Dollywobbler's Dead Rover 600 - Replacement sorted

[Kiltox]

I have a nice* red car you can borrow if needed whilst this is getting sorted

[chaseracer]

Bugger. This thing is clocking miles up at a fair rate. 1600 since purchase. I need to park it up for a few weeks to get my annual mileage back into shape!

 

Be careful what you wish for!

 

[purplebargeken]

Magic Pixies are little bastards. Keep an eye on 'em.

[trigger]

The whole situation just sounds like a arse, on the plus side though being a motoring journalist it does mean you now have a new story to write about, you can probably get a couple of months worth of mileage out of this.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

dollywobbler's car involved in Wobbly Dolly incident   -   nominative determinism?

 

 

Sorry to see this - hope AA are grovellingly generous.

 

the dolly wobbled - ££ lolly for lack of lorry?

[dollywobbler]

There has been progress on Twitter. I posted yesterday that I was waiting for The AA. That comment was picked up by the AA Help twitter account, who asked whether my problem had been sorted - that was their reply to my post BEFORE all the fun and games began.

 

Anyway, I invited them to read my other posts, and they're going to pass on details to whoever deals with this sort of stuff. Let's see what occurs.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Keep the faith WobblAr, I just won a gold 623 Auto on eBay after being inspired by your efforts with this.

[mrbenn]

Keep the faith WobblAr, I just won a gold 623 Auto on eBay after being inspired by your efforts with this.

 

What a shame I can only like that once.

[dollywobbler]

Keep the faith WobblAr, I just won a gold 623 Auto on eBay after being inspired by your efforts with this.

 

That's cracking news. I think an auto is definitely the way to go with one of these.

[Partridge]

What a pain in the backside Still, at least it didn't happen to a car you were overly attached to...

[dollywobbler]

What a pain in the backside Still, at least it didn't happen to a car you were overly attached to...

 

Indeed. If anything though, it's made me realise how unbothered I'd be if I didn't see it again. This relationship has not exactly blossomed. I blame the ride.

[Partridge]

I feel bad speaking about it in the past tense, but try and 800. They have a shit ride, but are so much more endearing and likable.

[dollywobbler]

I feel bad speaking about it in the past tense, but try and 800. They have a shit ride, but are so much more endearing and likable.

 

It'd have to be a mk1 though. I'm really not a fan of the Mk2.

[beko1987]

Sounds like as long as you walk away financially the same as you were before you bought it you had free conveyance to france and back, and learned how to speed overhaul a rover 600 fan motor!

 

Would you buy another car though, or use the ££ on the rav or 2cv fund though? Didn't you only buy the 600 for the france trip? Now that's done...

 

Or they will give you much/some spendoolicks, and say keep the rover, in which case hammer it back into shape, get the seal put back in and fluid poured in and keep driving it AND be able to do the above...

[dollywobbler]

Not going to ponder what I do next until I've got some indication of how it's all going to pan out. 

 

Definitely haven't been looking at Honda HR-V CVTs on Ebay. I'm bloody hopeless...

[Kiltox]

If you fancy some late summer fun in a 216 Cabriolet some kind of trusted shiter loan scheme could be thrashed out....

I'm a bit over stocked and under parking spaced at the moment!

[dollywobbler]

Thanks. I think I will manage for now. Not got much driving to do in the next fortnight. Mostly welded to my laptop.

[Split_Pin]

That must have been a wanton intrusion into an otherwise nice day out.

 

Pretty sure the AA will come good, since you have evidence of everything that happened.

 

Hopefully you can turn your attention to something else meantime, everything seems a bit clearer when you return.

[Rocket88]

Not going to ponder what I do next until I've got some indication of how it's all going to pan out. 

 

Definitely haven't been looking at Honda HR-V CVTs on Ebay. I'm bloody hopeless...

 

Don't they're dreadful.............gearbox from hell, usually because some cockwhisk has put the wrong fluid therein...................

[Eddie Honda]

Many moons ago I had a Reliant Kitten and I called National Breakdown as there was a bad transmission vibration. Within an hour a contractor turned up and put me on a flatbed. From that point things went downhill. First was instead of removing me from the Edinburgh City Bypass and taking me west, his boss decided in his wisdom to drag me back into Edinburgh to the garage. Then I had to wait about 4 hours while he had the flatbed driver (also his mechanic) fanny around with someone else's car. Eventually I got going again, but not on a flatbed, but a spec-lift. The car was lifted at the front (you're ahead of me here) and whilst on the M8 the driver was getting flashed as the exhaust was dragging on the tarmac sparking away. It had more or less perfectly failed at the welded flange which bolts onto the manifold. Can't remember if it was tied back up or the car turned around, but really the fucking driving wheels should have been off the ground.

 

Reliant dealer was £56+VAT for an exhaust, Kwik-Shit was £90 fitted. (Yeah 1993/94 prices)

 

I eventually got a cheque for £80 out of them after complaining like fuck.

 

In the end I found a second downpipe flange from somewhere with an inch or two of pipe and clamped a smaller bore pipe joining the two pieces.

 

Good luck with getting some recompense from the AA.

[Sheefag]

Dolly, do the AA know you're a journalist?

[dollywobbler]

Dolly, do the AA know you're a journalist?

 

I don't believe they do, no. I'm obviously not going to mention it. If the Twitter AA folk didn't spot it on my Twitter page, then that's probably a good thing to be honest. 

[Skizzer]

I imagine whoever handles their social media will have figured it out from Twitter.

 

+1 on good luck, hopefully they'll come through with some sort of settlement without too much insurance-style pain.

 

Edit: Cross-posted with DW - I guess they haven't figured it out then.

[Sheefag]

I just thought that they may be more inclined to 'do the right thing' if they knew your profession.

I imagine they have contingencies for this sort of thing, this can't be the first instance.

[Fabergé Greggs]

My Austin princess once popped off a towing beam going round a really steep tight down hill bend and cracked an RAC van in the back good and proper. The RAC paid up without fuss for all repairs.

[BavarianRetro]

The AA are insured for this sort of thing. It's nothing. Just a performance based business cost. You tow 1000 cars a day, you'll damage the occasional one. However, the driver will see his performance figures take a hit.

 

That's why anything old, valuable, low, or just difficult gets done by contractors. It's either bounced at the control because they don't fancy it or bounced by the driver because he doesn't fancy it.

[dollywobbler]

I was a little surprised at the dolly treatment for an 80-mile recovery. Seemed a lot quicker than waiting for a flatbed. At the time...

[beko1987]

I imagine the cheque they send you for this will be much, much less than they write for doing the same to anything modern

 

Or ask for gold standard membership for life for you and Mrs dw

[oldcars]

Many moons ago I had a Reliant Kitten and I called National Breakdown as there was a bad transmission vibration. Within an hour a contractor turned up and put me on a flatbed. From that point things went downhill. First was instead of removing me from the Edinburgh City Bypass and taking me west, his boss decided in his wisdom to drag me back into Edinburgh to the garage. Then I had to wait about 4 hours while he had the flatbed driver (also his mechanic) fanny around with someone else's car. Eventually I got going again, but not on a flatbed, but a spec-lift. The car was lifted at the front (you're ahead of me here) and whilst on the M8 the driver was getting flashed as the exhaust was dragging on the tarmac sparking away. It had more or less perfectly failed at the welded flange which bolts onto the manifold. Can't remember if it was tied back up or the car turned around, but really the fucking driving wheels should have been off the ground.

 

Reliant dealer was £56+VAT for an exhaust, Kwik-Shit was £90 fitted. (Yeah 1993/94 prices)

 

I eventually got a cheque for £80 out of them after complaining like fuck.

 

In the end I found a second downpipe flange from somewhere with an inch or two of pipe and clamped a smaller bore pipe joining the two pieces.

 

Good luck with getting some recompense from the AA.

I heard there bad for breaking there and that on some Reliants there is a bracket that bolts on somewhere near to act as a catch if it some fail. Meant to find out more about it but never did.

[mrbenn]

I imagine the cheque they send you for this will be much, much less than they write for doing the same to anything modern

Defo. In fact, if they see previous twitter or blog posts, I wouldn't be surprised to see a cheque forthcoming for £230 to simply cover the cost/price paid for the car. Probably be a lot cheaper than repair costs.