OT: It beggars belief !

My dad took his car in for a service, left it outside, locked up, handed over the keys, went home. Got a call an hour later, " Sorry, there is a problem with your car" His first thought was a major bill for repairs. It was worse. The mechanic had started the car, drove it onto the forecourt, left it running, got out, went back inside to open the garage door, and in that time, someone had jumped in the car and drove it off.

It was found 4 weeks later, intact, apart from a minor side bump (and minus all keys). Unfortunately it had been used for an armed hold-up, so the Police had it for another 2 weeks. The Police seemed to think that one of the robbers had noticed that the mechanic would leave the car running when he went to open the door, so just waited outside until the right car was being serviced, then grabbed it when he went in. The bill for the garage was around £1000 - repray on front wing, new locks all round, and other slight faults. Alan.

My ex mot man used to arrive in the morning and get out to open the gates leaving the engine running, one morning his car went while did it and in the back of the car was the gas analyser, so he couldn't even test anything for a few days.

barstards !!!! you cant leave anything these days, the pikeys keeps nicking our old batteries from outside the workshop, they are in a proper battery box ready for collection |& disposal, trouble is you cant just dump batteries these days or let the scrappies have them as they are covered by hazadous waste regs & you need a waste carriers licence, which means we have to have & show prove of the battery's movements.

ive got a rover 94 216 im about to send to the great scrap yard in the sky, i think they are cracking cars, ive got 2 of them, both had headgaskets gone but were in mint condition & too good to scrap.

reg ("reg" ) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

'94 would be Origami shape, so the 1.6 would be the Honda lump.

Accompanied by the sound of a chisel on slate Mrcheerful, managed to produce the following words of wisdom

Probably. The value of scrap has risen by so much they're nicking anything that isn't bolted to the floor. I'm getting pretty irate at the number of "Scrap cars removed for free" leaflets the Rangie is picking up.

Last year I broke a Previa, selling some of the parts in the process. The car sat on the front garden while I did this. I removed the alloy wheels - which will only fit a Previa - one night, with unserviceable tyres still on and stacked them behind my house, as a buyer was coming for them the next day. When I got home from work they'd gone. Car had been on the front for weeks, but the moment I actually took those wheels off some low-life nicked them.

K16 Rover engine, old square shape model, my wife's is a k8 1400 old shape as well.

To be honest i wouldnt expect anything else from the rover engine, i must have done "100's" of these headgaskets over the years & done properly with a decent headset/bolts & new metal dowels, never had a problem or return.

Would that have the same headlight(s) as my April 94 (L) 218SD (1900 Pug) do you think Reg (and maybe some other bits, depending on where you are) before you send it on please?

All the best ..

T i m

its the square shape rover, where abouts are you ?

Hi Reg,

Nth London / Herts, you?

All the best ..

T i m