No more BMW police cars

[redlig]

Probably drilled through the water jacket and the cylinder bore/ liner

Can you imagine a mechanic with ,say, half a dozen to do. First one drilled through as you suggest and get it checked the rest a quick jab with the drill and onto next job .Easy bonus.

 

[stuvy]

It doesn't apply to land rover's as 20,000 mile one is just as likely to be a money pit as a 200,000 mile one.

This really made me laugh

 

[redlig]

Pretty standard and sad practice, my dad worked for a major hire company who supplied kit to Railtrack. He would take lorry loads of Stihl disc cutters/chainsaws/brush cutter and other stuff like generators to scrap yards and have to watch while they run a grinder through the engine casings.

All very sad in itself but even more so is the fact Railtrack could have brokered there own deal as in most case they had paid for an item at least double what they could buy it for. It's all down to the fact it's not an asset because it's hired in. Nobody ever sharpened chains, they were just replaced. I had a whole bag of chains that had probably done one job each and were thrown in the scrap bin

I'm sure it's a great contract for a hire firm, buy 500 chainsaws at £400 each and put them on long term rent at £30/week and then bin them at then end of the year.

It would be nice if you could just sign a disclaimer but often those things don't really mean anything and there will always be some muppet who says they didn't know chainsaws were dangerous

There are a lot of very rare and expensive competition "works" motor cycles at the bottom of the English channel .

 

[Bornfree]

Can you imagine a mechanic with ,say, half a dozen to do. First one drilled through as you suggest and get it checked the rest a quick jab with the drill and onto next job .Easy bonus.

A local farmer must have seriously upset someone a few years ago as they drilled through the engine blocks on 4 large new Holland tractors in one night. Straight through the bore on every one. The insurance claim must have been massive.

 

[stuvy]

Can you imagine a mechanic with ,say, half a dozen to do. First one drilled through as you suggest and get it checked the rest a quick jab with the drill and onto next job .Easy bonus.

Not working for the police it wouldn’t I bet the work is done via bmw advice

 

[premmington]

A local farmer must have seriously upset someone a few years ago as they drilled through the engine blocks on 4 large new Holland tractors in one night. Straight through the bore on every one. The insurance claim must have been massive.

What had he done to upset - someone with a drill?

 

[Bornfree]

What had he done to upset - someone with a drill?

It was someone with a drill that also knew where to drill the hole. There's rumours about driller but no one was charged.

 

[Farside]

And if the engines weren't knackered they had a hole drilled through the side of the block to make sure there were no come backs.

Just found that video.
Mental stuff. Not that I'd be forking out 15K for an ex-plod car, but if I were, I'd be mightily hacked off if the engine was deliberately knacked.

 

[Nomad]

I am more inclined to agree with the comments that suggest it’s to prevent litigation in the light of a coroner’s court suggesting that it was responsible for a death and therefore a big payout.

I’ve met some complete tossers who work in the police but I’ve never found one so petty that they’d spend all day drilling holes in engines so some unknown civvy couldn’t make a quid, I must admit.

Your average bod in the workshop or anywhere else couldnt give a stuff if they were all sold for a quid each. It’s all tax dollars.

A chap I knew locally worked for the police and was based at the station in town. Police had recovered a (modern, undamaged ,sports ) bike and it was held in their impound basement while they tried to trace the owner.
The chap let the impound staff know he would like to buy it if/when the police had to dispose of it.
After a while it disappeared, chap asked what had happened - had the owner been traced or had it been sent to auction ?
Staff told him they hadn't been able to trace the owner so the frame had been sawn into pieces to make sure the bike never went back on the road again - no reason why was given.

This was 30+ years ago so it was before the whole "sue everybody" culture where good machines are destroyed just to avoid any insurance claims, I'm sure they are even more cautious now about selling anything in case they get sued (I understand why they have these policies but to me it's wrong on so many levels)

 

[premmington]

It was someone with a drill that also knew where to drill the hole.

So just "drilled into an expensive engine block for pleasure".

Sad...

 

[armalites]

Just found that video.
Mental stuff. Not that I'd be forking out 15K for an ex-plod car, but if I were, I'd be mightily hacked off if the engine was deliberately knacked.

It's not hidden, Brightwells listing quitely clearly states the "Engine seized/holed" and is done 100% deliberately

 

[Trevorleach]

The TFSi petrol engines were nightmare. Dodgy piston rings causing very high oil consumption from new. Fitted to about 300,000 cars in Britain alone including the SEATs and Skodas.
There was a class action law suit against Audi in the USA but many people in Britain were left out of pocket.
It amazes me how companies like Audi and BMW still have such a good reputation. If they were British cars with the same problems people would crucify them

Hex oil pump drive, dodgy injectors, timing chains.

 

[armalites]

The TFSi petrol engines were nightmare. Dodgy piston rings causing very high oil consumption from new. Fitted to about 300,000 cars in Britain alone including the SEATs and Skodas.
There was a class action law suit against Audi in the USA but many people in Britain were left out of pocket.
It amazes me how companies like Audi and BMW still have such a good reputation. If they were British cars with the same problems people would crucify them

They are still dining out a reputation from 40 years ago where German meant solid/reliable. The same can be said about Jap stuff, most people have the impression you can buy a Japanese car, never service it and it will do 5 million miles with no issues.

People always talked about how bomb proof/reliable Beetles were, I've always liked them but most of them would drop a valve usually on cylinder 3 at some point yet people seem to think they will do 250K miles

 

[GRW]

i.e. Ratner before he got cocky told the world.

If you could Chrome S**t someone would buy it.

You can't polish a turd..... but you can roll it in Glitter

 

[redlig]

They are still dining out a reputation from 40 years ago where German meant solid/reliable. The same can be said about Jap stuff, most people have the impression you can buy a Japanese car, never service it and it will do 5 million miles with no issues.

People always talked about how bomb proof/reliable Beetles were, I've always liked them but most of them would drop a valve usually on cylinder 3 at some point yet people seem to think they will do 250K miles

They will if you have shares in the valve co.

 

[nickk]

Of course . who wold want a safe reliable vehicle to take you to A&E and spend the night in it ?

Then again,maybe they get thorough checks much more frequently than yearly MOT’s.

 

[premmington]

Hex oil pump drive, dodgy injectors, timing chains.

I had a special hex broach made to resolve this issue.

 

[premmington]

Then again,maybe they get thorough checks much more frequently than yearly MOT’s.

10 year old Ambulance with a pooped engine is viable project - new engine/gearbox and off again to save lives.

Next time you are at A&E - look at the reg plates of ambulances - the reason they are so old is - they are silly money new...

 

[Robotstar5]

When Rover were working with Honda they built the Honda Ballade for them and the Triumph Acclaim badged version. One batch of Ballades failed Honda's quality inspection for something that would have been too expensive to re-work so they road registered them as pool cars (I had one for a couple of weeks to go to Darlington) when they got to 3 years old they drained the fluids, removed the batteries and put them through the crusher, some only had a few thousand miles on them.

 

[stuvy]

When Rover were working with Honda they built the Honda Ballade for them and the Triumph Acclaim badged version. One batch of Ballades failed Honda's quality inspection for something that would have been too expensive to re-work so they road registered them as pool cars (I had one for a couple of weeks to go to Darlington) when they got to 3 years old they drained the fluids, removed the batteries and put them through the crusher, some only had a few thousand miles on them.

I regularly see new Nissans car transporters near @eLuSiVeMiTe village heading to the scrap yard in ampthill

Test mules with the VIN numbers spray painted in the sides