Courtesy Cars-What did you get?

[burraston2006]

I'll start us off with what I put in ( mine  ) and what I got lent!  ( I know it is against autoshite policy to use a garage, let alone a garage with a courtesy car so please forgive my sins).

 

Mine:

 

 

 

Loaner:

 

 

Mine is a candidate for Autoshite but the loaner should have been scrapped!!

[Largactil]

Got this last Thursday for the day...Gawd it was grim.

 

[theorganist]

The garage we use at work tend to purchase older vehicles to use as courtesy cars. Ten years ago they had a series 2 Allegro and an E Reg Orion 1.6L with dodgy brakes! They had a G reg Peugeot 309 until about three years ago, I asked them to let me know when they were going to sell it, unfortunately I they scrapped it, apparently there was not much wrong with it. They have recently scrapped a L reg Rover 416 which I also expressed an interest in.

 

Currently the have a Rover 600, a V reg Clio, a very Smokey R ref Polo diesel, a later Polo, and I think a Nissan Almera!

[saucedoctor]

When my Metro was damaged in 1995 I got the most fucked ever Ford Sierra as a loaner. 1988 1.8LX with all the corners rubbed off it, fucked valve stem oil seals and the best "Pinto Tap" you ever heard.

[Sigmund Fraud]

I am going to win this one : my local garage used to have a sublime* Perodua Myvi as their courtesy car !

[bub2006]

When the Mondeo had a shunt in the snow last year we had a brand new Peugeot 207 1.4 hdi. Lucky to break 48 mpg and no power at all. Had it for two weeks till the Mondy was repaired. Had our car back for 1 day and white van man decided he wanted to rearrange the drivers side so off it went again. Got given a 62 plate Toyota aveñsis. Nice and comfy and quiet economical for a 1.8 petrol. Had a 6 speed box and everything electric inside. Even a bloody screen to see whats behind when reverse was engaged. Quite handy as the rear end blind spots where terrible.

[catsinthewelder]

I've never been loaned a car by a garage but my boss was recently seen in an early mk1 Megane when her C-Max went in for a service.

[phil_lihp]

A few years back, took my mk4 Fiesta back to the dodgy garage I bought it from for some repair or other and was given an absolutely knackered Peugeot 309 GTi for a day.  It wouldn't idle properly, was very hard to start when cold and the passenger door had to be lifted up to shut it.  On the other hand, it went like the clappers and sounded quite good owing to some large holes in the exhaust.  I'm fairly certain it wasn't remotely road legal but it was terrific fun.

 

Other than that, plenty of dull dealer-spec dross over the years, the only ones I remember particularly were an early Volvo V70 (horrible), a Peugeot 307 diesel (horrible and not great in the snow with bald tyres), an early Rover 420SLi (good but left a large oil slick on my driveway) and a K-reg Nissan Sunny which, I was told when I handed it back, had just failed its MOT "massively" and was due for the breakers when the current test expired in a few days.  Not sure if I've been going to the right garages.

[mercrocker]

I don't usually do courtesy cars as they can end up costing you big time if the lender is a twat.   However, once a year the 190E goes to a local MB specialist as its Mrs Rockers car and I don't want to strand her  somewhere with my "maintenance".   They usually lend her a C class or E class estate which is fine by me as it reinforces to Mrs R. that later Mercs are shite and she would be much better off  looking after the one she's got.   These things tend to be quite leggy with shit suspension and all sorts of key fob bollocks which mean I never ask to go on the insurance.   Best courtesy car EVAH was a bloke who put new engine and trans in my Pontiac Grand Prix many moons ago - he provided me (for three weeks) a RWD Seville with an Olds 455 in it (and chain-drive RHD conversion).    He was lucky to get that back.....

[oman5]

Around the year 2000 I bought a '97 Fester ghia, still only 3 years old and bloody expensive. it dropped a valve within a week, so I took it back. the loaner they gave me was bloody fantastic, a 1988 Citroen BX turbo dizzler. I ended up buying one myself a couple of years later, so impressive.

 

Mrs Oman's beloved one-owner-from-new low mileage 1988 audi 90 got rear ended and written off. the courtesy car they set us was a then brand new 56 plate Avensis 2.2 diesel. bloody hell did it shift. utterly dull and automotive white goods after the audi though.

[anonymous user]

If my car's in for work I'm grateful to be loaned anything that starts, steers and stops. Over the years when I've had newish or company cars it's usually the main dealer loaning something from the bottom of their range; although a few times I've had a big upgrade, such as a new Range Rover when my Freelander was in for service.

 

When I had the unreliable Polo I think I had just about everything VW did at the time, including a van. The most Autoshite loan cars would be when my Alfa 164 was in for work and I was offered a very old Micra, it was much better than walking, but I can imagine some of their other customers might not have been too impressed and best of all when the back axle went on a Morgan I was loaned an Allegro by the person who changed it for me.

 

The Allegro used nearly as much oil as petrol and at one point during the loan a policeman asked me to move along when I was cleaning the oiled up spark plugs in Belgrave Square, apparently I had been reported by someone who thought I was setting a car bomb.

 

[warninglight]

The only courtesy car I've had...

 

Mine;

 

Theirs, and not a good example, at all.

[michael1703]

I had a courtesy car in 2008 when my van got written off, a brand new Astra.

 

I'd filled it up one evening and the next day I got my settlement cheque and had to hand it back, I tried syphoning it but couldnt get anything out so thought i'd try and use the fuel injection to get it into a gallon can

 

Near blindness and petrol all over a hot engine later and I didnt get a drop

[warninglight]

The trick there is, pop back seat, pop submerged fuel pump, siphon straight from tank!

[oldford]

Or better still disconnect the fuel return and run the engine, collecting the returned fuel in a can.

[rml2345]

I've only ever had courtesy cars from the insurance. First off was;

LL61 RXN

 

As a temporary replacement for;

SM53 YLL

 

And it was bloody awful in just about every respect. 
More recently this;

 

LL12 FOP

 

Because someone killed this;

E805 LBJ

 

Which wasn't bad. Or good. Or even remotely interesting in any way apart from being a taste of current modern car, From the experience I believe the taste is "L'ea de tap". 

[dollywobbler]

Do I win?

 

(chicken not included)

[HH-R]

Those Chevrolet Sparks are flippin awful. Like a Corsa but somehow even shitter.

[twosmoke300]

The car I loan out to customers is an 02 pisswet tdi . Too nice for a loaner but its only til I sell it.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

When I was 19 I crashed my company XR3i (quelle surprise) the repairers wouldn't let me use their courtesy car due to my age . My boss agreed to insure and fuel whatever I could borrow for a couple of weeks, I went straight out and bought a 1967 Chevy Impala, my fuel bill was twice my wages that month,god knows what the insurance was.

[trigger]

A local garage we done bodywork for had a couple of courtesy cars which they sometimes gave us when I delivered a car back and they didn't have anything to return.

 

One was a E reg Fiat Regatta, the car was a death trap with no brakes and broken wipers and smelt of death and the other was a B reg Honda Civic saloon which had more paper in the sills then metal.

 

Happy days.

[Ghosty]

Mother Ghosty nearly got a very early Daewoo Matiz as a courtesy car for her 9N Polo a while ago, lucky for her she doesn't drive manuals.

In about 2001 she got a lavender Ka while her Mk4 Fiesta was in for some insurance work - Old Man ended up with the pleasure* of driving that, as my mum took her maroon Mk2 Fiesta 1.1L auto back off him for the week!

In 2003 said Fiesta Mk2 got traded in for a J-reg Smoke Silver (beige) 190E 1.8, it needed a vacuum pipe and a mirror glass, so for a week Old Man was driving about in an N-reg grey Cavalier LS - at that time they were everywhere, ex-fleet perhaps? I loved it and I still sort of want one, not sure Old Man was so keen on it though!

[AlabamaShrimp]

Is almost always a Ka or povo spec fiesta when the st goes for its main dealer service, got there for the same reason as mrrcrocker like, it's really my wife and she wants the stamps in the book and a "proper" job.

 

Only time I've had a car was last year when I needed some welding for the test. Got a proper knackered mk5 fiesta for a week. Shit spec (the seats didn't adjust) bad clutch and worse breaks and rust on the roof. I was most amazing

[Skizzer]

I do remember my father putting his nearly-new Renault 14 in for a service with a main dealer in about 1982 and being slightly surprised to get a very tired 1968 G-reg Hillman Hunter as a loaner. Would be a win all round now, obviously.

[Pillock]

Garage had my Beetle for new barrels and pistons, and I got a 1988 Sunny with the passenger side so caved in, the door couldn't be opened. I also had a Mk2 Cavalier with a screwdriver to start it, and a Astra 2.0 CD Saloon that bloody flew

[Lord Sterling]

Own car:

 

 

Courtesy:

 

 

This was in 2009, a bus had hit my Rover Sterling (above picture taken just after the bus had hit it).

 

More recently....

 

Own car:

 

 

Courtesy car:

 

 

Best courtesy car I have ever had. Rover 45 Connoisseur TD. I nearly bought it and I now know I should have done.

 

Own car:

 

 

Courtesy car:

 

 

Wasnae the best example of a 25 but at least it got Ma_Sterling driving something British and something else for a change.

[Justin Case]

One time when I took the Alfa into the Italian car specialists that I used they gave me a 200,000 mile Xantia Td, which was quite nice, another time I had the other car, a Mk3 non-turbo Golf diesel with the boot full of straw, which wasn't. It was a shame as the place used to be stuffed with Lancia Integrales

[jmsguzzi]

The BMW bodyshop my Dad used to work at used a fleet of Perodua Kelisa's as courtesy cars until recently when they were replaced by Aygos. They used to get quite a few complaints by housewifes in X5's and the like.

[Noel Tidybeard]

goodness me Kings Heath high street

[Wilko220]

A garage local to me still has a couple of Metros / R100s as courtesy cars. I seem to remember the last one I got having nearly 200,000 miles on the clock (and driving like it as well)...