Telegraph Ariticle

[JAM]

Bristol cars ruined my £173k birthday present, says top lawyer - Telegraph

Thought I'd post this, as I don't see that anyone else has. Had a similar experience as outlined in the article. After 2 years of aggravation, just got my money back and bought a 411 from a private seller. Couldn't be bothered to take legal action, but was within my rights. Life's too short. Hope they get the problem fixed.

Jonathan

[Geoff Dowdle]

The moral of the story for the customer is to" know your supplier " and for the supplier " know the customer" before they take on major work , especially if the cost of litigation for the customer is basically zero.
Geoff

[backseateducation]

A lot of money for a small firm to have to pay out - but I would have thought on that kind of a job everything would be agreed 100% and in writing before anyone lifted a spanner.
Let's hope that the new car will be announced soon and we can have some good news printed.

[Ronald G. Stephenson]

We have a number of firms here in the states that could have handled the job with no problems and for much less money. We have firms who regularly convert cars for manufacturers and private parties. And here I thought that craftsmanship was alive and well in the Mother Country.

[Barrie]

I've never heard of a 405D.

Does anyone know what it is?

[Geoff Kingston]

This is a shame for both parties but I can't help feel that unless a V8 conversion was on the cards they should have both realised an auto box on the original engine wasn't possible.
I would have thought that £173,000 would have prised a reasonable 405 drophead from someones garage rather than chopping up what at £20,000 must have been a fairly good 405 to end up with a copy.
Obviously the timing didn't help with the Company going bust but If I could afford to have a project like this done I would probably look outside the UK as the restoration costs with some of the specialists here are too high.
I had a local garage that normally does crash repairs cut out all the rust in an S2 Bentley re panel it and do a bare metal respray to a very high standard, this cost over £40000 less than it would have cost me based on the labour rates quoted to a fellow Bristol owner by one of the firms who work mainly on Bristols.
Even on my project however which was inspected almost every day the initial budget was excceded by nearly 100% because the rust and previous bodged repairs were worse than expected.
So will I chop the roof off one of my 401's, I don't think so.

[Geoff Dowdle]

Geoff,
I'm 6 years into converting one and half parts car type 400's into a one off 400 convertible . The wings and bonnets were from other extinct 400's and of course nothing interchanges on these hand made cars .

The easy part was taking the angle grinder to the roof panel , the difficult jobs were designing the folding roof frame and cant rails (like the 402) .
Rather than wind up windows I've fabricated removable sliding side curtains .
It's been a interesting project which I hope will be finished by mid 2014 .
The cost will be well above the value of a better standard 400 with still the paint , trim & wiring to complete .

I would not recommend a project like this or a conversion of 405 to 405DH to anyone unless they have very deep pockets full of cash , then double your initial estimate .

But hopefully once it is on the road I'll have a smile and my financial pain will be forgotten .

There are two 405 saloons separately being converted to two door coupes in Melbourne /Australia . This is the car BAC should have made and it would have been the pick of the 6 cylinder models .

Geoff

[backseateducation]

Geoff that sounds brilliant, I look forward to seeing the finished article!

[irienz]

In case anyone is interested in reading the court's decision (rather than the media report of it), it can be found at: <http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/QB/2013/2997.html>. The detail is interesting, including the exchange of emails forming the contract.

[GREG]

Very sad

Hopefully he will have found another car he likes and another way of avoiding tax for his next project !