Am I going mad

MikeyH

MikeyH

Elite
 Devon
I washed my car over the weekend and the lower grill looked as though it had been damaged by stones, lots of little holes. Thought it a bit odd so looked again today with my glasses on. As you can see from the photos they have been made by a drill, it was not like this when I bought it 4 years ago. I have a receipt from a previous owner, grumpy owl, that shows he replaced it. Someone has changed it for an old one when serviced or MOTed? Would this be easy, would the bumper cover need to be removed? The last place had an old E85 in bits, would they have been cheeky and switched it over? They had the car all day and did work I hadn’t asked for, I can’t prove it’s them but the driver’s headlight was scratched and I had to go over it with some compound. Has this happened to anyone else on here? As you can guess, I am very angry and pi$$ed off, Mike.
 

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Certainly looks like the only possible answer.
Or..................... while they had your car they hit something and have swapped the whole front bumper over. That could explain the scratched headlight too.
 
enuff_zed said:
Certainly looks like the only possible answer.
Or..................... while they had your car they hit something and have swapped the whole front bumper over. That could explain the scratched headlight too.
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It must be the same bumper as it has the same marks on it enuff_zed. I also have a photo of the front from a couple of years ago showing the perfect grill. You can’t trust anyone these days, did they do the oil change?
 
MikeyH said:
I washed my car over the weekend and the lower grill looked as though it had been damaged by stones, lots of little holes. Thought it a bit odd so looked again today with my glasses on. As you can see from the photos they have been made by a drill, it was not like this when I bought it 4 years ago. I have a receipt from a previous owner, grumpy owl, that shows he replaced it. Someone has changed it for an old one when serviced or MOTed? Would this be easy, would the bumper cover need to be removed? The last place had an old E85 in bits, would they have been cheeky and switched it over? They had the car all day and did work I hadn’t asked for, I can’t prove it’s them but the driver’s headlight was scratched and I had to go over it with some compound. Has this happened to anyone else on here? As you can guess, I am very angry and pi$$ed off, Mike.
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Definately wasn't like that when it left me - looks like they've switched it out.

Only question is why would they do that and how did they expect to get away with it 😡
 
Gwest44 said:
Definately wasn't like that when it left me - looks like they've switched it out.

Only question is why would they do that and how did they expect to get away with it 😡
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They had an E85 in the garage that was in a being done up state, there were a couple of lads working in the place so I assumed it was one of them owned it. My guess is it was when the boss was at lunch. As my wife says, I can’t prove it’s them but I am 100% certain it was.
 
MikeyH said:
I have a photo of the front from September 2023 and it was fine then,
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Then take the photo to the garage, say it was taken a few days before they had it and ask them if they swapped it. If they deny all knowledge say you have photos and dates and you will contact the Police. It is theft after all. See what they say then!
 
Bast#rds. Had a few weird dents and scratches appear on cars over the years. Fortunately always spotted at source and sorted. So glad I have a mechanic I trust these days. I think you might have to just suck that one up. Definitely get it sorted though or it will grind your head until it is.
 
MikeyH said:
They had an E85 in the garage that was in a being done up state, there were a couple of lads working in the place so I assumed it was one of them owned it. My guess is it was when the boss was at lunch. As my wife says, I can’t prove it’s them but I am 100% certain it was.
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I assume they didn't touch the 224's? That would have been to obvious but I'd certainly be looking underneath and inside the wheel arches to make sure they haven't helped themselves to any of the other plastic trim pieces.
 
Judging by the holes, I would guess the grill was drilled from the inside, not the outside. A random pattern, which implies the grill was not the piece that was the target of the drill, but perhaps was being used as a base to protect whatever they were drilling. Another option was that the original owner of the grill loved their badges.
 
Can’t be removed or refitted without removing the bumper, and that’s not a job without risk. I’m amazed that this has happened (assuming it’s not your imagination 🧐)
 
Zedebee said:
Can’t be removed or refitted without removing the bumper, and that’s not a job without risk. I’m amazed that this has happened (assuming it’s not your imagination 🧐)
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No its not my imagination. The car was fine when I bought it from Gwest44 almost 4 years ago, a lovely car. It has everything I wanted, the colour I preferred and a huge folder of stuff grumpy owl had done over his time with the car. I'm certain that they took it to use on their crappy do it up car. Well, thanks to them I'm stuck with it as I can't do it myself and it's going to cost too much to have it done. And yes I am still bloody furious. I drove to the garage and confronted the owner who genuinely seemed surprised and kept saying he wouldn't do it for a few quid. If not him then who?
 
raymond.harper said:
Judging by the holes, I would guess the grill was drilled from the inside, not the outside. A random pattern, which implies the grill was not the piece that was the target of the drill, but perhaps was being used as a base to protect whatever they were drilling. Another option was that the original owner of the grill loved their badges.
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It's not my grill, it's old and grey and manky.
 
Gwest44 said:
I assume they didn't touch the 224's? That would have been to obvious but I'd certainly be looking underneath and inside the wheel arches to make sure they haven't helped themselves to any of the other plastic trim pieces.
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I would but I can't get in there, not enough room. I have felt around but nothing seems to be missing.
 
buzyg said:
Bast#rds. Had a few weird dents and scratches appear on cars over the years. Fortunately always spotted at source and sorted. So glad I have a mechanic I trust these days. I think you might have to just suck that one up. Definitely get it sorted though or it will grind your head until it is.
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Trouble is it's put me of the car now.
 
raymond.harper said:
Judging by the holes, I would guess the grill was drilled from the inside, not the outside. A random pattern, which implies the grill was not the piece that was the target of the drill, but perhaps was being used as a base to protect whatever they were drilling. Another option was that the original owner of the grill loved their badges.
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I've lust looked at the photos and you are correct, from the inside. This makes me think that it had been used to drill things on, I use a piece of old scrap wood, but hey ho.
 
MikeyH said:
I've lust looked at the photos and you are correct, from the inside. This makes me think that it had been used to drill things on, I use a piece of old scrap wood, but hey ho.
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And that is precisely the reason why they swapped them. Someone left the grille under something, drilled through it and thought 'oh s**t, what do we do?' Then realised they can't just buy another one (easily). Your car was sitting there, some bright spark noticed it was the same and swapped it.

I would guess they waited to see if you noticed straight away. If you had they would have apologised and said they would source you a replacement and made some excuse why they needed to swap them over (like the other car had to go back tomorrow, etc).
As you didn't notice, they can deny all knowledge now and think they have got away with it.
I would not let anyone get away with that. It's just not right.

Ask the garage if they have cctv. I bet they do, somewhere. And ask for details of all the owners of cars they had in that day so you can check for dashcams. TBH I would be calling the Police and demand they look into this.
 
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