You get your dream and so does someone else.

Hi guys,
I eventualy managed to buy my dream, a 110 defender and got around 2 months of absolute pleasure from it before I parked it in the long stay carpark at John Lennon airport. Yep! at 23.30 last night I was trawling the carpark for the distinctive white roof and full roofrack but was wasting my time. The details are Blue 110, full roofrack, snorkel, chequer plating on top of wings and sills, left hand drive (wonder which part of europe it's in now) Reg:M962UJL.
Any way I might be totaly destroyed by this at the moment but I just want you to know that airport parking is not the safest method and thieves do not always look for BMW's or other fast cars.

Hope everyone has more luck than I do!

Sorry for your loss.

Its an unfortunate thing, but defenders are stolen all to often. Its the ability to move them on that makes the theives take them.

Its amazing how often you can find a defender, and its completly non registrared, sitting in a field, the farmer sells it on, or its been in the back of someones garage for 10 years, its a very likly story a lot of the time, but it also makes it easy for theives to sell them because of this.

sorry mate about your landy.
theres a ready market for landys all over the world. either complete cars or just the bits.
even in the uk, there is a ready market for the parts. which other car can you dismantle and sell every single bit?

Had my 05 Defender CSW stolen off the drive 2 weeks ago.

Cairns Blue, Disco transfer gears, custom 2" receiver tow hitch, ABS/ETC, alloys, anti roll bars, waxoyl'd, nice stereo, sat nav basically all the toys.

Book price for the car is between 20 and 21k.

Today I received the settlement cheque from Direct Line Insurance £16,525.

Like I said in the letter of complaint to Direct Line, I thought very dimly of the idiots that stole it in the first place. I take an even greater dislike to a company that takes my premiums for years and then steals 4 grand from me when I come to claim.

Needless to say, we are going to the small claims court with them and all six of my Royal Bank of Scotland accounts, including mortagage and two business bank accounts will be closed and transferred elsewhere.

I hope you have better luck with your insurance than I did with mine.

Thanks for the support, just don't know why someone feels that they can take something you have worked so hard for; where have people's morals and self pride gone?

When I was young, if I did'nt earn it then I did'nt get it. 23 years down a mine does teach you to respect other peoples property.

Have you posted threads on the various stolen threads on this and other forums. I seem to remember a forum specifically for stolen landrovers.

is that a piccy of it in yer avatar? as i'm in, which might be the first european port of call i'll keep me eyes open fer it.

Makes me think a tracker would be quite a good thing, something that could be hidden away out of site, pull it up on a computer, see where it is, get a few mates and head over to meet the chaps who have borrowed it, or just take your keys and if you can drive it away. Love to see what they said as you drove your own land rover away.

You can track mobile phones from a website, basicly, you type the number in, that mobile gets sent a txt which says "can this phone be tracked by phonetrack.com (or sumtin)" then you reply yes to it, then unless you send another text saying no, it can always be tracked. Just have a phone hidden under a seat, use it to track the car. For the sake of keeping it charged, its not exactly costly.

Thanks Grunt, Slob, Discomania. Just gutted at the moment but I will get another one though it will never take the place of my first one.
I will take your suggestions on board, and many thanks.
(Personaly I'd like to subject whoever stole my dream to working for a living)

I thought about the mobile phone tracker thing - it's a very cheap alternative.

In fact, when my Defender was stolen, my phone was in the car at the time. Of course, I told the Feds this and suggested they get in touch with Orange who would be able to trace it, but apparently got the reply that Orange would only do this in life or death situations.

Its a little bizarre really given that, as you say, this can be done fairly easily and cheaply from a web site!

Either the mobile phone company concerned aren't interested in bringing phone thieves to justice or the cops really just aren't interested. Probably both.

A number of years ago there was a life or death situation with a friend of mine, I said to the cops why don't you track his phone, I said "I know you can do it, so why don't you" they looked at me and went, eh no we can't do this. They can if it suits them.

Thing is, its YOUR phone, YOUR defender, and YOUR asking for it to be done, so surly orange should have just done it. All they do is pull it up on the screen and they can triangulate the phones position from 3 of the strongest recievers.

im afraid that the insurance co will only pay out to the value of the car at the time of theft. which in effect means the auction price of the said car.
insurance moneys is meant to put you back in the position you were in, on the day of the theft. they are not in the business of betterment.

You sound like the gimp from the insurance company.

The OTR price of a new Defender with the same extras is 25.5k.

The Glass' price for an 18 month old CSW plus the stuff mentioned above is 20-21k.

Hence the replacement value of the vehicle is 20-21k.

Interestingly, after the poor experience with Direct Line, I have obviously made other arrangements for insurance of my vehicles. NFU, who I am now insured with, will replace a vehicle that's less than two years old, with a brand new one. No questions asked.

A jeez, condolences Sully.

When it comes to insurance, yes some companies are better than others, but at the root of it all is a loss to the vehicle owner in one way or another. Not defending them in any way, but they are in business to make a profit, and if they can get out of paying - they will.

Good luck with the small claims court - let us know how you get on.

perhaps they are not including all the toys? did you mention them in your insurance quotation?

or maybe they made a mistake and are pricing up a plain old basic defender?

did you refuse the first offer the insurance company gave you or did you say, oh ok then, and then gripe about it. if you argue with the insurancve co and say, no, i want more than that, the car was worth x ammount then they will offer you more

Good point Yella, no-one should accept the first offer - they invariably anticipate that in the first offer anyway don't they. Mind you if accepted now, bit late, it's usually all done on a full and final settlement basis, no quibbles thereafter.

Sadly Defenders are the ideal cars to be stolen as they can so easily be stripped and disposed of, I guess you could even sell off 95% of the parts on Ebay ! and no one would be any the wiser.

my daughters has just accepted the first offer/claim for an accident she was involved in. (a landy hit her vw golf).
her sister in law (passenger, same accident) didnt accept the first offer and got another few hundred quid.

I didn't accept the first offer. It's a well known insurance company policy to make an offer below parr for starters (I know, I use to work for the one that allegedly quotes you happy).

I got an extra few hundred quid but not the 4 grand that they are short.

Interestingly Glass' classifies all Land Rovers as Commercial Vehicles which normally attract a 'less VAT' value. My CSW, if course, having seats and windows in the back should of course be valued with VAT included.

The insurance company concerned of course, say they have taken this into account.