Odd Courtesy Car Choices
Discussion
The mention of Honda Jazzes (Jazzs?) on the cars to avoid thread got me thinking about my Lotus main dealer, that has (or had) a Honda Jazz as a courtesy car for when people take their Lotuses (not Loti, I'm fairly confident) for service. You turn up in your Elise, Exige, or Evora (other models are available) and you drive out in a 1.0 Honda Jazz. It's decent of them to lend a car at all, but I couldn't help but hope for something a bit more Lotus-y the first time I went there...
Another garage (an independent, in fairness) I once used had a Perodua Myvi automatic. You'll be forgiven for not knowing what one is, but all I will say is that the speedo showing 140mph was about 75% redundancy...
Apparently, a Daihatsu built under license in Malaysia. The only one I've ever seen and a very unusual choice (although no doubt spectacularly cheap, so maybe that explains it).
What's your strangest courtesy car, or simply most 'off-brand' loaner when using a garage?
Another garage (an independent, in fairness) I once used had a Perodua Myvi automatic. You'll be forgiven for not knowing what one is, but all I will say is that the speedo showing 140mph was about 75% redundancy...
Apparently, a Daihatsu built under license in Malaysia. The only one I've ever seen and a very unusual choice (although no doubt spectacularly cheap, so maybe that explains it).What's your strangest courtesy car, or simply most 'off-brand' loaner when using a garage?
On the very rare occasion a garage has had something available, it's usually been an Aygo/500 or something similar, which in fairness has been fine for the day or two.
I remember in 2003/2004 going down to Great Yarmouth to meet my then boss, who had excitedly told me that he had just picked up his brand new S4 convertible and was looking forward to showing it off. Only the day he picked me up it had developed a fault and the garage gave him a L-reg Caviller automatic that wouldn't shift out of 1st
That was a very slow and sweaty drive from Norfolk airport back to GY (because of course it had no AC either).
I remember in 2003/2004 going down to Great Yarmouth to meet my then boss, who had excitedly told me that he had just picked up his brand new S4 convertible and was looking forward to showing it off. Only the day he picked me up it had developed a fault and the garage gave him a L-reg Caviller automatic that wouldn't shift out of 1st
That was a very slow and sweaty drive from Norfolk airport back to GY (because of course it had no AC either). I once got given a brown Fiat Stilo when my Discovery 2 was in the workshop about 12 years ago. What the garage failed to understand is that I needed my Discovery in order to get places ordinary cars weren't able to reach.
I can confirm, as can the valeters who had to clean the car after I'd returned it, that no matter how hard you try, a Fiat Stilo won't get you as far in the woods as a Discovery.
I can confirm, as can the valeters who had to clean the car after I'd returned it, that no matter how hard you try, a Fiat Stilo won't get you as far in the woods as a Discovery.
I have some great courtesy cars over the years (and also a few bad ones 
)
When I used to have an X-Type I often got an XF as one, even an XF-R once which was fun. Normally got a 5 series when my BMW went in for service. More recently had my Boxster in for service and I had a Taycan for the day
Lotus are a bit poor on this though, I used to have an Exige and when that went in it was normally an Aygo or similar
)When I used to have an X-Type I often got an XF as one, even an XF-R once which was fun. Normally got a 5 series when my BMW went in for service. More recently had my Boxster in for service and I had a Taycan for the day
Lotus are a bit poor on this though, I used to have an Exige and when that went in it was normally an Aygo or similar
I used to use a garage where the courtesy car was a bright yellow gen1 smart fortwo, plastered in the garage branding with the automated sequential box it had over 150k on the clock. It was awful, but at the same time absolutely fantastic.
It really was a case if drive it everywhere at 100% throttle and enjoy the oddity of the "interesting" gearbox.
My dad once took his passat to a local bodyshop to have some work done after contacting a concrete bollard.
They gave him an absolutely trashed mk1 Ford KA van. He ended up using my mums car at the time and she was relegated to using the Ka Van.
It really was a case if drive it everywhere at 100% throttle and enjoy the oddity of the "interesting" gearbox.
My dad once took his passat to a local bodyshop to have some work done after contacting a concrete bollard.
They gave him an absolutely trashed mk1 Ford KA van. He ended up using my mums car at the time and she was relegated to using the Ka Van.
A lot of the independents i've used over the years have tended to take the 'cheapest possible thing that gets you from A-B' approach to courtesy cars, which i'm fine with.
Place I used to take my old Mini to started offering a courtesy car, it was a 280k mile Pug 405 Diesel that was missing both rear door handles and only one working windscreen wiper, but it kept me dry and didn't cost me anything to use so couldn't complain.
Old Alfa indie used to have a few little Chevy things from when Daewoo got bought out, they were utterly abhorrent in every way but you could drive them on the door handles everywhere with few complaints.
Place I used to take my old Mini to started offering a courtesy car, it was a 280k mile Pug 405 Diesel that was missing both rear door handles and only one working windscreen wiper, but it kept me dry and didn't cost me anything to use so couldn't complain.
Old Alfa indie used to have a few little Chevy things from when Daewoo got bought out, they were utterly abhorrent in every way but you could drive them on the door handles everywhere with few complaints.
Had a Kia Pride courtesy car for about 6 weeks.
Apart from the rear shockers being about as pointless as those i've experienced on Fiat Uno/Punto it was a refreshingly simple basic car which i could easily have lived with as a runaround, headroom inside when a typical car design of the day meant anyone over 5ft tall would be touching the roof was bliss.
A freebie too, my car was in for extenisve private work.
I've had standard Yaris and Auris coutesy cars from the Toyota dealer, i'd have willingly swapped for the Pride.
Apart from the rear shockers being about as pointless as those i've experienced on Fiat Uno/Punto it was a refreshingly simple basic car which i could easily have lived with as a runaround, headroom inside when a typical car design of the day meant anyone over 5ft tall would be touching the roof was bliss.
A freebie too, my car was in for extenisve private work.
I've had standard Yaris and Auris coutesy cars from the Toyota dealer, i'd have willingly swapped for the Pride.
I love courtesy car roulette.
In honesty BMW delivered the most random to me - regular was a mini of varying size, description and performance. Had the odd 5 series - saloon and touring, X4 was an interesting one (no I did not enjoy xdrive) and finally the BMW X2, which safe to say the less I say the better, it somehow lost any of the Mini enjoyment and ability.
AM Sevenoaks - Merc C class coupes, 2.0 diesels....an interesting one, generally fine, but let down for me by the gearbox being unpredictable of which one of the 9 speeds to bloody use! Then gets caught out in the wrong gear or just oddly slow changing.
As a slight aside the DBX 707 uses a merc 9 sped wet plate, but AM software/tweaked Merc one and it seems absolutely fine, which left me slightly confused, it clearly shows it can be done on the Merc units so why did the C class make such a cockup of it.
Volvo - used to use Fiestas....
In honesty BMW delivered the most random to me - regular was a mini of varying size, description and performance. Had the odd 5 series - saloon and touring, X4 was an interesting one (no I did not enjoy xdrive) and finally the BMW X2, which safe to say the less I say the better, it somehow lost any of the Mini enjoyment and ability.
AM Sevenoaks - Merc C class coupes, 2.0 diesels....an interesting one, generally fine, but let down for me by the gearbox being unpredictable of which one of the 9 speeds to bloody use! Then gets caught out in the wrong gear or just oddly slow changing.
As a slight aside the DBX 707 uses a merc 9 sped wet plate, but AM software/tweaked Merc one and it seems absolutely fine, which left me slightly confused, it clearly shows it can be done on the Merc units so why did the C class make such a cockup of it.
Volvo - used to use Fiestas....
Was once given a Hyundai AtoZ (Yes, A to Z). It was like a telephone box on wheels...
Another time when my 330i was in for some bodywork I was given a very old, very white, very high mileage Mk3 Ford Granada. They had been out of production about 13 years by that time and I don't think the one I had was a last of the line either....
Another time when my 330i was in for some bodywork I was given a very old, very white, very high mileage Mk3 Ford Granada. They had been out of production about 13 years by that time and I don't think the one I had was a last of the line either....
Years ago I took my RX8 into a specialist near Reading and was given a JDM Toyota Soarer )the one with the 4.0 V8) as a courtesy car
It had a fantastic grey/green velour interior from memory. It also bonged constantly, accompanied by a revolving cast of Japanese text on the dash. No idea what was wrong with it, but it was fun to tool around in for a couple of days
Edit: this one!
It had a fantastic grey/green velour interior from memory. It also bonged constantly, accompanied by a revolving cast of Japanese text on the dash. No idea what was wrong with it, but it was fun to tool around in for a couple of days
Edit: this one!
Edited by seiben on Thursday 25th August 14:39
When I had my old TVR I had some real clunkers;
Saab 9000 with over 500k miles
Ford Focus with a rear door that wouldn't shut properly and a slipping clutch
Volvo S80 that smoked like a trouper
For my current car, a Merc AMG GTC I've had 3 different courtesy cars;
GLB 200d - actually quite nice. This had 800 miles on the clock and aside from a complete lack of power was OK to drive
GLC 350d - Liked this one - good torquey engine and only 1200 miles on the clock
E200 petrol estate - the petrol engine in this is so woefully underpowered for the size of the car, however, it was brand new with 15 mile on the clock and used for our holiday to Yorkshire so went back with 1500...
Saab 9000 with over 500k miles
Ford Focus with a rear door that wouldn't shut properly and a slipping clutch
Volvo S80 that smoked like a trouper
For my current car, a Merc AMG GTC I've had 3 different courtesy cars;
GLB 200d - actually quite nice. This had 800 miles on the clock and aside from a complete lack of power was OK to drive
GLC 350d - Liked this one - good torquey engine and only 1200 miles on the clock
E200 petrol estate - the petrol engine in this is so woefully underpowered for the size of the car, however, it was brand new with 15 mile on the clock and used for our holiday to Yorkshire so went back with 1500...
About 13 years ago I took my TVR Chimaera for its service at Racing Green TVR in Farnborough. I had rung them a couple of times in the days leading up to the booking to make sure they were going to have a courtesy car there for me as it was around 30 miles home from there. Dropped my car off and was led across the car park to a lovely purple KA Was a bit of a shock to the system coming from a 4.0 V8 to a 1.3. Good fun to chuck around on the way home though 
Was a bit of a shock to the system coming from a 4.0 V8 to a 1.3. Good fun to chuck around on the way home though When I was younger I had a 206 GTI which i had purchased secondhand. Constantly had things going wrong with it, so the garage used to give me courtesy cars.
I had just started dating this girl, and i remember taking her on a few dates and turning up in a clapped out Renault Laguna MK1, and then a slightly better Rover 214 5 door.
I dont think she was too impressed.
I had just started dating this girl, and i remember taking her on a few dates and turning up in a clapped out Renault Laguna MK1, and then a slightly better Rover 214 5 door.
I dont think she was too impressed.
100's years ago one of my customers had a AM DB5, Testarossa, M3 and a mid sized Merc' and a Fireblade for fun.
Driving down his local high street one Saturday morning an old boy pulls out from a T junction and he T bones him. He's in the Merc, old boys in a Trotters 3 wheeler. Totally old boys fault.
Old boy gets out of car and starts mouthing off about what's happened to his car, now 50 yards up the street as it pinged off the front of the Merc.
The old boy was either brave or stupid, my customer used to work out quite a bit and was a big, intimidating kinda guy.
On the Monday the bell rings and his insurance company have a car for him while the Merc goes in for the front to be straightened. Opening the front door is a spotty youth bravely handing over the keys to a Fiat Cinquento.....he went ballistic: " Hang on, if you think I'm having that with all the cars I've got insured with you your mistaken....
an hour later a 350SL rolls up
2 weeks later when the job was done, he takes the SL back and having liked it so much, buys one brand new.
Now, why don't all insurance supply companies think like that?
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