ever lent a mate your car?

[J45SON]

one of my mates has been going through a rough time recently, bankruptcy due to his business going down, wife left him for another man, so he was really feeling low. when his car was threatened with repo i said that he could use mine for a while as i wasn't using it.

i gave it to him in pristine condition and got it back tonight with a "few" problems....

2 R8 wheels completely kerbed, needing replaced.
heaters not working at all.
arm rest catch broken.
engine coolant light constantly on - think it may be electrical

i'll check for more damage in the morning but how can i be pi$$ed off when he is going through bad times? he has said he would replace the worst wheel or get it refurbished.

i was intending to sell the car in the early summer, but now i'll need to fork out a few bucks to fix it all now...

anyone else had this happen and what did they do?

cheers
j

 

[kaz219]

Sounds bad mate - i never lend my car to no one.

learnt that when i lent it the the g/f and it came back with a very nice parking dent and the front wheel kurbed the hell out of!

Good show on helping him out though...

 

[golf]

Let this be a lesson to you. Never help anyone. Especially friends and family.

 

[1wheelonly]

i borrowed a friends bike a couple of years back and came off it and wrote it off, i stuck to the golden rule which is " YOU BEND IT, YOU BUY IT! " so i was 3 grand out of pocket but you have to imagine if it was the other way round, which in your case it is, i sympathise with your mate being down but now your both down, if he was a true mate it would of all been put right before returning it to you, or the offer to do it all asap.
only my opinion but why lose out to someone who doesnt seem to care about your stuff or your feelings to return it in that state.

 

[J45SON]

cheers for the support.

tbh, he does care about the car. when i eventually got hold of him on sunday & he told me what happened to the wheels, he did say that he was sorry. he was "out" picking up a takeaway and took my car because it has screens and a dvd in it so his wee girl would be happy.

i used to use the car for the valeting company i had and it is now covered in bird lime (note using nice words ).

he has said he would pay for a new wheel but i may need 2, as for the other stuff, it may have gone with me using the car so i feellike i need to pay for that as i don't want to sell the car on with any probs.

 

[BahnStormer77]

The "you bend it, you mend it" rule....

Maybe with a sympathy-delay because of his financial situation...

However it's just bad luck (or judgment) on the timing if you were about to sell it....

If you need to sell it, can afford to pay for it for now and you trust him: then agree with him in advance that you're gonna get the wheels fixed and he picks up the tab for those since they're going to impact resale value and you can sort it out later once he's back in work.

tbh - the heater / electrical issues are unlikely to misuse / abuse.... so I'd take it on the chin for those (and let him know that you don't hold him responsible for those).

The arm-rest is your call.... but it's proabbly a cheap(ish) clip and something you can do yourself?

But with the wheels there's very little excuse for him not to pay up eventually and they will affect the resale value because they're a reasonable indication of how loved and well looked after the car is...

(but that's just my 2c worth - see what the others think)

 

[aragorn]

I probably would lend a good mate my car, just as you have done, especially in a similar situation, unless i knew from previous experiance that he mistreated his vehicles.

However i would also have expected him to look after it properly, and repair any damage he did cause, perhaps wear and tear (like the heater motor packing up) wouldnt bother me so much, but having kerbed the rims or not even bothered to wash it before returning it i'd have been mighty ****** off.

If i was in that position, and borrowed someone elses car, i'd be making damn sure they got it back in better nick than when it was lent to me, seen as they're the one doing me the favour...

 

[mimo]

What about when its family? close family? I love my car and love to have it very clean insde and out. My Brother drives my car from time to time as he doesn't have one.

9 Times out of 10 when i get the car back there are crisps on the floor, empty cans in the holder and general rubbish all over.

Nothing worse than when i sit in and the seast/mirrors are all over the place, I hate it but can say no to him driving the car.

When i tell him about the rubbish he listens for a couple of days then back to same old...

 

[aragorn]

He's clearly being disrespectful to both you and your car when you've asked him to stop leaving crap inside it and he's not done so.

You tell him if he does it again he wont be getting the keys again. Simple as that. Your doing the guy a favour, if hes taking the ****, he's just wasted it for himself.

 

[BahnStormer77]

Mimo - just take him off the insurance next time you come to renew and say it was getting too expensive with the company's new policy on named drivers.

Since he doesn't have his own car, I assume he won't be able to drive it any more?

Sorry - bit of a hard line, but I get fed up when people leave rubbish and stuff in their own cars, so have absolutely zero time for people who see fit to leave it in my car.... much less people who throw it out the window!

 

[J45SON]

cheers for the response.

i'm going to take the heater problem on the chin, along with the other minor electrical fault i've found. as for the clip - i'l get a price to get a new one and prob sort it myself, but i think his daughter has something to do with it!! i know it was not all intentional so i can't be angry. i'm going to check it into Hunters of Linlithgow for a full check up anyway and to hell with it.... get it all fixed.

j

 

[aragorn]

Heh just noticed you were from round this way.

Do you find hunters any good? I dont use garages very often, prefer to do the work myself, but its useful to know of good places should something come up urgently.

I've used hunters once before to get the tracking set, although they ****** me off a bit because they advertised the full computerised alignment service on their website and i booked it in for that, but the missus took the car along, they did it and when she asked for the printout they were like "printout? you dont get a print out..." turned out while they DID have the computerised kit, for whatever reason they decided they'd just do the old skool method with the laser things that clip onto the wheels, and is adjusted by eye.

The whole reason i wanted the computerised system with the printout is because i dont trust anywhere to do the job properly, and the printout is at least some proof they've done it right. In this case they didnt even do the right job on the car.... Maybe i just wasnt very clear, and i probably should have gone along myself. But it was a moot point becuase the front arms died shortly afterwords and killed both front tyres anyway. So the tracking needed redone after they were replaced. I went elsewhere for that though.