This happened to a friend of my Wifes a few weeks ago. I have waited a while to post it as it might have caused problems for the investigating authorities. Its incredibly unlikely to happen again but take care who you give your keys to !!

She was looking to buy a new car, a model thats just been released so decided to try a demonstrator for a day. The salesman insisted she came in on a particular day for the test drive even though it transpired the garage had the demonstrator for acouple of weeks. She arrived on the specified day & left her existing car & its keys with the dealer.

When she returned at the end of the day her own car was nowhere to be seen. The salesman insisted she had already collected it as they no longer had the keys, the garage sided with the salesman. Her husband whos not one to be messed with called the Police & several hours were then spent with the Police in attendance trying to sort it during which time stories seemed to be tweaked & incosistencies appeared. Someone then reported they had seen someone they didnt know getting into the car & driving off. The garage stood their ground & the Police continued to investigate it.

To date the car hasnt been found & The Police have concluded the car which many consider desireable was stolen to order, thankfully the Insurance company agree & have paid out. Strangely also the garage despite sticking by the salesman sacked him a couple of days later, it would appear he is suspected of giving the keys to "a friend"

I have intentionally been vague on details as the police investigation is still very active & having concluded what happened they are currently investigating certain people with a view to prosecuting !

I will only add that it wasnt a Skoda dealer involved

What next,people will start stealing Skoda's to order!!!!!

What next,people will start stealing Skoda's to order!!!!!

I'm not sure if we are in danger of that yet........are we?.

Maybe only those with the nice shiny cars.

My car spends most of its time hidden by layers of dirt as it is parked in an area which is full of building sites and has trucks driving by all day. At times it is hard to see what colour it is never mind what make of car.

Is it common practice to "exchange" keys on a test drive? Whenever I've taken a car out, I've always kept my own car keys on me? :confused:

Chris

A few years ago my father in law ordered a new car from the dealer (not Skoda) and when it arrived they registered it and let him know the details for insurance. He arranged to go down and pick it up one morning. As he was going into the car park he noticed his new car being driven out. He thought that maybe they were just taking it for a final test drive and went into the showroom. When he told the salesman he had just seen the car being driven away there was a slight pause then he went off to investigate. To cut a long story short, it had been stolen from the valeting bay. The police eventually found it a few days later in a warehouse in Hull with a load of others.

The biscuit has to go to the dealer though who called my father in law up and said we've got the car back! He of course refused and said he wanted another one ordering. They offered a cash incentive but he stuck out until they ordered him a new one.

I hope the claim is on the garage's insurance and not yours?

Is it common practice to "exchange" keys on a test drive? Whenever I've taken a car out, I've always kept my own car keys on me? :confused:

Chris

Same here :confused:

But in future I will never hand over my keys.

Thanks for the heads up stu.

we've had a few go where i work over the 14 years i've been there , the thieves have even been cheeky enough to drive the cars off the top deck of the transporter , they don't leave any keys in now .

we used to have a vehicle handover bay , someone left the keys in the ignition , Doh , car gone , found a couple of days later a burnt out shell

Years ago I worked as a valeter at a local Merc dealers at weekends during my college days. Cars went missing on many occasions for various reasons.

One very common occurence was customers coming back for a serviced vehicle with a spare set of keys and simply driving off in their own car without paying the bill, mainly travelling folk never to be seen again.

Taz

I'm not sure if we are in danger of that yet........are we?.

Mr Grumpy might have a few words to say

What next,people will start stealing Skoda's to order!!!!!

Hmmm, not sure about that:(

A bloke at work has just had his Audi A3 2.0 Tdi S Line ( 06 plate) nicked in the same way mine was,

One of the wifes colleagues had her 2 year old Audi A4 go missing the same way.

It seems that VAG group cars are being targetted in the West Yorkshire area.

BE AWARE!