Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[First Bedford]

Very quickly, wife felt her car breaking down on the A1M, pulled off the motorway, engine failed. She coasted down the slip road and toward the bottom pulled onto the grass verge. Believe timing belt, 2004 Daewoo Kalos, parked car on verge well clear of road. No mobile phone, walked into Chester-le-Street, phoned a relative reverse charge.
Car locked and note in windscreen, 50mm high letters, capitals, biro but over and over to thicken " BROKEN DOWN AWAITING RECOVERY".
returned home, 30miles, and contacted me. Of course I was out of town. The breakdown occurred just after lunch. Friday evening before I was able to get up there with my truck and A frame to recover it.
Arriving at the location found the vehicle gone, C.le.Street police station not manned after hours so phoned a call number. Eventually found out from the police that it had been removed by the Highways Agency as an abandoned car.
Sunday telephoned the compound where the car had been taken to. Shut on a Sunday H.A. said the car had been removed as thought to be abandoned, reported no note in car windscreen. Raised grievance at this. Spoke to another operator who said the car was removed because it was a distraction to motorists. £200 for recovery and £20 per day storage including Sunday even though no access for picking up car.
Put through to complaints department, went through all again. Monday evening had a call from H.A. disputes department, admitted now that there was a clear note in the windscreen. Told us that we had exceeeded the 3 hour limit for recovery that's was the reason for recovery???. My wife asked the girl to put herself in our position, she started laughing.
The car was locked, clearly showing explanation and was well away from the road.
Went up to Team Valley today to recover it. A real eye opener. Derelict land, had to lay in puddles to attach chains. A double deck car transporter was being loaded with other cars. Asked where they were going and was told to different repair shops depending on owners and insurance. Most had been involved in collisions.
A Meriva was driven onto the lower deck, front end damage, operators decided it took up too much room and reversed it off. Whilst reversing the front end of the Meriva caught the decking and was pulled clean off, no hesitation just parked it and and attemted to drive a Peugeot cabriolet type onto the deck, must have had suspension damage as at the second attempt it collapsed and the car took a nose drive into the ground. All operators and personnel were dressed in Highways Agency attire, all vehicles were in HA livery.
Frightened me as to how little we are able to control our actions nowadays. [/b]

[ukdave2002]

Ouch !!! I bet she won’t forget her phone next time. An irony is that had she left the vehicle on the road you would have paid £50 less. Most recovery and storage is contracted out, the charges are fixed, recovery costs are:“not substantially damaged on road” is £150 “not substantially damaged off road” £200.
If the guys you saw were delivering cars to garages for repair I doubt it will be the HA, but a private firm, and they are liable for any additional damage caused…proving it may be an issue! I think you only get 2 hours to get the vehicle recovered if its on a motorway or slip road. If she had stayed with the car I would have though the HA would have called the AA or recovery service for her, and not got their own firm to do it?

[First Bedford]

Irony is we are both AA members, 10 years, with the top package, never called on. She was frightened, away from home etc. My blame lies not asking her to phone AA, own pride prompted me to do own recovery, thought car is out of the way, no obstruction, should be fine. A wrecked/derelict car takes weeks to get moved.

[Jim.Walker]

A cautionary tale. You have my sympathy.

I don't know how Rick would feel about it, but would a "Sticky" posting listing charges and time limits we might meet up with be a good addition? Certainly I was ignorant of charges and time limits.

Jim.
_________________
Quote from my late Dad:- You only need a woman and a car and you have all the problems you
are ever likely to want". Computers had not been invented then!

[First Bedford]

Thanks Jim,
some research would be in order. We spoke to several different telephonists/customer services never got the same answer twice. I have had a look on line for a code of practice and even at the Road Traffic Act, seems to be something that has no regulation other than the opinion of the operative at the time.
As usual we are small people with no sway against government agencies, the more people I have spoken to the more I have learnt that it is a common practice now to remove a car that will bring in revenue. A truly abandoned or derelict car brings in no revenue hence the time to taken to remove it.
Had two motorbikes stolen, duly reported to Police. Spotted one ourselves on E-Bay across on the other coast, went on pretence of being a buyer, police attended around corner. Made an arrest, we brought the bike home across country, £150 recovery fee to police, never had any follow/feedback. An aquaintance arrested on an old warrant, car impounded for 10 days, no charge for car storage. Are we victims of highway robbery, stealth tax or bid to drive motorists off the road? Have also read some bad reports on consumer forums reference AA and RAC and their reluctance with recoveries, would seem the smaller outfits Greenflag etc are offering a much better service. As in earlier post I have never put my AA membership to the test in the 10 years, not even a badge for the car, a quarterly magazine and loads of selling letters.
I wonder which sensor has affected the sensor that controls the sensor for the main sensor to the engine management box that caused the initial breakdown, or which of the 1200 wires feeding them has a faulty connection? Can we get the same parameters from our classic engines without the modern electronics? Will anybody build simple for the common working man and his DIY skills? The joy in simplicity of my old truck.