Miles of legacy

A final legacy of our London adventure drew to a close this week.  The Saab went in for a long overdue service.  While it was in the workshop the UK dashboard cluster was swapped out for a metric unit.  The cluster was originally changed to secure a UK registration. Since then we’ve driven around with a speedometer displaying imperial and metric speed, while the odometer kept score in miles.

The Saab’s done just over 32,000km.  As a result the latest service was rather involved.  The brakes were relined and discs renewed, steering pins were replaced, the electric window setting adjusted and pretty much every filter replaced.  The car spent almost four days in the workshop before emerging as good as new.  We’re now $3,000 poorer!

The prodigal Saab comes home

We've completed the final step in relocating back to Australia. This week we collected the Saab from Quarantine & Customs and registered it once again for Australian ownership. It been quite an experience getting the car home. The endless paperwork and delays have almost driven poor Garry to distraction.

At one point we even had the receiving agent in Sydney call us and ask us what we'd done with the car keys. Garry rather curtly pointed out that their UK partner had collected the car from our London home and thus we weren't in possession of the keys. Other stressful highlights include paperwork disappearing between our UK relocation agent and its Australian partner, being pursued by bailiffs after the UK agent incurred a London congestion charge penalty and finally being ordered to pay for steam-cleaning by Quarantine before our car could be released.

The congestion charge penalty was particularly galling. The removal company arranged for a car transporting company to collect the Saab directly from Swiss Cottage. The driver then drove through the London Congestion Zone without our permission, incurred a transit fee and failed to pay it. It took several months for the resulting penalty notice to finally reach us by which time the penalty had trebled and then been refered to the County Court for collection. Fortunately the Uk agent accepted liability, but did do only after we chased them and spoke with the local authorities.

Sadly the car arrived in Australia with a few more dents than when we'd last seen it. In particular the roof has a large dimple where something was obviously dropped. The relocation company had to build an wooden frame over the car to fit all of our house contents into a shipping container which clearly increased the risk of damage. Perhaps the most galling aspect of this particular incident is the simple fact that the removalists in London were rather inefficient with their packing, ultimately forcing us to pay for an "overcase" frame.

For example, when we originally relocated to London the Australian removalist carefully packed cushions and other loose items under the legs of dining chairs to save space. It also wrapped our glassware in protective cardboard tubes, allowing more to be packed into every shipping box. By comparison, the UK agents packed our glassware loosely and on occasions packed nothing more than a toilet bruch and dush pan in a large box. I'm convinced these lax packing practices added at least another ten boxes to our load.

We've chalked up the entire relocation experience as yet another examples of the shoddy service we constantly encountered in Europe. I'm glad to be back in Australia where the service is already more attentive and efficient.

Hit and run!

A shocking surprise greeted us as we prepared to drive to the hardware store this weekend. As we approached our car, parked as always in the street, we discovered someone had hit it. Worse still, they'd driven off without leaving a note. The right rear side bumper and boot lid are completely mangled. The cat had been hit so hard, its rear wheels were shunted a foot away from the curb, leaving it parked at an awkward angle.

Garry was most upset. After such a long and demoralising winter, this latest incident simply seems to add to our litany of winter woes. I was a little more sanguine. Sadly, it's not the first time I've had someone hit my car and disappear without a trace. We've submitted an insurance claim and take the car in for repair on Thursday. We're now a small part of the £54 million worth of insurance claims lodged nationwide every day.

In an ironic twist, we renewed our insurance a month ago, changing insurers in the process. The new insurer gave a better deal with a lower excess. Garry also discovered that we'd been charged insurance rates for a completely different (and more expensive) car form factor (a convertible rather than a sedan) for the last four years. It's our gas bill debacle all over again. I'm staggered that yet another UK company has been ripping us off for years. I swear I've never experienced such fundamental billing errors in Australia.