I wouldn't want a car back, seeing as how many are so difficult to take without the correct keys there's a good chance that the low life's have somehow obtained the keys from your own home or similar.
Apart from the personal invasion aspect, untold mechanical damage may have been caused which may shorten the life of the car without necessarily showing immediate symptoms.
At the very least i would want the whole interior replacing should one of these types even gain access to the inside, goodness knows what may have been pressed into the seats, needles being the first of many horrible thoughts.
|
Back in the early 90s I lived in central Bath. I had a then new Golf GTi 16v. Very nice wee car which was my pride and joy. Crazy to think that it cost almost as much then as they do now but that's another story.
It was broken into 3 times and stolen twice in the 18 months I had it. On each occasion from right outside my flat.
Much as I adored that little pocket rocket, I did become uneasy with it given the thoughts of what had happened to it. It felt sullied and abused towards the end. I changed jobs and was given a company car. There were few choices and the upshot was a very different beast. A Rover 800. I had that for a couple of years and it was never touched. Later, I had first a 3 and then a 5 series BMW. Both of those were vandalised and broken into. A Volvo T5 was similarly targetted.
In recent years I have both through force of circumstance and latterly choice had workaday so called mainstream estate cars. Maybe coincidence but none of those have ever been interfered with despite regularly being left in some dodgy places full of visible kit while I go about my business.
Seems the criminal fraternity are the biggest badge snobs of all.
In answer to the OP. Yes, a car does feel dirtied by being stolen. In some ways, if it were to happen again I would prefer that it never turned up.
|
As mentioned by another poster, you don't know how much damage may have been caused by the vermin driving the car "in its chops", redlining it, caring nothing for speed bumps etc.
That, and the whole "I've been violated" feeling.
Even with a full valet/service and any broken stuff replaced, it still won't be YOUR car.
|
I had both my cars stolen last year from my house.
The Skoda VrS was involved in a chase and when I got it back it wasn't the same car. The cosmetic repairs were not good and there was an underlying suspicion there was chassis damage and all sorts of stuff underneath although the repairers said not - this could just have been my worries.
Anyhow, I couldn't wait to get rid and traded it in shortly after.
The other car, a Subaru Outback, was returned in better condition than when it was stolen ! Admittedly it was found only about 2 miles away so hadn't been subject to what the VrS had been, but we were more than happy to keep the Outback.
So it's a bit of swings and roundabouts really and a lot depends on how you feel about the returned vehicles.
jdc
|
Happened to an acquaintance - his Toyota was nicked, and recovered about a month later - with all the rust spots fixed, a classy respray, radio+speakers (his had been nicked in a seperate incident and he couldn't be bothered replacing them!)the engine recently serviced, and four close-to-new tyres!
|
The better half's 01 Y TDDi Ghia 5dr Focus was stolen (from the garage house break in and car keys stolen) three christmases back. It was recovered and returned after about two weeks, some minor body damage missing spare and stereo, two handbags in the back (from robbery's the tea leafs had undertaken), two empty diesel canisters and a fair mess.
I didn't expect her to want to keep it, but she was adamant and we had it fixed and to be honest it was fine, only just sold it on last week after replacing it with a new shape focus diesel ghia (she's easy to please!). We had no problems with it and she was sad to see it go when swapped.
|
>>, it still won't be YOUR car.<<
If the car either is not damaged or is fully repaired, then the only "damage" that remains is "in your mind" - the violation aspect. You don't feel this way when you lend your car to a friend, even though you dont know how they've been driving it! When they return it, to you, it is still your car, because YOU KNEW they were using it, so you dont mind or feel violated.
On the flip-side, "Scrotey" may take your car, but treat it with due care, but .. because you didn't give permission, or know they had, you feel violated. but it still is your car when you get it back, you've just to adjust your mental aspect.
Billy
|
I?ve had two cars pinched, both in odd circumstances. The first, a Ford Orion 1.6L, was nicked from outside my house whilst I was at work (barman in a local pub). When I got home PC Plod was waiting at my front door to question me about an armed robbery that evening, in which my car had been used as a getaway. I hadn?t known the car had been stolen up till then as I?d been at work for 12 hours, so obviously hadn?t reported it. The car was recovered and returned to me and I drove it without a problem for another year. Didn?t really care it had been nicked. Then my sister bought it off me.
Next up, and several years later, was a Renault 9 1.2, which was taken from my workplace car park, this time a CCTV equipment distribution company (don?t shoot me, I needed a job quite badly). I had left it there over the weekend whilst availing myself of a company pool car. The car was in the car park when I got there on Monday morning in a different spot to where I had left it, with a broken side window and a quarter of a tank of petrol gone. Someone had taken it, driven around for a bit and decided it was such a terrible car that the owner must be hard up and therefore they returned it. Or something. The berk whose job it was to set the car park CCTV up for the weekend messed it up and the video recording didn?t run long enough for us to get to watch this amusing spectacle. Again, I kept the car for a while and it really didn?t bother me that it had been stolen.
|
|
|
If the car either is not damaged or is fully repaired then the only "damage" that remains is "in your mind" - the violation aspect. You don't feel this way when you lend your car to a friend even though you dont know how they've been driving it! When they return it to you it is still your car because YOU KNEW they were using it so you dont mind or feel violated. On the flip-side "Scrotey" may take your car but treat it with due care but .. because you didn't give permission or know they had you feel violated. but it still is your car when you get it back you've just to adjust your mental aspect.
I would never lend my car to anyone I didn't trust to look after it though, and certainly not someone who would drive it the same way as a car thief. I used to live on an estate notorious for joyriding displays and it was absolutely heartbreaking what they did to some of these cars. I've seen brand new (then) current plate cars reduced to scrap in a matter of 10 minutes. Bouncing off the limiter and sidestepping the clutch, burnouts til the tyres explode, driven up kerbs, getting air over speed ramps, used to batter down fences or brick walls, random members of the crowd kicking huge dents in panels or smashing windows at any opportunity etc etc.
If a car of mine is ever stolen I want it burned out beyond any form of repair. If the thief's still inside it, that's a bonus.
Cheers
DP
|
> If the thief's still inside it, that's a bonus.
yes its annoying isn't it, they never make that mistake.
|
>They never make that mistake.
That terrorist at Glasgow airport almost did ...
|
They so chose the wrong airport to do that! Where else would you get someone prepared to kick the carp out of a burning man.......
Try tae blaw up ma airport widye ??? C'mere!!
|
|
|
|
