Two Fridays ago, driving back home to Shropshire on the start of 2 weeks leave I was being lead through a maze of country lanes by my TomTom as the main A49 was closed due to flooding. I was driving in the dark through about an inch or so of surface water, and with a tractor coming towards me I squeezed as far over the the left of the road as I could. The next thing I knew the bonnet of my FL2 lurched downwards and a great muddy wave broke over my windscreen, I then found myself driving through about 3 foot of water. The car made it a few more meters forward before spluttering to a halt - turns out the road had collapsed into a flooded culvert. I then sat there for about half an hour whilst the tractor driver went off to get a rope to drag me out, with water slowly seeping through the door seals into the car. Luckily the electrics were still working fine so I could open my window to climb out when the tractor driver returned, though tying a rope to the towing point of a FL2 that's under 3' of cold water in the dark is a novel experience...

So the tractor towed me to some higher ground, and left me to call LR Assist to arrange recovery, only for me to spend 30 minutes listening to a recorded message telling me that "due to the weather conditions we are experiencing a high number of calls at the moment". As my mobile battery was running down, I got a mate to come and pick me up, leaving the car to sort out the next day.

So on the next day, I rang my insurance (Direct Line) to confirm I was covered (Phew!) and to arrange recovery, though due to workload and some mucking around between LR Assist, Direct Line and my dealer, the car wasn't actually recovered to the dealer until the Tuesday. The assessor got round to inspect it very quickly, and based upon what the dealer told him about what had happened, set about sorting out repairs (including an engine replacement). So far, so good I thought. Until I found out that because it's new, none of the LR dealers were willing to do the work for fear of invalidating the LR warranty! The only LR approved repairer that the assessor could come up with that would take on the work was towards Hereford, and already had several months backlog of work due to the floods down there. NOT GOOD, especially as my insurance doesn't provide a courtesy car. What also didn't help was that I was flying off to Lanzarote on the Thursday for a weeks holiday; getting to Manchester Airport with 2 kids in the wife's Mini was an interesting challenge!

Having to sort everything out from payphones in Lanzarote or my mobile at 55p/min, I spoke to the assessor again, and explained my situation. Turned out the story he had picked up from the dealer was just that a tractor had gone passed my car and splashed water into the intakes, not quite correct! Armed with with proper story, the assessor reviewed the damage to the vehicle and thankfully has now declared that the vehicle is beyond economic repair. This is a great relief, not only because it means I'm not going to have to wait several months for it to be repaired, but I think even after repair I would never have trusted the car again (corroding electrics, warranty issues etc).

So I'm now waiting for Direct Line to process the assessor's report, and start sorting me out a replacement. Luckily, mine was just a stock vehicle, so once they instigate the order it should hopefully only take a week or so to get a new vehicle. It's till going to be a major PITA with no car though...



So now I'm just left to wait and wonder if I have the dubious honour of having the first FL2 write-off? If not, after 2 months and 1 week I reckon it must be one of the quickest?

I thought I was unlucky with cars. Hope it gets sorted soon for you.

I wonder if anyone has ever managed to write off a car, leaving the dealership.

Rich

rmbillington wrote:

I thought I was unlucky with cars. Hope it gets sorted soon for you.

I wonder if anyone has ever managed to write off a car, leaving the dealership.

Rich

And no, I didn't get any photos before anyone asks... too dark for the phone camera unfortunately.

arrh thats not fair!!!! You took the words right out of my mouth

Well it looks like it'll be another couple of weeks before I'm able to pick up a replacement vehicle, but as that will be 25th August it potentially gives me a dilemma - whether to wait another week and get it on a 57 plate rather than an 07. Normally, for the sake of an extra week it would be a no-brainer, but I've been without any car for 3 weeks now, and another 2 weeks is going to be a killer without even thinking about another week on top of that.

Now we've gone to the 6-monthly scheme with registration plates, how much difference is it likely to make between having a 07 or a 57 when I probably trade-in in 3 months time?

I've found that dealers looked at the date of my 52 reg, and as it was 2003, rather than 2002 it made a slight difference, but nothing much.

And I've also heard people saying that the 0# plates sell better than 5# as it's more obvious, and looks newer, even though it isn't. Which to a certain degree I agree with, as the 06 cars always stood out more than 56 ones, just my opinion.

Rich

rmbillington wrote:

...And I've also heard people saying that the 0# plates sell better than 5# as it's more obvious, and looks newer, even though it isn't. Which to a certain degree I agree with, as the 06 cars always stood out more than 56 ones, just my opinion.

Rich

Could try a personal plate, that will throw them!!!
David David

hope you have fully recovered from your episode in your new freelander 2 that is!! Double 02 shaken not stirrrrrrrrrrrrred.. after watching the advertising video for the FL2 i thought it would have survived a bloody tractor passing it in a puddle... sure they will probably put it down to the mudflaps or the fact the trator was traveling tooooooo fast well anyway i hope it works out for you had and had a great holiday in a rental lol. By the way my FL2 is really going well and i will definety buy another when its time too change........touch wood.

I thought the car dropped into a 3' ditch? That's the way I read it, I wouldn't expect a Fl2 to cope with that especially stationary (so you can't use the bow wave effect) D4 HSE Lux for me
FL2 HSE Zermatt & Alpacca for the wife now gone
Skoda Yeti L&K for the wife.

Yes, it did disappear into 3' of water, and sat like that for over half an hour. It was the dealer to whom the car was recovered who didn't listen to what I was telling them and passed on to the assessor the story that I got splashed by a tractor.

If they had passed on the correct story then who knows, maybe 4 weeks down the line I wouldn't still be waiting for my replacement car....

I'm getting fed up of this.

Direct Line agreed to replace the car nearly 2 weeks ago, but I still don't seem to be much nearer to actually getting a replacement. I was finally contacted yesterday by Lombard, who provide the new cars for Direct Line, but as it looks like Lombard don't go through dealers, I'd be looking at a factory order, i.e. no Tambora Flame and a wait till mid-October. That's ridiculous, when I know my dealer can get me a new Tambora Flame in about a week.

I've explained this to Direct Line, and they have said as an alternative they would offer me a cheque, but this wouldn't be for the full list price of the vehicle. I need to wait for the assessor to come back to me with what they would actually offer me, but he's already indicated it is usually significantly less then the best deal any dealer's going to offer me.

What doesn't help as well is every time I go back to them about something, it's always then a matter of waiting for someone to call me back which invariable delays things by at least another 24 hours (if they call me back at all).

Really not happy at all.

I wonder where the drowned freelander will arrive...  F R E E L A N D E R - I . SW . '99 . XED . Blenheim Silver

www.freelanderclub.be

Yes, it would be interesting to know how much some salvager's going to pay for it, and where all the bits will end up. Maybe my loss will be another Freel2.com member's cheap replacement body panel at some point in the future?

I also wonder if I have to pay the CO2 offset again on my replacement vehicle. I've already paid to offset 45,000 miles but as I only actually did a couple of thousand, I'd hate to over-offset and mess up the complex scientific models used by climate change scientists.