Thanks for the advice everyone.

The cause was a broken small grey plastic clip which attaches to the glass and retains it in the door pillar.

I had a spare door and glass anyway so just used the clip out of that.

Regards,

Gary.

In most European companies you are obliged to register your overseas residence with - for example - the local town hall.
Within this process, you define your residence as primary or secondary (eg.residence secondaire in France; zweiter Wohnsitz in German-speaking countries).

Julie's parents will have done this if they own a property or are renting long-term (say, more than 3 months) .

As far as vehicles re concerned, the simplest thing to do is take your car along to a local MOT -equivalent testing station BEFORE you register it overseas.
They will advise on modifications, if any, required to meet local regulations.

To register the car abroad you will have already defined your residence, and be eligible to use that country's plates. In some countries you need at least a day off to go to the office to collect the plates, as the motor trade is obviously less trustworthy than civil servants !
As other posters have noted elsewhere, it can take months to get your registration fully processed eg in Portugal.

I suspect (but do not have proof) that diesel engined cars light bulbs will last

longer as the voltage on the battery / alternator is more constant.

If the voltage is constantly fluctuating then the bulb life will be lower.

I have found the complete opposite to be true. I had a FIAT Coupe I covered almost 100,000 miles in less than four years and had to replace the offside dipped headlight bulb once.

I then had a Peugeot 206 petrol in which I covered about 50,000 miles in less than three years again one front offside bulb required replacement.

I now have a Volvo S60 diesel which has covered 22,000 miles in the last three years. It is on its fourth SET of dipped headlight bulbs.

All three cars were driven with dipped headlight bulbs on pretty much constantly the only difference being the petrol engined cars I switched the lights on after starting the engine, the Volvo DRL's came on as soon as the ignition went to position 2 so were on while the engine was turning over.
I have since had them disabled so I can switch them on after startup.

Presumably if it wasn't a windy day the bus might have hit a pot hole with similar unfortunate results instead..the excuse is rubbish.

The driver is supposed to be in control of the vehicle, especially applicable to a professional carrying passengers, and countering such things as side winds is part of the job.

If you hopefully have a witness that the bus suddenly cut the corner into your lane then i can't see the insurers problem.

By the way PS did i misread your post above, are you claiming from your own insurance company, if so why?

In my market research days in the sixties I nearly started a company with a friend who was significantly madder than I was. I felt we could do really well testing advertising if our company car was a white Edsel driven by a cool black chauffeuse. I knew that advertising men would get the joke and find it irresistible. Unfortunately my friend didn't really get it. The poor fellow was from Cheshire after all.

In my childhood I went sometimes in cars driven by military drivers or chauffeurs with peaked caps. The former could be rough but the latter were always good drivers, discreet, smooth and brisk. When I was a nipper and we lived abroad my father had a local driver for his service car. His driving must have been all right because my father sometimes let him drive. He also made him climb trees for rare orchids and shovel elephand dung into sacks for the garden. He didn't seem to mind so I suppose bungs were involved.

Tycoons' chauffeurs lead a pretty boring life. They often have to sit in the car doing nothing for hours at a time.