So after looking at the previous threads and consoling owners of cars which have been attacked with genuine sympathy, my turn came yesterday

I got a call yesterday morning to say your car has been vandalised. With that utter sense of dread you have upon hearing news like this I made my way to the crime scene.

This is what I found.



I took a long long look, eventually emotionless I just thought 'well that is wonderful thank you'. The original thinking that had been put together was that the bottle was thrown at the car. However upon inspection you can see repetitive impact marks on the bonnet and a slight mud print. Unfortunately not only is the bonnet (brand new 24 months ago) a mess, the front light is also broke inside after the impact and the bumper is damaged where the bonnet has come down on it.

Now I have been having a pretty rough time with family problems recently and seem incapable of catching a break..with things just getting worse. But really....

So after surveying I am trying to weigh up the bill. Looks to me that the bill will be at least £800 possibly up to £1500 for new bonnet all in.

This then brings me to the next part. Insurance. The car is fully comp and I have 6 years NCB. My excess is £500 so in reality if I claim I will be paying £500 and loose my NCB. Which effectively means I will be paying for the whole job when the renewal comes round....

I hate insurance and to me it is nothing more than legalised theft. This only goes to reinforce my view. So what now? It seems like a complete waste of time and potentially financially penalising to claim on insurance. I am going to look and try and get a cost for repair, but at this rate it will be a large amount of money. Which I currently just do not have.

What is to stop this occurring again? Nothing. Must be something in the air at the moment as this looks like nothing more than drunk people vandalising something. With neighbours saying a young lad had a load of drunk teenagers around the night before and commotion around 2 in the morning when my alarm was heard to go off.

To cap the day of the family dog collapsed and is critical not expected to make it. Sometimes things become very difficult.

Suggestions?

Nick i'm genuinely gutted to see the damage and to hear about this trend now affecting you and the princess. i can't advise on why people choose to do this, all i can do is hope something really nasty and painful happens to them very soon.

if there's anything i can do to help i will happily do so, just ask.

suggestions? don't be scared of your emotions when bad things happen, it's the very essence of being a decent person to experience these things and come back for more even stronger - i know you will do that, you're a fine young man

get her fixed, no question about that, but like you i'd avoid smashing the inusrance claim in and losing all claims bonusses.

good luck mate, you have good friends around you and you should allow them to help you; it's what they're for

You could try speaking to a paintless dent removal guy. I know it probably seems like this would not fix the problem at all, but, you never know until you get one of them around for a look and a quote. You never know Nick.

All the best with it mate

Really gutted to see this. mine and the wifes car got keyed(along with a few others) I got it fixed and a few months later mine got paintstripper on it.

I have no time for these people

Oh Nick you'r lovley coupe ! I am gutted for you mate we all know how hard it is to keep your car in such fantastic form.You have our support mate.
Chin up pal.
Joe and Gill.

Sorry to see this, I know what you mean how life can be one slap in the face after another, but somehow we muddle through.

With family events as they are, I would patch it up the best you can and deal with it (rust proof) when you the next break comes along. I hope your dog makes it through and is in no pain mate.

News reports are of how car crime is down, what they mean is car theft because the buggers are out there keying, smashing and stealing parts of our cars.

Good luck dude.

Very saddened to see this Nick - I know how much you love your car, and keep it in A1 condition.

I hope you can find a way of resolving this without blowing the piggy bank.

Im not expert by any means but def worth getting a bodyshop to have a look. You will be amazed at what they can get out dent/damage wise. There is a really cheap place in Hockliffe that is about 30 miles from you called purely paintworks.

Have used the guy for years and hes very cheap and does a pretty good job. PM me for his details if your interested.

Gutted for you, I really am. Some days I don't want to move the car off the drive and park it somewhere incase this type of thing happens.

Nick if it doesn't repair why not consider one of mariusz's lightweight ones in group buys? seem a good price to me, and a good weight saving mod too

ahahaha Proccy this is nick were talking about!!!
Unless its in the Fiat Shrink wrap he wont be interested. I did suggest to him about 20 mins ago that he should go for a lightweight one... the look of disgust on his face pretty much summed it up

ps...
Ive just shown him your post... the look is still on his face

Just a suggestion, would the police be able to get DNA off the bottle and maybe find the person who did this/was with the person who did this?

You are joking I take it ?

No. What makes you say that?

Well I would be surprised if the Police commit that sort of effort into car vandalism, but if they do then great.

Unfortunately the police wouldn't give a hoot. Without evidence such as CCTV it would not be investigated. You would probably be told to go through your insurance to get it sorted.

Sorry to hear about this, Nick ... and hope you get it sorted easily and cheaply soon. Hopefully a dent man might be able to work some magic.

Fingers crossed for the dent man Nick.

The pond life that did this would qualify for a dent or two of my own making if I met them. Morons.

Gutted to read what's happened to your Coupe Nick

Sorry to read about the family problems and the dog too

I hope you get it sorted and as proccy says, we're all here to help if you need it.

of course, this offer doesn't extend to sending/giving money

Nick,
so sorry to hear this. There are some fairly mindless idjits about... . Hope it all works out OK,

Tim

Really makes me sick seeing this to such a nice car....
All I can say is sorry mate - chin up and hope you get it back to how it was ....

A bad day for coops, 16v It astonishes me how folk appear to no qualms about destroying results of hard work.
Best of luck with the repairs.

Just found this

Dent removal google

[haven't actually checked it myself - however the source is somewhat poignant just now; hope surfer69 is pointing you in the right direction.]

This is disgusting! What a thing to do???

Their day will come one day!

Bloody hell nick that's crap.

I'd put that one down to jealousy Some colours have aged better than others when we're talking about coops and someone probably though that was an expensive & relatively new car.

Nick / Adam, i would have a check on your insurance for vandalism claims, generally these are lower excess and you won't loose your no claims bonus. Sorry looking photo's though