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  My garage has charged an exploration fee - do I have any redress? 22 Dec 2015 (Ask HJ)
  My daughter bought a 10k mile MINI Cooper in March 2015. In December, at £20k miles, the clutch failed. Guildford MINI Centre would not entertain a warranty...
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  Paying for repairs after car hit my dog 29 Aug 2014 (Ask HJ)
  A few days ago my dog got loose and ran in front of a car. Thankfully the dog only had minor injuries, but there was some damage to the car which I have...
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  Where is the best place to quickly and safely sell a car? 11 Oct 2012 (Ask HJ)
  My brother died recently and my sister-in-law has been left to sell his car. She will have to sell it privately. However, this places her in a very vulnerable...
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  Why do hire companies like Helphire push drivers to take expensive hire cars after accidents? 23 Jun 2011 (Ask HJ)
  Your letter from ES reminded me of my own experience with Helphire. My car, a C Class Merc, the cooking version, was scraped on the nearside by a bus as...
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  Where can I sell my late brother's BMW 530D and Ford Fiesta for the best price? 24 Dec 2010 (Ask HJ)
  I have been appointed the executor for my late brother's will. I want you to give me a fair price for the disposal of his two cars. Unfortunately the family...
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  Why has my insurance premium with the NFU Mutual been increased by 50 per cent? 15 Dec 2010 (Ask HJ)
  My car is insured with National Farmers Union Mutual. The renewal is due and the price is up by 50 per cent with no change at all in my circumstances....
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  Following a motorway crash in my partner's car, are we being targeted by accident management companies? 1 Sep 2010 (Ask HJ)
  I am the named driver on my partner's fully comprehensive policy. I was driving her car yesterday and was involved in a motorway crash. My partner's insurance...
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  Portugullible 13 Feb 2010 (Ask HJ)
  I hired a car in Faro 3 weeks ago from www.myalgarvecars.com. The rental company took a swipe of my credit card as deposit. When we returned the car intact...
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  The lease police 30 Jan 2010 (Ask HJ)
  I read a letter in your column regarding lease purchase. HPI covers hire purchase information, not lease purchase. Some finance companies don¹t seem to...
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  Fraud consoled 25 Jan 2010 (Ask HJ)
  I recently replied to an Auto Trader on-line ad for a Land Rover Defender. Despite taking as many precautions as possible, including viewing at the seller's...
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  Scamdal in the wind 26 Dec 2009 (Ask HJ)
  Is there a scam going on with insurance companies? Two have tried it on almost one after the other. I changed my car to a different spec vehicle and updated...
• Merc C220d coupe '63 plate, 55,000 miles - In for service 1 month ago, at the garage still... 5 Aug 2022 (Forum)
  They then say, they are happy to buy the car for £2000 less than Autotrader prices. I've told them I need a day or two to think. I'm not sure if I'm being scammed or just the victim of an unfortunate string of events... ???????Many thanks in advance.  
• Peugeot 208 - £2K courtesy car bill after uninsured accident 16 Dec 2019 (Forum)
  and his car was written off. My B in L wasn't aware of the well-known credit hire courtesy car 'scam'  that claims management companies operate and signed the agreement. He's now got a bill for the car hire of £2K (3 weeks for a Hyundai i10!!!) and is a bit worried. He has been offered and accepted a £6K settlement for his written off car but hasn't had the payment yet.
• Vauxhall Corsa 2007 - 83 yr old stopped driving, one for SLO76 5 Jun 2019 (Forum)
  As i said in the other thread, one of my friends has decided to give up driving, had advertised the car, had a couple of replies and one guy offered a silly low price, pointing out various (minor) defects and trying to knock a lot off. As she is a widow, was a bit distressed at having people coming to her house (had been scammed before).. i said Ill pretend I'm your son if you want. Upshot, she offered me the car for £1000. Came yesterday and did all the documentation online with DVLA, and gave her a copy, put the car on SORN on my driveway, and spents  couple of hours cleaning and polishing it using a foam spray cleaner first and then rinsing and washing with warm water and shampoo.
• Mazda 6 - Alas poor Mazda I knew it well 19 Mar 2013 (Forum)
  The other guys ins co have admitted full liability so with luck this should all be sorted within the next week. I refused all offers of a loan car, the stories on HJ regarding credit hire scams had done their job! And I am already feeling fitter from the enforced cycle to/from work. So far so good. Am impressed all round with the speed of response so far. Just that valuation next and then what car to buy next.....
• Insurance called about alleged incident with car 2 Jan 2013 (Forum)
  My insurance company calls me saying an incident was reported to them, involving a car with my Reg.  (I initially think it's a scam, due so many claims, PPI, etc. calls and txts I get). My initial reaction was WTF? Can people just give a reg number and claim the car hit them etc.?  The other party has minor damage to their bumper I think, car is drivable etc.
• VW Passat TDI CR 170 DSG Estate - air-con failure - stone damage or dealer con? 16 Aug 2011 (Forum)
  There's a tiny leak so he wasn't able to help. His parting shot was "watch the main dealer stone-chip damage scam". Lo and behold, the dealer calls. "stone chip damage to the compressor - £500 non-warranty repair, please!" I mention my independent dealer's comments to the main dealer service receptionist who took great offence and had promised photos.
• Information sharing subscription 31 Dec 2005 (Forum)
  Next time my car has to have work done on it (which will be soon, see previous posts) I intend to leave a copy of the DISHONEST JOHN'S GUIDE TO SERVICE SCAMS prominently in the car to discourage rip off techniques. Has HJ ever considered a subscription scheme whereby little stickers - say, similar to those affixed to the door chassis to indicate next service date etc - could be bought, signifying that the owner is a member of the HJ dealership monitoring forum and reserves the right to share his/her experience for the purposes of improving service standards generally ?
• faith restored in honda dealer :-) 31 Jan 2005 (Forum)
  Problem is that only Honda dealer in 40 mile radius, sold us our last one as a one owner from new car (in fact had 3 previous) and denied all responsibility, serviced the car and neatly performed the screen wash scam on the bill, and in general treated in a very poor and unprofessional manner. With much trepidation we went to view another used CR-V. How refreshing it was to be treated by a salesman who didn't talk non stop, allowed me to drive him round for an hour, showed me all the paperwork and the V5, didn't give me any useless sales blurb, and eventually sold me a car which i consider to be a very good deal with no bovine.
• We're all criminals now 24 Jan 2005 (Forum)
  It exposed the tactics of some coucil traffic wardens with their easy targets like mums dropping kids off at school (£50 a time) and the parade of shops where anyone shopping or delivering goods gets clobbered too - shop takings down by a third in all of them, so goodbye shops/jobs/council tax any day. Another scam, which I hadn't heard of before, was the bus lanes where you can drive your car during certain hours/days but the times change along the same lane, with a tiny sign parallel to the road to say so! Naturally, there is a CCTV camera at that point so, unless you know the area and you're pretty nifty, another nip up your shirt.