Hi
Wife parked her Saab 900 "Classic", facing the wrong way. Got out, noticed one wheel was nicking the kerb. Opened door coupe, reached in, put key in ignition (on SAAB, ignition key locks the gear lever in reverse, you cannot remove key if it is not in reverse), shoved gear lever into neutral. Dropped handbrake.Tried to push car forward off kerb. It wouldn't move.
So she sat in, leaving door open, turned key to start engine.
I was sitting in our front room, heard this funny farting noise. (I have now worked out that this was the nearside front tyre of the van deflating as it was pushed against the kerb, and then slid over the pavement). As Barbara seemed to be parked in a strange place, I strolled out to see what she was doing. Seeing the problem. I asked what happened. " I don't know" she replied. She now accepts that she hadn't pushed the gear lever fully out of reverse, but can't understand why it shot away at such speed. She never has either foot on a pedal when starting. And she hadn't re-applied the hand brake after trying to push the car. I took photos, and drove the car back to the kerb.
Barbara phoned her insurers (L&V), said she had had an accident. "What happened?" they asked. " I don't know, I turned the key, and it ran amok!" And that was the end of the matter. They told her to empty the car of any possessions, and retain the tax disc. The wreck was removed within an hour, and a coutesy car delivered later that after noon.
A cheque for £250 arrived a couple of days later, with a letter saying this was the nearest valuation they could find, and that was for a much younger model. They invited her to produce a more apropriate valuation, if she was unhappy with their offer. We printed off some "end of auction" listings from Ebay, photocopied the relevent page from Practical Classic magazine, and got her SAAB ghuru to write a letter. A cheque for a further £400 arrived within a week. Thats a total of £650, for a car that had cost her £700 three years previously. I cannot fault L&V's service, nor their premium. Barbara was paying circa £100 for fully comp, protected NCB, and legal assistance.
I was recently told that Top Gear investigated this "running amok" phenomea, but if they did, I missed it. Anybody know anything?
The recovery firm did a full assessment of the damage to the SAAB. Actually they stopped at £7000 but reckoned there was a couple of thousand they didn't include. The only panel that I could see that wasn't distorted was the passenger door. The drivers door was open when it wiped the NS front of my Disco, and was folded back against the front wing. OSR corner hit my Disco, NSR corner hit the Transit. OSF wheel of Transit was leaning in a lot. NSF tyre of Transit was flat. To repair my Disco would have cost £3500. I accepted their offer of £1100 but refused the wreck for circa £100, silly me.
I only know the Transit was a write off.
I claimed off Barbara, to protect my NCB and "first £100". L&V knew immediately what I was doing, and why, and didn't disagree. I cannot recommend them highly enough. But I didn't ask for a courtesy car.
If somebody PMs me with their email address, I will mail them a photo, and they can publish it.
L&V told me that when you insure a new car with them, they hold the old car covered for a further two weeks to give you time to sell it. At least, I THINK thats what they told me.
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