Came back to my car this evening and Every Panel Scratched

[Pork]

g3org3y said:

Insist on BMW main dealer to do the work imo. Your car, your choice.

I dont believe many (if any) BMW main agents have body shops, most work is carried out by local specialists.

[Countdown]

Sorry to hear about this OP - hope it gets fixed quickly and painlessly (well, as painlessly as possible under the circumstances).

I consider myself a fairly liberal person but this kind of mindless vandalism really winds me up. We live in relatively nice country which tries to look after the poor and less well-off, even if you're thieving scum. The OPs taxes are probably paying for you drink Cider, breed, and watch Jeremy Kyle all day, and this is the way you repay him and society in general.

[98C4S]

g3org3y said:

They will of course require therapy and one of those free holidays to recover from such a traumatic experience.

That did make me chuckle..

Countdown - you are spot on

[g3org3y]

Pork said:

g3org3y said:

Insist on BMW main dealer to do the work imo. Your car, your choice.

I dont believe many (if any) BMW main agents have body shops, most work is carried out by local specialists.

My experience is that they typically have their own bodyshop a mile or so away from the actual main dealer, often at the same location as the parts department. It's certainly that set up in Borehamwood and Stevenage.

Either way, for the Alpina I'd want a nice BMW roundel at the top of the invoice.

[giggity]

Scumbags!! This is what I fear - these people should be - fking jobsworths

Insist on a BMW approved repair

Do not use the insurance co's approved firm.

If you ever need to make a paintwork claim to BMW for any reason they may not honour it if work was not carried out by BMW approved repair agents.

Edited by giggity on Wednesday 29th December 13:10

[thenortherner]

g3org3y said:

Pork said:

g3org3y said:

Insist on BMW main dealer to do the work imo. Your car, your choice.

I dont believe many (if any) BMW main agents have body shops, most work is carried out by local specialists.

My experience is that they typically have their own bodyshop a mile or so away from the actual main dealer, often at the same location as the parts department. It's certainly that set up in Borehamwood and Stevenage.

Either way, for the Alpina I'd want a nice BMW roundel at the top of the invoice.

I had a major repair carried out at BMW Borehamwood - they have a dedicated repair centre 100 meters from the DVLA office.

My car was very badly damaged - the only reason it was repaired rather than written off was due to its age. I was all of 3 months old at the time I think.

They did a decent job when it came to the colour match of the re-spray, but left the finish very rough on the bodywork where the seal on the door makes contact with the car. It was as if they'd failed to polish it. They also didn't slot the interior plastics back together in the rear of the car properly.

It took them 7 weeks to fix it in all. They said it was due to a part that was out of stock.

My insurers only paid for a hire car for 2 weeks as that's all I was entitled to due to the accident being my fault. To add insult to injury I was given a Daewoo Matiz.

I had to beg Scothall for a car as I had no means of getting to work. Eventually they gave me a MINI One.

I wouldn't use them again. Unaccepable service for a £6k repair.

I think the car is the same colour as yours. Montego blue?

Edited by thenortherner on Wednesday 29th December 13:28

[98C4S]

Yes - Montego Blue,

I just asked some friends in the know, the said recommended body shop is actually meant to be pretty good - they do Jaguar paint work.

Ahhhh the agro

[Conian]

In my mind when someone does every panel then its personal, random attacks would be up the one side of the car them move on to the next car/pub/crack house.

Still, hope the scrotes get caught and suitably punished, whether thats by the law or not is another matter.

[thenortherner]

98C4S said:

Yes - Montego Blue,

I just asked some friends in the know, the said recommended body shop is actually meant to be pretty good - they do Jaguar paint work.

Ahhhh the agro

Great colour.

The paintwork itself looked to be pretty decent. Certainly wasn't obvious the car has been in an accident, and they made good the problems I had. To be honest, it was more the length of time it took to sort out that mangled suspension etc out that delayed everything, but you won't have this issue.

[nyxster]

bstds.

I had a 3 week old Alfa GTV when they first came out, we live in a quiet cul-de-sac and one night someone had done a similar thing - scratched every single panel in big wavy lines so that it could not be polished out, worst damage was on the bonnet where they had scratched with a key into the GRP in huge circular motions over the entire bonnet. I rang the police to report it and it turns out they had done pretty much every prestige car (BMW, Merc, Audi) in the street so it wasn't personal just pure vandalism motivated by jealousy or who knows what.

Also remember reading about a middle aged woman in her 50's with no criminal record who got caught keying a BMW in a sainsburys carpark, when she was brought up in front of the judge she could not even explain why she did it.

Best not to take it personally, could be something as simple as a student or nogooder "lashing out" at the "haves", which is ironic since most of the people perpetrating these sort of attacks usually have their lives paid for by those who they perpetrate the attacks against, talk about biting the hand that feeds you.

Shame you didn't catch them in the act, one of the best retributions ever was that kid who got nicked after publishing jumping over the lamborghini, he will probably be still paying off the damage when he is 60.

[Globs]

Sad to hear that, senseless damage is always hard to take.
I had a window smashed (just for the hell of it - the car was open) parked in Beavor Lane, Chiswick just here a few years back.

For commuting I'm thinking of going for a scooter next, and having my money tied up in stuff people don't notice like property, gold, stocks etc. Riding around in something nice isn't going to get any easier in the UK - I think you have to live abroad (Italy?) to make it OK to have a nice car these days, or just use it to visit family and friends.

[andyp74199]

I reckon it's jealousy. My 320d has been keyed twice in different locations, both times it had been detailed earlier in the day and stood out amongst other cars near it. I'll catch one of these vandals one day and explore how easy it is for them to key my car with broken fingers.

[LukeSi]

And I bet people walked past when it was being keyed. By the way bloody nice car mate. Looks good even with the scratches. If I ever saw someone keying a car I'd ring the police straight away and then try to get some people to help me catch the vandal.

[jeff666]

What a bummer, lovely motor aswell, not that it should matter, just make sure you are happy with the paintwork results, my sister had her BMW repaired by a BMW main agent, it had to go back a couple of times before it was done right.

[speedtwelve]

Sorry about the Alpina, chap; I'd be apoplectic with rage as well. Sometimes these attacks are just inexplicable. A mate had recently bought a completely nondescript Volvo which he'd parked outside his flat in a reasonably busy area of town. Neighbour saw two blokes walk down street carrying a jerry can, brick the Volvo, dispense jerry can contents into car and proceed to burn it out completely. Almost certainly a 'targeted' attack, considerably risk involved in getting caught in the circumstances etc. Mate suspected mistaken identity, particularly as the car was recent and locally purchased. Otherwise he was racking his brains trying to think who he may have cut-up accidentally on a r/about, given the wrong 'look' to etc, as previously mentioned.

Some have mentioned that it isn't always little benefit-scrounging expendable pond-life that are responsible. Another mate was looking down from his Edinburgh flat at his recently acquired M3 parked in the street as a bloke with business suit and briefcase comes along the pavement. Bloke clocks M3, stops next to it, swings his briefcase in a big arc and takes-off the N/S door mirror. Continues along street as though nothing has happened, adjusting his tie. WTF?

Edited by speedtwelve on Wednesday 29th December 15:36

[LukeBird]

Bloody hell, that's st!

Really sorry to see (and read) that OP, nightmarish!

[Getragdogleg]

speedtwelve said:

M3 parked in the street as a bloke with business suit and briefcase comes along the pavement. Bloke clocks M3, stops next to it, swings his briefcase in a big arc and takes-off the N/S door mirror. Continues along street as though nothing has happened, adjusting his tie. WTF?

I would have been out of the door and on the tt like a ton of bricks.

I actually hope I never see anyone do something like this to my car as it will not end well for me or the vandal.

[BDR529]

No words.


Some people don't deserve to live. I remember the sinking feeling I got when my E30 had been given a going over with some paintstripper.

No punishment would be too harsh.

[Globs]

It's amazing to hear about at least 4 sets of vandalism that involve older apparently 'respectable' people.

Perhaps we are being a bit judgmental on kids? - after all most of them are too young to be jealous and are more interested in girls, lager and playstations.

It seems quite possible to me that it was an older person who keyed your Alpina, just like when you get ahead in traffic and someone goes beserk because they feel the 'lost', seeing a nice car like yours could have been a 'jealousy rage' event.

[htid]

Left my car (M3 evo, unmodified) once in east midlands airport for approx half an hour whilst collecting someone and returned to find some tool had knocked my wing mirror off. It was still hanging from the wires so luckily all I had to do was pop it back in to place, didn't cost a penny and was on my way again. It was extremely annoying that someone had felt the need to do it though. Had a word with airport / car park security on the gate to see if they had any ctv up but unfortunately they didn't.