Help! Car written off in France on first day of hols

[theAntsareMyFriends]

Having a holiday nightmare and any advice would be amazing.

Our car broke down on the way from the Eurotunnel. Black smoke and oil dripping out. We were on the motorway and got towed to the nearest town but the man told us the car was finished.

Lucky we are travelling with family who ferried us and all our stuff in their very small car to our holiday place so are in a safe place where we can stay for 2 weeks.

We now have to work out what to do to sort out or scrap our existing car, get a car we can use to enjoy the next 2 weeks (in a very rural location) and some way to get all 5 of us, plus luggage and bikes home at the end.

My DP is even considering getting a train to the UK, buying a car and coming back. If the current car is totally unfixable then this might be our only option.

We don't have European cover with my breakdown service (thought I did but turns out not) and we don't really want to spend lots of money towing my current car around to still find out it can't be fixed or it can be fixed but would take months.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Good luck OP! Whichever mechanic you rely on, make sure that the mechanic who tells you ‘this car has had it’ is not the same person who then offers to get rid of it for a great price - there are dishonest car dealers in any country!

What make? Some makes are still under manufacturer’s guarantee for 6 yrs. Unlikely but worth checking.

I hope you find a solution. I suspect best option will be to get it repaired in France, ideally at a specialist garage for that make.

OP thought she DID have insurance and as someone who has had the same experience (missold a breakdown policy basically) I have every sympathy.

I have to say that as veterans of cars breaking down fairly catastrophically in France (three times) in August, I have had pretty good experiences with garages! Each time it was fixed through insurance but every time they sorted things out, got parts, fixed it before we had to head home. So it’s not impossible.

I would definitely get more quotes for a repair than just the one you've already had, no way would I write off a car like that (for reference, I've just come back from France with an 19 year old car with 140k miles on the clock). A lot of places will be closed for the summer holidays, but some will be available. Local people will be able to recommend a mechanic.

If you need to hire a car in France to drop off in the UK, it's possible but always way more expensive to drop off in another location from pick up (even within the same country). It would be better to look at other options, e.g. DH go back and hire/borrow a car in the UK to come pick you up (if hire, make sure it's covered for international travel), or hire a car to the ferry/Eurostar terminal in France then cross without a vehicle and sort out whatever onward transport in the UK.

I disagree. I drive my car in France semi-regularly. European breakdown cover costs more than the value of the car once I go over 4 days (is around £40/day, getting cheaper as the trips gets longer, my car's worth less than £100). I would rather write the car off than pay more than its value 'just in case'. Also, read the T&Cs on the European cover: RAC offer me 'up to the market value of the car' in recovery costs back to the UK; in my case, that wouldn't even get me to the port let alone a crossing, and they only offer £150 in garage costs. Or I could get a premium cover to 'solve' that, which is literally more than the value of the car per day.

Bottom line: European breakdown cover may be worth it if your car is expensive/new, or you're willing to pay any amount to avoid the hassle of what might happen if you breakdown abroad. But weigh up the costs before you decide.

Why will they? Insurance doesn't cover mechanical breakdown.

And the PP that was asking when did you last have a MOT what do you think a mot does??

And what is the relevance of people with older cars/higher mileage cars posting? Cars breakdown every day, whilst servicing and maintenance can lessen this chance ultimately the fact it does or doesn't happen on the two weeks you are away is ultimately luck.

Op, what make/model is your car I agree that 6years is still young but catastrophic engine failure can happen at any time, we recently recovered a car from France but the car was a classic and therefore worth the recovery fee.

You said they said a hole in the engine, can you see it?

We broke down hideously in France about 5 years ago in our then 10 year old car. I'd paid about £100 for the top level of RAC breakdown cover for the 2 weeks because I just didn't want to worry at all, although I did balk at the cost and considered going for the lesser cover, but in the end I thought no, just get this and then you won't need to worry. Thank God I did, is all I can say. They were brilliant. Paid for taxis, organised hire car, took our car to a garage, paid for hotels etc etc. Absolutely brilliant and I would not drive abroad without it now although I take @Fink's point about the value of the car versus the cost of insurance.

French garages (generalising obv) are super expensive and overwhelmingly bad at repairing stuff and prefer to order parts to replace. Dont necessarily believe that its not fixable. You might be able to sort a flatbed truck to get your car home or get it towed and fixed later.
We have had this sort of thing happen on holiday and i do not envy you the stress.

Thank you for all your replies. I haven't gone through them all as internet access patchy.

My dP went back to the car this morning with a French speaking family member. The big end is gone, something about the crank shaft and oil in catalytic converter. The local ford garage is closed for the summer so it will have to scrapped.

Currently looking at options to get it recovered to UK but no luck yet.

In answer to people asking why we have no recovery..I thought we did but I'd added it on after years ago but not added it this year. In all the disaster planning I'd made for the holiday (currently pregnant and one child with health isdues) this just slipped my mind. I'm kicking myself now and will obviously never forget it again.

Feeling very sorry for myself as I really needed this holiday and the kids are picking up on tensions and being extra hard work but I know in the grand scheme of things we are lucky.

I will read through all the responses when my DP is back and I'm not refereeing the kids.

Thank you.

Whichever mechanic you rely on, make sure that the mechanic who tells you ‘this car has had it’ is not the same person who then offers to get rid of it for a great price - there are dishonest car dealers in any country!

Problem with theories like that is there's not much of a market for RHD cars in a LHD country and making a UK car compliant with the French norms can be costly to say the least.

I suppose by some fluke the French mechanic might know a local Brit on the look out for UK handed car but in all probability from a financial POV on the French side of the channel it's scrap.

It’s not so much about the value of the vehicle, it’s the costs and hassle of getting home, and how much a breakdown would impact your holiday.

If I had an old car, was travelling without kids, bikes, loads of luggage etc, had a good knowledge of French, didn’t have too much at stake if the car did breakdown…then maybe I would take the risk. But if the cost of a breakdown could be ££££ and a ruined holiday then I would get the cover.

OP car warranties should be good anywhere in Europe . A big end going after only 50,000 miles is terrible. I suggest contacting your car insurance company anyway as they may be able to help regarding repatriation of the car to the uk. Explain about pregnancy and child’s health needs . They will charge you but they will have a contract with someone who does this as it happens so frequently. It may also be worth contact the British Consulate in France for assistance. Regarding car hire Europcar will allow you to collect a car in the Uk and travel to France with it and back again for an additional premium.
I suggest thinking carefully about the transportation of the bicycles- are they worth the additional hassle and expense of getting them back here? If so arrange for them to be crated up/ boxed up by TNT and they will ship them back to the UK. Beware the bikes will arrive very quickly.
Don’t buy a new car in a rush just for the holiday. Good luck.

Are you sure it's a write off? It might be. Or not. If you ask one garage, they might quote £1000's to fix it, because Basically they don't want to- it's a horrible job and they just don't want to do it. Maybe your French mechanic is one of those. Or it could be a legitimate write off. Or some Old-fashioned dirty mechanics from the UK love such a complex job and would love to fix such a thing. Trouble is, finding them! My Dh comes from the car industry and he knows loads of mechanics who live doing jobs others wouldn't touch.

Plus like Bandol says practically the whole of France shuts down for August.

Aww I just want to give you a hug OP, what a start to your holiday, not worth worrying over, it will get sorted out somehow. We all forget things now and then, no body is perfect.

“Not worth worrying about”?

This kind of is something to worry about surely?

I suggest contacting your car insurance company anyway as they may be able to help regarding repatriation of the car to the uk.

I think that's sound advice - I hate to say it and add to the possible woes (and invoke the B word) but there might now be customs implications/paperwork to be done if the car isn't repatriated to the UK...

Have to add that I doubt the British Consulate will be the least bit interested......

I disagree. I drive my car in France semi-regularly. European breakdown cover costs more than the value of the car once I go over 4 days (is around £40/day)

40 pounds a day?

I have an all-in family worldwide travel insurance policy that includes vehicle breakdown/recovery in the UK and mainland Europe that costs 40 pence a day.

My breakdown cover with European costs £6 a month?

It depends entirely where you are - where parents holiday home is (Charente Maritime so yes a few British ex pats living there), you do get the odd trustworthy mechanic - but like I said, it's mostly word of mouth.

DB was on holiday there with his wife a few years ago - local mechanics charged him approx £300 more to do an emergency job and as he'd driven his own car over there and wanted to drive it back, he had no choice but to have the work done.

Our British friends who were living there (now both dead) were away in Spain at the time and another French friend was away on her 'les vacs' so couldn't help but did give a mechanic/garage name locally - he said he was too busy.

I've just had a lot of experience there where local people (including the Maire) are bloody rude about the English, say one thing to your back and another to your face, if you're English. In fact one of the last times I went into a Tabac a year before lockdown when visiting there, I was with a friend, both our French is quite fluent, just trying to buy something, the rudeness of the owner and her DH was appalling. Really bad. Funnily enough, in nearby Bordeaux and La Rochelle they're far more polite and friendly. Considering the local town where parents have their holiday home gets a lot of English tourism you'd think they'd be similarly polite/friendly.

Our car broke down on the German / Austrian border a few years ago during an European road trip where we were due to leave for France the following day. We had European breakdown cover so all of this was covered but this is what we did:

• car was taken to local garage on a low loader the following morning, garage confirmed it would take at least 3 days to get part.
• hired a German hire car to get us to France.
• had to change to a French hire car at Strasbourg as hire cars can’t be taken over the border.
• continued our holiday then drove to Lille and returned hire car.
• got Eurostar back to London (should have returned on Eurotunnel).
• hire car at St Pancras to get home.
• car was repatriated about 3 weeks later.
• car fixed for £60 at local garage!!!

I’d follow some of the steps above, hire a car to continue holiday, arrange for your car to be repatriated given its age / mileage and use the Eurostar to get home.

Yes, this was exactly my brother's issue! They wanted to order a part in (brother luckily extended his holiday by a week to 3 weeks) rather than repair it. Brother had no choice but to listen to their advice and accept this. And yes, he said it was very expensive. Then there was the language barrier, as they spoke barely no English, DB's French is bad and he was relying on Google translate or my DM to translate (on phone/email) for him. When he got home to England to his usual mechanic (family friend) they told him it could easily have been fixed and for less money than the French mechanic charge.

I think you have tow issues here

• what you will do during those weeks - how to get around and still do stuff with the dcs


• going back to the U.K.

As your DH said you CAN bring another car from the U.K. but it might be longer than you think to do all the paperwork AND it means getting whatever you can find which might well be either over expensive or nit quite what you need. So I’d be weary of using that as THE solution to your problems.

During the hols, I would first look at what sort of public transport you have around. Any buses, a train station not too far away? A medium car to rent will cost you around £600 for the two weeks (well that’s how much h I’ve just paid!) and it might be too small for your family. A better way could be to use taxi to take you to the bus/train for some days out. It very much depends on how comfortable you are about the additional costs.

Coming back to the U.K. Wo the car, the big issue is the amount of stuff you will have taken in your car. I’m going to assume that you will taken more than if you had taken the train or plane so this might be an issue (eg what to do with car seats if you take the Tunnel)
Im afraid I can’t think of an easy way around it. If you have some family/friends living close by, maybe you could leave some of the stuff there.
I would think about it sooner rather than later as I suspect you might struggle to find some space either by train or by plane.
See also if you can cancel the return ticket and get some money back. Again I wouldn’t leave it to the last minute.

Considering the local town where parents have their holiday home gets a lot of English tourism you'd think they'd be similarly polite/friendly.

Blimey this thread has brought the usual generic whinges to the surface that have little if anything to do with the OP...

Don't know why but you'll find for whatever reason some locals pretty much anywhere in the world get grumpy with holidaymakers.....remember the number of threads in this place last year about the UK south west?

As Brits we're a bit of a rarity in our part of France yet in the context of cars we've managed to deal with the usual family driven complications of mechanics (our cars, kids cars etc) car dealers, driving instructors (kids driving) etc without getting any aggro.. On the rare occasions we've encountered any curtness in local towns (and Tabacs can definitely be a bit odd) we've usually put it down to the offenders thinking we're from Paris...😉

It depends entirely where you are - where parents holiday home is (Charente Maritime so yes a few British ex pats living there), you do get the odd trustworthy mechanic - but like I said, it's mostly word of mouth.

Just like the UK then….
Because I haven’t found a really trustworthy mechanic yet in the U.K. (even worse when I am the on to go and see them rather than DH. Obviously being a woman is enough to take me for a ride)

@notimagain I think you might right there. Being from Paris might be worse