than the OP and another party (either the dealer or the garage). It would be rather unsatisfactory if the OP was in any way on the hook for some of this as they're very much the innocent party. I'd be looking to turn up the heat on the dealer at the moment, for them this is just one of many things that they're likely to be working on whereas for the OP it's rather more important. The challenge is to raise the level of urgency at the dealer to match that of the OP's.

[......]

That "Split Liability" statement is from a document associated with the claim in the account management stuff, and doesn't say who it's split with.

[......]

So... The latest update, and I've asked what exactly the split liability means. Essentially it means they believe part of the cost of the claim can be recovered from the other parties, and if they recover all the cost of the claim, then they won't count the claim against my no claims discount. (other insurers may vary)

The other part of the email and phone call today to inform me that the insurer has gotten a different company involved to do the work of dragging details out of the dealer and the other garage. Which is...

Well, hopefully a good sign.

[......]

So, latest update is that a temporary replacement car has been bought, but the company the insurer has outsourced the recovery to have had no progress on getting information from the dealer either.

[BertBert]

Thanks for the update OP. Are your insurance company going to pay out for the loss anyway?

[......]

BertBert said:

Thanks for the update OP. Are your insurance company going to pay out for the loss anyway?

I was hoping so, but I simply can't wait any longer, and I've had to replace the car today. Only getting 5 months tax stings a bit, but it really couldn't be helped; the only option available to me now for a temporary car was hiring as I've begged and borrowed for as long as I could, and wasting one month's tax is cheaper.

But on the bright side, dropping to a £600 Vauxhall Corsa saves £52 a year on insurance, and I now get a working radio, which the works van didn't have.

[blueacid]

rlg43p said:

I would be insisting that the key is returned (and I could compare it with my spare key to ensure it was genuinely the one from my car).

If they can't produce it it then surely there's a case to be made that the car has been stolen with the key (so garage IS negligent).

I don't believe the car was ever really nicked and they will have disposed of it and won't be able to produce the key.

I like this line of thinking! Chapeau.

[Mr Miata]

Out of every car dealership and every car out there. I find it hard to believe a genuine car thief would chose the OPs banger!

I can imagine car thieves would want a newish Range Rover sport or an Audi S3 and not what’s essentially a rebadged Fiat Punto diesel with 83 bhp.

It’s blatantly an inside job by the garage.

When the OP asked the garage for CCTV footage, I can imagine the comedy of the garage trying to make a fake video by pushing the car back outside, acting out the theft with tights on their heads and then pushing the car back in again. “Here’s your CCTV footage”.

What I’ve taken away from this, is buying a cheap car is a false economy.

[loskie]

but if the garage surely they can only attempt this once? If they sell other duff cars and do this there's going to be a pretty obvious pattern occuring.

[darreni]

blueacid said:

I like this line of thinking! Chapeau.

My Fiesta RS Turbo was stolen 30 years ago & its the first thing that the assessor from the Prudential asked me for- both sets of keys.

The car was never recovered & the Pru paid out very quickly & fairly (I did work for them at the time, though I'm sure that made no difference).