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Back in about 1990, we bought a 2 year old, very low mileage Citroen AX. It was a good price because it had been accident damaged but professionally repaired. It looked (and drove) perfect and we were very pleased with our bargain.
Fast forward six months - we're on holiday in the French alps. There's a loud graunching noise and all drive is lost without warning, accompanied by a large oil puddle under the car. It turned out that the drive shaft had pulled right out of the diff/gearbox on a tight bend because of a distorted body shell (improperly repaired accident damage) and the car was judged beyond economic repair.
Fortunately, our holiday breakdown cover repatriated both us (a family of four) and the car - that insurance premium was the best £84 I've ever spent, as the scheduled air fares from Geneva alone cost over £2k, we had a hire car in France for a week, and I shudder to think what it cost to bring our car back.
Again fortunately, we had a solicitor in the family who volunteered to take up our case on a 'no win, no fee' basis and we sued the garage that had sold us the car. We invited the holiday insurance company to join in the claim to recover their costs (they said it was their first experience of this).
The garage settled out of court, including £1,800 for a ruined holiday (it subsequently turned out to have been our last family holiday before my wife died in 1992 but that's another story) and the insurance company got all their money back too. It cost the garage well over twice what they'd sold the car to us for.
The moral of the story - (a) never ever go on holiday - especially with a car - without insurance cover (b) never ever buy a second hand car without getting it checked over by the AA or similar (and (c) it never hurts to make sure you have a good lawyer in the family!!)
Fast forward six months - we're on holiday in the French alps. There's a loud graunching noise and all drive is lost without warning, accompanied by a large oil puddle under the car. It turned out that the drive shaft had pulled right out of the diff/gearbox on a tight bend because of a distorted body shell (improperly repaired accident damage) and the car was judged beyond economic repair.
Fortunately, our holiday breakdown cover repatriated both us (a family of four) and the car - that insurance premium was the best £84 I've ever spent, as the scheduled air fares from Geneva alone cost over £2k, we had a hire car in France for a week, and I shudder to think what it cost to bring our car back.
Again fortunately, we had a solicitor in the family who volunteered to take up our case on a 'no win, no fee' basis and we sued the garage that had sold us the car. We invited the holiday insurance company to join in the claim to recover their costs (they said it was their first experience of this).
The garage settled out of court, including £1,800 for a ruined holiday (it subsequently turned out to have been our last family holiday before my wife died in 1992 but that's another story) and the insurance company got all their money back too. It cost the garage well over twice what they'd sold the car to us for.
The moral of the story - (a) never ever go on holiday - especially with a car - without insurance cover (b) never ever buy a second hand car without getting it checked over by the AA or similar (and (c) it never hurts to make sure you have a good lawyer in the family!!)
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