Thank you Gatwick Meet & Greet parking, I now need a new engine..

[mike_on_the_mike]

Have been in Portugal for the week and the cheapest parking at Gatwick was meet and greet. Come back after 5 days, pick up the car and there's a new tappety noise from the engine. Thinking it might just be a cold start and having sat around for a few days, we start making for home, but gently. 10 minutes down the road and with oil temp showing 130 degress, the engine gave out, lots of knocking, dead engine.

So 2 questions..

1. I've had the car for 7 years, it's been faultless. Is there any way I can prove it was them? I'm guessing without a dashcam showing them ragging it, probably not.

2. Is there any point rebuilding the engine? It's a MY00 Turbo-2000 with a little bit of rust here and there, not the best bodywork, gearbox is fine, TSW wheels were £1k new with new tyres last year, interior is in pretty good condition. Or should I just strip it, sell the bits and move on? Is there another option that doesn't involve the house being full of spare parts while they're waiting to sell on ebay? I was thinking if I sold it before, it would probably have only fetched 1k anyway, if that, and with a bit of a refurb, the wheels and some other parts would get me more than that.

Argh!

Thanks all,
Mike

[Frenchie]

Currently in California, flew from Heathrow,but left the car on my brothers drive and took a cab to the airport. Did lots of research on airport parking and most of it sounded dodgy. Hope you get get everything sorted.

[Banstead Stig]

Proving it will be very difficult as there's no hard evidence, sadly. And that's understandable, because a dishonest person could have knackered their own car, pop it in to airport parking and then call foul.

That shouldn't stop you registering a complaint though. Do you know how many miles they put on the clock? Again, I doubt you can prove it, but useful if you know just to include in your complaint.

I work at City Place by the airport and regularly see how those guys treat people's cars. It's shocking.

Quite often you see two or three of them racing one another with whichever cars they are having to move. Not only is it out of order to treat people's cars like that, but it's bloody dangerous. I've seen plenty of near misses.

I hope that you can get the car sorted. You're unlikely to get any compensation from the culprits, but you should complain and leave negative reviews wherever you can if they don't take it seriously!

[Steve_PPP]

Did they include a free wash with it, or did the car come back in exactly the same condition as you dropped it off? Also work near Gatwick and some of these meet & greet firms operate that way so you don't see their parking facilities - often just a muddy field somewhere. I've heard stories of cars being ragged around fields and then just jetwashed afterwards to hide the evidence. Unfortunately, a Subaru and a field is always going to be tempting for these kind of idiots

[BIG"E"]

Ive used APH at Gatwick (based near East Grinstead) for years never had a problem.

Sorry to hear this, I take the oil was up to the mark and that you had adequate anti freeze?

[stonejedi]

Not a chance proving it really without some form of evidence,as you said yourself a dash cam with them actually abusing your car would of definitely helped,but without that its just speculation,and afraid to say "your word against theirs" scenario,but as stig said still put in a formal complaint and leave the appropriate feedback around the web.SJ.

[Red Baron]

Not much help now but If you need to use meet and greet in future I'd try Tudor rose, they're just past the Tescos at Gatwick, hard standing, gated and only 5 minutes from the terminals.
I'd actually been asking about meet and greet at Stanstead for this year's holiday and a friend said he'd never use meet and greet at Gatwick again after his Holden Commodore was collected by a smart, uniformed gent, driven to the end of the arrivals road, passed to a scruffy oik and then heard bouncing off the rev limiter in every gear down the Gatwick Access road. Maybe that 15 minute shuttle ride is worth it after all.

[mike_on_the_mike]

Originally Posted by BIG"E"

Ive used APH at Gatwick (based near East Grinstead) for years never had a problem.

Sorry to hear this, I take the oil was up to the mark and that you had adequate anti freeze?

Yep, everything was fine, AA guy checked all that too and found everything was at the right levels. It did the outbound trip from Brighton to Croydon to Gatwick without blinking. Pcked it up from Gatwick and it was not the same car I dropped off.

[mike_on_the_mike]

Originally Posted by Steve_PPP

Did they include a free wash with it, or did the car come back in exactly the same condition as you dropped it off? Also work near Gatwick and some of these meet & greet firms operate that way so you don't see their parking facilities - often just a muddy field somewhere. I've heard stories of cars being ragged around fields and then just jetwashed afterwards to hide the evidence. Unfortunately, a Subaru and a field is always going to be tempting for these kind of idiots

This was the official Gatwick Meet & Greet service, I thought that would be safer than one of the firms known for losing customers cars in Sainsburys car parks.

I turned up and there were three attendants trying to get the plastic enclosure off a litter bin. That level of intelligence should have rang alarm bells.

[mike_on_the_mike]

Originally Posted by Banstead Stig

That shouldn't stop you registering a complaint though. Do you know how many miles they put on the clock? Again, I doubt you can prove it, but useful if you know just to include in your complaint.

I didn't bother this time as last time (the first time) I checked the mileage before and after and it was 7 miles, which is pretty much from one end of the Gatwick dual carriageway to a ar park and back again, and someone could quite easily ruin an engine in that distance. It did have it's MOT last week though so I have the mileage from that, the current mileage and I know every route it's taken in between so I could try and recreate from Google Maps, but only a minor inaccuracy would probably mean it would be out by miles and prove nothing..

[ScoobyNib]

I've worked in Gatwick for about 5 years now and not a day goes by where I don't see an Airport Parking employee ragging someones pride and joy.

The sad truth is they probably did massively contribute to your engine failing, and have others have said there's very little you can do without dash cam footage. It's well documented in press how ropey Gatwick parking firms are.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/motors/4830...h-in-50k-audi/

Best bet is to use a local JustPark and get a cab to the airport