steve_m Posted February 1, 2004 Share Posted February 1, 2004 My local Honda dealer, Norton Way Honda in Letchworth were in the local paper last week as two mechanics wrote off what was described as a "£60k NSX supercar". Apparantly they accelerated out of a corner, the back let go and they hit a tree. Driver was bruised but the passenger had a few broken bones. (This is the same garage that claimed their demo Civic Type R didn't have any petrol and all the local petrol stations had run out of petrol so couldn't provide a test drive ) Anything like this happened to anybody here ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonlewis Posted February 1, 2004 Share Posted February 1, 2004 Not to me, but I know of one TVR mechanic that trashed a Brand New Tuscan on PDI. The other one I heard about was when one of the first 350C was being offloaded from the lorry, a car rammed it. Finally, does everyone remember the French lorry driver who overturned his truck, with a few brand new F40's on the back... this was when they were going for upto £500k each Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S8ight Posted February 1, 2004 Share Posted February 1, 2004 went into Two Mills Honda about 6 years ago to look at an NSX. the wife had an Accord coupe on lease at the time that had come from them. they saw this and phoned the company i had leased the car from and asked them if they could trust this 'dodgy looking bloke' with their demmo NSX !! they said of course you can trust him. while im in the show room my mobile rings, its only my mate from the hire company to tell me that theyd just phoned him to check up on me !! needless to say i explained to the salesman that he was a complete sperm donor and left. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman Posted February 1, 2004 Share Posted February 1, 2004 A friends father was in the car trade for many years; they had a Mercedes dealership, customers car was in for a service one day. It was up on the ramps, when it started to roll backwards. The back end of the car came completely off the ramp and landed on the Krypton (or whatever) analyser. They ended up with the car balanced like this for the rest of the day, while they desperately tried to stall the customer and stop him looking in the workshop. Fortunately they managed to borrow a forklift, and get the car back on the ramps. Swapped the damaged petrol tank, new underseal to hide the scrapes, and as the bodywork was unmarked, the cutomer never knew! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeff oakley Posted February 1, 2004 Share Posted February 1, 2004 When I was an apprentice mechanic the lads from the local Jag dealership (hatfields) thought they were a cut above the rest. So imagine our delight when one of them was helping the technician to find out which injector on a v12 e type convertible was not firing. The chosen method was to pour petrol from a bottle into the intakes and if it sped up that was the one faulty. Good theroy bad mistake, the car spat back and the falmes shooting out made the apprentice drop the bottle which broke splashing petrol every where which burst into flames covering the car, which is still running, with burning fuel. The fire extinguishers made little impact and by the time the fire brigade had arrived the fuel line on the car had burnt through and the electric pump was shooting fuel out like a flame thrower. The end result was the garage burnt down and they never reopened in the town. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the bear Posted February 1, 2004 Share Posted February 1, 2004 Norton Way is my local Honda merchant as well, strange there is no comment in the paper from either the driver or the dealership, perhaps the test drive wasnt as official as it should have been. PM me and perhaps we can meet for a blat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
7SE Posted February 1, 2004 Share Posted February 1, 2004 My uncle has a body repair business, about a year or so back he repaired a door on a friend's Merc CLK, whilst they were on holiday. After the repair he took it home and parked it in the garage to prevent it cluttering up the w/shop and protect it from any inadvertent damage. The Friday evening, before the friends were due back, he and my aunt went out for the evening. My Aunt took care to hide the keys to her eldest son's car, a Fiesta, to stop her younger son (16) from driving it up and down the drive. She didn't think to hide the keys to the CLK that was in the garage. You're thinking ahead aren't you My younger cousin negotiated the car out of the garage and up and down the drive OK, but when parking the car back in the garage his foot slipped, or something, and not being used to an automatic, panicked. The car ended up in the Kitchen, parked on top of the remains of a brick island in the middle of the kitchen. On the way through the garage/kitchen wall he removed a radiator. Now my uncle's house is unusual in that it is built on a hillside and the bedrooms are downstairs. New garage wall, complete new kitchen and 2 bedrooms redecorated. New bonnet, new windscreen and the car was not ready the next day Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thrustyjust Posted February 1, 2004 Share Posted February 1, 2004 My mate used to build replica cars for clients.He had spent a fair few months building a Ferrari Daytona.It had a jag V12 in it.The client had been using it at the weekends when the weather was nice and my mate got it back on Sunday eves to carry on with the interior trim.The client knew there was a rear spring problem on the car.He used the car for the weekend and came back as usual on Sunday evening.He said that there was a slight tappy noise from the engine,maybe just a shim needed to be adjusted on a tappet and left.My mate leant into the car and turn the key,the car leapt into life and the client had left it in gear and shot into his garage.It hit the workbench at the end of the garage,while my mate was still in the drive looking at the horror.It took 3 weeks to sort it out and played on the 'raer suspension' was in bits and couldn't be driven while he waited for parts.The real truth is that the body shop was desperately trying to paint it the right colour as they had lost the paint code that they had used.The most painful part was ordering a new indicator 'lense' from Ferrari at £350 each.........The client never knew of the incident. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S8ight Posted February 1, 2004 Share Posted February 1, 2004 mate of mine had a 911 Turbo years ago. went away on holiday for three weeks and left it in another friends garage for safe keeping. Geoff "course i wont use your car" three weeks later Finny "er Geoff, whys my car got another 2,500 miles on it since i left it with you ?" Geoff "nah, you must have written it down wrong mate" Finny "er Geoff, whys it got stickers from two campsites in the lake district on it ?" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve_m Posted February 1, 2004 Author Share Posted February 1, 2004 I should have mentioned that this was a customers car that IIRC had had the clutch changed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Triggsy Posted February 1, 2004 Share Posted February 1, 2004 I read that as well in the local rag - The Comet (i'm a Letchworth lad). I reckon it was 2 snotty apprentice mechanics taking it out for a spin probably without permission. I bet the owner was slightly miffed!!! Cheers Simon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Westfields Rock On Posted February 1, 2004 Share Posted February 1, 2004 hehe, at my old mans work they were teaching a new lad to drive tractors. He wasnt supposed to be taught how to go up the loading ramps at the side of the factory. but some bright spark thought they would. this resulted in a £60k brand spanking new tractor being driven off a 5ft drop wrote it off, chassis split apparently Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scruffythefirst Posted February 2, 2004 Share Posted February 2, 2004 Guy i used to work with drove a forklift loaded down with an aircraft container of a simmilar 5ft drop, they just picked it up with another forklift and carried on, they also managed to tip one over at full height extension and wedge the whole thing against the racking. Muppets Scruffy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonlewis Posted February 2, 2004 Share Posted February 2, 2004 I did once ask a mate to pick my Cerbera up for Harrogate Horseless Carriages as he lived 500 yards away. The car had 350 more miles on it than the service stamp when I picked it up a few days later. He liked it so much he went and bought one !! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bronco Jr Posted February 2, 2004 Share Posted February 2, 2004 As a Harrogate lad myself, I think I read that some one totalled a TVR Tuscan on the bypass whilst taking it on a test drive from Harrogate Horseless Carridges? If my memory serves me right they killed thems selves too, car was being tailed my someone from HHC at the time.... In can all end in tears Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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