AlanH

James, my car is a similar age to yours and I was starting to get things happening with the electrics suggesting the battery was playing up. There are discussions here on other threads about this battery charger https://www.ctek.com/products/vehicle/mxs-5-0. I got one a month or so ago, set it initially on the recondition mode, which took a day or 2 and since then I've had it permanently hooked up to the car when in the garage, just in normal charging mode. Everything seems fine now, so it's a big thumbs up for the charger. Even if they replace your battery, I'd still recommend it for the new one - it'll prevent it deteriorating over time, which seems to be the problem with these efb batteries.

Widely known as an eon

I don't own a watch. Or a phone - I measure time by how quickly I can drive places

Mine also only gets driven periodically. I live in a small town and everything I need is within either walking or cycling distance. When the R gets taken out it's for trips out of town and that involves distances of at least 100km, because where I live is a way from any main centres. If I haven't used it for a week or two I take it for a 20km blast around country roads, just to warm it up and let it know it's still appreciated! I think if you're getting up to a month with no use it might be worth disconnecting the battery or even getting a charger. Otherwise, no worries. (I'll go to start it later and probably find a flat battery!)

Mouthwatering semi-final ABs v England. My loyalties are somewhat split - I've recently applied for NZ citizenship. Might be rejected if I cheer for England...

The wife and I were discussing what we'd change about the car only yesterday, and of the two things this was one of them. We've got a charger that plugs into the cigarette lighter, easy as.

50. B&B owner and DJ

Corvette C7 Z06. 650 horses. Mate of mine turned up in it unannounced a day or 2 after it had arrived from the States. I was lucky enough that he gave me a drive in it, albeit on public highway. Two days later he had it taken off him by the cops and licence revoked indefinitely.

I run a B&B, so my daily commute is a simple bleary eyed plod down a flight of stairs. But where we live is fairly remote and there are amazing driving roads in every direction. Nearest traffic light is 100kms to the south, 250kms if heading north. Lovely twisty roads through beautiful scenery with almost no traffic, although in certain places sheep/cows/goats/deer/pigs to look out for. So I try to run out of either lightbulbs or washing powder at least once a week for a 200km round trip to the diy superstore. Race mode mandatory. Would that count as a commute?

Is that an M Sport? They gave me one of those for my R's 'UK incident'. 7 miles on the clock. Nice looking thing but pretty average to drive on the twisty roads of Cumbria. Horrible soundsytem and all.

In line with thread title, in addition to the financial penalty coming this guy's way I think he should be made to make a short public film of himself explaining to his kids why doing what he did makes him a sizeable tosser. Definitely keen to know the outcome of this. Very good luck and keep us informed if you don't mind.

Just total carelessness. Guy's come in at an angle in a big boxy wagon knowing full well he's got a passenger in the rear on that side. It's absolutely bloody obvious there's no space for anyone to open that door without hitting the adjacent vehicle. At the very least he needs to be telling the rear passengers to exit on the other side. Or bloody well reverse into the space - it's the only way you're ever going to get a tractor like that straight in a tight space. One of my pet hates is people owning big vehicles who can't manoeuvre them properly. And then he has a little think and fucks off to avoid repercussions! Totally busted, what a ****. Looks like you've got plenty of evidence to proceed with a claim though, so you should be able to get the repair approved. Dash cam doing its job! Good luck to you :-)

Oh man I know your pain, it's so gutting when other people are so careless with your pride and joy. 2nd week of ownership of my brand new R last May I pulled into a busy M6 services to get a sandwich. Normally I look for a space miles away from anyone else but the place was absolutely packed as it was half term. I was just about to give it up and head up the road to the next services when I saw two spaces right at the end of a row. So I took the very end space, parked right against the kerb so there was plenty of room if anyone should take the vacant next door space and ran in to buy sandwich. In the 3 minutes this took, bloke in tatty old Focus pulled in to the vacant space and somehow managed to scrape down the side of my car. Unbelievable. In fairness to him, he hung around to fess up, was extremely contrite and helpful in sorting it out. Car had to have a respray and all turned out well in the end. I had it detailed and, looking like new again, I've brought it out to New Zealand, as some of you will know. 3rd day in New Zealand, now August, when parked in a mate's driveway his girlfriend's 6 year old was left on her own for about 5 minutes and in this time got carried away throwing stones into the air, which caused about 20 chips on the side of my car (funnily enough in the same area that had previously been damaged). Another respray required. Now the repairer has caused about 5 grands worth of additional damage to the car and is denying everything. I'm in dispute with him and hoping my insurer will step in to sort it out. It's all a bit of a nightmare atm. I hope you get your particular problem sorted as painlessly as possible mate.

Settle down fulla, gutted though I may be, at least it's not an Unruly Family from the UK conning me out of my life savings, trashing beaches, ripping off food joints, robbing gas stations then running all over the north island claiming victimisation. NZ has been very kind to me for a good number of years now, and has idyllic driving roads that I will continue to enjoy whatever the outcome here.

Thank you all so much for your constructive and encouraging comments. Really appreciated. Just to clarify re the insurance. They left it up to me to choose a repairer, which is why I went to my local VW dealer for assistance in finding someone. So I'm not sure where I stand in terms of their obligation to step in at this point. I've let them know the situation and smashed them with loads of pics earlier today, didn't hold back in conveying my disgust at the situation. Hopefully will know something soon. The policy wording indicates I can have one claim per 12 month period without it affecting premium. Do I really believe this? In NZ, actually maybe yes. Consumer law in NZ is pretty similar to the UK, so should be some protection there. It concerns me that I haven't really got proof where quite a bit of the damage is concerned. It boils down to the repairer's word against mine. So maybe 50/50 chance of getting it sorted if the insurance doesn't step up. The kid who did the original damage is the 6 year old daughter of the girlfriend of one of my oldest friends. Really difficult situation, they're essentially on the bones of their arse, I know they feel absolutely awful about it all. The little girl knew she'd done wrong, but there was no malice in the action, she was out playing on the driveway and got carried away throwing stones in the air, 15 to 20 of which hit the car. What can you do? I'm not about to kick them when they are down. They live 180 miles away, so difficult to arrange any sort of payment in kind, and besides, she's 6. Not lawn mowing age yet. Could send her up the chimney I suppose... I'll update when I know more. Peace.