Or covering their tracks after hit and runs maybe?

My boss came out of his house early one morning, a couple of years ago, to find the entire front end of his wife's Ford Fiesta had been stolen overnight!

When he contacted the police he was informed this isn't an unknown happening event. Someone has a similar car to repair and, rather than correctly order all the required parts from an official supplier, they decide to steal them all from a suitable similar car.

Whoever stole the parts knew exactly what they were doing. Nothing left had been broken, no wiring cut and everything required completely removed.

When he visited his local Ford Main Dealer to obtain an insurance estimate for repair, he asked the bodyshop manager how long he reckoned it would have taken to remove the complete front end, done by someone who knew what they were doing. He reckoned 10 to 15 minutes, that's all!

Edited by Galaxy on 17/10/2016 at 18:19

We recently had some repair work to the bumper and bonnet of our Corsa E after a minor shunt.

The guy running the bodyshop said that the replacement panel costs for current-generation Vauxhalls are very expensive: for example, he mentioned a new Corsa E bonnet is nearly double the price of a bonnet for, say, a VW Polo.

Panels for older models are available fairly cheap from pattern suppliers, but for newer Vauxhalls, the dealers have the monopoly.

Thanks for that, Craig, may be one of the reasons why Vauxhalls are common victims.