My SL60 AMG has been nicked

[stats007]

Ever taken your car for servicing? Ever wondered what they do to it whilst out of your sight?

 

[GrahamC230K]

Ever taken your car for servicing? Ever wondered what they do to it whilst out of your sight?

Give the car a break from the looney that normally drives it

 

[Flash]

Ever taken your car for servicing? Ever wondered what they do to it whilst out of your sight?

I know everything that goes on behind "closed doors" at Stealerships as I know MB technician. I used to afterwards take my car down to the Stealership where he works and he would be "allocated" to work on my car....

 

[Flash]

You can only treat a car badly to an extent. I mean don't get me wrong, I doubt they wiped they feet when they got in or adjusted the passenger side mirror as they parked to avoid kerbing the wheels, but what do you expect?

I would expect a car that has immaculate paint/bodywork/alloy wheels on a car that has not been driven hard/thrashed around and over speed humps at speed (resulting in damaged suspension/components) and an engine that has not been constantly red lined/driven flat out for a period of a few months....).

I personally would not buy an ex-demonstrator car either...

 

[GrahamC230K]

Oh. Are you not suppossed to do any of those then?! LOL

 

[Flash]

Oh. Are you not suppossed to do any of those then?! LOL

Nope (not to your own car anyway) - BUT I have thrashed plenty of demonstrator cars in my time though.... Occasional blasts are good BUT to constantly drive a car like how I described for a few months will do harm to it....

 

[BTB 500]

Particularly thrashing from cold ...

 

[996jimbo]

I would expect a car that has immaculate paint/bodywork/alloy wheels on a car that has not been driven hard/thrashed around and over speed humps at speed (resulting in damaged suspension/components) and an engine that has not been constantly red lined/driven flat out for a period of a few months....).

Fair enough, but to what extent can you drive an SL60 at the red line all the time? Especially if you've just nicked it and are keeping your head down?

Whilst you can thrash a little 1.0L car around all day I would suggest that you can't really do that in a BIG engined car unless you drive around with it in 1st gear. Plus if these guys nicked it for a 'big job' they're hardly going to cruise the town in 1st gear all day long. They'll be holed up in a smoke filled room whilst their grease monkey (ex F1 mechanic) sticks a supercharger on the getaway motor. Sorry, getting carried away.

 

[nickg]

We had a 3-series stolen from work, after they ahd broken into the office and stolen the spare key. Because the car was taken with the key, the insurers clearly thought our claim was fraudulent (charming!).

They eventually paid up and 1 week later the car was recovered during serious crime investigations. At least we were vindicated and the 'claim value' was lower (they could sell on the recovered car and reduce losses), and our premiums did not rise excessively.

Nick, hopefully your insurers will not penalise you too heavily either.

Interesting point. Theoretically my insurance premium should not be affected by the fact that the car has been recovered though should it?
If so it would mean I would be penalised if it was not recovered - something I have no control over.
My insurance doesn't renew until may, so it will be "interesting" to see what increase they try and do me for. My NCB is protected (thank god) so I hope that they will not try it on.
Will be interesting to see how much my car is sold for now though (assuming it is in a saleable condition).

 

[Shude]

My NCB is protected (thank god) so I hope that they will not try it on.

NCB is taken off the overall premium, your NCB may not go down after a claim if it is protected but the premium may still go up, the NCB is just a percentage reduction after the premium has been calculated.

 

[nickg]

I know - they always get you on that one. I just renewed my motorbike insurance - gone up 20% for no reason at all from £300 to £360.

 

[Flash]

Fair enough, but to what extent can you drive an SL60 at the red line all the time? Especially if you've just nicked it and are keeping your head down?

Whilst you can thrash a little 1.0L car around all day I would suggest that you can't really do that in a BIG engined car unless you drive around with it in 1st gear. Plus if these guys nicked it for a 'big job' they're hardly going to cruise the town in 1st gear all day long. They'll be holed up in a smoke filled room whilst their grease monkey (ex F1 mechanic) sticks a supercharger on the getaway motor. Sorry, getting carried away.

People that steal high powered cars dont just do it for "cruisng" the car. They want to show off to people and will push the car to its limit (s) OR alternatively they will sell it off ASAP to enthusiasts/customers for profit OR will strip the car for parts!!! If the plates have been cloned then it is unlikely that the car will get pulled over and the car can easily be thrashed around without being spotted by Police in the act or in worse sceanrio for the thieves they could easily outrun plenty of Police cars in SL60 AMG...

Its not difficult to thrash any car regardless of the model/engine size etc.that will do it harm to it the long term if the car ahs been constantly abused for a period of time.

 

[Shude]

People that steal high powered cars dont just do it for "cruisng" the car. They want to show off to people and will push the car to its limit (s) OR alternatively they will sell it off ASAP to enthusiasts/customers for profit OR will strip the car for parts!!! If the plates have been cloned then it is unlikely that the car will get pulled over and the car can easily be thrashed around without being spotted by Police in the act or in worse sceanrio for the thieves they could easily outrun plenty of Police cars in SL60 AMG...

Its not difficult to thrash any car regardless of the model/engine size etc.that will do it harm to it the long term if the car ahs been constantly abused for a period of time.

While I agree to a certain extent, pushing the car to it's limits seems fine. Beyond the limits would be a problem . While I suspect they didn't bother to check the oil level or buy new tyres for it, as long as they didn't try to run it on diesel or something silly it's probably going to be fine. It's an automatic so it shifts when it knows best and won't let you idle in a gear for two long unless you specifically move the lever.

Normally the bigger the engine the more robust it is. The SL60 has pretty lazy engine designed for crusing in the USA and is not highly stressed, it basically produces half the power it could if it were at a higher level of tune, I very much doubt that there is any damage to the engine or transmission over and above what you'd expect for the age and mileage.

I'm amazed that someone would steal a pretty high-profile car and then carry out criminal activity in it, when any other car would attract less attention (and use less petrol probably ). Maybe it was used as a decoy in a "smokey and the bandit" style?

 

[jeremytaylor]

Interesting point. Theoretically my insurance premium should not be affected by the fact that the car has been recovered though should it?
If so it would mean I would be penalised if it was not recovered - something I have no control over.
My insurance doesn't renew until may, so it will be "interesting" to see what increase they try and do me for. My NCB is protected (thank god) so I hope that they will not try it on.
Will be interesting to see how much my car is sold for now though (assuming it is in a saleable condition).

I am no expert on insurance claims and proceedures, but I would have thought:

1. Your insurance company paid up, right? They now have your car to sell, and they have had the 'cost' of dealing with the claim. If they sell the car for, say £2000 less than they paid out (assuming the car has not been trashed), then effectively you have made a claim for £2000, which might not affect your renewal much.

2. If they hadn't recovered your car, then the value of the claim would be whatever they paid you, which I would have thought (hope!) would be slightly more than 1. above. This larger claim would probably affect your renewal more!

Like I said, I'm no expert and maybe they deal with it in the same way the do 'knock-for-knock' (i.e. they pay for repairs to your car even if the damage was clearly caused by someone else's fault because its less hassle for them).

Any experts out there care to enlighten us?

 

[glojo]

Will be interesting to see how much my car is sold for now though (assuming it is in a saleable condition).

Will be even more interesting to see how much you can buy it back for. There might be members that are prepared to buy it off you?

I'm with Shude regarding the driving of it.

They might not of cared about any sleeping policemen and damaged the underside, they might have smoked inside the car, cigarette burns on seats etc, but these are all mights. The car 'might' still be immaculate.

I would not want it back as my pride and joy simply because it has been stolen, however buying a stolen recovered car is a different matter.

Just like houses, some folks have to move because of the traumatic effects of being burgled. I fully understand this and sympathise, but when you buy a house do you care or even ask if it has been burgled, or worse.....

You might be pleasantly surprised at how much they want for your beautiful beast.

Regards,
John

 

[nickg]

While I agree to a certain extent, pushing the car to it's limits seems fine. Beyond the limits would be a problem . While I suspect they didn't bother to check the oil level or buy new tyres for it, as long as they didn't try to run it on diesel or something silly it's probably going to be fine. It's an automatic so it shifts when it knows best and won't let you idle in a gear for two long unless you specifically move the lever.

Normally the bigger the engine the more robust it is. The SL60 has pretty lazy engine designed for crusing in the USA and is not highly stressed, it basically produces half the power it could if it were at a higher level of tune, I very much doubt that there is any damage to the engine or transmission over and above what you'd expect for the age and mileage.

I'm amazed that someone would steal a pretty high-profile car and then carry out criminal activity in it, when any other car would attract less attention (and use less petrol probably ). Maybe it was used as a decoy in a "smokey and the bandit" style?

for what it is I always thought the sl60 was fairly low profile - most people would just see a p reg 10 yr old merc.
But I've got to hand it to the thieves - they have some class and obviously know their cars, and can afford to fuel it. I'd like to see what miles they've done since they nicked it as well.

 

[Shude]

It is not always possible to buy a car back from the insurance company, they are often locked into a contract with a breaker who will handle all their recovered vehicles.

You might be pleasantly surprised at how much they want for your beautiful beast.

The breaker will offer them a ludicrously low price for it, like £5k. The insurance company just wants to get rid of it because right now it has a hole in it's finances for paying out of the theft and it's being charged through the nose for storing the car.

If you can make them an offer you could probably buy it back for a song, it's then up to you whether it ultimately gets used by you as a spare car, broken for parts or sold to someone as-is with a bit of a tasty history (previously driven by an east-end crimelord etc).

 

[nickg]

It is not always possible to buy a car back from the insurance company, they are often locked into a contract with a breaker who will handle all their recovered vehicles.

The breaker will offer them a ludicrously low price for it, like £5k. The insurance company just wants to get rid of it because right now it has a hole in it's finances for paying out of the theft and it's being charged through the nose for storing the car.

If you can make them an offer you could probably buy it back for a song, it's then up to you whether it ultimately gets used by you as a spare car, broken for parts or sold to someone as-is with a bit of a tasty history (previously driven by an east-end crimelord etc).

yeh, right - I'll have the "daily driver" SL60 and the "spare"!!

 

[Flash]

But I've got to hand it to the thieves - they have some class and obviously know their cars, and can afford to fuel it. I'd like to see what miles they've done since they nicked it as well.

Easy - the thieves just pay for the fuel from the proceeds from committing organsied crime/criminal activities...

 

[COUPE FREAK]

did'nt your house alarm wake you up,, or did'nt you have one,,??