Some undesirable pilfered out catalytic converter off the car today. Not happy at all. Anyone else has this misfortune?
Yes, my wife’s Honda had it stolen, about 3 years ago, mid evening time, outside a friends house, aparantly it’s a 2 minute job if ‘tooled up’.
Cops were aware of a gang operating in the area & a good idea who they were, didn’t hear any more, just an insurance pay out.
My uncle had his catalytic converter stolen a few months ago. For the sake of £50 (resale value) as compared to the hundreds/thousands of pounds for reinstatement, it could be considered a desperate attempt to procure money (I read recently that someone was killed and crushed under the act). I hope that your insurance covers this inevitability 
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Last week somebody half sawed off the converter on my wife’s car while parked in our driveway. Fortunately I startled him and he ran off.
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I’m glad you had the courage to confront an adversary 
Oh I didn’t confront him… it was just dumb luck that I was up at 3 am turned on the lights to the front of the house which, to my dismay, my wife always shuts off. Just saw some dude running. Had no idea what he was doing until my wife’s car wouldn’t run properly the next day. If I had been a minute later then he would’ve completed the job.
Had to weld it back in place. The guy who fixed it told my wife that another guy had his stolen twice in two weeks. Time to switch back to platinum? Maybe car alarms should have a sensor on the converter. It’s crazy considering we’re in a very low crime area.
Has to be more,palladium than £50.
In the Congo, they make a drug from the metallic honeycomb inside catalytic converter
Well done. Are neighbours saw somebody at the car but as all women in house where scared to confront. They came straight round after they left. We had to park on opposite side to our house and a few doors down as someone had taken our usual spot. Don’t get why its a 17yr old Honda not a hybrid which I understand a much higher in value.
From what I’ve heard, Hondas appear to be the easier meat for these thieves, especially the older ones (e.g. Jazz models?). Perhaps it’s the way the cat’s are mounted, as the toolery involved appears to be a baby angle grinder and a long screwdriver. All over in <30 seconds and not very apparent to many ears, especially when done during the daytime if there is building work nearby.
I understand some manu’s and repairers are securing plates over the cat’s now.
One of my neighbours got ‘done’, which effectively made his very elderly Beemer a w/o.
Palladium is a catalyst useful in making methamphetamine.
Insurance co may write it off, just shy of £800 to fix it. Brilliant thanks for that you little *********. Really don’t want the expenditure right now when just spent 20k on the house.
My brother in law has his nicked while parked up at the airport.
Not nice to return from holiday to that.
As I don’t know at all …is a stolen catalytic converter something one claims on the car insurance?
I guess so, as it’s theft. The problem is (as well as the excess + claim on one’s policy) if your car happens to be of low value, the insurer may just write your car off instead of paying for a replacement. That’s why, on low value cars, you really do want to avoid claiming on insurance if you can. The same applies to small dents/damage - they may look fairly insignificant but, thanks to the vehicle value vs cost of repair, insurers often declare a write off - a bitter pill to swallow especially if you have cherished the car and looked after it for years. In the case of stolen cat’s, all so that some ‘insert appropriate name’ can ‘earn’ an extra £50 or so…
About 3 years ago a new driver hit the accelerator instead of the brakes and ploughed into our brand new Ford Focus slamming it against a large wall. We had the usual repair garage inspection……they said Ford insurance would almost certainly write it off. The damage was about £8k……but they could not guarantee as new steering etc……it was written off. Luckily it was a a Ford lease car, so no impact to us other than inconvenience to us.
Fortunately insurance have agreed to pay out as I said my local garage will replace it for just under 700. Got the excess to pay but it’s not the full amount or have the car written off when it’s perfectly fine engine and structure wise just old, it’s only done just over 71k in 17 years, living in London area has some advantages as it’s not used much for commuting.
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Thats quite some miles. Taxi?
Lol typo , 71k
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