Alfa2Evora

Andy, just remember who's already got an 'escape into blissful exile' bolt-hole over there - you could end up as neighbours!

I don't quite know what's going on here - hopefully somebody can point me in the right direction. In the passenger's side sidelight, all the LEDs in the circle have gone dim, similar to what DRLs do when you switch on the main lights but the single one above, that projects out a bit to provide a degree of side-marker protection, is still at full brightness. One or two, I could understand as being individual LEDs on their way out, but all of them at once? Ignore the lacquer/PPF peel - that's getting looked at soon-ish as the lights have to come out anyway to replace the bumper. Just wondering if I now need to be considering shoving in a couple of new circuit boards (might as well do both, but more expense I could really do without right now) from Lotus Silverstone as the only sure cure? As you can see, the driver's side is fine. Ignore the collapsed headlight unit and the shocking even by Lotus standards panel gap but that'll hopefully all be rectified eventually, when the police conclude their hit-and-run investigations. I suppose I should just be grateful that I actually have a full set of LEDs working at all, .

If you do it overland, at relatively low level, you can also see that effect in the local population's underwear, .

Words fail me. It's just as well for our amateur tree surgeon that 'justifiable homicide' is not acceptable as a defence in this country. I'm on my way out to the car to go and visit Jennifer and chummy is out at his front hedge. "Oh hello. I'm surprised to see you out and about at this time of day. Not working tonight?" He was a few nanoseconds away from wearing that hedge-trimmer as a necklace. He just stared blankly at me when I controlled my response and limited it to "Possibly not. I don't think it'll be safe to be at the wheel of a 40-tonner on the hour and a bit's sleep I've had so far". I arrived back from the hospital about 10 minutes ago hoping that I might be able to squeeze in another 3 hours or so before I need to leave for work, but oh no, he's still at it.

I've got my Evora sitting on a C-Tek charger - I'm sure that must qualify it as at least a plug-in hybrid, surely?

Unbelievable!!!!! My neighbour (the one I've ranted about before) is at it again. He knows I'm on permanent nights - we've swapped tales in the past when comparing the rotating shifts he was working then to my nights-only routine. Today he was out in his driveway, which gets to within 10 feet of my bedroom window, and looked over and saw me closing the blinds at about 9am. Any person with half a brain, given our 'history', would think "Oh, that'll be David away to his bed then" you would think. So why then am I sitting here, just 2 hours later, wide awake and listening to him using a petrol-powered hedge trimmer to tackle the leylandii hedge that encircles his property? Bloomin' unsilenced 2-stroke engine - you can probably hear it at the other end of the village, let alone from where I'm sitting. It's tipping it down with rain for Pete's sake (other names are available) but I suppose he's hired it for the day and is determined to get his money's worth.

It's been a very 'middle of the road' month or so since my last post so this needs to go here I think. JENNIFER : LATEST UPDATE Well that's us at Day 240 if any of you have been trying to keep count, and there's unfortunately not been any significant improvement of late in Jennifer's progress towards recovery. She has pretty much made up for the ground she lost during her Covid isolation last month but since then things have been fairly static. She seems happy enough in herself, and we crack jokes and chat away about anything and everything although the aphasia is still lurking there in the background and so sometimes her responses don't make too much sense. A lot of the times this happens, Jennifer realises it and that upsets her - she'll say something like "I know what I want to say but the right words won't come out". I've spoken with the Speech & Language Therapists but they say that there's not a lot that can be done other than to keep going with it and hope that another part of the brain eventually clicks into place and takes over the speech control function from the damaged part. There's no timescale for this - if it's going to happen (there's no guarantee) it'll happen when her brain is good and ready. Physically, she's doing OK and the nurses on the ward are using every opportunity, such as when she's needing to go to the loo for instance, to get her out of her chair and up on her feet. She's still very much shuffling along rather than taking normal strides, and she still needs somebody on each arm to help her balance, but she's bearing weight on her legs so it's all good. As far as her physio sessions go, I've still got to keep fighting for every one. There are so many people on the therapy list, if you don't shout out, your name never makes it to the top of said list. Every day when I go in, the first thing I do is stick my head around the gym door and 'remind' them of Jennifer's existence. The date for my Guardianship court hearing has been set for 26th October, so that'll at least give me the primary say in what does and doesn't happen in the future. I've accepted that from a medical standpoint Jennifer doesn't need to be in hospital, but she's a long way from being ready to come home - if she did, we'd need a squad of live-in carers to provide the 24/7 attention she still needs. Therefore, somewhat reluctantly I have to admit, I've started to look at nursing homes that will give her the right environment to continue through what I'm hoping and praying will be an ongoing convalescent stage. I can't bear to think that all the future holds for her is being confined to a wheelchair and shut away in a care facility for the rest of her life. Perhaps once she's away from the seemingly never-ending hustle and bustle on the ward and has her own quiet space when she needs it, that'll hopefully kick-start a new phase along the road to recovery. In my search, I'm using the criteria "Would I stay here myself?" and so far, unfortunately, there's only one place that not only meets this but exceeds my expectations. I have to produce a short-list of 3 but in my mind it's going to be this place or nothing, no matter how long it takes for a vacancy to come up. We may need to use an interim stop-gap but that's all it will be and I'll want a written assurance from the 'authorities' that Jennifer must ultimately be placed at my first choice location. That's about it for now - more updates as things develop.

That's very good. My 12 year-old Evora accounts for over £400 of my Admiral multicar premium - not that it's going to be on there at the next renewal but that's another story which will be told shortly, . 67 (in a few days time), with full NCB etc etc.

@hamza This : https://www.thelotusforums.com/forums/topic/34324-what-made-you-unhappy-today/?do=findComment&comment=994195

@hamzaBrave! After what happened to me, I wouldn't now park alongside an X5 even if it was my own, .

@Colin P We've been insured with them for years on the SAAB and the ALFA. Both of them are 'modified, in that they have upgraded exhaust systems (and a different rear valance to accommodate this in the case of the Italian), and Admiral used to provide full cover (it's one of the reasons we went with them and stayed with them) so I thought nothing of it when I added the Evora to the multicar policy. Now I know why the additional premium was less than half the renewal quote of the insurer I had been using for the Lotus - somewhere back in time they've amended the T's & C's of the cover but I don't recall ever seeing a notification on this, Live and learn, live and learn. The 'negotiate price and availability benefits of aftermarket versus OE' was one of the options I was considering. Hopefully though, as @andydclementsis saying, the other driver will come clean and it'll all go through their insurance which will fix it to 'as per pre-incident' condition.

The body repair shop that I'll be using (eventually) put me on to an Independent Motoring Consultant who specialises in providing accident assistance, and as it happens is a particular fan of all things Lotus - he certainly appears to know a whole load more about them than anybody at my insurer does, that's for sure. He's been really helpful already, confirming that I'd done all the right things so far and pointing me towards what actions I should be considering next. Oh no. Please tell me I haven't put a curse on everybody else on here, . Hope you get it all sorted without too much fuss. A few weeks ago, in the main car park at the same hospital, I had an 'old dear' in a Toyota Landcruiser come within inches of smacking into the side of the Evora as she attempted to pull into a space that was way too narrow for her leviathan at the angle she was approaching it at - she was so short in stature that she was sitting on a cushion on the seat, but was still looking through rather than over the steering wheel. Luckily I was still standing next to Evora and screamed "STOP!!!!" at her otherwise she would have carried on in blissful ignorance. Her response was that if she'd hit it, it would have been my fault for having "such a stupidly f*****g low car that nobody can see". My response that it would have been her fault for "being such a shortarse she couldn't see out of her car properly" was met with a stony glare.

Andy, don't be silly when there's all that tea to be drunk and doughnuts to be scoffed back in the office, . I managed to speak to them, after a fair old wait, a couple of times in the early days on the non-emergency 101 number but I think my number must now flag-up on their 'don't answer' list so I've had to resort to the 'contact us' form on their website. I send a message every other day, giving them details of what new things I've discovered during my sleuthing (so basically doing their job for them) and pressing them for an update on how they're proceeding but all I get back in return each time is a generic "your message has been passed on to the relevant investigating officer" one-liner. Bill, if they're able to prove 'beyond all reasonable doubt' that the X5 driver was responsible then, yes, their insurance is liable for all the costs and it's their legal responsibility to return my car back to its pre-incident condition i.e. with a new WinAce GTC bumper. If it ends up going through my insurance then that opens up a whole new can of worms because although I declared all the modifications to them and they applied an additional premium as a result, they're now maintaining that they're only obliged to return my car to its 'as it left the factory' condition, i.e. with a standard S1 bumper. So I don't really understand why the extra premium was required if they're not covering its replacement - does the modified bumper (and the other bits like the rear 'big wing') pose an increased risk to other road users for instance? An excuse to screw a bit more cash out of me for nothing in return is looking the more likely answer now to that quandary, . Things could get messy as I'm not rolling over on this one no matter how many other balls I've got to keep in the air at the same time.

1 hour and 37 minutes after going in the "Your call is important to us" queue, I finally got to talk to somebody and by sheer chance it happened to be the very person who's name was at the bottom of the 'total loss' email. After a discussion on the possibility that his prescription medication is requiring a review, and on the subtle differences in value between a 12 year-old (almost) Lotus Evora with all the options ticked and a shed-load of subsequent expensive modifications (all declared) and a similarly-aged base model Fiat Panda, Vauxhall Corsa, et al, he did eventually concede that perhaps they had been a bit rash in applying their universal "if it's over 10 years old it's scrap" policy and that they should reverse all today's actions and await my further communication on the matter. Both the Alfa and the Saab are off the road at the moment awaiting parts to get them through their respective MOTs so, with the Evora being my only (just) usable means of transportation for the next few days, I've asked that he put it all in another email with special emphasis on the cover not being cancelled so I've got something to produce if I get tugged by our 'friends' in the blue and yellow chequered motors. Still waiting for it to arrive - there's a surprise, .

@Barrykearley I've taken precautions. My 'family members' are now out patrolling the perimeter and just to keep them on their A-game, they've not yet been fed today, .

Email from my insurance (the senior naval officer crowd) "Dear Mr Boyd Blah, blah, blah, blah, your vehicle has been declared a total loss. Blah, blah, blah, blah, your policy on this vehicle has been cancelled. Blah, blah, blah, blah, a salvage agent will be in contact with you shortly to arrange uplift." Whoa there just a minute. Care to go back and run that past me again? WTAF!!!!!! I've been on hold now for 40 minutes waiting to talk to somebody in their Claims Dept. This is going nuclear! Nobody's been to look at the car. They've never been sent any photos of it. How can they decide that? The only reason that I even informed them of the incident was to abide by what's expected of me according to their terms and conditions, i.e. to inform them at the earliest opportunity of any potential claim. It was made abundantly clear at the time that that was all I was doing and that I wanted no further action taken until the police had carried out their criminal investigations.

Nothing yet. I'm going to chase them tomorrow again but it's just such a pain hanging on for an hour or more waiting on somebody answering the 101 number. Maybe I should just ring 999 and tell them I've cornered the other driver and I'm kicking 10 shades out of them, . I've put my own written request in today to view the CCTV images - it might be quicker than waiting for 'the authorities' and let the repair process get underway without too much further delay. Bizarrely, the tax was renewed for a year on 1st May, 3 days before the MOT expired. It passed the previous 2 MOTs without so much as 1 advisory so I wouldn't have thought there would be any real problems this time around - maybe they've simply forgotten. I believe UKI are one of the companies that have an indemnity scheme whereby they'll pay for my repair despite their client's car being technically illegal, but then he'll have some 'explaining' to do to them, as @andydclements suggests.

I've done just that today. After some online 'digging', I confirmed through MIB that it is insured - with UKI (formerly Direct Line) so it should be a relatively pain-free process to deal with them, being a reputable big-name company and all that. EXCEPT, it turns out that the BMW is on the road illegally. Maybe the owner can't find a screwdriver to change the incorrectly-spaced personal number plates and that's why it's not yet had the MOT it was due back in May, . I just thought - more hassle so I'll let somebody else deal with it as I've got more than enough on my plate already.

I have that but didn't want to make it 'public' on here.

See my post in the 'Happy' thread.

Gotcha! Well, I'm pretty sure I have anyway. Sitting today, literally in the space next to where it was last Thursday, a white BMW X5 with black alloys. What are the chances of there being several of those so I had a closer look. Scraped along the rear passenger's door and wheel, but no immediately obvious paint transfer from mine although it does look like somebody may have had a session with some T-Cut lately. Then, I saw it. All those hours watching forensic examinations on TV paid off. On the rear wheel, a small amount of bright blue paint on the edge of the rim. I rest my case m'lud. Local force informed and they're going to follow it up ASAP, and view the CCTV images for final proof. Sad thing is, for it to be parked where it is at this time of day, it must belong to a member of the hospital staff, .

He/She didn't so it's now been escalated to a criminal matter and I've been issued with a Crime Report Number so at least the Boys in Blue are keeping on top of it so far.

@NAC63 - Still waiting for the police to get back to me. They were hoping to go view the CCTV images either today or tomorrow so hopefully something will be forthcoming this week.

I think a man, although it was hard to see through the 'gangsta' tints on all the windows.

Not so much 'UNHAPPY' as absolutely apoplectic to the point of having a seizure. I went to the hospital tonight to do my evening mealtime assist with Jennifer and as I always do when it's after 4pm, I parked round in what's the staff car park during the day as it's a lot quieter there and I can access the Stroke Unit directly rather than having to walk from the other end of the hospital. I was no sooner in the ward than I heard a sickening crunch from outside. I dived to the window just in time to see a BMW X5 dismount from the front of the Evora, then speed off out of the car park. It had been reverse-parked alongside when I pulled in but there was loads of space, evidenced by the fact that I could get the door of the Evora fully open and still clear the side of the BMW by a good 6 inches or so. However, it would appear that BMW man decided to take a shortcut leaving the space, turned the steering on full lock and drove his nearside rear wheel over the offside front of the Evora rather than going around it. The angle of my line of sight was such that I couldn't make out the registration number. Similarly, a couple of visitors sitting outside the ward were too far away and at too oblique an angle to catch it although they did confirm my identification of it being a white X5 with black wheels, and no doubt now a bright blue go-faster stripe somewhere along its flanks, . I enquired with the hospital about CCTV as there's a camera directly opposite where I was parked but apparently data protection laws prohibit them from releasing any details to anybody other than the police, . I've reported the incident to the cops but it seems BMW man is given 24 hours to come forward and report it himself before they'll get involved. They've made an 'appointment' to phone me on Saturday night to get all the details from me - fortunately the hospital keeps the CCTV images for a month so hopefully Plod will manage to view them in time. The guy can be in no doubt as to what he'd done. When I saw it, his back wheel was up at my headlight and his back end bounced like it was on a trampoline when he came back to the ground. I just pray that they find him and that he's well insured as although my cover allows for my car to be modified, it doesn't actually cover the modifications themselves so if he goes untraced my options will be limited to claiming from my policy and having the car repaired to OE specification, or paying for the modified panels out of my own pocket.